Van at Chicago - 5:30 PT on SNET-P and 1040

[mathonwy]

Schneider deserves a star in this one....

I agree.

The number of outnumbered chances given up this game was ridiculous.

[rats19]

Every team we shootout with has at least 4 snipers....us not so much.

[Meds]

Schneider deserves a star in this one....

I agree.

The number of outnumbered chances given up this game was ridiculous.

I retract.....lol

[Meds]

Every team we shootout with has at least 4 snipers....us not so much.

Yeah.

It's sad.

Schroeder had a terrible game and capped it off with an absolutey weak shoot out attempt.

Kesler telegraphed that shot and Emery had an easy save.....right into the glove.

[rats19]

Better than it looked with 7 mins left..lol

[Meds]

So the Canucks have now lost 4 games in the shoot out this year. That's 4 points in the standings.

At the end of the year, unless you are a team in the top 4 in the conference, 4 points can be huge. It can mean playoffs of not, home ice advantage or not.

In wonder if this coaching staff is ever going to take it seriously.

[Benjo]

-Wow after watching that game its pretty clear this isn't just a lucky streak, the Hawks are a well oiled machine. They destroyed our d all night with quick transitions that the d core just had no answer for.I would say only Ballard out of the whole lot could keep up with a majority of the Hawks top 6.

-Must be annoying to have your best player leave the game with a head injury on a nothing play.

-Kane and Kesler had a dive off and Kane excelled.

-Tired of seeing our d bobble or miss entirely the passes that come out to the point. We lose the zone countless times because of this. I don't know how the puck can physically squirt past 200+ lb defensemen so regularly.

-Booth had a decent first game back considering the layoff and the groin thing. Was hitting on the forecheck and drew a late PP with his speed. Looks healthy to me.

-The PP seriously needs some new formations, at this point they can barely break into the zone with any kind of possession and minimal pressure causes our forwards to turn it over.

-More baffling calls by the officiating teams. That icing call/non-call whatever it was could have caused an injury if it was anyone from our 4th line making the hit instead of Higgins. I could hear the fucking linesman yelling NO ICE and his partner took no notice what so ever and kept the arm up for Emery, Higgins and Oduya to see...Not to mention the penalties to Sedin and Hansen where no official actually had their arm up and the crowd made the call for them.

-Keith and Leddy are excellent and skating the puck out of trouble.

-Does the team do NO research on goalies? Doesn't Emery have gimped hips? Higgins is the only shooter that forced any amount of movement out of him and look at the result.

[Hockey Widow]

Chicago looks like the real deal. They are playing some good hockey and to me are an early favourite to win it all.

We were lucky in some ways to get a point but we also played well enough to get one point. I thought maybe in the SO we might steal an extra one but not to be. Cory stole the point no question.

Our defensive coverage sucks. We need to get Edler back to the R side. Garrison is going through the Ballard syndrome. When is Salo back, anyone know? You can really tell how much of a calming influence he had been for us.

The problem with having both Booth and Kesler back is that AV starts the line juggling again, constantly. I'd put Kassian back with the twins, Kesler between Higgins and Burrows, JS centring Raymond and Hansen and whoever is left on the 4th line.

At least with a healthy line up MG can assess what he really needs back in a Luongo trade.

[Meds]

So a few thoughts now that I've had a few hours to let the disappointment wear off.....

This team's defensemen will get eaten alive by fast forwards. I was hoping it was just some early rust and slow feet, but we are 15 games in and that has not changed at all.

When pressured by defending forwards, our defensemen will also be next to useless at the point about 80% of the time. Until this changes our PP will be fairly ineffective. Tonight both PP goals came from the point when Edler and Bieksa were not pressured and blasted at the net through a screen instead of putting a 3/4 powered shot through hoping for a redirection. I play goal, so I'll tell you that a bomb from the point that I can't see is going to beat me more often than a lob that comes in slow and I can react to when I find it half way to the net. The only way I stop the screened howitzer is if it just hits me, and at that point I'm not really controlling a rebound and a scramble ensues. To be clear I'm not totally faulting the defensemen at the point here. Our forwards need to move around more and take the pressure off of the point men, those forwards also need to make better passes back to the points.

