We are survivors! The Canucks opened up their second lengthiest road trip of the year (behind only the unfair Olympic roadie) with a nice and easy 5-2 win against the Wild. Everyone says that you have to play your best against the best, but many overlook the importance of taking care of business against teams that you are supposed to beat. The Vannies did that tonight, beating up on the last place Wild for their third straight win, and improved to 4-1 since the injury to Roberto Luongo.
Let's start with tonight's positives:
1) Goals from the unexpected...again. I've covered how much the Canucks role players have had to come through with the rash of injuries we've experienced. Tonight, they continued to do just that. The game opening goal at 3:49 of the opening frame came from Darcy Hordichuk's stick, his first of the year. Hordie straight stole a puck from the Wild at the blue line and waltzed in to score against Backstrom. How about recent signing, and returner to the team, Matt Pettinger. MP came up with a shot from the most ridiculous angle of the season. A wrist shot from straight along the goal line somehow bounced in to score the 4th goal of the game. It was his first this time around, and it helped take the pressure of Raycroft and the regulars.
2) H-Bomb must read this blog. In the last post I banged on Henrik Sedin for not getting enough action going in the last win. This time around, he answered the call with a shorthanded goal in the second period, assisted by Alex Burrows, and added a roughing penalty to show that he is right where he wants to be. It was Hank's 8th goal of the year, and it was very, very welcomed.
3) Ray Ray continues to shine. The rumors are the Luongo should be back between the pipes any day now, but with Raycroft carrying the squad to a 4-1 mark with Lu on the DL, I wonder about why we shouldn't ride our backup until he craps out. Everyday Ray stopped 28 of 30 shots in the game, not really amazing, but did enough to just be the stopper on our end of the ice. Raycroft made a sweet stop on a breakaway at one point that showed he can do the splits with the best of them. He has been one giant positive, outside of the massacre in Anaheim last week.
5) Tonight, Ryan Johnson earned his official "stud on the team" mark. RJ came back today after getting jacked up into the boards last week and missing several games. And, after getting so severely injured that he had to be taken to the hospital, what does he do in his first game back? He seriously leads the team in blocked shots with 5. 5 blocked shots in his first game back from injury? Johnson is a complete mad man, and I love it.
I'd like to also give love to my main man Alex Burrows for getting an assist and an empty net goal. Also, we finally had less giveaways than our opponent tonight. Again, they must be reading the blog. How about negatives in this win?
1) We have usually won the shot battle this season, even in our losses, but tonight this wasn't the case. The Canucks lost the shot on goal battle in the third period 5-15. That is a big difference, and it may have given the Wild hope that they could get back into the game, if it wasn't for Raycroft. Let's get back to putting more shots on goal!
2) Kesler and Samuelsson had rough outings, both finishing at a surprisingly bad -2 rating for the game. Only one Wild play did worse, and it was kind of odd for our offensive players to come away with a rating like that. Kes also only won 39% of his faceoffs, capping off a rough game for both of the usually solid scorers.
This recent string of success has the Vannies at 10-7-0 on the year (why are we so racist against overtime losses?), and their 20 points has put my boys almost within stirking position. The Avs (24) lead the Northwest, with Calgary (19), Edmonton (15), and Minnie (still, 10) all trailing. Things are close with the top three, but hopefully we can keep pushing things to the top. With the fact that we are playing on back to back nights signal Lu's return to rest Raycroft? We'll find out as the Canucks match up with the Stars in Dallas tomorrow evening. Dallas is 6-3-6 this season, really getting blasted in overtime this year, and most recently losing to the Flames on Wednesday 2-3. Will it be Brad Richards night to shine for the bad guys? Or, will Henrik Sedin continue to find his scoring touch, leading the good guys onward to victory?
I'll go with #2.
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