Post-Game Talk: Dank you very much (Canucks beat Sens 4-3 in OT)

[TheWanderer]

Good game for the Canucks, and the Sens did a solid job of staying in it. Entertaining, for sure. Here's my breakdown, for what it's worth:

Sedins - Absolute domination. I can't express how glad I am that they are looking like themselves again. Daniel got 6 shots on net this game - I like to see that.

Hansen - Solid game, but his lack of finish can be frustrating. I think if Burrows or Vrbata was on this line, the first line would have generated two more goals at least. Luckily, Hansen made up for it with his hard work - he was certainly a contributing factor to the line's impressive possession game tonight. Overall, I hope he continues to play this way when he is bumped off the first line.

Burrows - fantastic game. Looked like his old self - hard on the puck, good on all 200ft of the ice, and opportunistic as we like to see.

Bonino - Deserved more than a single point this game. Excellent stick handling, vision, and also defensive play.

Higgins - Solid again. Funny that the criticism against Higgins has always been consistency; he brings it every night.

Matthias - What a game. This is how he was playing last year (on a worse team), and I'm glad to see that he has warmed up. Strong on the puck, on the wall. Using his body properly.

Richardson - Kind of up and down in this game. He seemed a little scrambly, to be honest.

Vey - Decent in the offensive zone, less so defensively. I'm glad that his positives have been outweighing his negatives; that's what we like to see from a rookie. This game was no different.

DeFazio - Hard on the puck. Kind of looked like Hansen out there, really. I thought he deserved more ice time than he was given.

Horvat - I like what I've seen of Horvat, and I really believe he deserves more ice time than he has been getting. However, 25% on the dot tonight isn't really acceptable if we are hoping to bring him in as a center.

Jensen - A couple good shifts, but I was surprised to see his ice time was near 8 minutes. I thought I saw him as little as I saw Horvat/DeFazio, who were down around 5. Jensen needs to get a little more involved, if you ask me. At least he didn't look bad out there, but he isn't exactly making a case to be sticking with the team at the moment. I thought Horvat and DeFazio played better.


Edler and Tanev looked solid. 25 minutes for Edler... I can't remember the last time he looked that good with such a workload. He's typically the guy who plays better with less ice time.

Hamhuis and Weber left something to be desired. The usual fire drill in the defensive zone seemed to come when they were on the ice. At the same time, I don't find myself wishing Sbisa was there instead. I still think we need to upgrade that position. We are lucky we haven't been scored on so badly in these situations, considering we have been winning a lot of 1 goal games.

Stanton and Bieksa are a good pairing, and they were last year as well. Bieksa finally had a decent game, which is good to see. Knowing his mercurial self, I would like to think that we'll see a decent stretch from Bieksa going forward here.

Miller had a pretty bad game, to be honest. Luckily, it came at a time when the offense was playing well. Ottawa should not have been in it, but Miller was letting out bad rebounds, and he was making some bad plays behind the net as well. Considering the reports we have been hearing, I'd like it if Melanson worked on this a little bit. In the mean time, I think Lack deserves a game after that showing in Anaheim.


The reffing was deplorable in both directions. At least it was a wash...

 

[The Stig]

 

[erik19]

Hansen had the "third assist" on Bieksa's goal and Daniel's OT goal.

Did a ton in this game even if it didn't show up on the scoresheet.

 

[Spamhuis]

Burrows, Jensen. Even Matthias or Vey could be passable. Matthias with his play as of late has done just as much to earn a shot with the twins as Hansen has.

I wish we had someone who could play 2nd line centre other than Bonino, I really wonder how he would fare with the twins.



We have a lot of new faces on the team.

The 2nd line is playing great, why take burrows off and ruin it?. Matthias and vey are not strong enough defensively.

Jensen.. Maybe. I wouldn't really stake games on it if I'm an NHL coach though.

The sedins controlled 70% of shots with Hansen. That's very elite, and we won the game.

Last game with vey out with them they controlled 30% of the shot attempts

 

[krag]

Burrows, Jensen. Even Matthias or Vey could be passable. Matthias with his play as of late has done just as much to earn a shot with the twins as Hansen has.

If you put Burrows on the first line, you wreck what is right now an amazing second line. Matthias has played fantastic as of late but I don't expect him to be much of an upgrade over Hansen when it comes to finishing plays. Vey is incredibly suspect defensively as a winger, and while the Sedins aren't hopeless on the defensive side, they won't carry anyone. Jensen is unproven to say the least defensively.

