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Vancouver Canucks Game Review: Canucks In '90s Form as Lack Steals Point |
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Thursday March 5 - Vancouver Canucks 3 - Arizona Coyotes 2 (S/O)
All things considered, the Vancouver Canucks should consider themselves fortunate that they left Glendale with a point in their pockets after Thursday night's performance.
Here are your highlights:
I enjoyed the retro night theme, with the old-school Phoenix jerseys, though the lineup of veteran Coyotes that was introduced as part of Jeremy Roenick's tribute night was bittersweet. It was great to see our old buddy "Greg Adams! Greg Adams! Greg Adams!" but Keith Carney and Craig Janney still make my blood boil.
Ultimately, Janney did us a favour. He was the player awarded to the Canucks after the St. Louis Blues signed holdout forward Petr Nedved as a restricted free agent in the spring of 1994. The Canucks asked for Brendan Shanahan in return—the arbitrator awarded Janney.
The good news was that Janney refused to report to Vancouver—understandable, since he was a playmaking centre picking up oodles of points setting up Brett Hull. After a week of hemming and hawing, the Canucks traded Janney's rights back to the Blues in exchange for the package of Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican and Nathan Lafayette—the fuel that ignited the run to the '94 finals.
The Keith Carney story is not so cheery. He was acquired from Anaheim for a second-round pick and an exchange of fringe players at the 2006 trade deadline. Carney was never an offensive force, but he wasn't much good defensively, either—putting up just two assists and going minus-five in 18 games as the Canucks went 7-9-2 down the stretch and finished 17th overall, missing the playoffs by three points.
Perhaps Sean Burke's presence last night was the biggest symbol of the type of game the Canucks were going to have. He spent 16 games with Vancouver in the heart of the Mike Keenan years, between January and March of 1998. Burke went a dismal 4-9-2 as a Canuck, with a 3.51 goals-against average.
Don't get me wrong—I don't mean the Canucks' goaltending last night was on par with what Burke delivered during that time. Eddie Lack was sensational and was the main reason why the team was able to salvage a single point on Thursday.
I mean the team in front of the goaltender last night bore a stark resemblance to the defensively-challenged squad that finished last in the league with 273 goals against in 1997-98.
The turnover machine went into overdrive in overtime, handing the puck to the Coyotes again and again, while Lack was forced to make one big save after another.
Sadly, all that effort didn't get Vancouver any further in the standings, either. Lack's great OT performance was negated by Vancouver's inability to score on Mike Smith in the shootout.
The Coyotes went home with two points that they don't really want, and the Canucks saw their Pacific Division lead narrow to two points after shootout wins by both Calgary and Los Angeles. I'm not ready to write off the Flames just yet: they'll have a chance to draw even with Vancouver tonight when they take on the Detroit Red Wings.
What else?
• For the second straight game, the Canucks got beat even though they earned a rare victory in the faceoff circle. Vancouver had a 52-48 percent edge in draws on Thursday, after winning 65 percent of their draws on Tuesday against San Jose.
Maybe that number's not as important as we've been believing?
• Alex Edler made a couple of his typical giveaways late in the game but for the most part, he had a pretty strong night. In 24:55 of ice time (just below Dan Hamhuis' 26:40), Edler had seven shot attempts, three hits, three blocks and one takeaway to go along with his two giveaways.
• Alex Burrows also had a strong game in his return to action. He played 15:21, was a plus-one, and was shuffled back up to the Sedin line by the third period as the Canucks looked for a way to score some goals. He was on the ice for Radim Vrbata's clutch tying goal with 54 seconds left in the third period.
• The power play let the Canucks down again, but I thought there were some signs of hope on Thursday. Though the group was a discombobulated mess during Sam Gagner's first-period double minor, I thought a big part of the issue was integrating those injured players, Edler and Burrows, back into the special teams. Pressure was better on the man-advantage opportunities later in the game.
• Here's a head-scratcher for ya:
If you count the three upcoming games against the Los Angeles Kings, who are currently on the wrong side of the playoff bubble, the Canucks play 12 of their remaining 18 games against non-playoff teams, including two more against Arizona.
Is that going to be the Achilles heel that kills the Canucks' playoff chances?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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