Bobby Lu and Canucks striding
November 8th, 2008 by thewordbirdRoberto Luongo secured his second straight shut-out and a 1-0 win against the Coyotes on Thursday night. My sister Tracy was gracious to take me to the game and we had a fabulous time.
The Coyotes’ youth movement has some teeth in Kevin Porter, Kyle Turris, Jonas Ahnelov, Peter Mueller, Martin Hanzal, Mikkel Boedker and Viktor Tikhonov. While coach Wayne Gretzky has these kids playing some serious minutes, the overall effectiveness as a whole is lacking in a consistent professional product, for now. Steven Reinprecht was the most effective forward. Olli Jokinen was mostly invisible on this night, which limited his linemates (Mueller and captain Shane Doan) for the most part. Ken Klee, a recent addition from the waiver wire was troubled and not very effective even as a defensive defenseman. This hurt the ‘Yotes.
Mason Raymond is an electric player live. He is starting to catch the masses attention when he has the puck and with some more consistency is going to start to blanket the Lower Mainland with #21 jerseys. I have been touting his elite skating and puck handling skills for months. Knowing that his added icetime was only going to serve him and the team, it was rather easy to see him moving into one of the vacant top-six forward roles. That said, I am now going to issue this statement:
Fickle Canuck fans-Do not give up on Steve Bernier! Just becasue he has not immediately established himself as a lock as the ‘triplet’ (winger on the Sedin line). This kid is a good solid NHL forward, though not a saviour. Not fleet of foot, not in possession of a lser-like shot. But his grit down low and willingness to compete is rewardable in my view and a roster player that is valuable is a salary-cap world. It seems to me that skepticism is growing regarding Bernier and I hope that people realize his 20+ goals a year and abrazive style are important in knitting this team fabric. He’ll go to war.
Luongo has certainly found a bit of a groove and Tracy and I were watching him as the Canucks were tiliting the ice at times during the game. He went long periods when the Coyotes could not advance the pucka nd generate any offense. His mental preparation is formidable and when the shots came later on in the second and third periods, it paid-off. They were tip-ins and deflections, down low wrap-arounds/stuff-ins. Kudos Bobby Lu.
I thought Kevin Bieksa has been absolutely outstanding as of late. His decision to jump into the rush with Raymond and the Sedin twins was key in the game and he was rewarded with the only goal of the game. Some media members have said it was an easy goal, but remember that Ilya Bryzgalov made a heck of an attempt to steal it with his glove as he came across. Bieksa had the nerve and talent to shelf the shot and the way he has played this campaign-he deserves consideration for the All-Star ballot.
8 November 2008
Robin Keith Thompson
Posted in Canucks
