Canucks have a big uphill battle and now without Salo, Bieksa, and Hansen in the opening game. I predict the Ducks in 5 or 6. I was 7 and 1 in the first round with my only wrong prediction being Vancouver.
PERIOD 1:
1:30 Great move and chance by Naslund – draws a penalty.
2:30 Terrible power play. Terrible quarterbacking by Salo.
3:00 Sedin draws the trip and the Canucks will have a 2-man advantage for 15 seconds.
3:30 Naslund looks great. Smolinski gets in his way and knocks him down! Morrison misses the net with great room! Great play by the Sedins but no finish by Linden!
4:30 Another missed shot by Ohlund! God dam we need to hit the net! But we have the momentum.
What a hit by Pronger on Cowan!
7:07 GOALLL!!!!! What a move and shot by Jeff Cowan! Highlight maker!
Vancouver 1 – Anaheim 0.
7:45 Terrible too many men penalty. Bad, bad line change. You can’t afford that against a team like the Ducks and not in the playoffs. I hope we learned a lesson about discipline versus Dallas.
8:00 Great shot by Pronger – great save by Luongo.
8:45 McDonald looks great for the Ducks. Sopel looks lost. My god Sopel is playing bad.
9:24 GOAL ANAHEIM. Sopel was completely lost. Horrible, horrible minor league shift for Sopel. He missed a chance to clear it. He didn’t clear the net. He didn’t pick up his man. He was in front of 2 Ducks at the crease!!!
Anaheim 1 – Vancouver 1.
11:02 Unfortunate penalty by D. Sedin. He was going for the puck and ended up tripping his man. Hughson remarked on the great shift by Naslund and Morrison. Naslund is our strongest forward so far (though Cowan’s shift for the goal was really great).
12:00 What the hell?!?! Vigneault has put Sopel back out there on the number 1 penalty kill! He just missed the puck!!! Luckily Ohlund was there to clear!! Fitzpatrick looks decent.
Beauchemin still has the big face guard on. I wonder if he won’t play as tough as he normally does. I’d take Willie Mitchell any day.
13:30 Great shift by Beauchemin and the move at the point to keep the puck in and then put it on the net.
14:00 Uh oh Jeff Cowan’s hurt. He finally reappears during the playoffs and now takes another lump. This Canucks team is already hurting bad.
Injured Canucks: Kessler, Cooke, Salo, Bieksa….
15:00 GOAL ANAHEIM. What a goal and play by Selanne! Oh my god, what a f—k-up by Sopel on that play… I mean seriously, is Vigneault seeing this?!?!? He looks like he couldn’t make it on my beer league team (no offense Spartans). Someone please send a text message to Vigneault’s Blackberry…
Anaheim 2 – Vancouver 1.
16:00 Fitzpatrick takes a necessary penalty. Linden looks good but Beauchemin steps-up to break-up the short-handed play. Beauchemin looks great (and he suffered a gash on his face, a lost tooth and a broken jaw 2 games ago. What a warrior.)
18:30 I just watched Sopel watch the play standing at the top of the face-off circle in the middle of nowhere… just watching the play, completely out of position.
19:15 GOAL ANAHEIM. Incredible move and goal by McDonald. A huge highlight reel maker! Huge pass by Selanne and a great first by Kunitz. Bad line change by Kraijchek.
Anaheim 3 - Vancouver 1.
End of period. No real surprises here. Anaheim is making the Canucks look like a minor league team, which is where Kraijeck and Sopel belong: in the minors. Pleasant surprise goal by Cowan and some good work by Naslund and the Sedins. What a period for McDonald by Selanne and McDonald – 3 points each. Dam I should have taken those guys in the pool.
Shots on goal: Vancouver 9 – Anaheim 9.
Kelly Hrudey makes a good point: pull Luongo and rest him. He has to be dead tired and we have no chance at winning this. Hrudey though says the Canucks aren’t really an underdog in the series heading into game one and should be given an even chance to win this because of Luongo.
Hrudey also astutely points out that Scot Niedermayer is struggling and had a terrible first period. Too bad the Canucks cannot capitalize on this.
Additional comments from Hrudey: Naslund looks great, Mitchell looks great.
