I figured the picture went perfectly with the title, eh? It was a family affair last night, as Tommy's Canucks went head to head with his cousin Daniel's Rangers. A thrilling rematch of the 1994 Stanley Cup. A chance for continued revenge for that heartbreaking series. And, a chance to prove that we can continue to win with Andrew Raycroft between the pipes and Roberto Luongo on the. I'd say that a 4-1 Canuck win took care of all of that. In this post, we'll explore the many positives and nit-picky negatives of this beautiful Vancouver victory.
As usual, we'll start with the pluses:
1) Ryan "Effing" Kesler! Are you kidding me? This guy had such a solid game, that he had the announcers on NHL On The Fly suggesting that he be named our captain! Um, we already have a studly captain. Don't forget him just because he's hurt. Of course, Kes really did show up in this game. Ryan Kesler assisted on the first three Orca goals in the game, including a really nice pass to Mikael Samelsson in the first period, to cap off his #1 start night. It's always nice to have our #2 center coming through like he did last nice. I'm not sure, however, why he finished just a +1 in the ESPN box score. By my count, the worst he could have gotten was +2. Way to try and bring the NHL 2K10 commercial star down, you bastards.
2) Andrew "Everyday" Ray Ray. I know everyone is only pumped about this because of the last two games, where the Vannies have outscored opponents 7-1, but damn has he looked good. This time around, he had to be even better than when he blanked the Avs. Ray Ray stopped 22 of 23 shots on goal, allowing just a Chris Higgins goal in the third period. Raycroft and his fellow defensive mates were able to manage the big stars from New York all night, and keep things looking pretty good since Lu went down. Remember, when Lu went down I said that I just wanted Ray Ray to keep things .500 while our captain is out. Since the injury, he's 3-1. Give him the respect he deserves.
3) Mikael Samuelsson continues to dominate. He has been so much fun to watch, just seeming to be at the right place at the right time, and his two goals in this game were sweet. The Mariefred native now has 8 goals on 6 assists as the new right wing force for the Canucks, and has 8 points over his last 10 games. He's also been a +5 during that time, showing that he was a solid pick up because he's been picking up our offense since he put on the uniform.
4) Big blocked shots, despite Ryan Johnson being off with injury. We are a banged up team, and one of our most banged up players, Ryan Johnson, take a bunch of blocked shots to the IR with him. Amazingly, we've found some studs to pick it up for him. Christian Ehrhoff and Matt Schneider had 4 blocked shots EACH in this game against the Rangers. Talk about taking one for the team. It has been a wicked increase in defensive skills that has really allowed Raycroft to play over his head as far as stats are concerned, and we are really going to need that defense to stay strong (even once Luongo returns).
Before I get to the negatives, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed Tanner Glass stepping up and beating the hell out of Dane Byers with 1:10 left in the game. The "mele" between the two teams earlier in the period didn't result in as much as the media made it seem, but Glass stepped it up as a rookie by punching the lights out of Byers. Be assured that I was quick to email the You Tube video to my cousin immediately. Okay, negatives:
1) We still led in giveaways. Didn't Coachie V read my last post? I clearly stated that we needed to fix the problem of having too many giveaways. In that game, they lost 8. Last night, the gave away 9. What the heck? Honestly, the highlights showed plenty of Ray Ray saves on giveaways that turned into mild odd man rushes, and we're not going to be living well if we keep that up. Hang on to the puck!
2) Henrik Sedin only had one shot in the game. H-Bomb has been coming up big with his brother on the injured list, but he was completely absent in this game. Yes, he had a goal at the end of the game, but it was an empty netter and he only had one other shot besides that. More pressure, please.
The win has pushed us to 9-7-0 on the season (18 points), and they now trail first place Colorado by just 6. We're coming for you, Avs. Calgary (17), Edmonton (15), and Minnie (still 10) are trailing our boys in the division. It's a tight one, boys. Tomorrow, the Canucks go to Minnesota (5-9-0) to try to steal a win from the division's worst. The rumor train is that Luongo may be back in net, as he traveled to Minnie with the game, but no word yet from the Canuck staff. Fingers crossed!
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