When the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks get together, things are crazy. The latest version of this highly contested LSF rivalry went down Sunday night and ended with a 0-1 loss for the good guys. It was a pitching duel that had plenty of action (cross sports reference!), plenty of fighting (as usual between these two teams), and a Chicago backup out dueling Roberto Luongo.
Despite losing to a team I've grown to hate since last year's playoffs, there were some positives to take away:
1) The defense was finally here! We shut out a fairly decent team through 41:12 of game time, and that is something to be proud of. Our mighty captain finished with 16 saves on 17 shots, which highlights the fact that the Vancouver defense was on point during the game, keeping the Hawks out of the zone. The shots were 6-7-4 period-by-period, and that kind of shows how the Orca really should have been in control, being that we put 30 on Niemi.
2) Alex Burrows led the way as the beast of the game. My main man AB put 7, count 'em 7, shots on goal in the game, really trying to tickle the twine. While Niemi was somehow able to keep him out, he led the way in the shot department for either team, and made me proud with the effort. On a team with plenty of talent at the LW position (AB, Mason, and Daniel Sedin-welcome back, by the way), Burrows continues to stand out as much more than the "pest" title that NHL Network would have you believe.
In a tight loss, of course, the negatives outweigh the pluses:
1) Nothing on the power play. Despite all of the calls handed out, Vancouver finished 0 for 2 on the man advantage in the game. Going up against the likes of Chicago, we have to make good on the advantages, and we just didn't. The Twins need to be under the spotlight in these situations now that they're back together.
2) Giveaways. This is something I've been harping on all season. The Vannies gave the puck away 9 times to the Hawk's 5. Giveaways have been a big problem for BC this season. Injuries to solid passers may be one excuse, but everyone is pretty much back now (save Po Po), and we need to be hanging on to the puck a little better.
3) Henrik failing us in the circle. The usually solid H-Bomb won just 54.5% of his face offs in the game (compared to the second line center, Ryan Kesler, wining 9 out of 12). Our top line is going to have go earn that puck when is drops, because possession makes all the difference in the world. Looking up and down their lineup, Chicago isn't really an amazing team in the circle this season, and we should have been taking advantage.
The loss really puts a halt to the Canucks plans of getting the season off the ground a little bit. The narrow defeat has us a 12-11-0 (24 points, and still racist against overtime losses) still has us searching for our identity this year. Are we destined to be a team that just kind of floats through the season around .500, hoping to get hot enough at the end to earn a #8 spot into the playoffs? I hope not, because that would be pretty infuriating. Either be good or be bad so I can enjoy the season with less stress, in my opinion. The Canucks have a couple of key games the remainder of this Thanksgiving weekend to try and gain that identity we sorely miss. Thanksgiving evening we battle the 13-9-2 LA Kings. The Kings are a -2 in goal differential, while the Vannies sit +7. LA came storming out of the gates before falling a little flat, but they are still quite the dangerous team. While we have a sickly looking 9-11-0 record against the West, they play at an 8-6-2 clip, showing the can get up for big games. With the weekend wrapping up with back-to-back games against Edmonton (-1 of the 'Nucks in the table) and the San Jose Sharks (16-5-4, leading the Pacific), my boys are going to have to have some spot on play if they have any hope of being one back of division leading Colorado (currently +7 on the Canucks) by the time I return from my trip up North.
Let's hope they can do it.
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