Avs opened their Theo-door to let the Canucks in, 5-4
I don't think this is the way the Canucks wants to play every game, with the other team, again, dominating in the defensive zone, but they were able to come out with a win. Roberto Luongo let in 4 goals, 2 of which were fluky, tipped in/deflected in goals, and it seems the Canucks just had a major defensive breakdown tonight. Thankfully, this breakdown was only limited in their defense since they were able to produce enough offense to win the game.
Colorado played more aggressive and, dare I say, more desperate hockey than the Canucks tonight, despite having played in Calgary the night before. The Canucks, even though they were more rested, took a while to get their feet going, but Avs still controlled most of the play. They really worked hard down low and it seemed to have cause lots of problems for Vancouver as they had a lot of trouble trying to get the puck or clearing it to prevent scoring chances.
On the other end, Canucks had their fair share of lucky goals. Their first one of the game, by Daniel Sedin, sort of deflected in Theodore's skate before it trickled towards the goalline. The 4th goal of the game was caused by a miscommunication between Theodore and Klee, as Klee gave the puck away to Henrik Sedin and he didn't fail to put it in the open net.
It's just the type of game where you knew it was going to be a tight, high scoring game. Both the team's defense were brutal, and with the way the puck was bouncing around, something would have gone in eventually.
- Matt Cooke had a good game tonight, 1 goal, 2 assists. I wish he was more into his "agitator" role today, but he still threw some big hits.
- Taylor Pyatt matched his career high of 28 points a few games ago and he can't seem to catch a break on finally breaking that record and establishing a new one. He was so close to finally breaking it, but that goal was disallowed. That would have been a pretty goal if he scored on it. Pyatt actually has a nice wrist shot that I wish he used more often. Sadly, he won't get a lot of chances to do this as his role is to stand around in front of the net and hope that the players will use him as a bounce board to score on. He played really well tonight, especially cause he actually used his size to protect the puck.
- Brendan Morrison was flying tonight in terms of offense, but he made a big boneheaded play in defense that almost lead to a Colorado goal. Why deal with the past? He had 2 goals and 1 of which was the game winner. The GWG was so pretty, as Markus Naslund was able to snap a cross ice pass for Mo to put in.
So yes. Tight game. We need to play much better against Anaheim. I usually have more to say, but I'm just too sleepy. :(
