Vancouver Canucks

rightly write

Vancouver put another couple games under their belt this weekend and I caught the entire former game versus the Sabres in Buffalo.   During last night’s pay-per-view telecast (which was sub-standard again, arriving late in the form of the Comcast feed - thanks Ed Snider!) I was fortunate to have a living room full of friends over to watch the game and visit with my lovely wife Tiffany.  That said, my observations were limited on the Blackhawks 4-2 win over the Canucks-I invite your interpretations.

In Buffalo, the Canucks were slow to start and the Sabres had hot coals in their skates. This is an impressive team with tonnes of speed and a very solid netminder.  Critics of Buffalo have forgotten that Ryan Miller is unflappable and very talented, and that giving the young netminder the team’s best overall contract was a very positive sign.  Thomas Vanek has also been under fire over the past couple seasons.  His large contract (which he did not force, it was the result of Kevin Lowe’s offer sheet earlier) came on the heels of Buffalo forfeiting Chris Drury and Daniel Briere to free-agency.  This kid is a game-breaker in every sense, showing delightful mitts in close to Curtis Sanford to score Buffalo’s 4th goal of the night.  Sanford was under a volley of chances on that particular shift and only his rebound control could be commented on.  This was a second game on consecutive nights in which Vancouver needed to play a puck possession game against a strong opponent (Detroit the night before) and were agonizingly tired at this point.  Alexander Edler and Alexandre Burrows were standouts for the Canucks. 

Also, I thought Jaroslav Spacek was very good for the Sabres in this game, nevermind his goal to open the game.  I was reminded time and again in this game how instrumental his passing game was leading the Oilers out of defensive zone in their most recent Stanley Cup run against Carolina.  Spacek was mosre physical than I remembered as well, and that makes him a solid top four defender in my books.  Overall, Vancouver did not get enough rubber at Miller and they could not outgun their ‘expansion-cousin’ that way, especially with Luongo looking on.

Against the ‘Hawks, well, the outstanding forwards in Chicago were dynamite.  Couple this to workhorse Duncan Keith’s play in every aspect and Cristobal Huet’s netminding and you can see why hopes are high in Chicago.  One of my top five favourite players is Jonathan Toews and despite having not scored a goal yet in his young captaincy, has been a good playmaker and often times leads brilliant rushes.  Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp are making the most of playing with Toews, gaining possession of the puck from his strong faceoff abilities.  Toews was 10 for 13 against Vancouver this particular night and was the difference in the game.  Brent Seabrook and Dustin Byfuglien were impressive for Chicago as well.  Colin Fraser, who was acquired in the Alexei Zhamnov deal a couple seasons ago is pulling down quality minutes on lesser lines with Jack Skille, Kris Versteeg, and Dave Bolland.  The play was furious at times and both teams skated well. 

Vancouver received bad news again on the injury front, watching Pavol Demitra in pain and having Darcy Hordichuk and Sami Salo also sidelined.  The team will have decisions to make and test their depth.  Recalling certain players such as Jason Krog, Kyle Wellwood, or others will subject them to re-entry waivers.  This will be interesting to see how management ices a competitive team and retains it’s assets.

Winger Mike Brown has been a pleasant surprise, as has Rick Rypien in limited action.  Shane O’Brien while young and having some upside, has shown a lack of footspeed and defensive posture to me since the league’s opening game in Prague.  O’Brien was with the Lightning then and was the worst skater on the ice.

Tomorrow, the Canucks skate into Columbus and will need to salvage the road trip against the Blue Jackets in order to keep team morale in a decent position.

20 October 2008

Robin Keith Thompson