Post-Game Talk: Apparently no one else is making one edition.

[Robongo01]

Last game of a cross continent 7 game road trip. Some of the players are battling the flu and you could tell they're tired as hell. In the words of Bob Cole ..Relax everybody, relax

 

[me2]

Team was gassed from a long trip and burned the last of the tank trying to come back from Miller's meltdown in Toronto, team gave it everything and had nothing left for Sens or Habs. Road two was two games too far. They were superb against the Pengs for example.

 

[biturbo19]

The bi-polar swing around here really gets tiresome. We are going to go through low points during the season. Two weeks ago Chicago wasn't even a playoff team while San Jose is still struggling to cling to eighth. Montreal just won their first game after losing six out of seven. It happens, especially when you are forced to play Edler and Tanev well beyond reasonably respectable minutes due to Hamhuis' injury.

My only concern is the nonexistence of our second line lately. It had made shutting down the Sedins not only the opposition's focal point, but a goal easily accomplished. We need to shift things around because apparently Higgins/Bonino/Burrows aren't.

Yeah. It's as though with the rapid decline from "Presidents Trophy" to "Tortorella Dumpster Fire", people have completely forgotten what the middleground looks like.

Most playoff teams lose games here and there, sometimes they even completely get blown out, other times they win games they probably shouldn't. There are hot and cold streaks, home stands and road trips...it's an adventure for nearly every team in the league.

But there IS something in between "Stanley Cup" and "Awful". And in that in between there will be some wins and some losses. Weird how that works.

 

[Jimson Hogarth*]

Team was gassed from a long trip and burned the last of the tank trying to come back from Miller's meltdown in Toronto, team gave it everything and had nothing left for Sens or Habs. Road two was two games too far. They were superb against the Pengs for example.

Seems like they left it all there though. i agree the team put forward a gutsy effort tho.

 

[Pip]

Glad that Miller had a bounce back game

 

[Pip]

I fear this is the truth.
If our guys are gased at game 30 - we are in trouble.

I don't care about being on the road.
The playoffs are a war. If we can't handle a few games on the east coast early in the regular season, we are in dire straits.

You might not care, but it doesn't mean that long road trips don't affect most teams

 

[Orca Smash]

The Canucks older players all looked tired as hell. Miller is in this group. So are the Sedins. Desjardins will have to manage minutes closely if he doesn't want burn out. That seems like an emerging issue.

Hamhuis absence has pushed the defense down to mid pack.

Eddie Lack should be drawing in more when the team is outside Pacific Standard Time. Early starts and jet lag simply affect younger guys less.

Henrik was a bit over 17 minutes last night, you do need him to perform well playing 17 minutes making that much money. The entire team was tired however not just the vets, hansen, dorsett, and tanev looked like the only guys unaffected, botchford is speculating they miss the sleep doctor, who knows. Its alot of hockey in a short time span with a thin roster, perhaps nothing could be done, but given how tired they looked various area's of sleep, travel, workload/practice/days off, recovery, nutrition, it might not hurt to investigate and look at improvements.

 

[vanuck]

Henrik was a bit over 17 minutes last night, you do need him to perform well playing 17 minutes making that much money. The entire team was tired however not just the vets, hansen, dorsett, and tanev looked like the only guys unaffected, botchford is speculating they miss the sleep doctor, who knows. Its alot of hockey in a short time span but given how tired they looked various things should be looked into.

Didn't Linden say they were keeping that sleep science stuff we used around? Though who knows, it's not like they've really said much about it.

 

[Orca Smash]

Didn't Linden say they were keeping that sleep science stuff we used around? Though who knows, it's not like they've really said much about it.

Wondering that as well, and I thought i read that to, discussing linden was really into that stuff, but botch from my impression was insinuating this type of fatigue did not happen under gillis due to the sleep doctor (him guessing). At least thats how i interpreted it in the provies tonight. Either he is suggesting hes not around anymore, or they are using him less.

Quote below.

Don’t remember them ever disintegrating at the end of a trip like that in the days of Gilly.

If they did, I missed a ton of great sleep doctor jokes which would have accompanied just such a fatigue-related collapse.

Either way, I’d be making a phone call to the sleep doctor just to double check. Since the days of Gilly, sleep has been seen by more and more teams as a performance-enhancing substance. Hate to see the Canucks miss out after being on the forefront of that one.

The fact the Canuks limited the Habs to 22 shots borders on being the stuff of miracles.

 

[Addison Rae]

Every team is tired after 7 game road trips, I've even seen it happen to teams like the Kings. Relax people.

