On a night when John Lackey turned my Angels aside like a cheap crappy Cinco de Mayo Mexican take out meal (thank you, Albatross), I looked to my Mighty Canucks game 3 against the hated Chicago Blackhawks to cheer me up. Instead, I watched 60 minutes of bull shit. From an own goal by Kevin Bieksa to Enemy #1 (Dustin Byfuglien) earning a hat trick on a goal so dirty it has Pig Pen looking like fancy hotel sheets, this 2-5 Vancouver loss had everything I needed to send me straight to a bottle of Newcastle Brown looking for comfort. Of course, no comfort was to be found (even in the sub-par carne asada fries I ordered), and now I'm left wondering if this game is the game where you know the end is near, and you kind of try an make peace with the fact that this series could be over on Mother's Day. Nearly 12 hours later, here's a quick rundown of why my finger is nervously shaking near the panic button:
Top line woes continue: Much like game 2, the Sedins and Samuelsson were held without a point in this game. That partly rolls onto the next problem of the Canucks going 0 for 4 on the man advantage. Um, I'm not sure if anyone has told the Swedes, but we don't win if you guys don't step it the feck up.
Bobby Lu is like a brick wall with tennis balls being thrown at him: The rebounds were yards long after the initial saves Roberto was making last night. A couple of the goals made me just sigh because I know there was no way to make the save after the huge rebound. Easy to push a puck into a wide open net, eh? 30 saves on 35 shots, and I understand that he was jacked around with no calls, but either he needs to hang on to the saves better, or have some D back to scoop up the boards.
Have you even seen the Sedins get so physical?: I think this was a sign of just how bad the night was going. Daniel and Henrik seemed routinely to get riled up, seemingly looking for a fight. That really isn't like them, and it kind of shows how the likes of Dave Bollan are getting under their skin the last two games. The Twins are frustrated.
Get the fecking puck up on Niemi: Am I the only one who seems to notice this? Niemi seems to be an amazing keeper with pucks down low. A couple of times last night, the 'Nucks had chances where a lifted puck easily would have scored, and instead they just slid the rubber into his leg pad (cough, Daniel, cough cough). Come on, you guys are professionals, not Laguna Hills Hockey League players. Get some lift on those backhands.
Dustin Byfuglien represents everything I hate about the Chicago Blackhawks: Feck anyone who is celebrating "Bufflin's" hat trick last night as a solid offensive outing. You crumb bums put this meat head on your top line, he rushes the net and pushes Luongo into the goal with no call, and Lu (who save the puck, by the way) is left sitting in the net with the puck, and it's called a goal? Give me a fecking break. Maybe the Canucks should move Shane O'Brien to right wing on the Sedin line, and just have him body slam Niemi a couple of times right before a shot, so we can "earn" a goal. Luongo was flat laid out a couple of times last night, and the refs simply left their whistles in their panties. It was a joke, and it's been happening the last two games. Is the NHL going to actually stand up and protect our Captain, or are we just content to let the 1974 Flyers dressed up as the Hawks cheat their way to victory in this series?
My Canucks trail 1-2 in their series, and now feature the pressure ad infinitum for Game 4 at the Garage on Friday. We tried to be more fighty in game 3, and it just turned into bad penalties and a bad night. Me thinks it's time to return to the "ignore the meat heads" style of play from Game 1 and most of Game 2, and get back to our style of the sport. The beautiful game, with beautiful Swedish scoring from beautiful Swedish twins.
Game 4 is a game we really, really need to win.
Go Canucks Go.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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