Canucks 7 Blue Jackets 3
Don't let the score fool you, the game wasn't even as close as it says. Yes that's not a typo 7-3 seemed close for how dominating of a performance the Canucks had in the first two periods last night. They were already eating Christmas dinner in the mind come the third period the rest of the game was hard to watch, even for a die hard fan like me.
When I saw this road trip I thought to myself that 3 or 4 points would be a very successful trip going into the break. The Blue's, Wings and Blue Jackets are three hard working gritty teams you can always expect good games from. Add on to that it was 3 games in 4 night leading into the Christmas break where everyone wants to be home with their families, I wasn't expecting much from the team. They proved me wrong, taking 5 of a possible 6 points. What a performance it was.
Usually a team coming into the second game of a back to back will start off slow, especially after a draining, hard fought game like the one against the wings. Not so last night, the Canuck's came out with an intent to earn two points and not let a disappointing game from the night before deter them from finishing the road trip with a W. It took roughly twelve, TWELVE, minutes for Cory Schneider to face a shot from CBJ in the first period. The shots were something like 15-0 in the first at one point in time. It was good to see the team come out that fast, and even without scoring right away, keep their confidence up and finally start popping them in.
The Twins, what a night, can you play any better than they did last night? Tape to tape passes all over the ice. Burrows is coming around starting to find the front of the net crashing for dirty goals. The first one was a great job by Burrows to follow the play to the front of the net and get open for Henrik. If you're open he'll find you, you just need to tap it in. Burrows needs to keep doing this. Henrik Sedin, the passes he was making last night showed why he is the top assist guy in the NHL. He simply has vision no one can match. The pass he made on the 2nd goal by Ehrhoff was brilliant. Daniel had a great game as well and his assist was very pretty behind the back to Henrik wide open in front. I doubt the Twins will be able to dominate that much in the playoffs but the determination they showed to take over a game is something I'd like to see on a regular basis.
Kesler, he picked his team up on his shoulders and carried them to the level they are playing at right now. The talk he had with MG and AV in the off season has helped his game tremendously. He's leading by example the the rest of the team is forced to play hard, gritty hockey or they simply look like they aren't trying next to him. If he can play this way in the playoffs teams will have a tough time deciding between checking the 1st or 2nd line.
It's too bad Torres can't play his old teams every night, Edmonton and Columbus have witness he's streakyness now. Hopefully he will gain some confidence when he's driving the net looking for deflections and putting the body on defenseman on the forecheck. Of all players on the Canuck's if Kesler can wear off on Torres it will go a long way in making the third line a dangerous one for the team to play against.
With such a dominating performance I still have something that I wasn't very impressed with and that was the fourth line. Obviously in a game like this the fourth lines ice time will increase dramatically. They even had 3 shifts on the 4:00 PP in the 3rd. Glass had 13:12TOI, 2:06 on the PP. Bolduc was 11:22TOI with 2:13PP and Volpatti played 12:20 with 2:00 on the PP. Now if I was this line I would have been out to prove myself as a solid option as a fourth liner. The Canucks have been auditioning 4th liners the whole season and you would think they could have taken advantage of this opportunity to maybe solidify their spots on the team. I didn't see this at all. I saw weak dump ins and a lack of forecheck in the offensive zone. Bad defensive zone coverage while getting pinned in their own zone. I know the game was out of reach but as a fourth line I would still be working as hard as I could. On the PP all they were doing was dumping the puck with 1 man forechecking. It was ugly.
Schneider was good early and didn't have much of a team in front of him late. He's 4-0-2 in his starts. You cannot argue that he is doing his job this year. He's a star in the making in my opinion, very calm goalie who looks huge in goal. Great chip for MG to play with.
Found this online. It's awesome to see Christmas and Canucks mix! Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CuJfZVDEHj0
Merry Christmas, it was great seeing everyone out last night.
I will post on boxing day. Enjoy the celebrations tonight and tomorrow.
Twitter me @bmah03
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