Canucks Vs Blues Post Game

Canucks 2 Blues 3

The third goal and the game winner by Steen was a clear example of how the Canucks played tonight. It was a bit of a scrambled draw and Steen just beat Ehrhoff to the puck who seemed flat footed on the play. Steen walked out front and beat Luongo on the backhand.

Raymond and Alberts missed the game with sicknesses. More than likely the same flu that's been going through the team. Both their replacement were decent, Hansen used his speed well although he still needs to have his hands catch up to his feet ala Raymond two years ago. Rome played good for a 6th D man, he had a a few solid hits and ended up a plus one.

Positives:
The Canucks started out decent with good puck possession and most of the time spent in the other end for the first few shifts.

Hansen did a good job after being moved up due to Raymond being out. He had a goal and used his speed well to create some other chances and a good forecheck. The Canucks don't lose a lot of speed when Hansen is in for Raymond, although they do lose the finishing touch Raymond has.

As I talked about in the Pre Game Ballard's game is starting to turn around. He started off the game with a good hit on Coliacavo and followed that up with a fight. Because he's been playing better of late I expected his confidence to lead to him getting on the score sheet and tonight he did. He ended with 1 assist and +2. Look for Ballard to keep pushing forward and eventually moving into the top 4 with the team.

Luongo played decent tonight. Had some good saves and showed good rebound control on when the team was on the PK. There's a weird schedule coming up, the Canucks only play 5 times in the next 14 days however I can see Luongo getting one of those games off. More than likely one of the back to backs on the weekend.

Credit Luongo and the PK unit for another good game short handed. They held the blues 0/5 on the PP tonight.

Malholtra again dominated the faceoff going 77% at the dot. 86% in the defensive zone. This will be huge come playoff time.

On the Canucks 2nd goal Bieksa did a good job at just getting the puck on net with Kesler driving hard and creating a good screen. Shows what the Canucks needed to be doing all game.

Negatives:
In a game where the Canucks looked really slow and tired there was a lot of negatives.

I've been stressing this a lot in recent pre game talks that the SSB line needs to be positive for the Canucks to win. They ended up a combined -3 tonight. A game like that from this line is not going to produce many wins for the team and they will need to bounce back next game.

The Canucks PP is typically lead by the Twins and like I said they had a bad game. So did the rest of the team. The Canucks top PP in the league went 0/5 tonight and at least three of those came at critical times of the game. First was the two PPs at the end of the 1st and 2nd periods. Both times the games were tied with not much time left in the period. A goal at either of those times would have been game changing. They also got a chance down 3-2 in the third to tie it up and they couldn't even get a shot on goal. The Canucks need a better effort from this unit on a regular basis.

For a team who is the best goal scoring team in the third period the Canucks put out quite the lack luster performance tonight with only 7 shots in the third.

All in all the Canucks came out with no legs tonight. They had a good effort on the PK and Luongo tried to hold the team in there tonight but it wasn't enough. Losing a guy from the top 6 forward decreases the depth of the team by quite a bit and I would expect if there was a longer injury to someone in the top six the team would call someone up with more offensive ability than Bolduc. The PP needs to play better and so do the Twins.

Check in Wednesday for Pre game vs the Ducks.

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