Shane O'Brien can't keep Jason Spezza's pass from going into the net.
Hopefully Kyle from Babcock’s Death Stare sees the blog title since he’s one of the few people who seems to share my furor with Mikael Samuelsson. It’s the first minute of the game with a goaltender between the pipes making his first start in months. Plus, you’re playing the hottest team in the league outside of perhaps Washington and what does Samuelsson decide to do? You guessed it, take a penalty. Before Raycroft even has the opportunity to feel comfortable in goal, the Senators get a power play and quickly a goal off the tip in from Milan Michalek. Samuelsson also had the balls to bitch to the referee on his way to the box as he always does. It’s a growing annoyance of mine that NHL players, even when taking the most obvious penalty in the history of hockey, will still bitch and moan on their way to the box. Sometimes sucking it up and skating to the box is ok!
Is there seriously anything else to really take out of this game other than the massive letdown by Vancouver? Understandably, the Senators took their pedal off the floor when they built up the 2-0 lead. The Senators played a close and hard fought game the night before in Buffalo and getting the early lead and sitting on it was certainly part of the agenda. The first part probably wasn’t that difficult either when you consider that the Canucks have given up the first goal in nine of the last eleven games.
I thought the decision to start Andrew Raycroft was a big weird. According to Jason Botchford of “The Province”, the Canucks made the decision to go with Raycroft after the game in Montreal. I’ll admit that Luongo has been a little bit off is game lately and perhaps fatigue has started to set in a little bit but in a game against a team that has won ten in a row you have to go with your number one guy. Additionally, starting Raycroft against his former team in Boston for a morning game might have made more sense. I probably don’t have to mention when Luongo injured himself last season in Pittsburgh because his routine was thrown off by the early start. Either way, Raycroft was not the reason the Canucks lost the game.
Shane O’Brien made some insanely strange plays as well tonight. I can’t wait for him to go back to being the number five or six guy, he’s really not cut out to be a top four. Not that were didn’t already know that but it’s horrible at times right now. The moment that really sticks out is when he tried to go backwards with a pass after the Canucks had been running around their own zone for at least a minute. For the love of god man, just get those pucks out. The Canucks were getting away with having a less skilled defense at home where Vigneault could work the match-ups, but I think that we’re starting to see the opponents match their best players against defenders that can’t handle them. Christan Ehrhoff has had a few problems on the penalty kill and playing against the other team’s top line so hopefully he can get back to how he was playing ten games or so ago. In hindsight I’m starting to believe that his plus-minus was inflated because he didn’t always have to play against the best. However, he is still the best the Canucks have right now.
Brian Elliott was beaten only by Kyle Wellwood
Somehow, the Canucks managed to outshoot Ottawa 30-20 and 27-9 after the first period. It really didn’t seem like the Canucks had 16 shots in the third period but apparently they did. Other than the breakaway save off Steve Bernier in the dying seconds of the second period I can’t think of a time where Elliott had to make a great save. Far too many shots from Vancouver came with no traffic in net or were shot right at the goaltender. Sometimes that just means that the opponent’s goalie is on his game as far as rebounds and angles go, but the Canucks really didn’t challenge Elliott much in my opinion.
What is most troubling about the offensive effort is that Daniel and Henrik were pretty much ineffective for the entire night. I don’t think they got the cycle going at all and even resorted to taking slapshots from the top of the circle with no traffic a number of times. Definitely not a game to remember for the top line. Ryan Kesler was also invisible for most of the night. For a guy that wants to be paid in the five million a year range, he has to find a way to get it going more often on the road. That might be was separating him from being a great player in the league right now.
What to expect Saturday? I’m not really sure at the moment. It seems like the Canucks have rekindled the problems that they were having earlier in the year. Luckily for them, Boston isn’t the greatest team in the league this year, let alone home team. They lost in a shootout to Montreal tonight. Tim Thomas did have a shutout over the Canucks the last time they played so we can expect Thomas to play opposite Luongo – a possible Olympic matchup as well. The Canucks need to find a way to get things going because there is still eleven games left on this road trip.