Garrison is a waste of cap space at this point, much like Ballard was. This is more the fault of the coach than it is the player or the GM who signed said player to the contract. Garrison has shown that he is perhaps the best we have at keeping the puck in at the point, moving around to give the puck carrier an option for a pass to a scoring area for a shot, and he does have a great one-timer. I think he's a bit lost in our system right now still, and a player who is feeling lost or unused is going to play with less confidence. Get him out there on the PP and let him build some confidence and start to find his way. The last thing we need is another $4+M defenseman that is playing limited minutes.

The Sedin game needs to evolve again, they aren’t surprising opponents anymore and top defenders are ready for them. Even a few subtle changes like getting Hank to shoot more often and looking for something other than the short-side play will generate more scoring. They have scored a few very nice goals this year with some cross ice passes, but I find they don’t try that enough. The weak side point men need to read them better and time a back door move accordingly. Henrik is an amazing passer, Daniel is no slouch, they can both thread the needle with the puck if the man is there. This is a team adjustment, and I’ve been waiting for years to see if Vigneault will try and coach this into the Sedin’s repertoire.

Our forwards need to learn how to pick corners and score on their open chances. Daniel looked terrible on his breakaways tonight. Our shootout guys have been just abysmal lately. I would like to see more wrist shots off the rush and on cuts to the middle, like Raymond has been doing, rather than these safe possession plays to the corner or waiting too long and the defender gets his stick on it. At least make the goaltender make a save.....and not one that he just as to smother after it hits him in the chest. Aim for the inside of the posts and make them move.

Henrik needs faceoff work.

Weise is really impressing as a 4th line player. Actually has some exceptional wheels for a guy in that role.

As a team, coaches included, this team needs to recognize and react and adjust. Chicago was more than ready for all the passes that Vancouver likes to make up the middle. The Canucks never really adjusted to that until the 3rd period. That made it much easier for the Hawks to stifle the Canucks breakout and hem them in.

Kesler is still too selfish with the puck on offense at times.

[SonofaBure]

The Hansen elbow wasn't even intentional and is about one one hundredth as bad as what the Honky Tonk man did to Daniel last season. I hope Hossa comes back For game 3 of the playoffs after they're down 2 games.

Schroeder looks overwhelmed tonight, but then so does most of the team. The Hawks look really fucking good.

Hossa is 6'1"...Hansen has no business raising his fore arm that high to begin with. Stupid play by Hansen. On the slow motion replay, he wasn't even attempting to grab the puck.

I heard this morning that the NHL has scheduled a hearing with him today. We'll see what penalty gets thrown at him.

I'm glad we got out of Chicago with a point...I'll take it.

[Meds]

The Hansen elbow wasn't even intentional and is about one one hundredth as bad as what the Honky Tonk man did to Daniel last season. I hope Hossa comes back For game 3 of the playoffs after they're down 2 games.

Schroeder looks overwhelmed tonight, but then so does most of the team. The Hawks look really fucking good.

Hossa is 6'1"...Hansen has no business raising his fore arm that high to begin with. Stupid play by Hansen. On the slow motion replay, he wasn't even attempting to grab the puck.

I heard this morning that the NHL has scheduled a hearing with him today. We'll see what penalty gets thrown at him.

I'm glad we got out of Chicago with a point...I'll take it.

The puck was high enough that Hossa was reaching for it too.....

Hansen was looking at the puck and reaching for it, when the puck dropped his field of vision would have suddenly included Hossa who was also going for the puck, at the speed things happen on the ice his reaction and "mauling" of Hossa is pretty normal. The slowmotion replay gives you the impression that he had lots of time to think about that and act accordingly. Real time, not so much. It's no different than Rome's hit on Horton 2 years ago. Slow motion makes it look pre-meditated and targeted at Horton's head. Real time and frame counting proved it actually was closer to about half a second. Same difference here.

If the NHL throws a suspension at Hansen after the way things went with Torres and Hossa, and in this particular case after the way the officials handled the game tonight, it pretty much sends a message of "Hands off Chicago, they can do as they please and they are our golden boys."

[SonofaBure]

The Hansen elbow wasn't even intentional and is about one one hundredth as bad as what the Honky Tonk man did to Daniel last season. I hope Hossa comes back For game 3 of the playoffs after they're down 2 games.

