Oilers may hate the Twins, but Canucks sure love them, 4-1
The game started with a bang; Cowan vs Stortini, 5 seconds into the game, right after the faceoff. It wasn't a good fight, just a lot of hugging between the two fighters, but it did set the tone early in the game, especially for the Canucks.
They came out flying as the Sedin line looked good, and Naslund's line looked even better. Brendan Morrison and Ryan Kesler had a mini two-on-one going on that showed a lot of promise, if only Steve Staios didn't block Kesler's return pass to Mo.
Mo did score later on though. At the end of the first period, Markus Naslund blocked a clearing attempt by the boards, passed the puck to Morrison, who was practically left open and undefended in the front of the Oilers net, and scored. Nice read by Nazzy in this play as he anticipated the around the board clearing attempt and immediately got the puck to Mo.
The Canucks score 2 more goals courtesy of the amazing play by the Twins. They controlled the play for over 2 minutes in the powerplay and it was just type of shift where you know they had to/will score. They just dominated that shift, with the help of Mattias Ohlund, Lukas Krajicek and Ryan Kesler, as they controlled the puck and the Oiler PKers can't even switch. Even after the powerplay run out, they were still in control until Daniel eventually scored.
Afterwards, the Canucks were awarded with another powerplay, and this time the Twins combined again for a powerplay goal, giving the team a 3-0 lead.
Taylor Pyatt also scored his first of the season in the 3rd period, and what's really nice (and sort of ironic) is that he created that play and is not really a direct result of the Sedin's own play. He was on a one-on-two against two Oil defencemen, and it really looked like a harmless play, but he shot the puck towards the net and Roloson let out a huge rebound which ended up on Henrik's stick. Henrik shot it, but it was blocked by Roloson, but unfortunately for him, he let out a huge rebound which Pyatt gobbled up for the goal.
Anyway, yes, good game. Way better game for the Canucks this time, winning the first game at home. The fans are back in the bandwagon, and everything is right again in the world.
Defensively, there's still lots of room for improvement. There were still long periods of time where we were hemmed in our own zone, sometimes due to lazy puck clearing attempts, etc. Otherwise, good overall. The offense has been pretty good, the Sedins are in shape, Nazzy and Mo are still determined to bounce back this year, and looking good with Kesler...
Let's just hope they keep this up against the Sharks.
