Watched the game a little later tonight. My impression is, well, the Canucks tried hard, and they could've won the game. A bounce here or there (or a call), and the score's different. Then again, an unfavorable bounce or two, and we could have a blowout against.
The Canucks will have a whole lot of nights like this. It's the game-plan. Try to turn every game, every possession into a fifty/fifty battle. The Canucks don't have the talent to win games outright, so they have to work hard, and fight for every possession. But as tonight shows, a gap in talent ends up with a result like tonight.
Some thoughts:
- The Canucks weren't horribly outplayed by the eye test nor by metric. The score reflects the play on the ice, too. Honestly, though, what happened was, the Canucks raised their level of play, and the Blues played down to the Canucks' level of play at times, but turned up their level of play when they needed to.
- The players (Eriksson, Sutter, Dorsett, Edler, Pouliot) matching up with the Schenn-Schwartz-Tarensenko line were absolutely murdered. This checking line, and the pairing both need to be changed up. Unfortunately, due to the roster construction, they have no other options. Who's an actual two-way player on the Canucks roster? Eriksson? For the forwards, he's about the only two-way player left, and he's just returned from injury. On defense, Edler's probably the only two-way defender. And he's just returned from injury, too.
- If Green wants an actual shutdown line, he should probably use an Eriksson-Burmistrov-Gaunce line. I doubt it though. It moves both Sutter and Dorsett down the lineup, and the coach seems to have some sort of fixation on making this line work.
- On defense, for the next game I would like Hutton-Stetcher (if he returns), Edler-Biega, and Del Zotto-Pouliot. Hutton's stepped up his game this season, and should be able ease Stetcher back into the lineup. Biega's been a bit of a glue guy, making the Canucks' defensive pairings work to a degree. I'd like to keep Gudbransson out of the lineup entirely. The actual lineup though will probably be Hutton-Gudbransson, Del Zotto-Stetcher, and Edler-Pouliot.
- The Sedins had some vintage Sedin shifts in the first period, but when Virtanen's level of play dipped, they stopped being a factor. The Canucks really need another two-way player who can play the right wing so that the Sedins can play third periods.
- The Edler-Pouliot pairing was broken up in the third, thankfully. Edler's getting back into the flow of things, but still looks a bit weak on his skates, getting knocked down in puck battles he usually dominates. He's regaining form quickly, but he's still probably two to three weeks off from reaching his normal level of play.