GDT: R1G1 - Canucks host Kings - 7:30

[CorranHorn]

Here are the penalties from the Pit/Phi game.

1st Period
NONE

2nd period
03:04 PHI Claude Giroux: Boarding-2 min
10:06 PHI Zac Rinaldo : Cross Checking - 2 min

3rd Period
01:49 PHI JAGS: Interference-2 min
10:41 PIT Brooks Orpik: Interference - 2 min

OT Period
NONE

Of the three which was the most entertaining... and WHY?!

[Larry Goodenough]

The good news. Vancouver was the better puck possession team in the 3rd when things had settled down back to 5 on 5 hockey. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come.

Here's the 5 on 5 total pucks at the net numbers for the whole game. Vancouver was a minus 1 in fenwick and plus 2 in corsi.

http://timeonice.com/shots1112.php?gamenumber=30151

These numbers tell a few stories. Mike Richards apparently had a dominant game, but 5 on 5 he was inconsequential. Dustin Brown and Kopitar were the real studs for LA. Doughty was their worst d-man

For Vancouver, lines 1 and 2 have good numbers. Pahlsson, Higgins and Hansen were brutal. The 4th line was poor as well. Hamhuis and Salo really struggled.

[Larry Goodenough]

Here are the penalties from the Pit/Phi game.

1st Period
NONE

2nd period
03:04 PHI Claude Giroux: Boarding-2 min
10:06 PHI Zac Rinaldo : Cross Checking - 2 min

3rd Period
01:49 PHI JAGS: Interference-2 min
10:41 PIT Brooks Orpik: Interference - 2 min

OT Period
NONE

Of the three which was the most entertaining... and WHY?!

But this game had the missed 2 foot offside call as it's top story. If Philly doesn't get that first goal, is the game as entertaining?

So in this case, poor officiating made the game better.

My main point is reffing games with integrity. If snowing a goalie is a penalty, call it every time. Don't change the rules to suit the situation.

[Puck]

Last season many Canuck fans and posters on this board were up in arms that the NHL changed the rules for the playoffs and were calling nothing, now in this thread I'm reading the refs should have just let the players sort it out. We can't have it both ways at our convenience.

I'm sure the irony is not lost on most of us here, however, it would at least be nice to know which way they are going to call things. Last night's pattern in 2 of the 3 games was totally different than even the last 3 weeks of the regular season.

Kesler stop diving...just...enough already jesus. That somersault in the neutral zone was ridiculous.

Agreed. If there's any one thing that really should alienate the Canucks to the rest of the fans of the league it's this stuff. Every time a Canuck dives, I feel a little embarrassed to be a fan.

[Boston Canucker]

I was worried pre game with all the talk by the Canucks of preparing for a long run, and also that they had all this experience to draw upon from last year that made them better prepared than last year, as if the experience was just going to act like a player in the game on its own. Too presumptious all around. If something good comes from playing so poorly, except RL, and losing is that there will just have to be urgency on Friday, no delusions of hanging and figuring out a way to win. Sorry, the Kings are not that good that they get to dictate the play. Canucks need to find it and find it fast or it'll be an epic fail...and they need to somehow getting Boston out of their minds, stop fighting the last war by trying to prove your tough.

It was a disheartening loss, but an excellent, confident game and win on Friday and as the playoffs often do, things shift.

[Fred]

My main point is reffing games with integrity. If snowing a goalie is a penalty, call it every time. Don't change the rules to suit the situation.

You know I've had season tickets since 1973 and the officiating is the worse I've seen. Calls as fundamental as off side and God know Icings ( where the linesman almost over takes the player going back)

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

Here's the thing about today's game I have no idea what's going to be called. I have a tough time these days making my way down to Rogers arena having no idea from official to official what is being called. It's open season you can only recognize some things wrong if there's a call and then you work back from there to try and figure out what happened.

Bitz / Clifford ...I've seen worse, in fact I recall Clifford getting no call when he drove Tanev into the boards head first putting Tanev out for some time. That wasn't a call Bitz was...I have no idea. Bitz got 5 and a game Keith Got 2 and finished the game ?????? who can honestly tell

[Puck]

Like it or not, Shanahan has made it clear that he bases his suspensions on the severity of the injury to the player the offending play occurred on.

Put me down for NOT like. Of course it leads to chaos if you link the suspension to the injury: 4th-line-scrub X smashes super-star-Y and we don't see either for the rest of the playoffs. Who loses in that trade-off?

On the other hand... what about Daniel? He's clearly not OK. So what does the NHL do now about the apparently insufficient suspension to Keith? TOTAL, F-ING GARBAGE. I'm beating the dead horse here, but that elbow was so non-hockey it was appalling. Suspend them like you mean it. What's that? Oh, you mean the League doesn't actually care? Oh, well that explains a lot of things, doesn't it?

[mathonwy]

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

I actually agree with this call. Snowing the goalie is THE best way for a player to piss off the entire team and its amazingly easy to do.

You let one go, and then Luo gets snowed and you gotta let that one go. And then it escalates pretty fast after that.

Face washes are just typically 1on1 scrums. Snowing (or anything) the goaltender becomes 5on5 scrums.

[Strangelove]

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

I actually agree with this call. Snowing the goalie is THE best way for a player to piss off the entire team and its amazingly easy to do.

You let one go, and then Luo gets snowed and you gotta let that one go. And then it escalates pretty fast after that.

Face washes are just typically 1on1 scrums. Snowing (or anything) the goaltender becomes 5on5 scrums.

