The end of the season

Awful. A very awful and disappointing way to end a wonderful season, and a good playoff run. I expected more fire, more passion and desperation, a team that wouldn't go down without a fight, but it seems like they've given up as soon as that first offside call on a Naslund/Smolinski 2-on-1, 20 seconds into the game.

They just weren't in it, and if they would have won this game, I wouldn't have thought they deserved it. Roberto Luongo deserved it though, but honestly, the rest of the team didn't. Maybe the fourth liners, as they were the only ones showing any energy out there, and it showed as they earned every bit of that tying goal in the 3rd period.

And you know, that game winning goal was probably the most heart breaking, and as good as Luongo has been that evening, that's probably one goal he should have saved, and he could have, but it was just one mistake, thinking that hit on Hansen was a penalty, and lost sight of the puck. I wouldn't fault him on this one though, he gave the team tons of chances to finish it, and Jan Bulis almost did, but almost doesn't cut it.

The tying goal

Doesn't this seem like what happened with Marty Turco in the previous series? Turco kept his team in the game to win, yet Dallas couldn't score? He put on the most spectacular performance that any team just wants out of their goalie, and they still couldn't win because of the lack of offense. This has been a familiar story for the Canucks all season long, but you know, the effort to score just wasn't there. We were being outshot 37-13 at one point in the game. That's a huge difference in shots for. Overall, Luongo made 56 saves (Sabby made 5), and I don't know, he already did everything to get them the win, the effort from everyone else just wasn't there.

Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund had an okay game, definitely two of the better forwards out there. I wish Vigneault kept their line with Smolinski together, or at least just Naslund and Linden since, as I said, other than the 4th liners those two showed just a bit more determination to probably try to get a win for Lui in this game.

The Sedins were just... bad. Taylor Pyatt was just bad. Their line, whether together or separated just didn't play very well. Not only can they not generate any chances, until the 3rd period anyway, most of the time, they were just stuck in their own zone. Anaheim's checking line looked more like an offensive threat than they did. Separating them did not work, and it really just ruined the chemistry other lines were having to accommodate those two, but I hope they just learn from this and get over it.

Other than that? It was a really disappointing way to lose. From the way the team (minus Luongo) played down to the game winning goal.

I'll try to post a season review when I have the time, and when I'm more calmed down. I don't know what to do with this blog now :P for the offseason. I'll try to get in some draft action, and update when something significant, such as trades or free-agent signings, occurs.

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Disappointing. This is the type of loss that's the most disappointing and the most disheartening. The Canucks played well the whole game, played better than the Ducks, and yet we still lose. I don't even remember how it happened, it all went too fast. I just know that we failed to clear the zone in the game winning goal.

What was funny was that, I pretty much predicted that Brent Sopel will be giving the puck away at that moment. When I saw him holding the puck, I just mentioned to my friend that "Now is not the good time to give the puck away, Sopel" and whaddya know? I was right. :D

I'm beginning to think LA gypped us in this trade after we let them sign Dan Cloutier for 2 years. I want that 2nd round pick back, please, and AV, bench Sopel. For good.

On a positive note, Markus Naslund scored the first goal of the game, extending his goal-scoring streak to 3 games. JS Giguere let out a huge rebound off Mattias Ohlund's point shot, and the puck went straight to Nazzy's stick and he just shot it in.

Brendan Morrison also scored his first goal of this playoffs on a nice backhand shot that fooled Giguere. He didn't play that good of a game, though, even if he scored that goal.

Anyway, I'm just tired and disappointed. We were leading 2-0 coming into the 3rd period and we just blew it. The tying goal hurt even more, especially when the refs didn't call that trip on Salo. Bleh.

To make my evening worse... I HATE THE FUCKING ASIAN FLUSH. God. I just drank 2 bottles of Smirnoff Ice and I'm already becoming RED. This is ridiculous. Now I'd be red for the next 3 days. ARGH.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

And oh yeah? Selanne, I fucking hate you.

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HUZZAAAAAAAAH!!!

This biatch is going to Game 4!

Section 325 Row 8! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

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I wasn't able to watch the game properly tonight, hence I couldn't really comment on it properly. I went to my friend's house to watch the game, and since I got off work at 4, I ended up missing the first half of the first period before I arrived at her house at 5:20.

