Shades of 2006

I can’t help but makes comparisons between this Vancouver Canucks team and the one that free fell their way out of the playoffs in 2006. I’m sure most people who are reading this can remember the Canucks and Oilers battling for 8th place in the West and at the same time fighting for the title for who could choke the most. Of course the Canucks played their way out of the post season and the Oilers ended up coming within one win of winning the Stanley Cup.

WIth the season hanging in the balance on March 31st in 2006 the Canucks went a dismal 1-4-2 before being eliminated on April 13th, the second to last game of the season. Now in 2009, the season hanging in the balance of sorts as the Canucks have a record of 1-4-2 since January 2nd. Not only have the Canucks lost six of their last seven games but they have, in general, looked terrible while doing it. The loss against the Blues were simply inexcusable, and while a loss against the Devils and the talented Coyotes could perhaps be excused if the team played hard, they simply looked as if they mailed in the efforts both nights. Unlike in 2006 the Canucks can still turn their season around, but they’re going to have to do it pretty quickly.

The return of Luongo between the pipes on Thursday night gave Canucks fan some optimism that he would come in and save the team from their horrendous slump, but like a guy who hasn’t played in two months, he let in the first shot of the game just over a minute into it. Anything that Vancouver fans had to hold onto in terms of hope were stolen that quickly and a full on panic swooped through GM Place. I don’t think I have ever had less fun at a hockey game than I did on Thursday.

So what needs to change? For starters the defense needs to play smarter and pick up their men in front of the net. I can’t even begin to count how many times that players have scored a goal standing all by themselves without a defender even close to him. We can blame Sanford, LaBarbera and Luongo for weak goals all we want but the truth of the matter is, in the last five games or so the defense has been lost.

The poor decision making by the defenders doesn’t even stop there. Far too many times the defenseman has pinched in at the offensive blue line to try and and hold the puck in. One glaring occurrence of this was when Willie Mitchell stepped up in the first period against the Devils and couldn’t hold the puck in. The Devils ended up on a 2 on 1 and it was 2-0 just like that. If its not leading to 2 on 1s its leading to 3 on 2s. I don’t think I have ever seen a team get more odd man rushes in a game than I saw the Coyotes get on Thursday since Canada played Kazakhstan at the World Juniors.

For the forwards I don’t even really know where to start exactly. The Sedins have played two of their worst games that I can remember over the last couple of days. But the blame can’t really be thrown at them because they have produced this season on a whole and are usually very consistent players. Pavol Demitra has been nowhere good enough despite scoring a soft goal on Clemmensen on Tuesday. Mason Raymond is still showing his inexperience and we continue to wait for Mats Sundin to work off the rust, but how long can we continue to afford to wait? A lot of people have disagreed with scratching Kyle Wellwood from the game last night but I can’t say it really bothered me. It’s true that Wellwood is second on the team in goals, but five on five Wellwood has proven to essentially be worthless and you might even argue that he has been ineffective playing with anyone but the Sedins on the power play. Vigneault seems like he’s committed to getting Mats Sundin going with the twins on the power play which relegates Wellwood to the second unit where he has been nowhere near good enough to hold on to his spot in the lineup.

If there has been anything positive to take out of the last few games its the resurgence of Steve Bernier and pretty much the entire checking line. Bernier-Kesler-Burrows have been pretty good on a nightly basis, even Vigneault had the sense to put the trio on the ice with two minutes to go when the Canucks desperately needed a goal against St. Louis. Bernier, Kesler and Burrows all have four points in their past five games.

As for the biggest change of all that might be needed, the Canucks may have to starting considering cutting ties with their coach, Alain Vigneault. Much like in 2006 when Marc Crawford appeared to have lost his influence on his team, Vigneault doesn’t seem to be able to get this team prepared to play a whole game anymore. Personally speaking I wouldn’t mind the Canucks bringing in someone else for a fresh look at things. They can’t trade the whole team so perhaps they need to bring in a new coach. There are plenty of coaches out there right now who are proven winners that can’t be a big impact on a team short term. Peter Laviolette, John Tortorella and Pat Quinn to name a few. One also has to remember that Mike Gillis did not hire Vigneault and while they seem to have a good working relationship, Gillis may use this as an opportunity to bring in his own guy, if not now perhaps at the end of the season.

Much like the team that fizzled out of the playoffs in 2006, the 2009 version of the Vancouver Canucks has far too many good players to be playing like this.