I'd love for Vrbs to be healthy and get back on the first line for some true finishing, but guess what, he's not, so Hansen is playing there because it's probably the safest solution.

 

[kanucks25]

Obviously mostly positives to take out of this game but everyone has already covered those so I'll nitpick on some small negatives:

1) Horvat needs to be given more time. He's shown nothing to suggest that he would be a liability in any situation.

2) If you're not going to put Jensen with skill players (Sedins) just send him down so he can play top minutes in the AHL. It's a complete waste of time to stick him on the 3rd and 4th line with grinders.

3) Miller hasn't been as sharp in his last two starts but I wouldn't worry just yet. His W/L stats are amazing and it's not just because of the skaters in front of him.

4) Feels like I'm gonna complain about this after every game for the rest of the year: Hamhuis and Bieksa still on the 2nd unit power-play. How bloody awful do they have to be to be taken off? It's getting ridiculous. Tanev has shown that he is a much better offensive option than either of them, it's obvious.

e: I guess it's more questionable lineup decisions than actual negatives lol.

 

[Pip]

Tanev makes really smart passes offensively. That one to Bonino who set up Burr showed really good patience and vision.

His TOI is going up every game it seems.

 

[Powder]

Horvat - I like what I've seen of Horvat, and I really believe he deserves more ice time than he has been getting. However, 25% on the dot tonight isn't really acceptable if we are hoping to bring him in as a center.

Every centre has an off game on occasion, in fact, rather often. He was 2 for 8 tonight which puts him at 28 for 52 so far by my count, 53.8%. To say it's not acceptable for him to have one bad game on the faceoff dot is a bit extreme.

Just to play devil's advocate, who knows how many faceoffs he could've won were he given more opportunity... maybe wins a few more.

 

[Pip]

Every centre has an off game on occasion, in fact, rather often. He was 2 for 8 tonight which puts him at 28 for 52 so far by my count, 53.8%. To say it's not acceptable for him to have one bad game on the faceoff dot is a bit extreme.

Just to play devil's advocate, who knows how many faceoffs he could've won were he given more opportunity... maybe wins a few more.

Yeah. Richardson has generally been good for us in the dot, but was 30%. Tonight

It happens, especially with only a handful of draws taken.

 

[TheWanderer]

Every centre has an off game on occasion, in fact, rather often. He was 2 for 8 tonight which puts him at 28 for 52 so far by my count, 53.8%. To say it's not acceptable for him to have one bad game on the faceoff dot is a bit extreme.

Just to play devil's advocate, who knows how many faceoffs he could've won were he given more opportunity... maybe wins a few more.

Thankfully, my opinion of his face-off skills isn't based off of a single game. I can see why WD lost confidence in him for a game as close as this one was - as he states in his interview, Ottawa was playing their top line a lot. In a game like this, I wouldn't want to keep seeing Horvat lose face-offs to Kyle Turris.

If we were up by two goals, I bet we would have seen a lot more of Horvat. At the same time, I don't really feel like Horvat needs to be so sheltered. I think he should make the team, given what I have seen of him.

 

[Pip]

Thankfully, my opinion of his face-off skills isn't based off of a single game. I can see why WD lost confidence in him for a game as close as this one was - as he states in his interview, Ottawa was playing their top line a lot. In a game like this, I wouldn't want to keep seeing Horvat lose face-offs to Kyle Turris.

If we were up by two goals, I bet we would have seen a lot more of Horvat. At the same time, I don't really feel like Horvat needs to be so sheltered. I think he should make the team, given what I have seen of him.

They played their top line about as much as we did, while playing their fourth line (a kid line) a lot more minutes who I didn't think were really much better than ours.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Rockin' to the top

 

[Langdon Alger]

Good game guys, well not so much for Ottawa as we played like hot garbage, but good game for you guys. Maybe we will get you next time.

 

[CanucksMJL]

Horvat didn't need sheltering. His line did.. Mostly Jensen imo

 

[alternate]

Hansen had a great game. It's just that when a final touch was needed from him, he doesn't consistently deliver. If he was playing with Matthias and Richardson, we'd all be raving about his game. Might be the best choice right now with the twins, but he's just not a great fit.

Sedins did their thing. Ho hum.

