Post-Game Talk: Game #39: Canucks 2, Jets 1 - Eddie Lack to the Rescue!

[Win One Before I Die]

I was hoping they pulled Luongo cause he got traded. Eddie Eddie Eddie!

 

[ddawg1950]

Dustin Byfuglien actually did us a favour knocking out Luongo, if it was him in net, we will lose this game.

Now you're just embarrassing yourself.

 

[Wetcoaster]

As a Canadian Luongo leaving the game has me worried. What's his status?

Per the presser. Tortorella on Luongo's injury - Lower body. Day to day.

 

[Diamonddog01]

Cliff Ronning disappeared off the face of the earth after that ceremony. Coincidence? I think not, I say. I THINK NOT.

Actually I saw lil' Cliffy at the Indochino traveling tailor event recently. But yes, it was very awkward to parade him out there to pull a hockey stick in a box.

Thank god that banner was taken down and never spoken of.

 

[orcatown]

Canucks clung to the system long enough to gut out a win. Nothing pretty about this game but a ton better then blowing a game in the third. Time to get some triage and get some people well.

The Good

Hamhuis - thought he was outstanding. Bulwark on the back end. Did a huge job of stripping the puck away from the Jets and moving it out of danger. He is truly Team Canada material if anyone is watching

Tanev - guy's progression remains amazing. Looks to me like there is room still to grow, especially with the offense.

Lack - outstanding again. I don't think anyone could have expected more than this. Thought Luongo while he was in was doing very well also.

Kassian - first time this year, I believe, I've seen his play as good. Clearly not perfect but real positive in this game. With Booth forms a pretty helter skelter line but got good match ups in this game (other than the last shift out) giving him a chance to show some impressive offense. Truly important that he continues the recent run of better play.

Booth - one player on the team that does drive the net. Thought he made some undisciplined line changes but he was helpful in this game.

Richardson - always seems to contribute. Line played well. Needs to improve on his face offs however.

The Bad

Bieksa - give him credit for hanging in in a game where he obviously wasn't up to snuff. Always has a great heart. However, Bieksa has been trending down for awhile and tonight he made a number of terrible giveaways. Guy gets in moods like this and starts fighting the world and the puck. NOt using his legs to get him out of trouble or in better positions to make a play.

The Ugly

Alberts - I've sort of been Alberts' corner but it's hard to stay supportive when you see slipshod efforts like this. Yanked for most of the game because of real bad coverage problems. Alberts has never been very good but certainly better than he has looked the last while. Needs to star eliminating people from the play and stop chasing around his end. Torts is plainly not impressed and Alberts days may be numbered


Other Thoughts

If they get people back wouldn't like to see Kesler with Booth and Kassian. Line gives you good size and Kesler a good defensive element. Line might have the ability to provide you the kind of forecheck and net presence Canucks haven't shown much this season. Also gets Santorelli back to center where I think he is most effective and Richardson to the 4th line

Well reffed game. Game where they just enough go to keep from getting suckered in to calls. That one official sure took a tumble. Landing like that on your backbone hurts like hell and kudos for the attempt to keep going

Weber skated a little better but again got overwhelmed by size around his net. Also, did not look very good on the PP which is suppose to be his long suit. Needless to say he is just a stop gap so whatever you get is a bonus.

Hope Luongo is not hurt to the point where he'll be out for sustained period or that he will not be able to make the Olymypics. Difficult to determine what Buffalo brain was doing on the play

Dalpe gives indications that he could produce some offense but simply isn't . Might lack the strength to fight thru checks and probably back in the PB if Canucks get everyone back.

 

[Wetcoaster]

 

[ohnoeszz]

So everyone noticed Kassian's back check after Bieksa's shot right? If not, please rematch those highlights.

 

[tc 23]

Chris "Awesome" Tanev.

 

[vancityluongo]

We finally won a game 2-1. And only somewhat surprising is that Lack was in net for it instead of Luongo. Excited that Lack might get a few more games after the break, but obviously no one wants Lu to be injured. Still, playing a 34 year old the most in the league is risking that something like this could happen. Hopefully Lu can make a quick recovery.

Only caught bits of the game, but the Sedins admittedly did not look great. Hopefully this break does them and the rest of the team some good.

 

[canuck4life16]

Now you're just embarrassing yourself.

