Never have I seen a game played so well in one end and so terribly in another. Vancouver's goals were produced off of persistent plays, puck control and nifty passing. St Louis just took our turnovers and tucked them in the net. 3 and a half minutes in, a Blues miscue led to a Canucks powerplay for too many men on the ice, and Kesler's first goal of the season. After controlling the puck for most of the powerplay, Henrik shot a pass from the right wing to Daniel, who tipped it right to Kesler. Kesler took it mid stride and buried it blocker side on Allen from one knee. The next 10 minutes showed how equal the 2 teams were, with a whole load of hits and end to end rushes. Around the 13 minute mark, Kassian tried to feed Kesler at his own blue line, but the pass went behind Kesler and was intercepted by Jackman. The puck found it's way to Backes, and he fired it from 30 feet out on the right wing. Luongo couldn't control, the rebound, and found himself stuck like a turtle on his back, watching helplessly as T.J. Oshie buried the rebound.
With only a couple minutes left, Henrik accidently scored his first. Moving in on the net, Henrik dished beside him to Burrows, who gave it right back. The puck went off the heel of Henrik's stick, but was shoved in by Polak. Henrik really didn't want to score on this one. After passing to Burrows, he faded away from the net to let Burrows take the shot. And after the puck found it's was back to him, Henrik had his stick facing Burrows, like he was trying to pass again. But whatever, it's 2-1 Canucks. End of the 1st.
For whatever reason, both sides just erupted in the 2nd, and the refs responded in all the wrong ways. I'm not normally a ref-conspiracy guy, and just let bad calls slide. But this, this was the most 'turn a blind eye' officiating I've ever seen. It started when Backes ran right into Luongo. Lou had been standing as far into his net as he could when Backes nailed him, and the ref was staring right at him. No call. Raymond was tripped as both sides were lining up for a faceoff a few minutes later, and 4 pairs of officiating eyes couldn't be bothered to open. After that, the hit parade fired up. Hamhuis, normally a law abiding player, dumped Stewart in open ice when the puck was nowhere near them. Of course he got a penalty, and I agree with it, but it was just a sign of the Canucks frustrations. On that PK, Hansen went behind the Blues net and rammed the defender into the boards. While the defenceman was trying to get up, Hansen came around the net again, and had his stick held for a few seconds. Didn't end up hurting anyone, and just killed more time off the PK, but should've been called.
Asides from all that, the St. Louis did manage to tie the game up in the 2nd. Again, it came off of a Canuck turnover. Edler tried to find Hansen with a long pass from his own blue line, but Jackman picked it up, carried it into the Canucks zone and gave it to McDonald on the wing. McDonald passed cross ice to Tarasenko whose shot his the post and bounced right back to McDonald. With an empty net, he couldn't miss. Tie game.
Just a few minutes into the third, Volpatti and Reaves dropped the gloves. Reaves got more punches in, but Volpatti took him down in the end. After that, the Canucks in zone offense took off. At one point they had a solid 2 minutes of pressure from a few different lines, with the puck only ever making it a few feet out of the attacking zone. Despite the pressure, it was the Blues who came up with the lead. After coughing the puck up in the attacking zone, the Blues moved unchallenged into the Vancouver zone. Berglund carried the puck over the line, and passed off to Stewart whose shot went wide. Sobotka recovered it unchallenged from behind the net, and shot it from the side. The puck went off Berglund's butt and in. What a failure on Vancouver's part. St Louis moved in to the zone, recovered pucks and dominated the front of the net without so much as a fight from the 5, repeat 5, Canucks players in the zone. All 5 players were in the centre of their zone, pretty much standing still. Thank goodness that was the end of their crappy play for the game.
Vancouver regained it's fire, and continued to press on as the period wore down. Kesler was shoved from behind into the boards twice, which led to a 5 on 3. They were unable to capitalize but got another chance after Ian Cole took a holding call on Henrik with just over 4 minutes left to play. Late in the powerplay, Hamhuis' point shot found the front of the net, and the Blues defender cleared it right to a wide open Raymond. Raymond buried it, tie game with 1:47 left. Off to OT we go.
Again, the Canucks dominated the period. Shots over the 3rd and OT were 19-4 in favor of Vancouver. At one point, Burrows was sprung for a breakaway, but couldn't get the puck high enough on Allen as he attempted his favorite move. Eventually we went off to a shootout. Kesler, Burrows and Raymond were the shooters. but only Kesler and Burrows got a chance. Kesler's first attempt of the season was a shot low blocker side, and it trickled into the corner. Meanwhile, Oshie froze Luongo and snapped it 5-hole. Burrows tried to do the same, but was off by a few inches. McDonald finished the Canucks off, and put Vancouver on a 2 game losing streak going into a tough 4 game road trip.
Tidbits:
- Kassian: Demoted to the 3rd line as the game wore on. Didn't have a shot, was -1, 11:03 ice time . His bad pass led to the Blues first goal. Only 4 shots on goal in last 5 games. Going through Sedin withdrawal? Regardless, he needs to be able to produce without Henrik and Daniel spoon feeding him. Keep in mind he's only 22, and still has quite a bit of developing to do.
- Kesler: 1 goal, 2 shots, -2, 22:49 ice time. So much for slowly letting him back into his role. Needs to redevelop his defensive forward skills with Malhotra gone, reflected in him being on ice for 3 St Louis goals.
- PK: 2/2, did well keeping the puck out of their zone, kept it to the outside when it was in their zone.
- PP: 2/4, both units seem to be much better with Kesler back. Schroeder is more comfortable on 2nd line role, less ice time.
- Luongo: Not his sharpest game of the year, rebound control would've helped a lot, but so would less turnovers.
Next game is Tuesday against Chicago at 5:30.
So with both goalies coming off bad games, who do you start against Chicago? Luongo does well against the Blackhawks in the regular season, and Schneider's been good against them his whole career. I refuse to do another stats sheet to prove this.
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