Game On
Well that was underwhelming.
After all the hype and build up, the Canucks first game of the year was absolutely the worst case scenario.
It gets better (I hope).
Here we go with the love ‘em & hate ‘em!
Love ‘Em
1. Rick Ball
No Mark Lee. No Kevin Weekes.
Even if Kelly Hrudey wasn’t the best in the booth, Rick Ball was more than adequate.
Won’t miss those two guys at all.
2. Dale Weise
Fresh from tearing up the Dutch league, Weise was flying Saturday night and one of the best Canucks. Hopefully he keeps it up.
3. Teemu
The ageless freak is back for another year and looking just as good as ever. Stories this week were that Teemu took a puck to the head in practice, stayed down for a bit, and then got up went down the ice and scored.
It was just that kind of night…
Beauty.
Hate ‘Em
1. Les Ducks
Well that was a typical Ducks game. The Canucks have six or seven glorious scoring chances and can’t score because they’re not perfect so the Ducks take it down the ice and fling it on net so it goes in. Not indicative of the season, hopefully.
2. Ruh oh
Worst case scenario for goal-tending last night. Are you nervous yet? A lot of people will be. Three quick goals chased Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo didn’t look that much better. Eddie Lack is the new answer I guess.
3. Not quite rid of Kevin Weekes
At one point during the intermission, I watched Kevin Weeks and PJ Stock discuss hockey. PJ praised the European players for being so good at puck control and Weekes said some other equally stupid stuff. My tax dollars at work.
Extra’s
Daniel Sedin and Alex Edler each had a goal and an assist in Saturday’s loss. Kevin Bieksa led all Vancouver players with five shots on goal. The Canucks allowed a goal all three times they were short-handed against the Ducks, while going 2-for-4 on the power play.
Jannik Hansen had two assists. Offseason addition Jason Garrison had three shots, two hits and was a minus-1. Henrik Sedin was 14-for-28 in the faceoff circle and added an assist while posting a minus-1.
1. Vancouver was 7-4-0 in the second night of back-to-back games last season.
2. After reaching career- highs in goals (18) and points (47) with Edmonton last season, Sam Gagner had 20 points in 21 games in Austria during the lockout.
3. Without Ryan Kesler, the Canucks were 37-for-75 in faceoffs on Saturday.
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About Richard Hodges
