Wednesday December 17 - Dallas Stars 2 - Vancouver Canucks 0
In front of a good-sized, good-spirited holiday crowd, the Vancouver Canucks delivered a lump of coal when they were shut out by the 30th-ranked defensive team in the league on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena.
Yep—the Dallas Stars surrender an average of 3.40 goals per game but were able to limit Vancouver to just 27 shots and no goals.
Here are your highlights:
The way things have been going, I was a little concerned when Vancouver came out of the first period in a scoreless tie despite carrying the play and outshooting Dallas 11-5.
The momentum changed for good when Colton Sceviour somehow shoveled a puck along the goal line and through Eddie Lack at the 2:38 mark of the second period—a goal that turned out to be the winner.
Other than that single moment, Lack delivered a solid performance, though the team in front of him certainly limited the dangerous scoring chances compared to recent games.
There are two schools of thought about the impact created by allowing that goal. I'm curious to see where you come down on this:
The Canucks certainly seemed to lose their "try" after they surrendered the lead. It seemed like they barely touched the puck for the rest of the second period.
The effort picked up in the third, and I was impressed by the energy in the building as a not-very-exciting game wound to its conclusion. Attendance for the night was listed at 18,755 and there appeared to only be a few smatterings of empty seats compared to earlier in the year. The folks who were there were engaged—ooohing and aaahing at appropriate moments, giving Jannik Hansen a big cheer for an excellent puck-possession shift in the third, and raining down an "Eddie! Eddie!" chant after Lack stopped Curtis McKenzie on a third-period breakaway.
As the in-arena DJ busted out the "Back to Lack" song to cap off the moment, I wondered what Ryan Miller was thinking as he sat on the bench. Even with his solid winning record at home, I can't think of any times this year when the crowd has been chanting his name. And he doesn't have a song. I wonder if he knew that Eddie has a song?
And I wonder where we go from here? My guess is that Miller will get the start against Calgary on Saturday night.
The Canucks will be practicing both Thursday and Friday ahead of their weekend meeting with the Flames, who are on a six-game losing streak of their own. The schedule-maker's on Vancouver's side for this matchup: Calgary will host the Stars on Friday night before traveling to Vancouver for Saturday's game.
If I could be so bold as to offer Willie a to-do list for today's practice, I'd put the power play at the top of the list. After going 3-for-4 against Washington during the road trip, the power play has dried up completely, not producing a single goal in the last six games.
The Canucks showed decent urgency and got some shots through when John Klingberg went to the box for tripping Nick Bonino midway through the third period, but they barely got a sniff during three opportunities in the first.
I know the second unit hasn't done much this year, but I was also watching just how long the Sedin unit stayed on the ice during their chances last night. Though there might be something to be said for keeping the pressure high and tiring out the other team's penalty-killers, it's pretty tough for a second group to get anything done when they have just a few seconds to work at the end of a power play.
Willie did deploy Alex Burrows in the Linden Vey spot up front on Wednesday. Once again, I'll offer my suggestion that they think about putting a big body in front of the net to create a screen and wreak some havoc.
The Canucks' more conservative playing style was noticeable last night as "not making mistakes" moved up the list of priorities above "generating chances." The new defensive pairings seemed less terrifying but they were also used less: Alex Edler played nearly 29 minutes while the Sbisa/Weber combo got less than half of that.
Kevin Bieksa had a busy night that included five blocked shots. With the net empty during the dying seconds, he fired his own point shot straight into the shin pads of Antoine Roussel, which led directly to the empty-net goal, but that was the only significant slip-up I saw him make during the course of the game.
The clock is ticking towards the holiday trade freeze, and my guess is that the Canucks are going to try to get out of this mess with the players they have. It's still quiet all around the league.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about Tom Sestito's situation, which sounds like it's getting close to a breaking point.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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