Edler-Tanev, beasts. Really becoming a dominant pairing in Desjardins system. Both played excellent.

Second line was fantastic. I can't help wanting to push Burrows into the bottom 6, but that line is winning. Not sure what the zone start stats say, but seems they're doing their share of the heavy lifting defensively. Probably our best 200 foot line, game in game out. Just wish it wasn't also our 2nd PP unit.

Disappointed Willie didn't get the kids more time. Glad he didn't just pile the minutes on the Sedins though, didn't play 4 line hockey but spread the time pretty good between the top 9 forwards.

Weber is a solid #7 guy and I like him, but I do feel Hamhuis-Sbisa is the much superior pairing.

Hopefully we'll start getting some guys back in. Hard to play 4 rookie forwards, especially all in the bottom 6. Get one or two guys back and we should see 4 lines rolling again. Want to see Bo get more ice time, but I'd rather see him getting these minutes in the NHL (as long as he continues to look solid in those minutes) than big minutes in the OHL. Maybe let him go play world juniors but I don't think he should be sent down.

 

[TheWanderer]

They played their top line about as much as we did, while playing their fourth line (a kid line) a lot more minutes who I didn't think were really much better than ours.

Well that was his own answer to a question he... didn't seem to know how to answer.

All of our lines played well, and I agree that the 4th line deserved more time. If anything looked bad this game, it was the defence (and Miller, tbh)

 

[TheWanderer]

I want to see the rookies spread out a little more so that we can roll the 4 lines again. I'm really not happy with the minutes the 4th line got. The Sedins were well above 20 minutes tonight. After a road trip like that, I'm not happy with this.

 

[ShouldveDraftedFiala]

AV coached teams never brought consistent efforts like this. Willie D is the man.

back to back president trophies. never consistent.

 

[Orca Smash]

I want to see the rookies spread out a little more so that we can roll the 4 lines again. I'm really not happy with the minutes the 4th line got. The Sedins were well above 20 minutes tonight. After a road trip like that, I'm not happy with this.

Henrik played a little over 20 and thats to be expected considering how much they played in OT.

Not sure why daniel was so high tonight, but for top forwards the sedins are ranked 24th and 29th in the nhl averaging a bit over 19 minutes, thats pretty standard for top forwards. And thats without a ryan kesler on the team who soaked up a alot of hard minutes for years.

Last year they were top 4-5 right now.

 

[StrictlyCommercial]

A lot of guys had really solid games (Matthias, Sedins, 2nd line), but man, Ottawa was downright awful for a lot of the game. Particularly in that first period, we should have come out of that with a few goals.

Good win, but we're still not quite there.

 

[Orca Smash]

A lot of guys had really solid games (Matthias, Sedins, 2nd line), but man, Ottawa was downright awful for a lot of the game. Particularly in that first period, we should have come out of that with a few goals.

Good win, but we're still not quite there.

I agree but we have to keep in mind how good anderson has been. Not to make excuse they do need to bury chances better, but anderson has been amazing so far this season, last i looked he was leading the league in SV% (among starters) and fourth in GAA.

 

[EpochLink]

Good game guys, well not so much for Ottawa as we played like hot garbage, but good game for you guys. Maybe we will get you next time.

You guys pushed us to OT, your team is good..Ottawa has the stuff to make a good season.

 

[biturbo19]

Excellent performance. Better team from start to finish and should have won comfortably. Felt like karma was going to pay us back for the SJ game but we pulled it out in the end.

- Hansen was absolutely awesome tonight ... if he was playing on the 3rd line. Skated miles and made things happen all night. Just such a poor fit on that top line. Once he's put back in a normal place in the lineup, his strong play bodes well, though. Hasn't skated this well in a couple years.

- Sedins create two goals and dominate possession despite playing with a square peg. Excellent performance.

- 2nd line terrific again. Unlucky to only score one goal. Burrows in particular was outstanding.

- Matthias is getting better every game and was outstanding tonight. Best game as a Canuck - dominated along the boards and scored a highlight-reel goal. Carried that line tonight.

- Vey picked up a point but struggled badly again defensively. Looked better on the 4th line in the first than with the 3rd line later.

- same story as the Duck game for Jensen. Starts on 3rd line, does nothing, demoted. Not exactly getting much of a leash, though.

