Last night the Blackhawks came into Vancouver and played their system perfectly and walked out with two points. The Blackhawks were the better team top to bottom last night and deserved to win. While the season's series is tied at 1-1, with the goals being even as well (7-7), the Canucks are delusional if they think they have been anywhere close to the Hawks this season. The Blackhawks have carried the play for about 75% of the season series and if it wasn't for 6 PP in Chi-town they would likely have a 2-0 lead in the season series. Right now the Canucks aren't even close to being in Chicago's league.
To win hockey games your best players have to be better than the other team's best players. Not only were the Hawks stars better than the Canucks last stars last night, the Hawks role players were better than the Canucks stars. Carcillo, Kruger, Burnette and the list goes on, all out played the twins and Kesler. The only two Canucks that stood out to me were Hansen, Rome, Lapierre and Hodgson. Most of the team was just along for the ride last night.
What concerned me more than the results on the ice, were the comments after the game.
To paraphrase AV "I think we're really close and we have a couple days of practice to work on things and we'll figure it out." Practice won't change the level of urgency on the ice. This team need to realize it is getting out worked on most nights and that is why they are losing. Practice drills won't solve that problem, perhaps a "BAG SKATE" might.
According Hank "I thought we played a good game, and played with them for the first 45-50 minutes. They've one of the best teams in the league and we played well. That's hockey sometimes you play well and lose." What a great example of leadership, instead of calling the team out and stressing we need to be better and we should be beating the Hawks, we'll just accept the fact the Hawks are a better team than us. Now that's a fiery leader.
Kesler
If anyone has seen Ryan Kesler, can you please contact the Vancouver Canucks at 1-800-WE NEED KES BACK. I don't know where the player who has been one of the better defensive forwards in the game the last three years has gone. It's not bad enough that Kesler isn't scoring, I get that, players go through slumps. What concerns me most about Kesler is he's not shutting guys down like he used to. He was dramatically out played by the Hawks big guns last night and got taken to school on face-offs for the second straight game.
I have always believed you give your stars time to play their way out of slumps. Kesler is a star, but he has had enough time to snap out of his rut. It's time AV and the Canucks sent him a subtle message and gave Cody some of Kesler's ice-time. Cody has played flat out been better this year, so why not reward the kid with more than the 12 minutes he's getting. Once Kesler starts playing like we all know he can, then he can have his 20 minutes a night.
Canucks 3 Stars
1- Hansen
2- Hodgson
3- Lapierre
I mentioned a few blogs back the Canucks needed to go 7-3. So far they are 1-1, now they need to step up and go 6-2 in their next eight. This is very doable. The Canucks player the Sen's, Av's (2), Yote's, Sharks, Blue Jackets, Flames and Preds. A 6-2 record should be fairly easy to do seeing as 6 of those games are likely against non-playoff teams and should be give me's if the team plays like we know they can. I guess that one of the big benefits about playing in hockey's worst division. You're only one hot steak away from grabbing a hold of the division lead.
Thanks for reading.
Have a nice day.
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