Canucks - Stars Preview
by Sean Zandberg on Jan 2, 2010 10:03 AM PST
in Game Preview
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PrintCANUCKS (24-16-1) AT STARS (18-11-11)
GAME TIME: 11:00 AM PST
TV: Sportsnet
SEASON SERIES: 1-1
THE ENEMY: Defending Big D
UPDATE: (10:04 AM PT) - Bobby McKenzie reports that Lukowich has cleared waivers and is a full fledged Canuck starting today. Schneider who?
UPDATE (10:15 PM): Canucks' management is still angered over the match penalty given to Rick Rypien after his destruction of Cam Janssen last game. Mike Gillis has contacted Colin Campbell. How's your broken beak, Janssen?
Still waiting/watching for any Brad Lukowich news. Hope he makes it through re-entry waivers.
***************
The Canucks are gathering steam and confidence for the second half of the season, as they seem to have put their road woes behind them. They are 2-0-1 on their current road trip and 8-10-1 for the season. Looking much better. Erasing a 3-0 deficit and then beating the Blues in OT last game has to help too. A hell of a New Year's gift for Canucks fans. This is the final game of the 4-game road trip. The Canucks will then return home to play 4 games at GM Place.
What have the Stars been up to?
They are staying alive in the playoff race. They currently hold 9th spot, only 2 points out of a playoff spot. If the beat the Canucks in regulation they will most likely be back in a playoff spot. The Stars have won 2 in a row and are 5-3-2 in their last 10. Those 11 overtime losses lead the NHL. 11 loser points!
Youth is served in Dallas and Loui Eriksson is on fire. He scored a hat trick in the Stars' win over Anaheim on New Year's Eve. He has 39 points in 40 games this season. He has 7 goals and 19 points in his last 15 games.
Who else is cookin' in Dallas? Over their last 5 games:
-Brad Richards has an astounding 1 goal and 7 assists
-Stephane Robidas has a goal and 4 assists
-Mike Ribeiro has 1 goal and 3 assists
-James Neal has 2 goals and 2 assists.
-Only 2 assists for Brendan Morrow
-Mike Modano is about ready to call it a career. He's only playing about 12:00 per game.
-Still glad the Canucks lost the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes? I am.
COMPARATIVE STATS:
GOALS PER GAME: Canucks 4th, Stars 7th
FEWEST GOALS AGAINST PER GAME: Canucks 8th, Stars 22nd
5 ON 5: Canucks 4th, Stars 16th
POWER PLAY: Canucks 4th, Stars 11th
PENALTY KILL: Canucks 17th, Stars 25th
SHOTS PER GAME: Stars 5th, Canucks 11th
SHOTS AGAINST PER GAME: Canucks 10th, Stars 20th
WINNING % WHEN SCORING FIRST: Canucks 11th, Stars 23rd
WINNING % WHEN LEADING AFTER 2: Canucks 6th, Stars 23rd
FACEOFFS: Canucks 11th, Stars 27th
This game kind of has a must-win feel to it. It would be great to see Vancouver widen the gap between themselves and the Stars before returning home.
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Both of these teams are so different now than when they last faced each other in the playoffs. Both used to be so tight defensively and couldn’t score goals. Now they both can score effectively but the Stars let in a lot more goals than in the past while the Canucks are still pretty consistent in that department since Luongod arrived.
4-2 Canucks, Samuelsson GWG.
Just call me Jay...
Oh my god. I’m laughing at that! I guess our new “coach killer” tag won’t go away soon.
by Sean Zandberg on Jan 2, 2010 10:50 AM PST up reply actions
Predictions?
Drunk by noon and hungover by dinnertime.
2-0 Canucks.
Burrows with GWG, Luongo with EN :-)
4-2 Canucks, Daniel w/the GWG
BTW, has Lukowich cleared now? The deadline was noon Eastern, right? I see no announcements of a claim, so here’s hoping there wasn’t one.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
I updated the top of the post, but yup he cleared.
http://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/7304160018
'Nucks Misconduct - Housing Swedish Millionaires Since 2000.
by Yankee Canuck on Jan 2, 2010 10:04 AM PST up reply actions
He got lucky this time didn’t he? I never wanted Luko put on waivers.
by Sean Zandberg on Jan 2, 2010 10:51 AM PST up reply actions
Partly luck, but I suspect he also knows – from years of negotiating with them – how the other GMs work and think, and he rolled the dice on New year’s day cuz it really did make a diff.
So yeah, the dice were good to him but he also loaded them just a little bit. I wonder if it looked as dicey from the inside as it did to us?
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
No, he picked Jan 1st for a reason. Even you can’t be that naive.
