Post-Game Talk: Game #25: Blackhawks 2, Canucks 1 - Six goals? Nah, one goal will do fine...

[Orca Smash]

Tortorella post game:

We beat ourselves and teams like Chicago will capitalize on that.

We did a lot of good things but we beat ourselves.

Played a good hockey game other than beating ourselves in those few seconds.

Responded well after getting behind, chance after chance but could not score. 7 or 8 chances to tie it up.

You cannot play mistake free hockey - it is a game of mistakes. And both teams made a lot of mistakes tonight.

Benched Kassian based on his play tonight.

Good synopsis, just to add he admitted hes getting tired of talking about all the chances the team is getting. And then i think patterson also asked if you can coach better offense out of this group and he said hes trying to bang away at it.

 

[polarbearcub]

Kassian deserved to be benched. He was garbage.

What Happebed to him using his size or hitting anyone?

 

[Grumbler]

Lu's SAVE PERCENTAGE IS .914 THIS YEAR NOT .931... Stop skewing the number.

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

God the chicken littles on this board. I have to remember that a bunch of you only became fans/matured as fans watching one of the best teams in NHL history (2011) and are disappointed by everything else. Sigh.

That's not completely fair; I grew up watching the Alex Mogilny and Mark Messier Canucks. I know what a crappy team is like. It's just depressing watching this roster slowly decline from its heyday. I agree that that 2011 team was one of the best we will ever see, and every season since then we've just been a little bit worse than the year before. We are aging, and that's what made the Schneider trade such a gut bunch. Luongo is not the player he was; the Sedins are not the players they were, Burrows, Kesler, etc. It's depressing to watch.

The only young forward we have is Kassian, and he got stapled to the bench today because (I assume) Torts was finally sick of his bone-headed play. It's depressing watching us slowly decline into the crap team that we are probably going to be in a few years, unless our drafting and development really turns us around really fast.

And this isn't a "chicken little," I've been saying the same thing for awhile now.

 

[luongo321]

Canucks played well tonight. We simply dont have the talent to compete with good teams anymore. Hawks looked disorganized and lazy. They turned up their game, scored 2 goals and thats it.

Its been 3 years since we were able to take 55 min off a game and still win.

... and that's without Hossa who is possibly the best offensive player on either team outside of Kane.

 

[bsjezz]

tortorella shortening the bench i think was a bad move. yes, kassian looked awful and had horrible giveaways. he usually does, but he also usually makes up for it in the other end. the top 6 were hammered in this game: i don't see how they can be expected to bring urgency on every shift when they're played so often. get kassian in there for the odd shift and you've got a better chance of breaking through the hawks' defence structure. you've got depth for a reason.

 

[Hammer79]

Isn't it awesome how the Luongo vs Schneider civil war in the fan base continues even after Schneider is gone? I just love having this argument after every loss and even every goal against.

Luongo shouldn't have to be Dallas series 2007 Lu for us to make a playoff spot. Is Luongo blameless on every goal scored against him this season? Obviously not, he's let some in that he should have. Is he the problem? Only a few posters think that, I think we know what the real problems are with this team.

 

[John Bender*]

Reimer that elite goaltender who is a backup.

Thanks for summing up the people who blame Luongo on this board. Clueless.

Reimer is no backup right now. He's been lights out. He played at an elite level tonight.

 

[Vankiller Whale]

There are a million better ways to describe our offense than "lethargic". As for Luongo, he's been average. He can keep us in games but he can't win games for us anymore unless we score 3+ goals. Letting in 2 or more goals 90% of the time is not good enough in today's game.

Every aspect of the team needs to improve, goaltending is no exception.

Saying "2 goals or more" when he's been consistently allowing 2 goals is misleading. The team is still undefeated outside of shootouts when scoring more than a single goal.

Luongo has to improve, certainly. But there are plenty of teams - including the Blackhawks - who would love to have almost a guaranteed win when scoring more than one goal. Our goaltending is certainly good enough for us to be a top team, if we could score at the same rate as the better teams in the league.

 

[Grumbler]

The sad part is Chicago didn't even try this game until that opening 5 minute mark of the 3rd period. Its how sad we are.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

2007 Lu put up a 2.28GAA .921SVP. November 2013 Lu has put up a 2.07GAA .921SVP. In this month alone he's arguably been better than 2007 Lu, yet the team can't win because our offense sucks. It's quite a simple issue, yet people for some reason would rather blame the goalie when our offense scores 1 goal in 6 of 7 games.

Wow, this is the worst post I have ever seen. You either weren't watching in 2007 or don't understand hockey.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. 2007 Luongo was the best goaltending I have ever seen (for an entire season) other than Hasek's Hart Trophy years. He was unbelievable and probably should have won the Hart if Crosby hadn't gotten 120 points.

This year's Luongo isn't in the same stratosphere. I mean literally, he is AHL quality compared to that level of goaltending. That team in 2007 had no business being in the playoffs. He single handedly got us there.
Now, he's a passenger. As the team goes, so goes Luongo. Except for when he let's us down in big moments.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Well no, but we live in a salary capped NHL. A lot of our resources are tied up in goaltending, which is why we try to win these tight, low-scoring games. It's how our roster is designed, around elite goaltending and timely goals. We're not like Chicago, who is only giving Crawford 2.5M and so they can have Kane, Sharp, Toews, Hossa, Keith, etc.