Anyway, the real key to this game was the powerplay. We had around 8 opportunities, including two 5-on-3's, to bury the Ducks, and we failed. On the other hand, the Ducks capitalized on the little powerplay time they received by scoring on 2 out of 4 powerplays.

Looking at both powerplay units, you would see a huge difference in the way they set up and move the puck. Doesn't it seem like once the Ducks are setup, anyone can take a shot from anywhere, and unless it's blocked, it would probably go to the net? They seem to be moving the puck around a lot by making smart passes, getting a good screen in front of Luongo, getting the shot through, whether it be from the point or the faceoff circles, and when Luongo lets out a rebound, there's immediately a lot of guys crashing the front of the net read to knock it in at all costs.

Ours is the complete opposite. Either we don't make smart passes, or we pass too much. The pointmen refuses to take a shot, the player at the faceoff circles also doesn't shoot until the last minute. Even when we do get a shot, we wait for so long that a player can just block it, and it doesn't even go through the net. Where's the one-timers? We also need to win more of those puck battles, better dump-ins and carry-ins.

The list can go on.

It's just really frustrating. We got a lot of powerplays tonight. If we were able to score on the 5-on3s at least, we might have won the game.

Well, we did score one powerplay goal. That was a good PP shift by the Canucks as they won the battles, Markus Naslund read the play well and saw Mattias Ohlund open on the other side and passed him the puck. Ohllie's shot was tipped by Giguere's glove towards Nazzy who just shoved it towards the net to tie the game.

That was it. We had, maybe, a couple more good scoring opportunities in the PP, just no finish. I hope AV's focus on special teams on practice tomorrow would vastly improve it on the game the next day.

Other things.......... hmm... Daniel Sedin scored the other Canucks' goal, Sami Salo was back in the lineup tonight, Willie Mitchell is alive and kicking, and Roberto Luongo thinks he deserves to be blamed for the loss tonight.

As I said, I couldn't really watch the game as me and my friend were focused on other things sometimes, like complaining on how long does it take to make and deliver pizza...

One other thing, I loved when the crowd were chanting "NAZZY NAZZY NAZZY NAZZY NAZZY!" when he scored. It was very heartwarming. Music to my ears. As you can see, my new layout features the man himself, Markus Naslund. *hearts* this guy.

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Just some quick notes as I have a final tomorrow and I've studied.. ZILCH! DAMN YOU DOUBLE OVERTIME!

• Great game by the Canucks! I'd say this is the most complete game we've seen them play in the playoffs as they dominated the Ducks in every aspect of the game except in the powerplay. All lines were just good offensively and defensively, creating scoring chances, etc. Just great. Boys really showed a lot of determination and heart, and it really showed as they outplayed the Ducks. Ducks may have more "talent" on their roster on the Canucks, but with the Canucks playing a good team game, their talent barely had any chance.
• Markus Naslund scored a goal tonight, a nice wrist shot while he was falling down. Good steal from Pronger, too. He took 3 penalties after that goal, though, but really 2 of those 3 penalties were ridiculous. HI SELANNE, DIVE MUCH? WHY ARE YOU NOT WITH THE FINNISH NATIONAL DIVE TEAM? You'd win more gold medals that way. He also had that one giveaway which led to the game tying goal, but it wasn't a blatant giveaway wherein he passes it to a Ducks player, but he was pushed off the puck and well yeah. Still a good game from the captain.
• Cowan the Brabarian strikes again! I'm surprised none of the Canucks fans in the building threw any bras on the ice.. or maybe they did, CBC just didn't show that on TV. Good work Brabarian! Giguere should have that, but tough luck.
• Willie Mitchell is a monster. A very lovable monster for his teammates and fans, but a butt-ugly one for his opponents. Yes Willie, please knock Kunitz ugly mug out, but keep yourself healthy!
  
• Powerplay needs more work.
• Roberto Luongo is another MONSTER.
• Lukas Krajicek, and Alexander Edler both had awesome games on defense tonight. They unexpectedly had to step up since Willie was having injury problems, and they stepped way UP. Both had terrific games tonight and hope to see them continue playing like this when we need them.

Game 3 is at GM Place with a 5:00 pm PDT start time (WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?). Bring your zappers everyone!

