Canucks At Blue Jackets: Foots And Asses

UPDATE: Bieksa is not ready to go tonight. They are being careful with his groin.

CANUCKS		BLUE JACKETS
	AT

TIME:	4:00 PM PST	TV	Sportsnet Pacific
SEASON SERIES:	1-0 Jackets	LAST MEETING	2-1 Blue Jackets
THE ENEMY	The Cannon	SCORING LEADERS	H. Sedin: 6-18-24 Prospal: 9-5-14

CANUCKS	CATEGORY	JACKETS
11-7-6	SEASON RECORD	10-12-4
28	POINTS	24
6th	CONFERENCE POSITION	13th
Lost 4	STREAK	Won 5
3-4-3	LAST 10	6-2-2
5-4-3	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	7-4-3
2.67 (17)	GOALS PER GAVE AVERAGE	2.23 (28)
2.58 (12)	GOALS AGAINST PER GAME AVERAGE	2.73 (14)
1.15 (10)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	0.80 (26)
15.0 (24)	POWER PLAY %	13.2 (29)
80.2 (17)	PENALTY KILL %	85.7 (5)
48.5 (22)	FACEOFF WINS %	51.0 (9)
509 (21)	HITS	646 (7)
279 (29)	BLOCKED SHOTS	292 (28)
104 (18)	MINOR PENALTIES TAKEN	106 (22)
NHL.COM

3 wins in their last 12 games. Yikes. As I have said over and over again, if your special teams (especially the power play in the Canucks' case) are failing, there just are not going to be sustained wins, because nobody is that awesome 5 on 5 all the time that they don't need PP goals to help out. The Canucks have that going against them, which includes numerous offensive dry spells from players and breakdowns defensively to boot. It all just one big and bad combination and doesn't get halted until the team works hard consistently and together.

This is why it annoys me to no end that people say "Jeeziz Mary and Joseph we really need Kevin Bieksa back. That's just looking at the 0-6 record without him and being silly. If this team needs Bieksa to win that many games, or their hopes rest on him, then they truly are fucked.

Anyway, let's look at some slumping players, shall we?

YOU MADE MY SHITLIST

Alexandre Burrows: no goals and 3 assists in his last 6 games.

David Booth: no goals and 2 assists in his first 9 games.

Alexander Edler: ZERO points in his last 8 games.

Jason Garrison: 2 goals and 1 assist in his last 8 games....M'eh

Zack Kassian: 1 assist in his last 12 games.

Maxim Lapierre: 1 assist in his last 13 games. I know, I know: PK and 4th liner. But he looks terrible let's face it.

Mason Raymond: 2 goals and 1 assist in his last 5 HOWEVER: perspective is everything. That is also 2 goals and 1 assist in his last 10 games.

Dale Weise: heheh nevermind.

What does any of that have to do with Bieksa? Nothing.

That leaves the Sedins, Hansen, Higgins and even Hamhuis with decent or even solid output lately. That's not gonna cut it. However...the players mentioned on the shitlist are better than what they are doing recently. So I don't need no Fenwick or CORSI to tell me that the Canucks will break out of this funk. This is a classic case of upcoming aggression to the mean..or whatever.

The Canucks have only scored 7 goals in their last 4 games. Their opponents have scored 12 (taking the shootout vs San Jose out of the question. That's not a huge goals for and against margin, especially considering the inconsistent work efforts. You know what I am getting at. The funk will end at some point soon. A lot of players need to get scoring again and get those fucking monkeys off their backs. The D needs to make a few less brain farts when the other team turns on the heat.

I didn't even mention goaltending, but of course that could be a bit better too. It's hard to shit on goalies when you've only scored 7 goals over the last 4 games! God dammit! It's deja-vu! The poor goalies need to be near-perfect with that kinda shit offense!

PROJECTED ROSTERS

Luongo!

Sedin - Sedin - Burrows

Hansen - Raymond - Higgins

Booth - Ebbett - Kassian

Weise - Lapierre- Sestito

Hamhuis - Bieksa (hopefully) Edler

Garrison - Tanev

Ballard (JEEEZIZ)- Garrison - Barker

FOR COLUMBUS:

Bobrovsky (NHL's FIRST STAR OF THE WEEK)

Umberger - Johansen - Foligno

Prospal - Letestu - Brassard

Nicholas Drazenovic - Calvert - Atkinson

Gillies - Mackenzie - Boll

Johnson - Tyutin

Erixon - Aucoin

Nikitin - Prout

TRENDS

• Canucks are 2-6 in their last 8 Tuesday games.
• Canucks are 1-4 in their last 5 vs. Central.
• Canucks are 1-5 in their last 6 when their opponent allows 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Canucks are 1-5 in their last 6 after scoring 2 goals or less in their previous game.
• Canucks are 0-4 in their last 4 road games.
• Canucks are 0-4 in their last 4 overall.
• Canucks are 0-4 in their last 4 games playing on 1 days rest.
• Canucks are 0-4 in their last 4 vs. a team with a losing record.
• WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!
• Blue Jackets are 4-0 in their last 4 games playing on 1 days rest.
• Blue Jackets are 4-0 in their last 4 home games.
• Blue Jackets are 12-30 in their last 42 games following a win.
• Blue Jackets are 1-5 in their last 6 Tuesday games. AHA! They are toast!
• 63% of the experts at Covers.com have the Canucks winning this one. That sure as fuck is not an overwhelming majority, is it?

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

patrick e continues his numbskull ways and gets 2 points for calling the Wild to beat the Canucks 4-2. Canucks fan poster boy Pheenster also scored 2 as he too rode the numbskull bus.

Twin Terror: 8

patrik e: 7

Bobby Canuck: 6

andrew21nz: 5

FormerHab: 5

Meat Mayos: 4

raincity: 4

marcness52: 3

westy99: 3

ChuckinNux: 2

EvianBubble: 2

gmonk33: 2

Nathaniel Perlow: 2

PeaceJo: 2

Pheenster: 2

Sean Zandberg: 2

seedvt: 2

YorkAveOrca: 2

beardstache: 1

BW79: 1

dshaps: 1

Geordie Nuck: 1

Kent Basky: 1

KYCanuck: 1

missy: 1

NS_Cix: 1

nucksandpucks: 1

radepalma: 1

Smoboy41: 1

Tangent: 1

Thursday: 1

Twitchy2010: 1

vancitydan: 1

Vancouverguy: 1

VIDEO

Booth..still waiting to see what he brought in Florida:

Dammit AV put him on the top PP unit.

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GO CANUCKS GO!