Game 7: Predators At Canucks Preview: Irate Over The Luongo Hate

PREDATORS		CANUCKS
	AT

Woa woa I'm stopping the f*cking stat table right there. Head on past the jump.

I'm gonna go there.

Rangers 1st Goal:

Beauty wrist shot along the ice that Roberto stops. Shooter puts it to Lou's right pad too so the rebound heads right...right onto Rupp's stick. Bang. In. 1-0. I have a question on that goal...which Canuck player was covering who? I'm confused. Michael Rupp. Wasn't he on the Rangers' 4th line? Blame Luongo!

OK, Rangers 2nd Goal

A lost battle along the boards just inside the Canucks' zone between Hank and a Rangers player results in a quick  lost battle for Hanky. All of a sudden it's an odd-man rush in close. Bing banger! One timer goal by pinching defenceman Ryan McDonagh. While the scrum was going on, Edler decided to take a casual skate towards the puck battle and gets caught going the wrong way. Burrows and Dank were already heading for center ice to try for an odd man rush the other way. Oh look! There's 4 Rangers to 2 Canucks in front of the Canucks net when the goal is scored! Blame Luongo!

Rangers 3rd Goal:

At the very beginning of the clip is Bieksa standing still at the Rangers' blue line. Busted! Looking like a Tomas Kaberle. A quick transition by the Rangers and it's a...GASP!...3 on 2 odd man rush against the Canucks..again. Nice pass by Fedotenko to Brian Boyle who gets off a quick release and beats Lou. I thought Roberto could have went left to right a little quicker here to square himself to shooter Boyle. By the way, how many goals did the Canucks score at this point. Oh right...none. BLAME LUONGO!!!

Rangers' 4th Goal:

Ryan McDonagh must be related to Wayne Gretzky. Maybe Denis Savard. I dunno, but he goes through Canucks defenders like a hot knife through butter and has all the time in the world to make a fancy pass/shooting play past Luongo, which Gaborik taps in. Hammer is on the wrong side of Gabby there because Gaborik cross checked him down seconds earlier. But you know who got caught pinching at the beginning of that play? Hammer. The Canucks' failures are all over this goal. Watch Hodgson on the clip. He's backchecking, he skates into his own zone...he stops..as Brad Richards the puck carrier stops...Richards passes it to McD and McDonagh blows right by him. Yeesh. BLAME LUUUUUUONGO!!!

A bronx cheer by some idiot Canucks fans ensued minutes later, right? Regardless of the time frame, a disgraceful moment in my opinion. That followed by a night and day of Lou hate, love, confusion. Jesus. I am so glad I only caught a little bit of it. All this 3 days after Luongo looked pretty damned good in a win over the speedy Oilers. All this and any Canuck player NOT named Luongo gets a pass on fan backlash. The Canucks forwards may have been stymied by Henrik Lundqvist, but that's not an excuse. Their execution 5 on 5 and especially on the power play was brilliant at times...until they shot the puck. How many times did the shooter either not take the pass cleanly or fail to get off a quick shot? God knows the Rangers had no problems doing it as soon as the Canucks decided to cave. Lou has to make some game-breaking saves once in a while? How about the other 18 guys need to do better than a fucking goose egg on the score sheet. How about the team plays better defensively. Damn it, this squad looks like Marc Crawford's old group: lots of offence..shitty defence. I've said this a couple games ago: back to basics. More up-tempo hockey? Well up-tempo doesn't mean abandoning D. It's 2-way hockey to win and you know what? This team will find it back. 

I am just shocked and absolutely sickened that Luongo gets shit shell shocked after the loss to the Rangers. It just shows how little so many people know about hockey and how the mass of comment threads and social media is really starting to get to me. GRUMBLE GRUMBLE! Good thing I am clicking on them less. I'm actually in the middle of a phase-out plan.

Oh hey! When TSN's play by play guy Gord Miller barfs up the "Roberto Luongo has allowed 4 goals on 10 shots!!!1" line, only people that know jack shit about hockey / goaltending start booing or hating Lou. Unfortunately there is a horde of them out there. At least the color guy sitting next to Miller, former NHL'er Mike Johnson defended Luongo and put the blame where it was meant to be put. At least a former 2-way NHL forward knows what the hell is going on.

Another guy who does: Terrace BC's very own Joe Pelletier. Great Luongo piece there. And yes, I see some resemblance to the Boston series as well.

Edit: And still more perspective HERE from nucksandpucks (a chart you have to see) and HERE from vancitydan, an in-depth look at the goalie graveyard that is Vancouver.

COCONUTS!

I STILL BELIEVE.

I STILL PROUDLY WEAR MY LUONGO JERSEY TOO.

MISC

-I don't think Martin Erat is playing for the Preds Thursday. Check out everything Preds at On The Forecheck.

-After my rant, the Canucks now face a team who they eliminated in the playoffs, who they had a hard time scoring against, until Ryan Kesler took over the series and made the Fishers cry. Lets see how much Weber and Suter abuse the Twins. If the Twins score nothing, let's see if the rest of the forwards can do SOMETHING.