When the Angels dropped out of the ALCS this year, hockey season officially started around my house. The Canucks have been on a nice little run lately, thanks to the resergence of Roberto Luongo, but a 4-5 loss at home to the Red Wings last night did a lot more than bruise our egos.
This is the injury list for the Canucks as of right now: Pavol Demitra (torn left rotator), Mathieu Schneider (shoulder surgery, but he's back), Jannik Hansen (right hand), Daniel Sedin (broken foot), Sami Salo (sprained right MCL), Rick Rypien (sore groin), and Kyle Wellwood (broken big toe). After last night's game we can now add Ryan Johnson (who got an upper body injury after slamming crazy hard into the boards last night) and Roberto Luongo (bruised rib cage after a collision last night). Bobby Lu is out just in time to miss the two games this week when the Vannies come to Southern California. Ryan Johnson is lucky to be alive with the way he crashed into the boards. Despite all of that, the Canucks have somehow come up with a 6-6-0 record (12 points in 12 games). That's after a fairly rough start, but it still isn't good enough. Colorado is leading the division with their amazing start (9-1-2), and Calgary (7-2-1)/Edmonton (6-5-1) are also up ahead. Thank goodness for lowly Minnesota (3-8-0)!
Last night was kind of a scoring bonanza that ended with 6 third period goals and a 4-5 finale on the scoreboard. The 'Nucks got goals from Henrik (his 5th of the year on a sweet rebound) and Christian Ehrhoff (his 3rd on a nice wrister from a bad angle) in the opening frame, and got two more in the third (Matt Schneider getting his first on the power play) and H-Bomb again (another power play goal, for his team leading sixth of the year). Despite all that scoring, it was Pavol Datsyuk leading the charge back into the game for the Red Army with two of his own in the final frame, and a Willie Mitchell penalty for high sticking that set up the game winning goal for the away team. Luongo wasn't up to the task of coming up any bigger after taking on 42 shots, allowing 5 goals, and the defense couldn't do enough to keep the pressure off. At least we chased Osgood away. Should we follow the baseball playoff format and talk about some positives and negatives from the game? We'll start with two on each side, and we'll start with the positives:
1) Kevin Bieksa was large and in charge. Our best defensiveman, in my humble opinion, was all over the ice. He finished with 3 assists, a +2 rating, 3 blocked shots, and some big defense when we needed it. The goals didn't come with the X-Man on the ice, they came with Edler and Mitchell on the rink. Our Grimsby native was on point last night.
2) Hank continues his domination. With his brother Daniel out of the lineup (along with Welly, Ryp, Po Po, and Jannik), Henrik has been so huge for keeping the Canucks offense humming along. He earned two goals in this game and a huge assist. 33 has put up 6 goals and 9 assists so far this season, including three goals in his last two games. We need all that offense to come back, but it's nice to have Hank filling the hole for now.
Other quick positives are the recent re-call-up of my man Shirokov, the positive play of Moose Master Michael Grabner (2 goals and 3 assists in 7 games), and the high hopes put on Alex Bolduc.
On the negative side, injuries may rule the day:
1) Losing Bobby Lu could potentially be huge. While a lot of fans on the Canucks Facebook page are trying to pump Orca Nation up on Andrew Raycroft as a solid backup, I think we all need to be realistic. Raycroft will probably at best play .500 hockey while our Captain is out, and that may not be that big of a deal because he may only be out two games, but it changes the face of this franchise when El Roberto isn't between the pipes.
2) Losing Ryan Johnson. If you can go around the internet and find the crash into the boards for Ryan Johnson last night, you'll realize how crazy awful it was. RJ had to be taken straight to the hospital after banging into the boards, and wasn't able to move his extremities until later in the night. The Thunder Bay, ON native has always been the stud of blocked shots since coming over to the Vannies. It will be a huge deal if he gets back anytime soon, but he is the best defensive offensive player on the team, and we just can't wait to have him out of the hospital and back on the ice. Best of luck buddy.
Andrew Raycroft and company will fly into Los Angeles tomorrow to take on the Kings (a surprising 8-4-0), and then head down the 5 to battle the Ducks on Friday (again, a surprising 3-6-1). Will Tommy, Karen, and the baby be somewhere to be found in the stands at the Honda Center this Friday? Let's hope so. With any luck, the 'Nucks will grab 4 over the next 2 games, and go into the Sunday match at home against Colorado in second place in the division.
Go Canucks Go.
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