 

[strattonius]

3 games in 4 nights at the end of a 7 game road trip. I don't like excuses either But that's the end of a very long road. Expecting the team to just 'ramp it up' is a hilarious notion.

Thought despite getting dominated in all areas of the ice the team still put up a gutsy effort.

 

[Serac]

A lot of hank's passes were terrible this game
Could see the fatigue
If hank is tired, no doubt the vast majority of the team is as well, considering hank's athleticism

 

[me2]

I fear this is the truth.
If our guys are gased at game 30 - we are in trouble.

I don't care about being on the road.
The playoffs are a war. If we can't handle a few games on the east coast early in the regular season, we are in dire straits.

1. There are no seven game road trips in the playoffs, most is 4 and that is with a decent rest (probably home rest too) between games 2 and 3.

2. Series wear both teams down so fatigue cancels to some degree.

 

[Orca Smash]

Interesting also seen a comment in the provies that the leafs have had the most home games and vc is 2nd in most road games, if this is as tired as we see the team this season (cross fingers) basically were doing alright, especially if they play good vs rangers back at home.

Unfortunately for the leafs they have a very tough december 20th to the end of January. It looks worse then ours, they have a 7 day road trip, return home for a couple days then go back on the road for another 4/5 games. I hope they enjoy a healthy line up right now.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Wow Canucks!!!!!! 8-6 on the road trip. I didn't expect a win tonight, but they got 1 point out of it! Woooo, great to return home..

Raycroft had an excelent game but **** up a little letting in 4 in a row in the SO.

8-5-1

6th game in 9 nights, 2nd of a back to back, 14th straight road game. If there was ever a time to be gassed in the 3rd period, this was it.

What I really appreciated about this game was that even though the Canucks were gassed in the 3rd and OT, they kept up their work rate, effort and continued to battle and grind. I think it shows a lot about their hunger and character to keep pushing.

It was pretty clear that they were fatigued. Some shifts on OT was pretty clear that they were tired.

Now they're going home!

Congratz on a successful road trip! 8-5-1!

Before they left I said they would be 9-5.

They end up 8-5-1

All in all... hard to complain when you consider the monster nature of that roadie. I doubt many teams would fair much better on a trip like that.

Generally speaking, wasn't a bad performance for the last game of the roadtrip with your backup in net.

We ran out of gas with about 10-12 minutes left and basically just played for the OT.

FWIW, these are comments after our monster Olympic trip in 2010.

 

[Jyrki]

^Damn, I hadn't read the word "Raycroft" in a while.

 

[DCantheDDad]

Long trip = tired players, especially when the trip ends with 3 games in 4 nights. I'm not yet worried.

 

[Regal]

With the second line ghosting and the Sedins looking underwhelming as well, I think maybe it's time to try Vrby off the top line for a bit to switch things up. Maybe he gets things going with Bonino. It's funny because AV was frequently frustrating with his line juggling, but I think Willie has been the opposite and too staunch in what he seems to think should work. Burrows is struggling but I'd like to see him tried with the Sedins for a bit and see if he can't get them out of the perimeter game they've been playing. I even wonder if Matthias might be an option when he's back as I think he might provide the big body presence people who always want Kassian with them seem to hope for.

 

[CherryToke]

from the same Botchford article;

"In 10 games against teams I would arbitrarily call “real good” teams (Anaheim X2, Montrea X2, LA, Chicago, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Detroit and St. Louis) the Sedins have combined for just one goal and six assists."

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2014/12/09/the-provies-the-canucks-miss-their-energy-weise-y-misses-his-chin-and-everyone-misses-the-sedins/

 

[hockeywoot]

With the lack of production from our second line, and the injuries to Kassian and Matthias, I would like Jensen to get more minutes.

 

[Serac]

With the lack of production from our second line, and the injuries to Kassian and Matthias, I would like Jensen to get more minutes.

I'd like Jensen with the twins
I thought he looked good there a few years ago when he got the opportunity

But of course I'll be crucified, getting told about defensive coverage and how the twins could make anyone, like a Bitz, look good

 

[Grumbler]

Liked this quote from WD when asked if the team was spent:

"you gotta learn from that, because you can't have that late in a series...we have to find a way to be better"

 

[CherryToke]

yeah I noticed that too. already thinking of the playoffs. good man.

 

[dwarf]

What an emotion filled game. Was tough to not shed a tear seeing Beliveau's wife holding her hands over her face.

Tough to not like the habs and their classy fans.

 

[tantalum]

Blech...

that is all I have to say about the game.

On the bright side Calgary lost and LA lost so it wasn't a bad night to do the same.