Let's be honest. Manny Malhotra is kind of an ugly dude. His play, however, was nothing but pretty on Friday night, as the Canucks busted the Wild 5-1 for some sweet revenge. If only a Wild player would have grabbed one of our fans, we could be completely even. Cory Schneider continued to fan the flames of controversy in V-Town, by nearly shutting out the Wild, and impressing us again as our backup goalie.
The scoring started off slowly, as the Orca tallied just a single goal in each of the first two periods before exploding in the final frame. Eleven minutes in, Raffi Torres and Jannik Hansen combined for some Sedin-like stuff. Hansen ended up with the puck behind the net, and as two Wild defenders collapsed on him, he chipped it out to a wide open Torres in front of the net, who buried it for his 100th career goal. 4 minutes into the second, after the Wild failed to convert on the 5 on 3, the Canucks amazing ability to keep the puck in the offensive zone for a lengthy period of time, allowed Andrew Alberts to blast a slapper that would be put in the back of the net on the rebound by Ryan Kesler. All the while, Cory Schneider was slowly putting together a great game between the pipes at the other end, stopping 18 of 18.
In the third period, the 'Nucks saw Manny Malhotra kind of take over. 11 minutes in, Alex Edler slapped a pass to Manny, and he put it in the net. 5 and a half minutes later, The Great Dane Jannik Hansen jumped on a loose puck and started a rush. He slammed on the breaks as he crossed the blueline and feathered an impressive pass across the ice to a rusing Malhotra. Manny managed to kick the puck to his stick and tickle the twine. Despite the Wild scoring with 2:35 left on a shot that was initially stopped by a Schneider blocker before it slid past the line, the Canucks would put the icing on the cake 15 seconds later. Schneider fed a puck around the boards to Daniel, who quickly sent it to Henrik, and H-Bomb found a wide open Jeff Tambellini all alone on the breakaway. He dunked the breakaway goal home, and we beat the Wild up 5-1.
Malhotra, Hansen, and Schneider made up the All-Vannie top 3 stars as picked by the "real" media, but I think Christian Ehrhoff deserves the "Top Star Without A Point" award. Not only did the German blue liner finish second in time on ice, but he was on the ice for every Canuck goal, helping him finish a +5. Not a bad day at the office.
At 3-3-2, the Canucks are thankfully back to .500 puck. In the division, we are behind Calgary (-2), even with Colorado, ahead of Minnie (+1), and way up on Edmonton (+4). In the Western Conference, our 8 points are tied with the Blues and the aforementioned 'Lanche for the final playoff spot. The Sharks, Wild, and Ducks are all just 1 point back, and the undefeated Preds (5-0-3, 13) lead the whole darn thing. Thanks to Hockey-Reference, we see our Simple Rating System is now JUST below average at -0.09 (18th in the NHL) and our Strength of Schedule JUST above average at 0.03 (14th). For those keeping track, our goal differential, despite the four goal win, is still -1. Our power play is still going well, +5% on the league average, while our penalty kill still sits below the league average (although, by less than 1%).
Since M&M scored two goals in the game, I thought it'd be fun to explore his statistics a little bit, as he appears to have given us a little more than we even hoped for on that third line. Malhotra already has 5 points in just 8 games, which is pretty huge for a third liner. He has 1.76 GC this season, and averaged +0.25/game in the +/- rating. His "Adjusted Stats" look pretty amazing, with Hockey-Reference projecting 24 goals and 35 assists this season. That would be a career year for Manny, as his best season was a TOTAL of 35 points and his top goal scoring mark was last year with 14 in San Jose. All of that, and I haven't even talked about his amazing faceoff proficiency. Who would have known back on July 1 that this signing would have been this important?
It really took a lot for me not to highlight the difference in starts between Luongo and Schneider, trust me.
Tomorrow night is the last game of the month, as our beloved 'Nucks go head to head with our division rivals from Colorado. At 4-4-0, the Avs are deadlocked with the Canucks from a point aspect, but they have lost their last two games (4-6 to LA and 2-4 to SJ), and don't have much momentum. Meanwhile, the Vannies have all kinds of momentum and they showed on Friday that they're ready to step things up a couple of notches to close out the first month of the season. Craig Anderson is vulnerable, and he must be exploited. Of course, the Avs are thinking the same thing about Luongo.
Finally, I'd like to sound my approval trumpet for the Canucks publicly declaring their desire to re-sign our German +/- leader, Christian Ehrhoff. He's looked good with Edler, as he showed against the Wild, and I think he'll keep it up.
Get well soon, Bally and Hammer, and let's go get us some Avalanche.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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