- Horvat and Defazio both looked great in the 1st and then barely played again. Not sure if there's much point in keeping Horvat around if he's playing this little.

- Tanev and Edler were awesome. Controlled play all night.

- Bieksa has been a bit better the past couple games after his brutal start to the season. Hopefully the goal is a confidence builder. Stanton had a nice game tonight, rock solid.

- Hamhuis-Weber were very good as we'll save for some soft coverage on the 3-3 goal.

- Miller had a rough night. Had little to do but had poor rebound control and wasn't sharp.

- PP still sucks. About to fall out of the top 20.

Agree with pretty much all of this. Good summary, as usual.

I do disagree with a few things though.

-Weber first and foremost, i really wouldn't call "good" tonight. He made some real nice plays with the puck on his stick, but he was poor on the PP which should be his "niche", and defensively he was bullied all night long. Was muscled out of the way on a goal, poor effort with panic in clearing the zone on another, and if not for a delayed penalty, would've been burned by being physically overmatched on the Neal non-goal as well. Multiple other times tonight he just coughed the puck along to someone else to make it "their problem". And a lot of struggles on the wall throughout. Kind of like the Vey of the defence...but being a defenceman, with the primary function of...defending, it's a lot more detrimental i think.

-DeFazio was decent in his extremely limited time. Wouldn't call it "great" though. In particular, there were a few times he looked more than a little bit lost in coverage to me, specifically on some exchange situations. Though i'll give him the benefit of the doubt...he's barely had a moment to get situated and familiar with the nuances here and the guys he's playing with in this system.

-Stanton was good. Everything you'd expect from him, but i wouldn't say "rock solid". Some bobbled pucks, questionable outlets, swimming a few times. Nothing that would surprise me for a player in his role. Just not a rock of any kind imo.

Particularly agree with a few other little things you mentioned though:

-PP is frustrating. One of the biggest things this game and the last, is that Henrik is loathe to collapse down to the net and capitalize on some juicy rebounds there. With Vrbata missing on the back side, it changes the look of things a lot and it's resulted in more than a few 50-50 pucks lying loose at the edges of the LW circle...Hank far more interested in retrieving and curling back to set up again. I appreciate the value of possessing the puck, but at times it's a bit over the top and feels like they're trying to score the perfect PP setup goal rather than being opportunistic with what's there. 2nd Unit is just a disaster, just everything wrong. Wrong personnel, wrong approach, wrong everything. Needs some sort of direction and purpose, doesn't seem to have one.

-Vey looking better on the 4th line than the 3rd. I really didn't understand why Willie D and Co. went away from those groupings up front. Jensen looked like a much better with with the Richardson-Matthias duo, working the boards, cycling, trying to find an open man in front and mash it in. Vey looked a lot better with Horvat and DeFazio handling most of the board work, putting him in more of a situation to play to more favourable matchups and to play with a bit more time/space and control the puck a bit more effectively. Didn't have a bad game offensively once moved up either, but the combos seemed to be working fine and Jensen/Vey were jumbled for no apparent reason that i could discern.

As far as the 4th line being benched for half the game...i kind of understand what Willie D was going for with that, and it's entirely reasonable. Once you end up getting those guys out of rhythm, especially as very young/inexperienced players used to playing a regular shift, it can be really tough to get them back in the game in pressure situations late. That's fair. But the issue is in why they were taken out of rhythm in the first place...because they aren't trusted. When it comes to someone like Bo, if Willie D isn't going to trust him out there...it's going to result in a lot of these 6 minute games, and that just isn't a good situation for Horvat to be developing in.

 

[Bean in Charge]

People are saying that if Vrbata (or basically anyone but Hansen) had been on that first line we would have had more goals are choosing to ignore how much of an impact Hansen has on creating space and time for the Twins.

Watch him puck retrieve when the Sedins fudge a pass up. Watch his boardplay when the D men dump the puck in. He's amazing at generating space for them, much like Bertuzzi used to do for Naslund/Morrison.

He may be god awful at finishing, but a lot of the chances that line have been generating have been in part due to his hustle that someone like Vrbata cannot offer.

If only we could combine Hansens speed/hustle with Vrbata's mind and finish...

 

[IntangiBo]

Tanev makes really smart passes offensively. That one to Bonino who set up Burr showed really good patience and vision.

His TOI is going up every game it seems.

How Tanev continues to end up in trade proposals is baffling.