Friday October 25 - Colorado Avalanche 7 - Vancouver Canucks 3
As I set up Friday night's game in yesterday's blog, I talked about how the Colorado Avalanche were preparing to come out with guns blazing and how Jarome Iginla loves to do his thing against the Vancouver Canucks.
Iginla scored his first two goals of the season and was named the game's second star. Matt Duchene was a speed demon who showed why he has become an Olympian. And the Avs, who had scored just 12 goals in their first seven games, got better and better as the game went on.
Going into Friday's contest, the Canucks had allowed just one third-period goal in their first six games—best in the league. That record was demolished thanks to four goals in the final frame from the fast, furious Avalanche.
Here are your highlights:
This game did have its moments. The Canucks got off to a fast start for the second straight game, scoring just 10 seconds in when Daniel Sedin was able to take advantage of poor puck-handling by Semyon Varlamov, who had just returned from injury.
Despite being outshot 15-8 in the first period, the Canucks emerged with a 2-1 lead, but they weren't able to keep pace as Colorado ramped up their game in the later periods.
The shots ended up 48-27 in favour of the Avalanche, and poor Eddie Lack now has a record of 0-2-0 with a 4.62 goals-against and .862 save percentage.
If Lack keeps being deployed solely in the second half of back-to-backs, it's gonna be a long year for the gregarious Swede.
And it's really not his fault. He was sharp in the early going. Colorado's first few goals all came off breakdowns or bad decisions at the end of penalties.
Luca Sbisa had the worst night of the bunch, defensively. He finished with a minus-five in 16:20 of ice time and was totally at fault on Colorado's second goal, when he failed to pick up a man after coming out of the penalty box.
Kevin Bieksa's gaffes are also becoming too frequent to be ignored. He has dropped to minus-six on the season so far—tied with Shawn Matthias for the worst rank on the Canucks and pretty close to the worst in the league.
His worst mistake of the night came with the score tied in the second period. He and Dan Hamhuis were killing a five-on-three. With three seconds to go, Bieksa blindly fired the puck up the right boards—straight onto the stick of Erik Johnson. The Avs took the lead for the first time, and the Canucks still had 1:44 of Shawn Matthias' hooking penalty left to kill.
Going into the game, we knew that Colorado's speed could expose the Canucks' defense, much like Tuesday's game in Dallas. That's exactly what happened.
I will be at the rink tomorrow night to see if they have better luck against the red-hot Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The good news on that front is that the Caps will be on a back-to-back of their own: they play tonight in Calgary.
As Jason Botchford points out in his Friday night
Provies, this team might have some room for kids after all: "Maybe Corrado and even Horvat can help. If they replace Shawn Matthias and Sbisa/Weber, they may have a good shot for game."
The Canucks were better on draws against Colorado, with all the centers 50 percent or above except Brad Richardson, who went a brutal 2-10. As a rule, i like Richardson's game, but he has not had a good week.
I do respect the fact that Willie's not pumping his defensemen's tires at this point. Like the rest of us, he wants to see results:
Comets Watch
To end on a positive note, let's look to the farm. The Utica Comets raised their record to 4-1-1 with a 5-2 home win over the San Antonio Rampage on Friday night. Latvia's Rolands Kenins led the way with his first two AHL goals and was named second star, while Joacim Ericsson took top honours by stopping 39 of 41 shots.
The Comets sit comfortably at the top of their North Division, with Dustin Jeffrey in the top 10 in league scoring with six points in six games. The Comets are back in action tonight, where Jacob Markstrom is expected to put his AHL-best 0.33 goals-against average on the line against the Toronto Marlies.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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