Schroeder looks overwhelmed tonight, but then so does most of the team. The Hawks look really fucking good.

Hossa is 6'1"...Hansen has no business raising his fore arm that high to begin with. Stupid play by Hansen. On the slow motion replay, he wasn't even attempting to grab the puck.

I heard this morning that the NHL has scheduled a hearing with him today. We'll see what penalty gets thrown at him.

I'm glad we got out of Chicago with a point...I'll take it.

The puck was high enough that Hossa was reaching for it too.....

Hansen was looking at the puck and reaching for it, when the puck dropped his field of vision would have suddenly included Hossa who was also going for the puck, at the speed things happen on the ice his reaction and "mauling" of Hossa is pretty normal. The slowmotion replay gives you the impression that he had lots of time to think about that and act accordingly. Real time, not so much. It's no different than Rome's hit on Horton 2 years ago. Slow motion makes it look pre-meditated and targeted at Horton's head. Real time and frame counting proved it actually was closer to about half a second. Same difference here.

If the NHL throws a suspension at Hansen after the way things went with Torres and Hossa, and in this particular case after the way the officials handled the game tonight, it pretty much sends a message of "Hands off Chicago, they can do as they please and they are our golden boys."

no way he gets a Torres type suspension. I suppose a case can be made that he was going for the puck. but the slow motion replay didn't do him any favors. It almost looks like he was trying to prevent Hossa from grabbing the puck so he tried hitting him instead.

[RoyalDude]

Yeah, the B-Hawks are impressive, they seemed to be a well oiled machine right now. It's coming down to their best players being their best players. Kane and Toews are really maturing, Hossa seems to be born again and Sharp is Sharp and Keith is Keith. And that was the difference, when their core goes the rest raise their game. The same applies to the Canucks or any team, you're best players have to be your best players. We all like to shit on the Kassians and Raymonds of the world, but they are not the ones that are supposed to be the difference makers just the supporting cast to the lead actors. We are getting consistency from the Sedins and our goaltending which has seemingly been saving us for a while now, but the Sedins are not playing up to their standards right now but all in all, they tend to be our most consistent when it comes to offense. No real issue with Burrows. My beef is with Ryan Kesler, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, he has battled injuries. But where is the monster that we saw in that season leading to the Cup Finals? Last year he was mere average and since returning to the line-up the Canucks have gone on a losing streak. It's still early, but this team needs Kesler to raise his game, the Sedins need help, to shift some of the defensive focus they get from the opposing teams. I don't know if it's this issue of finding the elusive right chemistry to play on the same line with Kesler but Kesler has to take some blame for this. He needs to raise his game. I sure hope that monster season he had wasn't a one-off, the guy is still young so I don't see any excuses. The waiting is over, time to raise your game, Kes.

My other beef is with Garrison. Makes me miss Salo. He makes too much money for me to be patient with. You don't get those kinds of dollars and need excuses for lame play. He needs to take ownership, if not, give back some of that money you signed for. But hey, keep blaming Edler, don't matter that Garrison makes 5 million plus, it's others that get blamed for his lame play to date.

[Reefer2]

So a few thoughts now that I've had a few hours to let the disappointment wear off.....

This team's defensemen will get eaten alive by fast forwards. I was hoping it was just some early rust and slow feet, but we are 15 games in and that has not changed at all.

Garrison is a waste of cap space at this point, much like Ballard was.

The Sedin game needs to evolve again,

Agree with a lot of what you said, this is not about one game either. The season is just a bunch of games to get ready for the playoffs. What I have seen this season is that our D is slow , old and with very little imagination. It is amazing what we are paying the top 4 and how they are playing in both zones of the ice.

The Sedins are doing well but they do need to change it up a little, they are too predictable at the moment. As a Canucks fan the game started great but in the 2nd period watching the Hawks play like they did shows that this team is missing something to be considered for the s/c finals. The best part about the playoffs is that you just have to make it in and anything can happen after that.

[dbr]

I didn't catch the last half of the game but didn 't the Sedins have a hand in every single goal (and two points apiece)?

Seems a bit more realistic to hope the other three lines can chip in a goal or two every night than it does to hope the Sedins find a way to produce four instead of three..