Canucks get a point from Dallas

On this Devil’s eye (night before Halloween), the Dallas Stars shot into town looking to see if the Canucks were for real or a team masquerading as a playoff contender. I think the Stars might have been looking in the mirror asking the same thing of themselves lately.

1^st period.

Megna….in for Boeser. I should just stop the recap right there and let your comments lead the way.

But no, my ego won’t let me stop writing.

Dallas was a good guest as Radulov gave the Canucks a PP 29 seconds into the game. Bo tried to do his best Sbisa imitation as he threw one in front of the Canucks net and almost cost the team a goal. The Canucks PP was a disaster as they couldn’t get in the zone to set up.

The best line of the night came early as Shorthouse chimed in, “Megna couldn’t find it.”

Sven took an interference call to give the Stars competent PP to score. And by competent, I mean the Stars have a 32% success rate, which is #1 in the league. They have crisp fast passing which leads to open shots that Marky had to stop….which he did.

The most dangerous line for the Canucks in the first…Granny/Sutter/DD. Other teams must look at their stats and say…”meh, they must have been lucky so far” I saw the Sedins out for the PP, but not for much else.

The Canucks were given another PP with 6:30 minutes left in the first and the Sedins helped create a few chances, but no goals.

I will leave some Horvat moves here for you to watch

The biggest difference between this game and others from the past few years is that the Canucks are faster and seem to keep up with the Stars.

The Canucks got one more PP before the end of the period as Mark Methot went off for slashing. But the Canucks kept their record perfect and Vanek took his own penalty to stop a breakaway at the end of the period.

Tweets like this get the Twittersphere in an uproar. Virts plays with the Sedins 5vs5 and the Sedins didn’t get a lot of 5vs5 time as they were on the PP.

2^nd period

The Canucks began the period killing off their second penalty of the game. They also go their best chance of the game as Bo got a breakaway but couldn’t beat Ben Bishop. Thomas Vanek took another penalty just 2 minutes after the Canucks killed the first of the period. I used to teach math, and out of three PP chances the Stars are going to score one time. And score they did as Seguin ripped one top corner to make it 1-0

The game was moving along as the Stars went into shut down mode. Sven decided to make it interesting as he took a hooking penalty.

The Canucks were able to kill the penalty with a couple chances of their own. The PK had better chances than the PP so far.

Thomas Vanek had a nifty move between the legs which was then poked away by Bishop.

There was the rare appearance of Sven/Bo/Jake. It lasted a shift.

There were also two glorious chances by Biega going to the net, which he couldn’t finish.

Jake took a nice elbow in the face from Radulov and Dorsett has a point blank chance on Bishop.

Marky saved a couple chances before the end of the period.

Lots of chances to tie this period but it ends 1-0 Dallas

3^rd period

The Canucks went into the third with all the shots, but no luck. Three of those shots have been Vanek shooting from the redline though.

The Canucks went back on the PP at 15:35 as Methot knocked Sutter down around the net. Markstrom made another big play out of his net as he prevented Roussel from getting a shot. The play went back the other way and Sam Gagner got his first of the year, on the PP.

At 8:53 I was called a homer by one of the Twitteratti. It has to be hard to be that “fan” that criticizes every single move management and the coaches make.

Sam Gagner had a chance to take the lead but Bishop stopped him point blank. Markstrom then made his own big save at the other end to keep the score tied.

Overtime

Let’s give the Canucks credit for sticking to an aggressive gameplan and Horvat got things off to a quick start as he hit the post right off the bat. This lead to another quick chance by the Stars. 3 on 3 hockey is fun to watch until you lose. Radulov beat Marky….over the shoulder to win the game.

Canucks get a Bettman point but lose 2-1