What's hilarious about this is that there are 14 other teams that spend MORE on their goaltending than we do. Do they all have to win games 1-0 too? Because surely you aren't including 2-1 games as part of that since that would invalidate your complaints about Luongo as he has not lost a game in regulation when the offense has scored 2 or more goals.

 

[Intangibos]

Reimer is no backup right now. He's been lights out. He played at an elite level tonight.

Maybe you should take over coaching Toronto, since they seem to be playing Bernier more this year.

 

[StringerBell]

This was the 6th game in a row where we gave up two goals or less. We're 1-3-2 in that span.

I must have missed the games where we gave up less. Like I've said, our goaltending has been keeping us in games but it hasn't been winning games. We need our offense to win us more games but we also need our goaltending to win us some 2-1 or 1-0 games too.

 

[luongo321]

Isn't it awesome how the Luongo vs Schneider civil war in the fan base continues even after Schneider is gone? I just love having this argument after every loss and even every goal against.

Luongo shouldn't have to be Dallas series 2007 Lu for us to make a playoff spot. Is Luongo blameless on every goal scored against him this season? Obviously not, he's let some in that he should have. Is he the problem? Only a few posters think that, I think we know what the real problems are with this team.

Glad we're on the same page.

FIRE DJDAVE!

 

[y2kcanucks]

Wow, this is the worst post I have ever seen. You either weren't watching in 2007 or don't understand hockey.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. 2007 Luongo was the best goaltending I have ever seen (for an entire season) other than Hasek's Hart Trophy years. He was unbelievable and probably should have won the Hart if Crosby hadn't gotten 120 points.

This year's Luongo isn't in the same stratosphere. I mean literally, he is AHL quality compared to that level of goaltending. That team in 2007 had no business being in the playoffs. He single handedly got us there.
Now, he's a passenger. As the team goes, so goes Luongo. Except for when he let's us down in big moments.

2013 Luongo looks great if the offense could score more than 1 goal in a game and he racked up a few more wins.

 

[Orca Smash]

Funny thing is they still lose.

Maybe the problem isnt guys like Booth or Kassian.

Maybe Torts will get it one day.

And if they loose with both and kassian in the line up as well which they have, what then?

Kassian was playing brutal to start the game he deserved to be benched this evening.

Just because your loosing does not mean you reward guys with ice time.

 

[Basso]

We can't find ways to get OT points in games like this we won't make the playoffs. Looking real grim right now guys.

 

[Vankiller Whale]

Changed it based on what I saw

Well obviously I disagree, and you conveniently left out the 2nd time we played Niemi where he got pulled.

 

[John Bender*]

Maybe you should take over coaching Toronto, since they seem to be playing Bernier more this year.

LOL, right over your head bud.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Lu's SAVE PERCENTAGE IS .914 THIS YEAR NOT .931... Stop skewing the number.

No one is skewing the numbers. He put up a .931 SVP tonight yet people are still complaining. Funny how when the stats look good for him all of a sudden the stats don't matter, but when they look bad then that's all they count.

When watching the games, tonight in particular, he played well. Let in a bad goal by my judgement, but these things happen. You can't expect to win every game 1-0, and that's exactly what the Canucks needed Luongo to do in 6 of the last 7 games.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

And if they loose with both in the line up which they have, what then?

Kassian was playing brutal to start the game he deserved to be benched this evening.

Ding ding ding. Tells you its not them thats the problem.

I have no issues with benching a player that deserves. I do have a problem with benching one player when he deserves it and not another when they deserve it.

 

[WinterEmpire]

One would think with a heavy focus on possession. Their excellent board play and aggressive forecheck they would be scoring more goals.

Not if they don't have players who can finish

Daniel Sedin isn't the goal scorer he once was
Henrik never was
Burrows is what everyone thought he was, a product of the Sedins goal scoring wise
Kesler is up and down

Santa Claus, Higgins, and Hansen mostly rely on hard work to score goals, they don't have a lot of natural skill.

If Kassian could get his head out of his ass and learn to play without the puck he might be a decent fit in the top six since he has a natural ability to score goals imo

Torts has this team playing the right way put they just don't have goal scorers

 

[Bleach Clean]

One would think with a heavy focus on possession. Their excellent board play and aggressive forecheck they would be scoring more goals.

How many goals does LA score?

Their scoring should be more consistent than it has been, because of the higher shot rates, but conversion rates have not been there over this span. That should normalize over time. But throughout, their scoring chance against rate has been pretty good. It's only Luongo's play heading inthe other direction that has limited their ability to win on either end.

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

And if they loose with both and kassian in the line up as well which they have, what then?

Kassian was playing brutal to start the game he deserved to be benched this evening.

Just because your loosing does not mean you reward guys with ice time.

He does seem to have a bit of a fetish for finding one guy to bench every game; it doesn't seem to solve anything, frankly.