Canucks Drop 4-3 Shootout Decision to Red Wings

Leigh Ramsden lives in Vancouver and is an avid Canucks fan, having been a partial season ticket holder for over 10 years. He's old enough to have witnessed all three Stanley Cup losses, as such, his prime goal is to remove those scars by seeing a Cup brought to Vancouver. Leigh is Fighting For Stanley's (www.fightingforstanley.ca/vancouver) west coast correspondent, and will also blog after all Canuck games for The Nelson Daily.

The Vancouver Canucks came into Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings trailing the conference leaders by three points; a win could have brought them within a point, with a game in hand.   However, this fact didn’t motivate them sufficiently, as they dropped a point to the Red Wings with a 4-3 loss by way of shootout.

The Canucks did not continue their strong starts tonight, as Detroit was the better team out of the gate.  They were rewarded at 5:27 of the first as Danny Cleary scored a nice goal on a screened Canuck goaltender, Roberto Luongo. 

While being badly outplayed, the Canucks tied the game with less than five minutes left in the first on a Ryan Kesler goal off a rebound, after a nice play out of the corner by David Booth.  Overall, Detroit dominated the first period, outshooting Vancouver 15-8.

The second period wasn’t much better for the home side.  Jiri Hudler scored at 13:51 of the middle frame for the Red Wings, converting a nice pass after some poor back checking by the third line.  If the first period was a bad one for the Canucks, the second was even worse, as they were outshot 15-3 by the Red Wings.

The Canucks decided to come out for the game in the third period.  Coach Alain Vigneault juggled his lines incessantly, and a good shift by Burrows, Lapierre, and Hansen resulted in a turnover and a goal by Burrows.  The euphoria in the rink was short lived, however, as Drew Miller took advantage of some sloppy work in the defensive zone by the Canucks, and got a rebound past Luongo just less than two mintues later to put the Wings back in front. 

Much-maligned Mason Raymond tied the game again for the Canucks, however, getting a shot past Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard with just less than five minutes left in regulation.  The teams were not able to solve anything in overtime, and the game was won in the shootout by Detroit, who had goals from Pavel Datsyuk and Hudler while the Canucks were unable to score.

Not enough can be said about Luongo tonight.  He was awesome all night, continually making save after save, while keeping the Canucks in the game.  For as much flack as he takes in this market, it’s impressive that he can go out and just play his game at as high of a level as he displayed tonight. 

The Canucks were outshot 30-11 in the first two periods alone, and Luongo made many high quality saves during that time.  Vancouver was very luck to be only down one goal at any point in this game – if Detroit had buried any more of their chances, it could have gotten badly out of hand, very early. 

Luongo, and only Luongo, kept the Canucks in this game.  The rest of the team basically didn’t show up for the first 40 minutes.

TOO MANY OFF NIGHTS

It’s almost not even worth discussing the specifics of tonight’s game – the bottom line is that Detroit was, by far, the better team on the ice.  The Canucks have often stated that they are attempting model the franchise after the Red Wings – a fast, skilled team that can score, can cause some damage on the power play, and doesn’t play a prototypically “rough” style of game. 

Well tonight, the “master” showed its understudy how it was done, as this was as dominant a performance that you will likely see.  Detroit played keep away with the puck, possessing it for far longer than did the Canucks.

More concerning, however, is the fact that the current trend that the Canucks are in is not very good, at all.  Tonight was the sixth time in the last eight games that Vancouver has had to take the game into overtime or a shootout – they just seem unable to put a team away in regulation. 

Of course, many of these games have been substandard outings by the Canucks, and therefore, they should feel lucky that they have been able to take a point (or sometimes even two) in regulation.  However, overall, their efforts just haven’t been good enough on a consistent enough basis. 

It’s difficult to point the finger at any one facet of the team, it seems that every night there’s a different problem, or they just aren’t good enough to defeat the opposition.  They are really having trouble getting everyone to put their best game on the ice at the same time.

Basically nobody played well tonight.  The Sedin line was again ineffective.  The “second” line was again Vancouver’s best, although Chris Higgins was a late scratch and sat out the game, which meant Raymond was moved up (the ripple effect of this was that Andrew Alberts suited up in a fourth line role, never a good thing).  The third and fourth lines were hardly noticeable.

Overall, it just feels like the Canucks are missing something that they had last year.  In some ways, this year’s team is better than last year’s – but in many others, the current Canucks team lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.

ON THE OTHER HAND….

The Canucks have to be given credit for sticking with it.  This was a game that, at times, appeared hopeless – although they were only down a goal, they were being outplayed so badly that the cause appeared hopeless. 

They should be given full marks for coming back three times in this game, and twice in the third period, to tie the game up and get themselves a point.  My belief is that it’s extremely important to avoid regulation losses, and tonight, the Canucks were again able to do just that, as unlikely as it was.

It’s easy to think of this and let the team off.  It’s one thing to be struggling and to get points, that is the sign of a good team.  However, it’s completely another thing when the team struggles for long stretches at a time – because in the playoffs, a sustained slump means you’re gone.

OFFICIATING

The officiating was again very poor.  While in general the Canucks did very little tonight to draw any penalties, there were a number of missed calls both ways that may have changed the course of the game.  I watched the game in the arena tonight so was without the benefit of instant replay, so my impressions may be incorrect.  That said, I can remember a half dozen missed calls that could have resulted in penalties being called.

One thing I’ve noticed this season, and it seems more prevalent recently, is that the referees are not calling interference to the same standard that has been applied in recent years. 

Immediately after the lockout, if a forward chipped the puck past a defenseman and the defenseman held him up at all, it was two mintues.  That is a call you never see anymore.  Tonight, there were a number of plays like this, or worse, where the officials did not make the call.

I suspect that with all the focus on head injuries, the league has decided to allow the defensemen to hold up the attacking forwards more than in recent years. 

I can tell you this – this subtle change has made a big change in the game being played on the ice, and if the league wonders why scoring continues to go down, they can look first at the lack of obstruction calls on the ice. 

That said, it is what it is – it’s just an observation more than anything.

PARTING SHOTS

Checking in on the Standings:  With their point, the Canucks remain in second place in the Western conference with 67 points – four back of Detroit for the conference lead.  San Jose, Chicago, St. Louis, and Chicago are all within three points (San Jose and St. Louis have two games in hand, while the Canucks have one game in hand on Chicago and St. Louis.

The quality of Vancouver’s record improved in the past few weeks as other teams around them have had some regulation losses.  The Canucks have 15 in this all-important stat, only San Jose and St. Louis have fewer. 

While Vancouver’s 6-2-2 in their last 10 games, they have been able to keep pace with the other teams around them, all while not playing their best hockey.

In-Arena Observation of the Day:  As bad as the game was tonight, the crowd had a little more electricity to it than in other games I’ve been to this year.  I’m sure the fact that the conference leaders were in town had something to do with it.

I’m always amused at how many Red Wing fans there are in the rink.  I know they are an Original Six team, but I doubt that many of our fathers and grandfathers were Wings fans growing up (unlike Toronto and Montreal).  There are never as many Blackhawk or Ranger fans in the rink. 

I’ve said for years that’s very easy to be a Wings fan – four Stanley Cups, haven’t missed the playoffs for 20 years (or whatever the stat is), team full of classy players such as Yzerman and Lidstrom.  I just find it amusing there are so many who have jumped on this bandwagon – I’m sure not all of them were cheering on the Wings in the 80’s when the franchise was an embarrassment.

Looking ahead: The Canucks take to the road to battle the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Saturday afternoon.