ASG, Luongo and the World Juniors

All Star Snub
A lot of people have written about what a joke the all-star game has become already, but with the Canucks being off today I wanted to add in some of my own comments. As a Canucks fan I was pretty disappointed that Daniel Sedin (41 points through 41 games when the rosters were announced) was left off the roster. What does Daniel need to do to show that he is an elite player in this league? Not only is he averaging a point a game, but he is sixth in western conference scoring. Sounds like an all-star to me. And Daniel wasn’t the only deserving player to be left off the team. Patrick Marleau (42 points in 39 games, +15) is another glaring snub in the all-star selection process. There are others of course but i simply can’t name them all.

You see the NHL felt that it needed to have representatives from all of its teams at the all-star game so instead of the game representing the best players in the league so far during the season you get players who are playing ok on bad teams. I’m sure Keith Tkachuk and Mike Modano are all-stars if I somehow flashed back to 2002. The idea of selecting a player from every team seems absolutely absurd when there are barely more spots on the team to fill than there are teams in a conference. The idea of selecting at least one player from every team was a policy that even MLB was smart enough to scrap. Although they still award home field advantage to the winner of the all-star game so I can’t praise them too much.

Something also must be done about letting the fans voting in the starting lineup. I’m well aware that the all-star game is for the fans, but I am disappointed that people who found a loophole in the voting process could stuff the ballot for their favourite players. Although this would bother me a lot less if the NHL was competent enough to select the most deserving reserves. Ever since the vote for Rory campaign took off the NHL all-star game has become more and more of a joke and like the Rory movement, the NHL will likely shrug this one off too.

Luongo Making Progress
As a Canucks fan I was happy to hear that Roberto Luongo was back in net taking shots yesterday as he traveled with the team to Edmonton. Luongo took controlled shots from his teammates and did not push himself too hard. Its solid progress and it looks as if the Canucks captain should be back between the pipes soon after the all-star break. If Jason LaBarbera keeps playing the way that he is then there is certainly no need for Luongo to rush himself back into the net. Not that he was going to anyway.

And no I did not forget that Roberto Luongo was named to the all-star team during my rant of the selection process. As much as I love Luongo I can’t understand how a guy who has missed more than a month of the season can be named on the Western Conferences all-star goaltenders. I would assume Steve Mason will be replacing him on the roster when the announcement that he won’t play due to injury comes out.

Cody Hodgson at the World Juniors
The World Juniors have been over for a few days now but I wanted to add how much I enjoyed watching Cody Hodgson during the tournament. Hodgson looked to me like he will no doubt be joining the Canucks next season. He did pretty much everything that Canada and Pat Quinn could have asked from him. He ran the power and piled up the assits on John Tavares’ goals, he scored the back breaker in the gold medal game to put Canada up 3-0 and he was their most reliable forward on defence and was counted on to kill penalties.

I didn’t have a problem with John Tavares being named MVP of the tournament but it would have been nice to see Hodgson be named one of the top three players on Canada for the tournament. Jordan Eberle and John Tavares were well deserving, but I thought the leading scorer in the tournament could have taken a spot instead of PK Subban. I have nothing but love for PK though and Habs fans will love him when he’s ready to make the jump to the NHL. The award would have been nice but Hodgson’s play still spoke for itself on the ice

Nikita Filatov
Finally I want to say how impressed I was with Nikita Filatov during the tournament. He seemed to win games on his own for Russia and in my opinion he really raised his play during the quater final and bronze medal game. It must have been tough for him to play so well during the bronze medal game after Russia was defeated by a miracle goal by Eberle in the Semis.

His great play was not unnoticed by the Blue Jackets who recalled him after the tournament. He scored 1 goal in 4 games during October with the Blue Jackets.

Canucks vs Oilers Post Game Thoughts

Much like December 17th when the Oilers and Canucks met on Trevor Linden night, the game was overshadowed by another story. Mats Sundin was finally going to dress for the Canucks this season! After months of speculation and weeks of waiting we should finally get to see the man in action. While he didn’t put a point on the board in the Canucks 4-2 victory there were a lot of positives to take from the game. More on Sundin in a bit though.

Just yesterday in my previous blog entry I talked about how Steve Bernier was having trouble finishing off his chances, well tonight I was extremely pleased to see that he was able to capitalize as he scored twice in 12 seconds in the second period to put the Canucks ahead 3-1 heading to the intermission. The two goals were just three seconds off the record for fastest two goals by a Canuck. Not to be forgotten was the nice set up from behind the net by Bernier to assist on Alex Burrows goal with just over five minutes left in the second to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately he could not pick up the hat trick as he hit the post midway through the third period in a scramble in front of Roloson. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Bernier who will no doubt be finding himself teamed up with Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows more often with Hansen being sent down to the minors.