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We have no one to blame, but ourselves. It started out as a good game for the Canucks. At the beginning of the first period, it seemed like they were the ones controlling the game, getting quality scoring chances, and drawing penalties. Unfortunately, we quickly shot ourselves in the foot, again, by taking too many penalties and making horrible mistakes in our zone. Soon enough, the Ducks began controlling the play, we lost whatever momentum we had at the beginning, and next thing you know they were leading 3-1.

Losing Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo really hurt us this game, not that Edler or Fitzpatrick had a bad game. Both Fitz and Edler did well for their roles as 5th/6th defencemen. Meanwhile, Ohlund really had a pretty brutal game tonight. I'd say Sopel had a brutal game as well, but I think "brutal" is the normal game for Sopes. Please, AV, once Salo comes back, scratch Sopel instead and let Fitz and Edler stay!!!

Anyway, the Canucks tried, but it was too hard to regain form after a million penalties, and a powerplay that couldn't score (again).

There was actually one pretty funny call on Alex Burrows during the game that I just found baffling.

Burrows high sticked Selanne right in front of a referee, and this ref didn't call anything. Selanne got angry so after the whistle, he shoved Burrows, who fell on the ice. One would thing Selanne would get a roughing call or unsportsmanlike penalty for that, right?

NO!!! THEY GAVE BURROWS A DIVING PENALTY INSTEAD!!!!

Oh the hilarity that is the NHL officiating. Seriously. How do you assess a diving call after the whistle, on a guy that was pushed over. I understand that maybe you wanted to make up for that missed high-sticking call, but c'mon? Diving? Can't you find something more realistic in that situation, like maybe, UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT???

Other than that. I have no real beef with anything else. Ducks took advantage of our errors, and we didn't take advantage of our own powerplay opportunities. Done deal.

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Luongo sees the light at the end of the first tunnel

It's not very hard to explain my feelings right now. Happy, joyous, ecstatic, excited, and teary-eyed could probably sum it up as I heard the buzzer to indicate the game has finally ended.

It didn't start out to well for the Canucks. The Stars seem to have carried the momentum over from the previous game, and although Canucks weren't particularly abysmal in their play right out of the gate, an early Stars powerplay definitely sucked out a bit of life from the Canucks, and the eventual Lundqvist goal sucked a whole lot more.

There. Tense period was over.

After the 2nd period, the Canucks definitely looked renewed in their desire to win this thing. At one point in the game, they were outshooting the Stars 12-0 or something, and the Stars were lucky that Turco kept their team alive thus far, but the team did not help him a whole lot. A couple of penalties against the Stars eventually proved costly as the Canucks was finally able to put one in on Marty Turco, break their PP scoring slump, break the Sedin's goal/point scoring slump and, most importantly, tied the game and gave the Canucks a humongous momentum boost.

Trevor Linden pots the game winner

Mike Modano made a bad play on the neutral zone during that Stars PK. Instead of immediately dumping the puck on the other side, especially when one of his defense needed a new stick to replace the broken one, he tried to skate with it, but unfortunately gave the puck up to one of the Sedins. Daniel Sedin was able to work the boards, win the puck battles and distribute the puck for a scoring chance. Henrik Sedin benefitted from this as he practically had a gaping net to shoot at.

In the 3rd period, the Canucks continued to dominate the Stars, they got into more penalty trouble, and Trevor Linden got the game winning goal by tipping in Mattias Ohlund's shot.

After that, Roberto Luongo and the crossbar made the toughest saves of the night. Lui absolutely robbed Stu Barnes of that [possible] tying goal and Mike Modano hit the post and they still weren't able to generalte more scoring chances.

Turco and Luongo shakes hands

Both Taylor Pyatt and Bryan Smolinski put the puck in empty nets, both coming from unselfish plays of Brendan Morrison and Trevor Linden who could have potted those in the net themselves.

Anyway, it's sad to see such a great series end. Both Marty Turco and Roberto Luongo were absolutely lights out in this series, and anyone who dare blames this on Turco and think he "choked", I'll slap you.

Up next are the Not so Mighty Anymore Ducks of Anaheim, beginning 7:00 PM on Wednesday.

Wow, just congratulations to all our players. Everyone stepped up and just played a great game. I'm just too happy and extremely proud that they were able to pull through with a victory.