Ignore the luongo haters they do anything to bash hin

 

[lousy]

Dustin Byfuglien actually did us a favour knocking out Luongo, if it was him in net, we will lose this game.

Thanks for this... everyone please take note that this poster can predict the future and is definitely not a nut case.

 

[shottasasa]

Dustin Byfuglien actually did us a favour knocking out Luongo, if it was him in net, we will lose this game.

This is is only your opinion, not a fact. Luongo has one many low scoring games and is currently sporting pretty decent numbers with a .920 save percentage. While I am thankful for Eddie's play and believe he could carry this on all season, he may also come back down to earth. I think there is a massive difference between being a starter and back up in this league. I'm just glad Eddie had turned out as well as we expected after his time in the AHL.

Kassian has shown some great offensive instincts, and has had much better consistency over the last 10 games though still a work in progress. He doesn't panic with the puck on his stick in the O zone and finally someone buried one of his great passes. A player like that will also turn the puck over a couple of times in the offensive zone but when he connects he creates wide open scoring chances.

I like Richardson and his hard work but I still think he is better suited to the fourth line. I really want to see Schroeder, Kesler or Santorelli between Kassian and Booth, I think that could really produce an offensive line.

I am hoping Alberts can play his way into some kind of form given a few more games if Stanton and Edler are out for much longer because tonight was not a good night. The only way that will happen though is with game time, which he has had precious little of. It's a vicious circle, doesn't get much game time because he has been rusty and not up to snuff, needs more game time to shake off the rust and get in the groove. I still think he can be a serviceable 6th d-man in Torts system where he would only get 12-14 mins a game.

Or we could call up Corrado...

 

[vancityluongo]

Lack and Tanev are both gems. Great to see the younger guys have such a huge role on this team. Kassian had a huge game tonight from what I saw too. The vision on that assist is a play that very few players on this team are capable of making, hopefully we see more of that in the future.

IMO, Gillis has absolutely lived up to his promise of the team getting younger, although in some cases he likely didn't anticipate just how much of a role these guys would be having (Stanton). These are the types of players that need to come into the lineup to make a team "younger." Not raw 19 year old rookies.

Props to Gillis for recognizing that, and shame on the Oilers management for completely failing to understand that concept.

 

[Wetcoaster]

I was hoping they pulled Luongo cause he got traded. Eddie Eddie Eddie!

Why would you hope for that?

Also it is a fantasy as the NHL roster freeze is in effect.

The NHL’s holiday roster freeze went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday and runs through 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 28. While trades, loans and moves that require waivers are prohibited during this window, there are exceptions to the freeze that allow teams to adjust their rosters in certain situations.

According to the collective bargaining agreement, players may still be recalled by NHL teams during the freeze. And players who were recalled after Dec. 11 may be loaned to the AHL up to 11:59 p.m. Dec. 23 as long as that player is not required to pass through waivers.​

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...0/a-primer-on-the-nhls-holiday-roster-freeze/

 

[opendoor]

Looking back to past years, I noticed that the Canucks' .641 record is their 2nd best record at the Christmas break in the last decade, behind only the 10-11 team. Not bad given their slow first couple of weeks and November slump.

 

[Wetcoaster]

The Luongo injury:

[NHL]518952[/NHL]

 

[y2kcanucks]

Wasn't able to watch tonight, what happened to Lu?

Had to leave early to catch his flight to Florida for Christmas.

In all seriousness though, the Lu hate that's going on in this thread is sickening, and completely absurd.

 

[thepuckmonster]

Had to leave early to catch his flight to Florida for Christmas.

In all seriousness though, the Lu hate that's going on in this thread is sickening, and completely absurd.

Sickening is a little bit of a hyperbole.

 

[denkiteki]

Canucks clung to the system long enough to gut out a win. Nothing pretty about this game but a ton better then blowing a game in the third. Time to get some triage and get some people well.

...* (didn't want to quote everything)

Agree about Hamhuis. After a slow start (for his standard, for most it would have been solid), it seems like he's turning it around. Tho it seems like his turn around started the same time Tanev started to play with him more regularly (also think this was mentioned during the broadcast lol). I think Tanev's progression and Hamhuis improvements deserve to be put together and is probably the best story for the 'nucks (in terms of development) so far this season. Almost makes me want to see Corrado come up and play with Hamhuis... who knows it might help his progression and honestly he can't do any worst than Alberts (like you said). Would actually prefer Weber/Tanev play a bit (and Tanev swapping with Corrado playing with Hamhuis). Can't be much worst than Alberts play tonight.

