Canucks make it tough (on themselves)
March 13th, 2008 by thewordbirdThe Canucks have to have a heightened awareness of the fine line they tread these days. Gone are the games against St. Louis and Los Angeles, young teams that are merely playing out the season. Faced with two divergent tasks (the defending Stanley Cup Champion Ducks on Wednesday and the bristling Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday, who for the first time in an extended period, can glimpse the playoffs and have hope for the future) the Canucks came up lame and disorganized.
Coming back to beat the Kings and dispatching the Blues seemed like a good lever, yet when one looks back today and scrutinizes how tertiary scoring has had to come through to net even a .500 record (with 4 wins and 2 OT points) in the last ten, well, it underlines the all-to-familiar scoring deficiency. Anaheim simply put Vancouver in its place, playing as if they were the desperate team concerned about their playoff berth, not peeking out the window for the wolves at the door.
Phoenix sent a message to Vancouver last night. The young forwards looked anxious to gain the Canucks’ zone and their defense pairings that have stayed constant all season long, were proficient at clearing their zone and providing the attack. It was not as if Vancouver was completely out-played, though the 24 shots they directed at Ilya Bryzgalov were as many as the ‘Yotes fired at a hectic Roberto Luongo in the first period alone. Vancouver took very few penalties in this game, but had a lot of trouble finding chemistry on the powerplay, never mind at even-strength.
The scoring was held back until Niko Kapanen let his expert wrist shot fly into the top corner on the powerplay, mid-way through the 2nd period of this tactical contest. Martin Hanzal showed off his great stick-handling and made his line-mates look very good, getting assists on both goals by Kapanen and in the third period by Daniel Winnik.
I have the utmost respect for the play of certain Vancouver players of late. Willie Mitchell has come back from injury and has performed very well. Heck, I would say better than usual, as I saw him jumped up on the penalty-kill twice last night (without getting caught) to try to score and was admirable defensively as well. Mason Raymond was terrific in skating with and without the puck, particularly on the powerplay, though not supported. Ryan Kesler has been outstanding as of late and I really like the leadership he has shown, standing up to Barrett Jackman and playing Chris Pronger hard enough to elicit reactions out of the future Hall of Famer. Of course, the 43 saves that Luongo made against Phoenix were fantastic and Alex Edler’s skating and distribution of the puck are magical.
The leadership in general has sorely been lacking and that glaring absence has hurt the Canucks’ chances. I personally believe that Markus Naslund has not been that bad as a player for Vancouver (back-checking and defending), but that is not what he is paid to do. General Manager Dave Nonis was on the Team1040 radio Thursday, saying that Markus, “has to take the weight off of his shoulders”, “….a lot of things running through his head” and “I don’t think it’s the system and I don’t think it is Father Time….”. He also challenged his team to take a more offensive approach. Taylor Pyatt has no goals in nearly twenty games now, the Sedins have been right cold and now Mattias Ohlund is gone for at least the remaining games before the playoffs. It seemed to have fallen on deaf ears for now….we will see how it is translated in Dallas on Hockey Night in Canada.
March 14, 2008
Robin Keith Thompson
