Post-Game Talk: Game #24: Canucks 6, Jackets 2 - 6 goals? That's enough goals for 6 games!

[JumpierPegasus]

As long as we're piling on, his "great goal" is probably stopped 95% of the time.

 

[Addison Rae]

Told you guys I was good luck.

 

[shottasasa]

-This could've been a very ugly game for Luongo. No blame on him for the first goal, but the second one was flat out poor rebound control. Garrison was actually in a decent position to contain Anisimov, but that's how bad the rebound was. Atkinson and Jenner also missed wide-open nets, granted by nothing other than the trademark belly-flop. I'll say this though - Marchand shorthanded goal aside, his technique seems to make shooters inexplicably miss the net or shoot it right into him.

Where we're you expecting to put that rebound? He was facing the shooter on the left wing, he has to make the save there with his pad and tries to put the rebound to the side rather than kick it directly up the middle or back to the left wing. It would have been almost impossible for him to put the puck in the corner from the angle it was shot at him from. Garrison needs to have his man there.

 

[biturbo19]

Where we're you expecting to put that rebound? He was facing the shooter on the left wing, he has to make the save there with his pad and tries to put the rebound to the side rather than kick it directly up the middle or back to the left wing. It would have been almost impossible for him to put the puck in the corner from the angle it was shot at him from. Garrison needs to have his man there.

I think it's a little bit of both.

That certainly wasn't ideal rebound placement by Lou.

But Garrison did get all kinds of turned around and puck watching there, and didn't have his man tied up even remotely. And that's just one of those short area situations where Garrison's relative lack of agility and lateral mobility on skates is going to burn him.

 

[Edo]

A few more years of this from Kassian and him giving us even 2 years of prime Bert, would be worth it. Totally.

It's a real shame that Bertuzzi's prime was so short.

 

[The Stig]

Was it against a beat up CBJ? Yes. Is the monkey off our backs? No. But damn did we need a game like that.

 

[RandV]

Stanton deserves some blame for that goal also, he made an aggressive pinch and got caught up ice, Kassian made the right play by covering for him and then for whatever reason tried to stand the guy up at the blue line instead of holding him to the outside.

One of the post game guys on Sportsnet made a good point about it, that Kassian was likely thinking 'I'm not going to be able to skate defensively with this guy so I'll risk trying to take him out now'.

And personally I can sympathize, as in my own beer league play I've gone from always playing the wing to being put back on defense this season. I've mostly got the hang of it except in the position where you'd turn and face the forward on a rush, never realized how freakin hard that is

Point is though, maybe that was Kassian realizing his own deficiencies and making the call to throw a check.

 

[LiquidSnake]

Luongo looks terrible in the net right now..

Just wait until tomorrow's game.

 

[vanuck]

We can't afford blunders like Kassian on the first goal or blown coverages like Garrison on the 2nd goal if we want to beat Chicago and LA. It's nice to light it up against a struggling goalie and a team with injuries.

Who are the real Canucks though? The team that went on a 5-1-1 road trip and gutted out a win on a back-to-back vs a well rested Blues team? Are they the offensively challenged and defensively blundering team we saw for the past 5 games? What's this team's identity?

I'm a bit surprised how far Columbus has fallen. I had them picked as a wild card team before the season started.

I don't know about that. The team was generally still playing well defensively and not giving up many chances. The Florida game was just an anomaly where they look their opponent lightly but other than that their level of play has stayed largely the same throughout this stretch. Just that puck luck finally broke right this game.

-I have no idea how Burrows is 0-3-3 in 12 games. He literally does EVERYTHING right - he wins battles, he protects the puck, he cycles it to his teammates, he sets his linemates from behind the net, he shakes opposing defensemen loose and finds room to shoot, he mucks it up in the crease. I'm not worried about his stat line, the goals will come.

Completely agreed. He's been playing far too well for it not to come sooner or later.

 

[HiggsBroson]

Had to work OT tonight. I taped the game and hate to know the final score ahead of time but curiosity won me over. How did Chiggs look?

 

[vanuck]

95.1%, statistically speaking.

doesn't mean it wasn't a great shot. he kinda faked out goalie bob by deferring attention to the defender and never telegraphing it. he also got enough heat on that it was able to trickle through despite the glove hand. loved it.

As an aside, anyone notice how Sportsnet has been mentioning things like advanced stats and Corsi lately? They brought up Canucks Army in the pre-game too. Strange times indeed.

 

[huntison]

Had to work OT tonight. I taped the game and hate to know the final score ahead of time but curiosity won me over. How did Chiggs look?

He looked good my friend. Making good passes. He played with Henrik and Hansen to start then played with santo and burrows on the second line. Always a great effort from Higgins. I've always been a fan.

 

[Hansen]

Can we just talk about this please?

That's an awesome Haida Hat! Love seeing that on there, now we just need the PR guy to inform them about what it is.

 

[bsjezz]

As an aside, anyone notice how Sportsnet has been mentioning things like advanced stats and Corsi lately? They brought up Canucks Army in the pre-game too. Strange times indeed.

i loved when garrett quipped a few games back that the sabres are the best 'corsi' team because jim corsi's their goaltending coach...

yes. that is exactly how the stat works.

