Canucks Finally Move Into Top 8 In West With 4-1 Victory Over Predators
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 12:40 AM PST
in Game Review
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Oh my. For the first time this season (I believe) we can finally say that the Canucks hold a playoff spot (image on left from Yahoo Sports). It may not last more than 20 hours, as both Detroit and Dallas (who are both 1 point behind Vancouver) play Wednesday night. A win for either team bumps us out again. But hey! Let's enjoy this while it lasts!
What a game. That was a tenacious, aggressive and consistent effort from the Canucks. It was almost predictable, considering how they play against red-hot teams. They killed Nashville's winning streak with style, out-shooting the Preds 36-21, and not being out-shot in any period. Hell, their 2nd period was fantastic, out-shooting Nashville 14-7, killing 2 penalties (and having no powerplays) and out-scoring the pesky Preds 2-0.
The Sedins had only 1 point combined in the previous 2 Canucks games. They combined for 6 points tonight and stole the show.
A few whack stats after the jump:
-Christian Ehrhoff was a -1 with no points and 5 shots.
-The much-scrutinized Kevin Bieksa still played less minutes (18:46), had 1 assist and was an even zero. Somebody mentioned in the game thread that he had not heard much from Bieksa tonight and that was probably a good thing. I guess so.
-Willie Mitchell and Sami Salo each finished a +3 on the night.
-Jason Arnott, Martin Erat and Steve Sullivan were no match for our top line. They each finished -3. Erat had a hat trick to obliterate the Canucks a couple weeks back, but had zero points and 1 shot tonight. It's OK to laugh at that.
-That was one of the best games I've seen Kyle Wellwood play all year. He's gotta shoot once in a while though.
-Dave Scatchard....you are a fail.
-What in the blue hell was up with the green men in the stands? That is some funny stuff right there.
NUCKS MISCONDUCT 3 STARS:
1. Henrik Sedin
2. Daniel Sedin
Erat fails on the Salo shot that makes it 3-0
The Green Man Group. A couple Green Man impersonators. Pretty funny hey Scatchard? Don't think Trotz was laughing though.
Hat tip to Puck Daddy for finding a clip of the green guys harassing Predators in the P-box:
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Ahh!
That’s where the idea came from. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Green man.
And a video for those of you (like me) who didn’t get it.
thanks, timorousme.
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 1:16 AM PST up reply actions
ahhh the green man mystery is solved. during the game i was guessing it was some sort of blue man group imitation haha.
HT to Puck Daddy for linking to this Page 2 article, which gives the history of how the Green Man went from It’s Always Sunny to a sporting world fiture.
by nucksandpucks on Dec 23, 2009 9:54 AM PST up reply actions
thanks for that link, nucksandpucks. Wow. What a great story! Got a kick out of the green man appearing and disappearing with Tiger teeing off.
So I guess we’ll be seeing more of this at hockey games now….you’d think. 2 of my friends were at the game last night and they said the crowd was having a riot with those guys.
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 10:18 AM PST up reply actions
I watch it.
Fantastically hilarious show. Charlie = green man FTW.
by Chuckles Canuckles on Dec 23, 2009 1:55 AM PST up reply actions
ITs a pretty funny one Sean. From Danny Devito’s darker side. One of the more underrated BLACK comedy shows on TV…
And yes, Wellwood played great. I thought Bieksa had a good game overall. His smart play to reset the power play, and a nice pass led to the PP goal as well.
Kesler was again the MAN. His fight against a bigger Weber was inspiring to his teammates for sure. Although the Sedin line got all the points, the 2nd and 3rd lines play was another big reason for the win.
The earliest use of the word with the spelling we recognize today is found in "L'Acadie: or Seven Years' Exploration in British America" by James Edward Alexander, published in 1849:
We also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung round him who called to us 'Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck"
I would LOVE it if those Green guys could be sitting behind the opposing penalty box every game. It would give GM Place some more character, as it’d be known as the building where players get taunted by green guys when they sit their 2 minutes and feel shame.
Last year the Blue Jays had two guys who dressed up like umpires and sat behind home plate imitating the umpires. It was hilarious and awesome. These green guys could be the new version of that!
Great effort, if feels good to get into Christmas with a win.
The Sedins were unreal, I can’t give enough credit to these two.
Luongo was the only man pissed off after his shotout was ruined.
Los Angeles, CA
It does feel good to have them win before xmas. See the quick release (one-timers) on the 2 Sedin goals? Beauty. I want to see more of that from the other guys. Quicker puck movement.
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 10:12 AM PST up reply actions
I thought it was a very solid team effort. No one had a bad game IMO.
Number of the wins is the tie-breaker in the standings, right? If so, we need the Red Wings and Stars to be held to 1 point at most in their games tonight to keep the 8th spot.
Dammit! James Neal scores again..3-1 Stars with under 8 to go.
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 7:53 PM PST up reply actions
St Loo leads the Flamers 1-0 right now…
The earliest use of the word with the spelling we recognize today is found in "L'Acadie: or Seven Years' Exploration in British America" by James Edward Alexander, published in 1849:
We also met a lusty fellow in a forest road with a keg of whisky slung round him who called to us 'Come boys and have some grog, I'm what you call a canuck"
Go Blues!
I guess it was asking too much for both Dallas and Detroit to lose tonight…
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 7:59 PM PST up reply actions
And…Canucks are bumped to 9th. Alex Auld stopped 33 of 34 shots for Dallas. Impressive.
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 23, 2009 8:11 PM PST up reply actions
Woooo Hoooo!
I haven’t been around here much with football season still in full swing but as soon as it is all over, I’ll make sure to make my staple over here. I stop by and read things as much as I can but for some reason I’m too obsessed with football to remember to come over here. Great job as usual.
by dolphinsinbuffalo on Dec 23, 2009 1:20 PM PST reply actions
That was an awesome game. My first time seeing Lu in person too, after really crappy luck.
Falling, fallen, we all fall down, it only really matters how we stand our ground
If and when we rise to our feet again, we'll be on our own
-Tomas Kalnoky/Streetlight Manifesto, If and When We Rise Again
An interesting and optimistic post on CDC
There are only three teams in the entire NHL who at the moment have more than 110 goals for and less than 100 goals against. They are the San Jose Sharks, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Vancouver Canucks. Ok, we’ll make Washington an honourary member of the group with 130 goals for and 100 against, but they really aren’t actually part of the group.
Yes, you can find plenty of meaningless stats if you look hard enough. A more meaningful one would be that we are one of only 6 teams in the NHL who are at or better than +20 goals. However, this just goes to show that we seem to either win games big or lose close ones. This is both frustrating (feast or famine offense) and yet encouraging (why wouldn’t we be able to spread out the goals better? Wouldn’t the law of averages suggest that, over time,
Generally that kind of goal differential means that there will eventually be a reversion to the mean, i.e. if the goal differential represents the ‘real Canucks’ we’re eventually due for a winning streak, or if the record represents our actual level then we’ll start loosing games. Hmm… suggest that you take a look in the right sidebar over here:
Generally something to keep an eye on in terms of stats anyways. As for the ‘law of averages’, can’t really speak to that. Randomness is clumpy, so even if the goals were perfectly random, they’d still not be 1 every period (’nucks G/60 is about 3).
a good ol’ charting and curves. I don’t know why I don’t get into those more often
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 24, 2009 11:57 AM PST up reply actions
Yeah, I’ve given up caring about that. We’ve talked to death the unfairness of the OT losses
by Sean Zandberg on Dec 24, 2009 12:37 AM PST up reply actions
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