Overall I thought the Canucks played a fantastic road game. Through the first two periods they prevented Edmonton from getting any kind of real scoring chance other than the one which Edmonton ended up scoring on the power play. The relatively light night for Jason LaBarbera was a large contrast from his first three games in Vancouver when he was forced to make a few big saves to keep the Canucks in the game. LaBarbera can not really be blamed on either Edmonton goal as they had three whacks on the first and a fantastic/lucky deflection by Erik Cole on the second left him no chance on the shot that appeared would go way wide. All in all it didn’t seem to be your typical Oilers-Canucks game as the first 35 minutes were rather slow and tightly checked rather than the wide open games these two teams usually generate. I can’t complain however, as I am just happy to see the Canucks pick up the two points they desperately need from this game.

If there was one negative to make about tonight’s game was that I didn’t like how the Canucks allowed the Oilers back into the game right after Burrows had scored. It was really an opportunity for them to take control of the game and not allow the Oilers any momentum to tie the game up. Instead the Oilers came out with a good shift and Bieksa ended up taking a penalty and the game was soon tied up. This seems like a theme that has come up a bit too often lately. The Canucks have lacked some of that killer instinct to put games away early. Bernier’s second goal did give the Canucks a two goal lead eventually though and it was too much for the Oilers to overcome, although they certainly made it interesting with a few great chances late.

Back on to the topic of Sundin, I had originally had him pegged for about 12 minutes tonight and I was surprised that he managed to play 15:03 after playing only 3 minutes and change in the first period. The first period was really a feeling out period it would seem as he seemed to take almost half shifts while Raymond and Wellwood were still holding possession in the Oilers zone. The biggest thing he did in that period was throw a hit in the corner on his first shift.

The second was a lot more active for Sundin, he was a strong big body in front of the net and played the power play. He spent some time playing the left side of the top power play unit with the Sedins and it was pretty clear that it was going to take some time for the trio to jell. Sundin was content at setting up just below the face off dot trying to pick up one timers while the Sedin’s game was much more cycle orientated. That’s not to say that they won’t make up a deadly power play combo in the future, its just that there is simply work to be done. The couple shots that he did end up attempting were blocked or deflected. Mats did not end up registering a shot on goal. Also towards the end of the period I was pleased to see him not back down from Steve Staios. After a long layoff it’s easy to try and shy away from that kind of thing but he wasn’t going to take any of it from the Oilers tonight.

The third was much like the second period, Sundin showed flashes of the dominant power forward that he is by driving the puck to the net on one shift and making a few more shot attempts. All in all I think Sundin played it mostly like a pre-season game. It was certainly a feeling out process for him and he should be much more dangerous on Friday and Saturday.

Canucks Player of the Game: Steve Bernier (2 goals, 1 assist, +2, 13:13 TOI)

If you have comments or anything else to add than I’d love to hear from you.

The Forwards Through 41

Coming into the season many people thought that the Canucks would struggle to fill the net, but so far that really hasn’t been the case. Many players are having good individual seasons statistically speaking, however, the problem seems to be with their inconsistency from night to night. A power play that has struggled for the majority of the season has certainly not helped matters. To show the inconsistency of the team, you can look at the 6-0 win on opening night against the Flames and compare it to the November 12th loss where they made Peter Budaj look like a Vezina trophy winner. Don’t get me wrong, Budaj played great that night but he was no doubt aided by the Canucks ability to find the back of the net when the opportunities knocked.

On the top line, Daniel and Henrik Sedin have been their ever reliable selves. They burst out of the gate early and looked as if they were going to play out of their minds in a contract year. They came back to earth after a hot start but in the last month both twins have been by far the Canucks best forwards, as they should be. Their play has been great despite the constant revolving door at right wing. Steve Bernier, Taylor Pyatt, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen and Pavol Demitra have all extended auditions on the top line with the twins with none of the bunch managing to stick. How long Demitra remains on that line is up in the air as Alain Vigneault may decide he is better suited with Mats Sundin

The second line in Vancouver has been met with as much change as the third player on the top line. Mason Raymond has been exciting to watch despite his inconsistency, although that is to be expected with such a young and skilled player. Raymond’s speed and stick work has allowed him to put himself or others in prime scoring situations, however his ability to finish a play off has lacked. He seems to lack any kind of accuracy as he has beccome prone to missing the net and outthinking himself as he comes in off the wing. At just 23 Raymond should become a bigger threat in the future.

