I chimed in with a 'haven't you people ever heard of, scoring some gosh darn goals?' It seems to officially be panic time in the city of Vancouver, after dropping the home opener 3-5 to Columbus. Everyone around Orca Nation was hoping that the homecoming and home opener would spark Vancouver to earn their first win after a suspect 0-2-0 start. It didn't quite work out that way.
After getting their first lead of the season on a Henrik Sedin rebound goal (H-Bomb!), the Canucks promptly allowed the Jackets to take complete control. After not scoring on a 5 on 3, the Canucks allowed an odd man rush the other way, which resulted in an Antoine Vermette goal (shown above). With that game tying goal, no one was blaming our faithful captain, Roberto Luongo. With the next three goals, however, they were. El Roberto allowed goals at 2:07, 5:29, and 5:51 of the second period, and Columbus took complete control of what was supposed to be the Canucks first win. Each of those three goals (scored by Huselius, Klesla, and Filatov) were single shot, non-deflected, straight on goals that definitely all should have been stopped. Oh captain, my captain! After falling down 1-4, Roberto was promptly lifted from the game in favor of the flavor of the year backup Andrew Raycroft. Vancouver would make it interesting, however, with a slapper goal from Christian Ehrhoff at 8:27 of the second and another slapper goal from Willie Mitchell (who earned an assist on the Ehrhoff goal). They were pretty sweet shots from the blue line, and Vancouver fans started thinking that we may have a chance with Ray Ray in net to get back into the game. Unfortunately, Mikael Samuelsson got called for a hook at 14:32 of the third leading to a power play goal for the Blue Jackets, and the game was history. The fans didn't boo, which I was pleasantly surprised with, but you could feel plenty of unpleasant feelings as every walked out of the arena and off to White Spot for a late night burger. After an undefeated preseason, most Canucks fans are wondering what the hell is happening. I'm going to present two reasons.
Reason #1: We just can't look over the Roberto Luongo factor. Bobby Lu has had an awful start in his first three games, going 0-3-0. He has a third string 4.56 GAA and a lackluster .820 save percentage. Usually I would point out the fact that the defense has let Luongo down when he goes through a run like this, and they have, but our captain has definitely let in his fair share of easy goals thus far. Before the 09/10 year start, El Roberto was talking about how his main goal was to be a solid starter, to wipe out the title of "slow starter" that has followed him around for his entire career. It just hasn't happened. Lu stuck around to make a comment after the game, "A lot of chances are coming off the rush so we have to make sure to have a third man high and limit the rushes, but at the same time I've got to make some saves here." I'm proud of him for stepping it up and taking some of the blame, and he's not wrong about limiting the rushes as well. Just remember, without Luongo having success, we're not going to have success as a squad.
Reason #2: Ridiculous penalties. This just isn't the image of the Canucks that we know. In this most recent edition, the Canucks only allowed 1 power play goal, which is a huge improvement. However, the penalty to Samuelsson in the third period really shut down our chances of a comeback. In the game against the Avs (game #2), the Canucks allowed 2 power play goals, and got called for 9 total penalties (including 4 in the second and 4 in the third). I don't think I need to say much about the loss to the Flamers (game #1), where the Canucks gave up 2 power play goals. The got called on 4 penalties in the first period (4:25, 6:16, 13:47, and 20:00) which resulted in two goals. It was a horrible way to start the season. A horrible way to get out the gate. Coachie V thought he turned it around in the locker room, but it hasn't shown up that way over our next couple of games. Can we pull our stuff together. I'm used to Shane O'Brien getting called for bad penalties, but Henrik, AB, and Bieksa? Come on. This is getting out of hand. Show some discipline.
I'm afraid that if the 'Nucks don't win their next home game, the entire city of Vancouver is going to have to be placed on suicide watch. Wednesday night, my 0-3-0 Vannies line up against the Eastern conference's Montreal Canadians. The Habs, in contrast to the Canucks, are 2-0-0 this season so far (although, they are currently losing to the Flames 3-4 with 2 minutes to go in the third). The Canadians also recently signed blue liner Marc Andrew Bergeron to their lineup to try and make their squad even better. Is there any way that the 'Nucks will turn their season around against these bums? I can only fall back on the fact that my boys have been solid against the Eastern Conference in recent memory, and they have to be motivated to continue that tomorrow night.
If not, riots on Robson, anyone?
P.S. The Andrew/Brandon/Jon post strike is at a LSF record 84 days. That is not a joke. And, don't forget to stay in the know on the LSF Twitter page.
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