But if you are, we should play big bucks poker sometime; I’m not very good.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
The Bolduc argument I imagine is based on the fact that he’s a centre, to replace Johnson while he’s hurting. But Hordi? I don’t see much value in Hordi so long as Ryp/Glass/SOB are in the lineup. We’re tough enough. Other than toughness, Hordi offers absolutely nothing. I’d rather have 6 minutes a game of Hansen, who can at least kill penalties and has skill enough to be put into the 3rd line or 2nd line if events during the game require the roster to be moved around
by Beantown Canuck on Jan 2, 2010 10:10 AM PST up reply actions
It’s all done just to annoy the piss out of Ott.
'Nucks Misconduct - Housing Swedish Millionaires Since 2000.
by Yankee Canuck on Jan 2, 2010 10:11 AM PST up reply actions
Do you not think Hordi has played well since he has been back in? Drawing penalties…getting in front….forechecking…I think he has been great the last few games…since the Calgary one…
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"
Lukowich is back up and in? Great news.
Yeah…its AV’s fault we have too many good players. Hordi and Bolduc with Rypien have been a great 4th line the least two-three games…Once any one of them slacks, Hansen is back in…but I do think a trade is coming…too many players, and too much money when Demo comes back.
3-2 Canucks. Wellwood scores the GWG for his 3rd in as many games…just to piss the Pudge haters off!!
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’m less certain about a trade than I was, at least for a while, cuz …
… Luko’s salary replaces Schneider’s almost exactly;
… Rome’s salary is more than $3m cheaper than Bieksa’s so we just gained $3m cap space if Bieksa goes LTIR;
… I always wondered if Bieksa would be the centerpiece of any trade, but tough to trade the guy now; last time w/the same injury he lost 47 games so who’d grab him under those circumstances?
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
True Dat.
Didn’t think of the numbers like that…so, maybe not on the back end. I still think a trade is coming though…like the Y man said….Hansen is a good enough player for the NHL…if we have too many forwards…maybe a trade just for that…upgrgade a few lessers for one Top 6 type.
Feel bad for Bieksa though…but I am sooo happy they got Luko back up. Rome is pretty good…but Luko is better as a shut down guy…and now we have two of those.
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"
A quantity-for-quality trade would make sense. Now we just gotta find another team’s GM to go along w/what we want!
Gillis’s last trade, for Ehrhoff, was a great one; he didn’t so much outmaneuver SJ – they’re doing just fine – as he outmaneuvered the rest of the league. He must have had a good sense of what the other GMs were thinking and what they were up to, in order to have been able to pull off the deal at such a low price.
The way he slipped Luko back into the league by recalling him over New Year’s day indicates much the same thing; that he has a good read on the other GMs in the league and their habits.
It bodes well if we make another trade. Our guy was a famed agent cuz he was a famed negotiator, so I like our odds.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
spin
Few teams could take on those salaries at that moment and SJ was running out of time to get their man from Ott, good acquisition but let’s not pretend nobody could have offered more, just few had room for a $3.5M dman right then.
Or maybe they didn’t keep proper tabs on the SJ situation and precisely what Wilson was trying to do, or maybe they hadn’t scouted Ehrhoff as well as Vancouver had, or maybe their GM didn’t communicate w/his staff as well as Gillis did with his, or maybe their GM hadn’t kept some powder dry, or maybe a lot of things.
28 other teams couldda had him, only one got him.
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
I just think
it’s clear that AV does not see Hansen as a quality player, I think by the way he’s always used him it’s clear he sees him as a utility/checker type and unless I miss my guess his eyes will be opened to that mistake one way or the other.
Although you do have a point about the lineup he’s dealt, with no other options for 3rd line centre let alone 4th, Wellwould gets an auto-pass, and just so much easier to sit a guy making Hansen’s $ than Bernier’s so he gets one too.
I’d take Hansen over Bernier right now. Just sayin’
by Sean Zandberg on Jan 2, 2010 3:10 PM PST up reply actions
stars fan here
I have to say I think todays game will be really good. Glad to see you guys have bounced back from early season troubles. Look forward to another classic game.
Good to have you here. Hope we can put on a better show than the last time we met (score flattered us in that one).
And thanks for not grabbing Luko. At last, Wellwood has a teammate who can teach him how to run a restaurant!
The opposite of serious is not funny; the opposite of serious is unserious.
And all that concern about not getting Lukowich back is for naught
This will certainly help us see whether we can stomach the trade of someone like Bieksa, if and when he gets healthy.
Speaking out of pure selfishness, I hope Bieksa is out for the year and we take a stab at Scott Niedermayer at the deadline.
by Sean Zandberg on Jan 2, 2010 3:11 PM PST up reply actions
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