Seems like KB3 and Alberts were just as noticable as Tanev and Hamhuis except it was much more negative. When the Jets had a rush going, first thing i looked for to see if either Tanev or Hamhuis was back. One moment that really made me laugh was in the 3rd when KB3 had the puck (after 2 turnover + big saves by Lack) and had all the time in the world + Jets backing off... i was thinking how is he going to turn it over a 3rd time without any Jets in the zone (he just shot it down to Higgins who tipped it in that play but i was thinking turnover the entire time the puck was on his stick).

Garrison and Weber deserve a mention for playing a solid game. Neither stood out much but that's a positive for dmans. Weber seems to be filling in nicely (maybe one of the better 7th dmans in the league). Once/if everyone is healthy... i hope we waive Alberts this time instead of Weber to make room.

Booth and ZK have been solid for a while now. Like others, i really can't wait for JS to come back and see how he does with them. I think a lot of fans on this board have always thought JS would be good with 2 big physical players that love to shoot. This pairing fits that bill very well (tho ZK is more of a passer than a shooter right now). Richardson has been great but like the broadcast said during the 2nd intermission, he has contributed a lot but you wonder if he can keep this up and rather or not he really should be playing on the 4th line. He would be one of the best 4th line center if he was on the 4th line and it could help our scoring on the 3rd line (not that Richardson isn't scoring enough, just doubt he can keep this pace up, if he can, i'll be amazed and i hope i'm wrong). Also added benefit of Richardson on the 4th line is he gets more rest and conserve more energy on the PK plus the 4th line might get a bit more ice time with him there (instead of playing 3 minutes a game). Wonder if Torts will ever consider Dalpe playing with ZK/Booth. A bit more offensive skill on the 3rd line might make it interesting (tho 3 players that aren't exactly defensively responsible could be worrisome too).

Luo has been playing great lately even if he gives up the odd "easy" goal, he has probably been one of the best goalies in the past 10+ games and honestly even during the losing streak, you can't really blame him much. The team just has issue scoring. This has been a good year for Luo despite all the talk about who should be here and who shouldn't (and for the record, still not a fan of the trade, i think Cory is the better goalie but i guess we got to move on). Lack looks like he'll be Cory part 2 and i always thought he had the upside... now he's just proving it. Looks like he'll be here for another year then it'll be trade time and Eriksson will take over the "backup to be traded for a 1st round pick later" role while MG finds another goalie in Europe to sign as Cannata's (who will probably be "next up to be the backup who'll be traded for a 1st round pick") backup in Utica. I guess whoever is after Cannata might actually end the cycle and take over...

Honestly kinda surprised we won. Was watching the game fully expecting a lost. We didn't play a great game and Lack + Richardson + Tanev stole it for us. The team looked and played tired (and rightfully so, 4 games in 6 nights in 4 cities... including an OT win vs the Hawks). So many built in excuses to lose yet we won so i'm happy.

 

[strattonius]

Chris "Awesome" Tanev.

It's his nervous word...takes him to a safe place

 

[HellasLEAF]

so who gets the call now to back up Lack..

 

[thepuckmonster]

so who gets the call now to back up Lack..

We're off until the 29th, and Luo is day to day. He might be fine by that time.

 

[Wetcoaster]

so who gets the call now to back up Lack..

No one as the Canucks are on a four day break over Christmas.

 

[Wetcoaster]

Time to send best wishes to AV as the NYRs beat the Wild 4-1 today scoring 4 unanswered goals. Watch Keith Ballard on the second Ranger goal pass the puck perfectly to Hagelin who buries the shot. Flashback for French Coach???

[NHL]519093[/NHL]

This result leaves Minny in 8th place with 45 points, 5 points behind the Canucks who are in 6th place although Minny has a game in hand which will be used up tomorrow.

The Wild have 1 more game before the break - they play tomorrow in Philly - Go Flyers.

 

[Lemmiwinks]

Still need an offensive threat, chances galore and no finish.

Also sedins look like slow losers without burrows. Without santo kesler Higgins we'd be in much worse shape.

Ya think so? Any team without their second line would be much worse off...