My additional two cents: I hate to sound like a broken record here but there is ZERO CHANCE, let me repeat ZERO CHANCE of the Canucks winning this series if they don’t play more disciplined hockey and get more power-play opportunities AND more power-play goals than the Ducks. So far it’s a BRUTAL START in terms of discipline and power play.
PERIOD 2:
1:00 Sedins look great but Pyatt misses and fans on a shot alone in front of the net…. *sigh*
2:00 Nice shift by Getzlaf and Perry. Then back go the Canucks and Fitzpatrick can’t get the shot off on a great chance… one can only wonder what Salo or Bieksa would have done.
3:54 Selanne recovers from falling off balance to make a great shot with the screen in front. And there’s Burrows acting like a buffoon after the play. Wow, he got lucky as the only one getting the penalty is Selanne. Bad call by the ref in favour of Vancouver.
6:00 Power play looks great thanks to Naslund but Smolinski flubs two passes to him by Naslund in the slot!!! To watch the score sheet alone is extraordinarily flattering to Smolinski. He really misses a lot of opportunities that almost any other Canucks would do better in executing.
9:30 Jason Wright predicts a Smolinski hat-trick. He adds….”It might be the Labatt’s talking.”
10:00 Sedins look good on the power-lay.
11:55 Nathan Smith interferes with the goalie. No call by the ref; a bad call again in the Canucks favour.
That idiot Burrows is acting like an idiot. Selanne gets off scott-free without a roughing penalty but Burrows should have been called for the high-stick. Bad calls by the ref. Wow the reefing is bad.
16:20 The Ducks look great on the power play. That McDonald is great.
18:00 Sedins and Naslund look good on the power play but no real great shot on net. Niedermayer, what a skater. Man he’s good.
End of period. A better period for the Canucks but the Ducks were still better.
PERIOD 3:
Ducks power play looks great. This game is over.
7:00 Ducks now put on the 3-forward trap on the Canucks break-out. They’re transitioning to protect the lead creating an opportunity for Vancouver but its likely too late.
8:15 Hmmm, no trap; it’s been abandoned for an aggressive two-man forecheck. Smart.
9:30 ANAHEIM GOAL. Great goal by the young guns with Getzlaf on the end. The forecheck produces a pretty goal. Vigneault wisely pulls Luongo (who is not to fault on any of the goals but should be rested in favour of Sabourin.
Anaheim 4 – Vancouver 1.
19:08 ANAHEIM GOAL. Hat-trick goal for McDonald. Sabourin looked like a sack of potatoes on that goal. Weak, weak.
Anaheim 5 – Vancouver 1.
End of period. No chance for Vancouver if they can’t find discipline, and find a power play. Naslund and Cowan were rare lights in a weak team performance. We definitely need Salo and Bieksa back. And I wouldn’t sit Fitzpatrick, I think its been clear who I’d sit… and I was a Sopel fan prior to the last 10 games of this season.
FINAL SCORE: Anaheim 5 – Vancouver 1.
Giving credit where credit is due, Giguere had a great game in goal for the Ducks. And all-around great game for the Ducks.
Jason awards the Lanny McDonald moustache of the game award to George Parros (6' 5" and 232 pounds; played 3:43 total game time).
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
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2 comments:
I'm loving the blog! It really captures your passion for the Canucks.
I've noticed you're letting Vigneault off the hook in your comments. It appears to me that he hasn't prepared his team to succeed on the difficult road ahead. Sure he had a few hit songs in the Quebec folk scene in the late 60s but what does he know about Hice ockey in the 21st Century?!? There doesn't appear to be enough innovation on strategies that teams hadn't seen in the regular season. Basically the opponents look ready for what the Canucks are bringing over the blue line. Could also relate to a lack of motivation for the guys that actually hold the sticks....
Hehe, well put! I'll be honest, I think the Canucks are playing really well. Except for the power play. They're even playing more disciplined in the past 2 games. They've also out-scored and out-chanced Anaheim. I don't agree with all of Vigneault's moves. Burying Naslund on the 3rd line for about 1/3 of the season I feel was a bad choice. I think they'll win tonight in game 4 and Vigneault will run a good bench. The sign of a well-coached team is one that works very hard (definitely the Canucks), and a great attitude (definitely the Canucks).
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