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Just a day after a 6-1 victory over Phoenix, the Vancouver Canucks were on the other end of a blowout as they fell to the San Jose Sharks, 5-0.
From start to finish the Sharks controlled play as they led 2-0 after 20 minutes and never looked back en route to their five goal victory.
Both teams dressed very competitive lineups loaded with NHL regulars, so it's not as if one side had a decisive advantage like we've seen at times throughout preseason.
Tomas Hertl (2), Dan Boyle, Joe Thornton and Logan Couture scored for San Jose while Antti Niemi stopped all 23 shots he faced.
Game notes
- Yannick Weber was pretty awful. His positioning was poor, he was chasing the play a lot and he didn't bring anything offensively to help make up for his defensive lapses. Almost every time he was on the ice the Sharks controlled play. That's not good when you're fighting for a roster spot.
I like Weber, but it seems he's either really good or really bad. There's no in-between, which isn't good.
- You know who else was bad? Weber's partner, Andrew Alberts. If he makes the team I'll be speechless. He's been bad all preseason long and I don't think he has much to offer the Canucks. They'd be better off keeping Frankie Corrado around, trying to trade for someone or bringing in a free agent defenseman like Ian White, Roman Hamrlik, Wade Redden or anyone else not named Andrew Alberts.
- Eddie Lack by no means had his finest outing, but he didn't get much help. The Canucks defensive zone coverage was poor and they were pinned in their end for a good portion of the game. At times they'd have a good shift or two, but then Alberts and Weber would come on the ice and any momentum they had would go down the drain. Lack's looked good for the most part this preseason so I wouldn't worry about this outing too much.
- The Canucks three young guns up front - Hunter Shinkaruk, Bo Horvat and Brendan Gaunce - were all near invisible. None of them did much at either end of the ice, which certainly isn't too encouraging.
With David Booth, Jordan Schroeder and Zack Kassian all injured or suspended, the Canucks need one or two of those kids to step up. So far none of them have done that and proved that they are undoubtedly NHL-ready. All three players look like they could benefit from another year or two of development in their respective junior leagues or the AHL.
- One bit of good news for the Canucks: Henrik and Daniel Sedin were very good. They each had several chances and posed the only real threats to beat Niemi.
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Eastern Conference playoff predictions.
Western Conference playoff predictions.
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