Vancouver Canuck Game Review/Game Day: Shutout Streak Ends, Break Looms (canucks)

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Vancouver Canuck Game Review/Game Day: Shutout Streak Ends, Break Looms

By Carol Schram

Jan 20, 2015 • 3:19 pm

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Monday January 19 - Vancouver Canucks 2 - Florida Panthers 1

Ryan Miller got within 2:32 of recording his third consecutive shutout as the Vancouver Canucks defeated Roberto Luongo and the Florida Panthers on Monday in front of 9,373 fans in Sunrise, Florida.

Here are your highlights:

In the end, Miller's shutout streak totalled 200 minutes and 45 seconds: a personal best for him but about two periods shy of Roberto Luongo's Canuck team record from 2008.

Thankfully, Brandon Pirri's late goal off a lost defensive-zone faceoff by Henrik Sedin didn't end up affecting the outcome of the game, though it did lead to an unexpectedly frantic finish.

The game looked like it was going to a be a laugher as Luongo allowed goals by Radim Vrbata and Bo Horvat in the first eight minutes of the game—on two consecutive Canucks shots, though they were almost five minutes apart. But Roberto settled down after that, making some great saves to keep his team in the game through 40 minutes and giving them an opportunity to press in the third, when they outshot Vancouver 10-1 (though Nick Bonino deserves credit for his shot at the empty net that was saved by Jussi Jokinen—officially, that counts as a blocked shot).

No matter how confident you are in your goaltender, those sleepy third periods are a tendency I'd like to see the Canucks put to bed. In this case, maybe they wanted to conserve some energy for tonight's game against Tampa Bay, but it nearly cost them some points on Monday.

As is pretty normal for the Canucks these days, they were outhit and outclassed in the face-off circle—still 24th in the league but keeping surprisingly good company sandwiched between Winnipeg and Nashville. Maybe those draws don't matter as much as the fancy-statters insist?

Some of the nastiness from the game in Vancouver 10 days ago did carry over, but the Panthers didn't seem nearly as tenacious on Monday as they did when they played in Vancouver. Willie Mitchell, in particular, was a beast in the game at Rogers Arena but was pretty quiet in his 19 minutes last night. I wonder if the 37-year-old was feeling especially fresh in Vancouver after several days off, then wore down due to a heavy travel schedule and seven games in 12 nights?

As for Zack Kassian, he wasn't exactly prominent. His stat line shows three hits and 1:19 of power-play time in his 14:04 of ice time, though his linemates Nick Bonino and Shawn Matthias had pretty decent games.

And I'd guess that someone told Chris Higgins to shoot the puck more. Though he didn't score on Monday, he was far more aggressive than he's been in awhile in taking the puck to the net. Higgins finished the night leading the team with five shots on goal—and with 3:51 of power-play time. There's a surprise!

It sounds like Kassian will get a chance to stay in the lineup for awhile. Brad Richardson was hurt last week in Carolina when he got hit in the ankle by a point shot from Chris Tanev. During the television broadcast, John Garrett was emphasizing that the ankle "wasn't broken," so from that information, I'm going to assume that Richardson will stay on the sidelines at least until after the All-Star Break.

Richardson did take part in the Canucks' optional morning skate in Tampa, as did Eddie Lack, so I'd guess that red-hot Ryan will make his fourth consecutive start tonight.

Over on the broadcast side, John Shorthouse also remains out of action. Joey Kenward mentioned last night that Shorty is now back in Vancouver, recuperating, and is expected to resume his regular duties next week.

On balance, I'd say that Kenward has done a pretty good job under challenging circumstances, though players tend to be "whistled for the offside" or "whistled for icing" with alarming frequency. Listen for it tonight...

Tuesday January 20 - Vancouver Canucks at Tampa Bay Lightning - 4:30 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, TEAM1040

Vancouver Canucks: 26-15-3, 55 points, second in Pacific Division Tampa Bay Lightning: 29-14-4, 62 points, first in Atlantic Division

So—we put Mr. Luongo out of our minds for another year and turn our attention to the impressive Tampa Bay Lightning, who hold down top spot in the Atlantic Division.

The Lightning are also an intimidating 18-4-1 on home ice this season and are looking to wrap up a three-game homestand on a perfect note heading into the All-Star Break after wins over Edmonton and Colorado last week. They've won seven in a row at home and would tie a franchise record with another win tonight.

The Lightning do have a couple of holes on their blue line. Radko Gudas is out of action with a season-ending knee injury and Matt Carle has just been sidelined for 6-8 weeks with an abdominal problem. Call-ups Luke Witkowski and Nikita Nesterov could form an exploitable third pairing if Willie Desjardins is able to win the matchup battle against Tampa Bay's outstanding coach, Jon Cooper.

I really like Cooper's story. He was born in Prince George and played hockey only sporadically while attending college and earning his law degree. He worked as a public defender for several years, coaching hockey on the side and ultimately working his way all the way up from high school hockey to the NHL. Sportsnet ran a great feature on him last year, that's worth checking out.

Expect to see Ben Bishop get the start tonight for Tampa Bay.

A couple of other quick notes from the Twittersphere before I wrap up today.

Though no longer on-ice contributors with the Lightning, it looks like both Matthias Ohlund and Sami Salo have kept their homes in Florida:

And a note on a former Canucks and Lightning coach, who appears to have done all right in the market when he sold his Point Roberts abode last August. I always wondered what kind of house he lived in—naturally, it's one with massive acreage.

Enjoy the game. Here's hoping we can get into the All-Star Break on a positive note!

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