Also having issues with inconstancy is Pavol Demitra, The Slovak won over the hearts of Canucks fans on the the second night of the season as he scored the overtime winner in Calgary. Unfortunately he has the ability to disappear for games at a time. Demitra’s best games this year have not surprisingly been with Daneil and Henrik, but if he wants to stay on the top line he’ll have to chip in more often than the 11 goals he had in the first half of the season despite missing ten games.

Another player who appears to be gripping his stick a bit too tight is Steve Bernier. Bernier was one of Gillis’ biggest offseason additions that was intended to play on the top line with the Sedins. The 23 year old has done a lot of things right but has seemed to lack the ability to finish plays off in front of the net. It’s certainly not for his lack of effort though as Bernier has been a physical presence on the ice. In the first half of the season Bernier managed 7 goals to go along with 12 assists.

Its hard what exactly to make of the tenure of Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood was claimed off waivers by the Canucks after several injury plagued seasons with the Maple Leafs. In fact his 14 goals is now a career high for the Ontario native. Wellwood’s presence on the power play, where he has scored the majority of his goals this year, has been welcome, however his five on five play could use some work. For a long stretch in November and December, Welly found himself playing with Darcy Hordichuk on the fourth line. Despite that Wellwood’s sharp shooting has been needed on the power play despite his reputation of being more of a playmaker.

A lot of people haven’t liked the play of Taylor Pyatt but I think he was starting to come around before his injury. He probably will never reach the 23 goals he scored in 06-07 again but the 6’4, 230lb first round draft choice was effective on the penalty kill and proved that he could be responsible in his own zone. Pyatt had much of the same problems as Steve Bernier did when he found the puck on his stick around the net. The pysical aspect of Pyatt’s game is something that needs to be addressed. With such a large frame it would be nice if he would use it more often and exert himself as a physical force on the forecheck.

The shutdown line of Burrows-Kesler-Hansen has been as good as advertised this season defensively. Burrows and Kesler jumped out of the gate offensively and were the Canucks go to players for a period in October. Both of them have considerably come back to earth on that front, and Kesler has only recently gotten things going again in the opponents end of the ice. On penalty kills the two provide an offensive threat and are by far the best Canucks players on the penalty kill. Burrows especially has a knack for scoring on shorthanded breakaways. In September people had Kesler pencilled in as the Selke Trophy winner and while its questionable as to whether he has lived up to that billing he is certainly one of the better two way forwards in the league. While Jannik Hansen was sent to the minors yesterday I was extremely pleased with him play this season. His grit and willingness to play physical were welcomed and its unfortunate that he was sent down despite other players on the roster being far less valuable.

On the fourth line, Darcy Hordichuk has been a nice signing by Mike Gillis. Hordichuk has been exactly what the Canucks wanted when they signed him, he hits everything that he can without taking penalties and fights when the situation requires it. His 4 goals so far this season is probably 3 more than what the Canucks expected out of him. So far so good. Ryan Johnson who was brought in to be a shot block specialist was solid before he injured his foot and hand. Despite his unorthodox style to blocking shots he was a fixture on the penalty kill that the Canucks have had difficulty replacing. Mike Brown has essentially been a waste of a roster space as he takes bad penalties at bad times. Even his fights are uneventful as they usually involve him falling over to tackling the other player. Why the Canucks are so worried about having someone claim him on waivers in beyond me. In a limited number of games Jason Jaffray has been a nice addition to the fourth line. Chipping in offensively when he can with the talent around him, Jaffray has not backed down from other and despite not being a fighter has held his own in a few scraps this season.

Tommorow night the Canucks take on the Oilers in Edmonton. Will Sundin play or not is the question on everyones mind as the Canucks will try and end a two game losing streak.

The Canucks First Half Review

So I am about to make my triumphant entrance into the world of blogging. If you’re reading this I appreciate you stopping by even though you must have misclicked to get here. Nonetheless I urge you not to click that back button too quickly as I feel I can provide some insightful analysis on the Canucks. For my first article I think it would be fitting to address the play of the Canucks over the first half of the season.

