Hamhuis hasn't been much with the puck lately, but he's been very good without it. He was beast mode on the penalty kill tonight. His carrying and passing though...leaves much more to be desired.
I like that clamp-down strategy with the 3rd period leads. It works a lot better with the full complement of D than the stable of AHLers. Blues had maybe one or two good looks in the third, one of them on a "lolwut" moment from Edler. Forwards were soft chipping off the boards and out with very few icings, if any. Pucks got deep on line changes.
What more can be said about Vrbata...really? 29 points in the last 30 games, 11 in the last 6. Putting chances on teammate's sticks and burying every opportunity of his own. A real assassin.
Lack was sharp, has been for many games now...he seems to find a good balance between aggression and Melanson's deep-in-the-crease ways. He's deep in a groove. I wonder if he or Markstrom will start tomorrow.
Sedin line wasn't very visible until the third period, where they got pucks deep and defended very tightly. Burrows in particular stood out with several key clears, and eventually, the empty netter.
This team just needs Tanev so badly. It's a journey with some of the D sometimes, but he's just so damned steady. He had a couple of bleh giveaways, but had another businesslike shutdown performance.
Dorsett and Kenins checked well. Kenins had only 1 brutal blue line turnover tonight. Hansen continues to display a fervent energy with no hands.
When you see Horvat on the ice, it's hard not to have faith when the puck is in his hands. It's out of the zone or on an open teammate's stick before anyone can tell what he's going to do. How he can do that at his age is something remarkable and, honestly, it's unfamiliar to us Canucks fans to have a rookie blow away expectations like that.