 

[Hammer79]

I don't know about that. The team was generally still playing well defensively and not giving up many chances. The Florida game was just an anomaly where they look their opponent lightly but other than that their level of play has stayed largely the same throughout this stretch. Just that puck luck finally broke right this game.

Oh yes on the offensive side of the puck they have been consistent despite not getting the results. They have been piling on a tonne of shots and have been fairly unlucky to not get a handful more goals. On the defensive side though I've seen a lot of missed assignments. D-men losing track of their checks, leaving guys alone in the slot or up front on the doorstep, sloppy turnovers by the forwards and D in the midst of controlling the play leading to against the flow of play goals against.

I think that this game's breakout was down to a few factors. They were down Dubinsky and Wisniewski. Bobrovsky is having a rough season and was really off tonight. Columbus tried to play a defensive road game and it unraveled in the 2nd to a hungry Canucks team.

 

[ohnoeszz]

Oh yes on the offensive side of the puck they have been consistent despite not getting the results. They have been piling on a tonne of shots and have been fairly unlucky to not get a handful more goals. On the defensive side though I've seen a lot of missed assignments. D-men losing track of their checks, leaving guys alone in the slot or up front on the doorstep, sloppy turnovers by the forwards and D in the midst of controlling the play leading to against the flow of play goals against.

I think that this game's breakout was down to a few factors. They were down Dubinsky and Wisniewski. Bobrovsky is having a rough season and was really off tonight. Columbus tried to play a defensive road game and it unraveled in the 2nd to a hungry Canucks team.

Over the past few games we experimented a bit with the system and using the stretch pass breakout to try and get some easy chances and spark the offense. It was leaving the D without options a lot of the time and we weren't really generating anything special offensively because of it. I think that can account for some of the sloppiness in our own end.

Thankfully we abandoned that strategy (though I found it refreshing to have a coach so willing to change his system).

 

[yoss]

Had to work OT tonight. I taped the game and hate to know the final score ahead of time but curiosity won me over. How did Chiggs look?

Pretty solid, picked up an assist if I'm not mistaken.

Agree with the poster who said Burrows is playing great and doing everything but scoring. I'm not worried about him either. Has 2 or 3 posts, lot of good chances and I like his energy and pace out there.

 

[Bure All Day]

Some greasy goals tonight, but nice to know we can actually score 6.... even if it's against the blue jackets.

Canucks usually bring their level up against better teams so tmrw is a possible win if they keep this up

Prove me wrong Canucks, show me your a Cup contending team tmrw

 

[Bure All Day]

That was lots of fun I hope it carries over to tomorrow night. About time we got some bounces.

Bounces don't win you a Stanley Cup

At least that's what history says

 

[StIllmatic]

Had to work OT tonight. I taped the game and hate to know the final score ahead of time but curiosity won me over. How did Chiggs look?

He was solid. Nothing special, just the usual solid Higgins sort of night. Made a nice pass back to Edler on his goal as well.

 

[Bure All Day]

this meme fails, the pic needs to be when he;s smiling really creepily

#getheadlikeablowdry

 

[StIllmatic]

I would recommend Torterella's post game interview if anyone hasn't seen it yet. He had a pretty funny jab at the refs in there.

 

[orcatown]

chances and tonight we got the bounces. Still you got to give the team credit for finally converting the chances they did have and in killing of the penalties.

The Good

Sedins - a game they clearly took over. Far and away the best players in the game. Their shifts kept turning the game back in our favour.

Luongo - Looked very focused and was critical in killing off some of the penalties. Goal tending is just not an issue with this team.

Burrrows - seems to be getting his game back. Biggest factor in allowing the second line to have a decent game tonight

Edler - great shot on the goal and played well in his own. Seemed to play it a lot stronger along the boards and was much more physical. When he plays like this he starts approaching the ceiling people expected of him.

The Bad

Kassain - ok he scored a goal but his positional play was dreadful at times. Gets caught flat-footed so often in the neutral zone. You wonder if he has ever been adequately coached how to backcheck. Often does not come back with his man and instead stops up and allows the play to be moved around him. Just about every time he was on the ice there were dangerous chances against the team. (just wanted to cover your eyes at times) His decision making is horrible right now.

Kesler - to me, he meandered through another game and looked awkward on the chances he did have. Rarely see much intensity and he is more or less a spectator on the PP. Lack of quickness is worrying

Weise - same as always. Skates around and does little. So little ability to read the play or respond to the situation. Looked like Welch had some room at times but then Weise would blindly skate into the situation and jam up any lanes. To me, shows very little hockey IQ. Archibald IMO is a much better and much smarter player.

Other points

Sedin's comment that they played just as well in other games recently is totally accurate. Tonight things broke the Canucks way whereas recently they have not.

Reffing was, per usual, bad. Some calls seemed absolutely situational (like what was the score or what was the time left) and again there was little consistency in the calls. The incompetency of NHL officiating remains staggering.

 

[YouCantYandleThis*]

Luongo looks terrible in the net right now..

Not his best game but this is an overstatement.

The guy's playing average to above average most games, and we definitely need him to be better.

 

[Johnny Canucker]

2 goals on 16 shots, letting first shot on net in......



Not good enough , luckily we were playing Columbus.