Fifteen shots on net.

FTW.

Oh, and I won a Canucks duffel bag at the tweetup. Yay, me.

They had a game plan and surprisingly executed it. It may have been one of the most boring Canucks games in recent memory but at least they pulled out a win.

It is concerning, however, that in the final period they made absolutely no attempt to generate any kind of offense. Even in OT they basically sat back and played defense. They will need a much better effort against the Ducks if they want another two points.
 
Credit goes to Samuelsson, Ehrhoff, and Raycroft who were the three best Canucks on the night.

I don’t see any reason why Raycroft doesn’t get the start against the Ducks. He looked very good and was a key reason the Nucks even made it to Overtime.

Sounds like an ugly win that I’m not going to be upset about missing. Glad to hear Ripper and Salo made it through the game in one piece, although I hear Bolduc’s shoulder is injured. He only played four and a half minutes.

Also, I’m curious as to how Rome played, because he had almost 17 minutes on ice, which is interesting because Bolduc, Glass, Rypien, and especially Shirokov all had less ice time.

It’s also quite odd to look at the d-men icetime:
Mitchell: 27:07, Bieksa: 24:44, Erhoff: 22:58, Salo: 22:25, Schneider: 16:15, Edler: 15:53
Guess who’s put himself in the doghouse and getting less ice time than someone 17 years his senior. I feel like it’s rare for AV to give someone as many minutes as Mitchell got tonight, although it is only one game after all.

Further hitting the boxscore, the same forward line was on for both goals, while Edler and Erhoff were +1 and Bieksa and Schneider were -1. While Bieksa got an off-setting unsportsmanlike penalty, the 3 others were hookings by Shirokov, Edler (See a pattern here?) and Samuelson. At what point can you stare these guys in the eyes and say, “Move your goddamn feet.”? At least the two King penalties (Not including O’Donnell’s) were holding the stick calls, which is a stupid play to make as well. As well, the only Canucks with more than one shot were Kesler (3) and Samuelson (2), while 6 including Raymond, Grabner, Burrows, and Shirkov couldn’t put it on net. And lastly, I’m glad Raycroft stopped a few nights. While he’s started only this game, according to his stats he has almost 120 minutes in our last 13 games, which is a good amount of time when you’re playing behind Luongo.

Anyway, this has been fun. I almost feel like I’ve watched the game. And here’s a final question for you guys: Who do you think will return first, Dank or Roberto?

…a win is always a beautiful thing. Always. I do not believe in the concept of an ugly win.

Well my hat tastes pretty good. Maybe I was too harsh on Raycroft.

I was at the game and fully agree that the Canucks were very lucky to get that win.
They were fully out play for most fo the game, especially the 1st and 3rd. Not a fun game to watch as a Canuck fan.

However, it was a blast of a game to be at. I have never seen so many Canucks fans in one place outside of Vancouver. Canucks Blue was everywhere – had to be 1500 plus in attendance, whooping it up. Then everyone headed next door for the Tragically Hip concert. Gord is becoming more and more of a condecending A-Hole in his old age but I still love their music.

All in all it was a great night!

Now for the Ducks game!

I didn’t watch the game, but I’m looking at those toi stats, and 16 min for edler while 17 min for Rome makes me wonder, did Rome take some shifts on D?

And yay we won!

http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=2009020171

“It was a nice, greasy win. I’ll take them all year,” said Raycroft, who has struggled after winning the Calder Trophy with Boston in 2003-04. “It’s nice to win on the road. We did a great job keeping their top line off the scoresheet — no time, no space.”

Mojo…far be it from me to argue with someone that was there…but on TV it looked like the Kings had an edge in play, definitely.

It also looked like the Canucks kept most of it to the outside and played a solid defensive game…the Kings shots were mainly from the post and the edge. This one reminded me of a game against the Leafs last year at home, where they were badly outshot and Leaf fans were bemoaning “except for Luongo”…It looked the same here. He only had a half dozen really tough saves, but Raycroft handled those point and side board shots well.

Gordie was a dick huh?

He must have acknowledged all the Blue and Green in the crowd though, right?

Sean…think you are giving the boys too much stick though.

Sure, the Kings outplayed them…they HAVE their top guys in the line up.

Like I said above Sean, this on ereminded me of the game agains tthe Leafs last eyar, where every Leaf fan was bemoaning that they had all those shots.

How many from the slot? Last night?

Exactly. The goalie SHOULD make the save most of the time from the point and boards. The only goal that beat him last night was from the slot. It was on e of the few times the boys let someone into the expensive real estate all night!

Salo in lineup = Canucks win

The Canucks always try to “hang-on” to that one goal advantage, even if they score it in the first period. This game was even more ridiculous because they were holding on to a tie. It worked out for them this time, but it always seems like they react to an opposing goal instead of adding their own first. I’d love to see them win some 5-2 games instead of letting the other team back in it in the Detroit game.

I understand they have a depleted lineup due to injury, but it seems like they play the same game when they are injury free. No killer instinct until the last 5 minutes when they are losing.

Jesus Christ Guys!

We are down 8-9 players, and you want them to play like the friggen Capitals?

There was nothing wrong with the system last night. AV is coaching the way he has to to give the team the bast chance to win.

They weren’t playing “perfect defense” last night anyhow. They made rushes and got chances when they could. They just didn’t send the 2nd guy in on the forecheck as much as they have been doing.

I loved it. I can think of maybe a couple shots besides the LA goal where Kings players had a clear shot from the slot.

I am in disagreement with the folks complaining about AV. He is coaching the way he has to with the manpower he has right now.

Maybe once Burrows remembers how to put it in the net like he did at the end of last season, we won’t leave it all up to Samuelson and Grabner. Maybe i’m just in a critical mood today ;)

It’s all about finding the right balance. I don;t want the Canucks to be willy-nilly stupid about gong to the attack, far from it, but they can’t just be a “batten down the hatches” team, either. All that happens is that the other team spends most of the 3rd period in our end. Let ‘em cycle it there long enough, they’ll get chances. Give ‘em enough chances, they’ll score goals.

The way we’re going, other than stealing a few “greasy” games over the year, we either fall behind and can’t catch up in time, or we get the lead, switch to a cautious 1-2-2, and cling to life, or not, precariously for the rest of the game. We don’t outright win so much as we merely time our last goal fortuitously.

OK, I know it’s not quite as cut-and-dried as I make it sound, but it does trend too much in that direction. Who here feels confident when the Canucks take a 1 goal lead into the 3rd, even w/a healthy team?

Who here feels confident when the Canucks take a 1 goal lead into the 3rd, even w/a healthy team?

Right before Lou announced the rib injury, I was confident when Roberto was playing his heart out.

I have noticed a susicious lack of Leaf posters “the morning after”.

Curious.