Does anyone think the fact Kess got away with bumping Quick, resulting in a goal, 8 minutes previous had anything to do with it?

[Strangelove]

Smell the coffee, mathonwy. This team is highly overrated. It's how I've felt all year about them, sorry if this doesn't sit all that well with you. Gillis has a sinking ship on his hands.

"Sinking ship" with a President's Trophy!

[Fred]

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

I actually agree with this call. Snowing the goalie is THE best way for a player to piss off the entire team and its amazingly easy to do.

You let one go, and then Luo gets snowed and you gotta let that one go. And then it escalates pretty fast after that.

Face washes are just typically 1on1 scrums. Snowing (or anything) the goaltender becomes 5on5 scrums.

Who knows, the rule is called unsportsmanship...heck I just assumed that's what it meant. Tell you what how many times is that same action resulting in nothing being called, so why this ref and why not the others. I'm picking on one thing but really every game is an adventure. I certainly have no iodea what's going to be called and what's not going to be called. AND THEN the third period you could have got away with 3rd degree man slaughter. It just doesn't make sense any more. Weber gets a $2500 fine for punching a guys head into the boards. Rome gets 4 games after a guy admires his pass. Clifford nothing for driving Tanevs haed into the board, Keith gets a minor for elbowing Sedin in the head....on and on and on. It gets tougher and tougher to justify following hockey and paying out great wads of moeny

[Larry Goodenough]

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

I actually agree with this call. Snowing the goalie is THE best way for a player to piss off the entire team and its amazingly easy to do.

You let one go, and then Luo gets snowed and you gotta let that one go. And then it escalates pretty fast after that.

Face washes are just typically 1on1 scrums. Snowing (or anything) the goaltender becomes 5on5 scrums.

Does anyone think the fact Kess got away with bumping Quick, resulting in a goal, 8 minutes previous had anything to do with it?

5o% the reason. The other 50% was the poke into Luongo's throat. The ref saw targeting the goalies was probably going to continue to escalate, so he finally decided to do something.

[Strangelove]

Just remember, it's game 1.

[Larry Goodenough]

If a minor snowing by Kesler called unsportsman how come in every scrum there's half the players giving face washes to each other ? is that sportsmanship.

I actually agree with this call. Snowing the goalie is THE best way for a player to piss off the entire team and its amazingly easy to do.

You let one go, and then Luo gets snowed and you gotta let that one go. And then it escalates pretty fast after that.

Face washes are just typically 1on1 scrums. Snowing (or anything) the goaltender becomes 5on5 scrums.

Who knows, the rule is called unsportsmanship...heck I just assumed that's what it meant. Tell you what how many times is that same action resulting in nothing being called, so why this ref and why not the others. I'm picking on one thing but really every game is an adventure. I certainly have no iodea what's going to be called and what's not going to be called. AND THEN the third period you could have got away with 3rd degree man slaughter. It just doesn't make sense any more. Weber gets a $2500 fine for punching a guys head into the boards. Rome gets 4 games after a guy admires his pass. Clifford nothing for driving Tanevs haed into the board, Keith gets a minor for elbowing Sedin in the head....on and on and on. It gets tougher and tougher to justify following hockey and paying out great wads of moeny

Colon Campbell played the game, Fred. How could you even question him when you never played the game. Mike Murphy played the game and gets gut feelings about stuff that you'll never understand. Brendan Shanahan once had balls, Campbell and Murphy now have them in their freezer and will eat them when the season is over.

[Larry Goodenough]

From Canucks Army - the first part is the good news, the last part suggesting Burrows was making cocaine taunts to Richards is interesting...

http://canucksarmy.com/2012/4/12/kings- ... -in-game-1

- We'll begin as always with the essential data. Despite being massively out-shot, the Canucks controlled the quality chance battle in this game with 21 total scoring chances to 18 for the Kings. At even-strength, the Canucks out-chanced the Kings 17-12 and with the score tied, Vancouver's club narrowly edged L.A's team by a final tally of 13-12.

- Kesler dove on several occasions last night and it's becoming really difficult to support him as a fan. He dove while interfering with Quick on the first goal, he pulled a summersault dive on Mike Richards (which, incidentally, created an odd-man rush), and at one point late in the third he whacked Jarred Stoll in the family jewels with his stick after the whistle. I watched the nut-shot again and reading Stoll's reaction to Kesler's stick work, and I can say with confidence that he told Kesler "man, you're such an ass-hole." Sadly, Stoll's assessment was dead-on.

- Going into this series, I was confident that the "PhD" line would be the Canucks "ace-in-the-hole" as it were. Last night, however, they were completely and utterly ineffective as the Kopitar line just totally manhandled them. Samme Pahlsson was a -7 in even-strength scoring chance differential, Chris Higgins was a -5 and Jannik Hansen was a -4. Vigneault is going to have to go back to the drawing board, because if the club's "first checking line" can't handle one of the Kings top forward lines, then that "big depth advantage" the Canucks apparently have, and that we heard so much about going into this series, isn't going to be worth very much.

- Along with Henrik, Booth and Burrows had borderline dominant games by the chance data, which, is great to see. If the Canucks can solve their third line problems, their top-six group showed on Wednesday that they can simply overpower the Kings top-six in terms of generating chances. Also in terms of taunting. While we haven't been able to find a good video of it, Alex Burrows apparently picked some snow off the ice with the blade of his stick and offered it to Mike Richards, so that he might rail it, late in the third period. Now that is elevating your game for the postseason.