Blue Jackets At Canucks Preview: All The Pigs Are All Lined Up

Time	Thursday, 7:00 PST	TV	Sportsnet Pacific
Season Series	1-0 Columbus	Last Meeting	3-1 Jackets, Oct. 20/13
The Enemy	The Cannon	Scoring Leaders	H. Sedin: 4-18-22 Wisniewski: 2-14-16

JACKETS	CATEGORY	CANUCKS
8-11-3	SEASON RECORD	11-8-4
19	POINTS	26
13th	CONFERENCE POSITION	9th
Won 1	STREAK	Lost 5
3-4-3	LAST 10	3-4-3
4-5-2	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	4-4-2
2.41 (23)	GOALS PER GAME AVERAGE	2.48 (21)
2.91 (21)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	2.52 (13)
0.84 (23)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	1.00 (15)
18.7 (17)	POWER PLAY %	11.3 (29)
77.1 (26)	PENALTY KILL %	88.2 (1)
28.8 (21)	SHOTS/GAME AVG	32.5 (3)
52.3 (8)	FACEOFF WINS %	51.1 (13)
641 (6)	HITS	430 (24)
292 (22)	BLOCKED SHOTS	338 (6)
75 (5)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	84 (14)
NHL.COM

I knew the local MSM would get crazy stupid after the loss to the Panthers. Start with Tony Gallagher. Then vomit. The Canucks are not THAT slow, Tony. It's not the reason they draw so few penalties. Do we miss Mason Raymond? Nope. Daniel Sedin said it best:

"I think our way of playing is that we are a 5-man unit working together and we look fast when we play that way. "

Exactly right, from a dude who is actually playing the game, not sitting in his old man chair, smoking his old man cigar and grumbling at the 6:00 news while farting uncontrollably.

I don't even know what to say about this Ed Willies article. It leaves me dazed and confused. He dips a little into advanced stats and then shits the bed. Shots are great and all, but the struggling Canucks are shooting perimeter and are not elevating the puck from out there, or in close. With goaltenders nowadays and their super butterfly style, it's pretty tough to beat them along the ice. You would have to tip a point shot of get it through a screen, and even then it needs to be elevated most of the time. Quality of shots do matter, Ed. Watch:

Oh look at that! Top cheese! Folks, have you not lost count how many times the Canucks recently have inflated opposing goaltenders' stats by shooting the puck along the ice or not getting it up? I have. Yes, you have too! The high shots taken are missing the net. Why do the high shots miss the net? Because the boys are struggling that's why. They might bulge the top shelf in practice but in a real game scenario it's completely different.

Players can heat up, get hot and cool off. In the Canucks' situation, THAT is happening to too many players at once and you know what? IT IS WHAT IT IS. Fingers get pointed and angry words spoken. But let's just face the facts here. Vancouver's top 6 forwards were smokin' in October. The Sedins, Kesler, Santorelli, Higgins....but sometimes those sources dry up...all at once. And given that those top 6 guys get the lump of the ice time, the Canucks will lose far more than they win. Such is the case right now.

H. Sedin: 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 6 games.

D. Sedin: 0 points in his last 6 games.

Ryan Kesler: 2 assists in his last 6 games.

Mike Santorelli: 1 assist in his last 5 games.

Chris Higgins: 1 goal in his last 5 games.

Alex Burrows: 1 assist and some goal posts in his last 5 games.

Alex Edler: 1 assist in his last 12 games

Jason Garrison: 0 points in his last 13 games.

If you wanna pass the doob to a couple players who have been solid for the Canucks lately, pass the spliff to Roberto Luongo and Kevin Bieksa. Luongo has been the best Canuck lately....PERIOD. Don't throw any bullshit stats my way to disprove me on Luongo's play because you can't. He has given the team a chance to win over the 5-game losing streak and the boys have responded with 6 goals in a 5 game losing streak. Getting flashbacks yet? I am.

Bieksa has 1 goal and 4 assists in his last 6. Bravo!  He's a -1 in those 6 games. Not bad at all.

I am actually not going to point a gun at anyone, nor put them on a Shitlist. Not gonna kick the boys while they are down. The futile stats I pointed out above will NOT continue. They never have with this group. Once the Canucks get a little more confidence in their game, (and you can tell by their passing AND shooting even that the confidence is NOT there), they will go back to their winning ways. We are only 23 games into the season for pete's sakes! Relax!

Blow up the team? **** that!

Miss the playoffs? **** that!

See those teams above the Canucks in the West right now? Regression will happen to all of them, some more than others.

HE SAID IT

John Tortorella told reporters on Thursday:

"I will not punish our team on a day off, I will not reward a team with a day off. The days off are for what they are...for what we feel is best for them to recover."

The entire interview can be seen here.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

The Blue Jackets beat the Flames the night after getting blown out 7-0 by the Oilers earlier this week. They are 3-1-3 in their last 7 games. They are 2-3-2 in their last 7 against the Canucks. When the BJ's beat the Canucks 3-1 on October 20th, they snapped a 4-game losing streak. Payback is gonna be a bitch, boys.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

A lot of rarities coming out of Wednesday (game vs Flames). It was Nikita Nikitin's first OT game-winner, the first the Blue Jackets had ever played a road game without any penalty minutes, and a rare road win when the Jackets score two or fewer goals. To be fair, no team in the NHL has a good road record when they score two or fewer goals. The Blue Jackets, with Wednesday's win, are 28-217-32 in such games.

PROJECTED BJ ROSTER

Foligno (Flamingo) - (Scarlett) Johansen - Umberger (Medium Rare)

(Boom) Jenner - Anisimov - Atkinson

MacKenzie - Letestu (Gesundeit!) - (Kinda like it in a) Comeau

Calvert - (Columbus is) Chaput - Boll (o' crack)

(Big) Johnson - Tyutin (your horn)

Murray - Wisn(ewwwww)ski

Nikitin - Savard

(Kneel and) Bobrovsky

Nathan Horton has not played a game for the BJs yet, after major shoulder surgery, but he did practice with the team this week. He is still projected for a mid-December return. These guys have Gaborik and Dubinsky injured as well. Not a bad-looking team, really if they all get healthy.

TRENDS

• Blue Jackets are 17-8 in their last 25 games following a win.
• Blue Jackets are 67-137-6 in their last 210 in the third game of a 3-in-4 situation.
• Blue Jackets are 1-5 in their last 6 when their opponent scores 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• See that? These guys are goin' down!

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

Passive Voice: 10

gmonk33: 8

Bobby Canuck: 7

Geordie Nuck: 7

marcness52: 7

Coach Ryan: 6

FormerHab: 6

Nathaniel Perlow: 6

Tengeresz: 6

Zanstorm: 6

nucksandpucks: 5

Twitchy2010: 5

jwolf0: 4

Tim Burke: 4

Azzy Mahmood: 3

Nose_Face: 3

westy99: 3

AK_nuk: 2

itsahardknocklife: 2

kiwinuck: 2

Nathan k: 2

Smoboy41: 2

vancitydan: 2

Vancouverguy: 2

Brock: 1

ChuckinNux: 1

Kent Basky: 1

patrik e: 1

seedvt: 1

thesporteditor: 1

TAKE THE SKIN AND PEEL IT BACK

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GO CANUCKS GO!