Sunday December 28: Anaheim Ducks 2 - Vancouver Canucks 1 (OT)
The rested Vancouver Canucks looked like they were on the wrong end of the advantage as they were outskated and outworked by the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday at Honda Center, ultimately falling in overtime.
Here are your highlights:
The game is just the second of the year where the Canucks have failed to record the win when leading after two periods. They're now 13-0-2. (By contrast, they were 21-5-2 for all of last season, when late leads slipped away regularly.)
That being said, Vancouver was pretty lucky to have the lead in the first place. After an uninspired but evenly-played first period, Yannick Weber threaded a shot from the point through a crowd and past Frederik Andersen to put Vancouver up 1-0 at the 2:04 mark of the second period.
After the goal, the Canucks managed just five more shots in the remaining 40-ish minutes of play: three in the second period, two in the third and none in overtime. Yikes.
Despite having played the night before, the Ducks got stronger as the game went on, finishing with a 31-14 shot advantage in the game. Ryan Miller looked strong, and got some help from his posts as Jakob Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano both hit posts and Cogliano also rang one off the crossbar.
The Ducks tied the game on Francois Beauchemin's first of the year at the 6:23 mark of the third. The Canucks did mount some pressure late in the period, but three late blocked shots by the Ducks preserved the tie and sent the game to overtime.
For a minute, it looked like Vancouver could escape with the win as Daniel Sedin was sprung on a near breakaway, but the bad ice in the late stages at the Honda Center spoiled his chance. Are we still in favour of having eliminated the dry scrape?
Cam Fowler put the Canucks out of their misery at the 2:42 mark of the extra frame on a scrambly play. Ryan Miller had no chance on the rebound after stopping an earlier shot from Devante Smith-Pelly.
So, not many silver linings out of this one. Miller looked good, and Vancouver was lucky to earn a point. That's enough to move the Canucks up to second in the Pacific for the moment. They're tied with Los Angeles and San Jose with 43 points—and play both those teams this week—but get the higher seeding right now thanks to their games in hand.
Sunday's outing was particularly rough for the defense pairing of Alex Edler and Chris Tanev, who have been so reliable for most of the year. They looked terrible on the winning goal and finished the night minus-two, with two giveaways for Edler and one for Tanev.
After that league-leading minus-39 last season, Edler was a respectable plus-four this year at the Christmas break. Hopefully he and Tanev can shake off the cobwebs and get back to their strong play on Tuesday against the Sharks.
A couple more tidbits to chew on:
• Ryan Kesler had three shots, three hits and went 10-5 in the face-off circle, but didn't pose a serious threat. FYI, Nick Bonino had one shot, four misses, one hit and went 9-9.
• Overall, the Ducks won 57 percent of the draws. It was a rough night for Bo Horvat, who was 3-10 and lost the crucial defensive-zone face off to Ryan Getzlaf that led directly to Francois Beauchemin's tying goal.
Playoff Bound?
Over the holidays, ESPN's Pierre LeBrun
weighed in with his thoughts on which bubble teams would be in the playoff picture at the end of the season. He figures Vancouver will be fighting it out with Winnipeg, Calgary and possibly Minnesota—but should prevail.
Dan Murphy
also has a good piece on the Sportsnet website. He offers some analysis to go along with the fancy stat numbers, but stops short of saying whether Vancouver will be in or out.
What do you think?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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