On Sunday night the Canucks fell to the Dallas Stars in a shootout, a theme that has become far to common over the past two seasons. The Canucks missed the playoffs for a variety of reasons last season, but leaving 9 points on the table for shootout losses certainly didn’t help matter (They had a 6-9 record in shootouts in 07-08). This season the results are not any better as the Canucks have won just once in shootouts while leaving 5 extra points to the opponents taking. The one win in the shootout was the marathon win in Anaheim on Halloween that was undoubtedly due to Luongo’s ability to keep the shootout alive for 13 rounds. On Sunday night against Dallas the Canucks did show that they might be coming out of their scoring slump as Kesler and Wellwood both scored. Jason LaBarbera could not close out the win on the two chances that he got, in what was otherwise a spectacular night for him. Mats Sundin in his career has been a good shootout performer should help.

I want to spend the rest of the article here addressing the play of some of the players and whether or not they have met the expectations of that the team and fans put on them this season. We’ll start with the goaltenders and defense tonight and finish up with the forwards in the next article.

The goaltending was supposed to be the strongest position of the Canucks but it has been met with mixed results. Roberto Luongo has been a consistent presence in the crease of every NHL team he has played for and finally suffered the first his first major injury of his career. Prior to his injury on November 22nd, Luongo was looking like the MVP of the league with a 11-5-2 record and a save percentage of .928 to go along with 5 shutouts. Steve Mason of Columbus just matched the five shutouts of Luongo earlier this month. The return of the Canucks Captain would be a big boost to the team as they head into the stretch run.

In relief, Curtis Sanford has been inconsistent. On some night the previously seldom used backup has looked incredible and on others a goalie who would have a difficult time cracking an AHL lineup. Speaking of AHLgoaltenders, Corey Schneider made his NHL debut in Calgary on November 29th and looked spectacular with the exception of one questionable goal that turned out to be the game winner. Bad goals at bad times would seem to plaque Schneider, especially on his December 7th shootout loss in Colorado which ultimately cost the Canucks a point. On the plus side he was great in his first NHL victory, a 2-1 win in Minnesota on December 5th. Jason LaBarbera appears that he is poised to handle the load for the Canucks as they wait for the return of Roberto Luongo. Despite a 1-0-2 record in his first three starts, LaBarbera has shown the skill and size that the Los Angles Kings were so high on a few years ago.

On defense the Canucks have been extremely solid and trustworthy at the top of the depth chart. Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa have been great as the teams shutdown pair and have found a way to chip in on the offense. The over aggressiveness of Bieksa seems to been cured and he has become more patient and picks his spots to be physical much better. Willie Mitchell has been his always reliable self on defense with a plus 7 rating. Although Mitchell’s plus 7 is solid it is not as spectacular as Mattias Ohlund’s plus 13 as the Swede is having one of the better seasons of his career. Mike Gillis will not want to let Ohlund get to free agency this offseason.

Having a poor sophomore season is Alex Edler. The Canucks and their fans expected big things from the 2004 third round draft pick. Edler has been plagued this season by poor passes, untimely giveaways and his uncanny ability to get his shot blocked on the power play. Much of the struggles may have to do with Edler being too fancy with the puck in his own zone. Simplifying his play will be something that Edler will want to consider in the second half of the season. One of the most memorable mistake would be the giveaway to Curtis Glencross in a 4-3 loss on November 27th. To give Edler credit he has tallied 17 points this season, something that will be important for the Canucks as they move forward.

Shane O’Brien who was acquired in a trade for Lukas Krajicek has been a steady physical force on the back end. Despite some early season problems with penalties O’Brien has become a reliable presence on defense and has done a nice job sticking up for him teammates when the situation has required it. Because of his physical style of play and his many fighting majors this season it is not surprising that O’Brien leads the league in penalty minutes with 118. As long as he keep the minor penalties where the opposition ends up on the power play to a minimum, O’Brien should prove to be reliable.

In a very limited part-time role, Rob Davison has provided much of the same intangibles that O’Brien has. Davison’s physical style of play is exactly what Mike Gillis brought him in for. Davison beat up on Luke Schenn in memorable game against the Maple Leafs.. Also in a part time role, Lawrence Nycholat has tried to provide an offensive spark from the backend and has been used to quarterback the second unit of the power play on some nights. Through 12 games he has picked up only one point, but given his small role and little expected of him he has been good enough when needed.

Sami Salo, the final member of the Canucks defense has been slowed down yet again by a variety of injures, most recently broken ribs courtesy of Ethan Moreau. The Fin with the big shot had a slow start to the season but it appeared he was turning his game around just before his injury. Everyone should remember his booming shot on the power play on November 24th to defeat the Red Wings in overtime.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this and I’ll be looking into the forward tomorrow as the Canucks enjoy another off-day before heading to Edmonton on Wednesday for what could potentially be the beginning of the Mats Sundin era in Vancouver