I'm starting to become incoherent again. :( BUT

YEEEEEEES YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES AJDHFA GO CANUCKS GO!!

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I'm usually a very patient girl, finding ways to defend my team when they're playing pretty badly, before criticizing them, but tonight's effort was just pretty pathetic.

I hope they go back home to Vancouver, watch those game tapes and look at how Dallas moves the puck around.

Nice. Crisp. Passes. Tape. To. Freaking. Tape.

And Canucks? You do know the meaning of "offensive zone rush" right? Or a "3 on 2"? Such slow breakouts, and when they do get the oddman rush... they don't rush. Once they gain the zone they sloooooooooo~oooooow down that the other team catches up and well, no scoring chances.

But the real problem was that they can't hold on to the puck for more than 2 seconds. They receive the pass and next thing you know, they're involved in a board battle with a Stars player and 99% of the time, they win it. They can't make any plays, even on the powerplay. How is it that Dallas can hold the puck in our zone for a long time, on even strength and the powerplay, and we can not? Are we just that bad defensively and the Stars, likewise, are better, tighter defensively? Or is it just really our problems with puck movement?

I don't even know if there were any positives that came out of that game. Well, there's Roberto Luongo, who is still true to his All Star form, except he's not getting any help from him teammates.

Just really disappointed. They had 2 chances to finish this off and move on to the 2nd round, but now they've handed over the reins to Dallas, allowing them to come back and tie the series up 3-3. Not only were they able to tie the series, they did it in a way that Dallas is now carrying all the momentum back to Vancouver. Canucks are also under a much larger pressure in home ice, than the Stars.

You just pray that it will be the night Marty Turco does his annual playoff choke.

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My attempt to live blog. Sorta. I'm delayed cause I'm watching the CBC live stream~

07:34 - WHEE EAT THAT HAGMAN!!! STOP BUMPING OUR GOALIE!!

07:35 - For a minute there I thought they were using Nazzy-Sedin-Sedin in PP.

07:36 - Useless PP again. UGH.

07:38 - They should outlaw PPs in playoffs. They kill our momentum.
         - Why am I not studying for my Psych final that's at 8:30 tomorrow morning???

07:39 - That TV break was useless. I didn't get any bit of reading done. Smokers syndrome: chest pain, labored breathing, wheezing, coughing, more prone to respiratory infections, pneumonie, bronchitis, emphysema, and lung cancer ... lalalalalalala this is not going in my heeeeeaaaaaadddddddd

07:41: More chances for the IKEA line.

07:43 - DAMN YOU WHOEVER BLOCKED THAT PYATT SHOT NEAR THE NET. THAT OR IT'S PYATT'S FAULT. I CAN'T SEE. WAS THAT SOPEL JUMPING IN BEHIND THE NET??
         - He can't get his stick on it. X(

07:45 - FIRST PERIOD ENDS! Lots of good chances for the Canucks, coming from all 4 lines. Great PK, so far, horrible PP as always.
         - Joining the Cowgary vs Detroit Game 4 now. Big game for Big Bert! Todd Bertuzzi has 1 goal 1 assist, so far. :D That's the spirit Bert! You remember how much you hate Iginla, right? And you remember how you hit Phaneuf really hard before? :D

07:47 - HI HANNAH! PLEASE STUDY! :D Love, your Brain and your grades! :DDD

07:52 - Fuck. Cowgary scored. AUGH. C'MON RED WINGS. LET'S GO BERT!!! Crush Phaneuf and Iginla already!!!

08:03 - That intermission was very productive. I read about 2 paragraphs. :D Yay! 4 more chapters to go!!!
         - My feed lagged when something happened to Sydor. .. WHAT HAPPENED? I SAW HIM WITH NO HELMET!!!

08:10 - Modano pulling some sexy moves. Luongo pulling even sexier ones.

08:16 - Uhh.. Burrows? Who were you drop passing to?

08:20 - Don't you love commercial breaks? :D You get to read 1 sentence each TV break!

08:22 - Luongo pulling more sexy moves.

08:24 - Stop giving the puck away, giving the other team a chance for a breakaway then hook them. AUGH. I hate those penalties the most!!!

08:29 - Wow. Great PK you guys, especially the Salo-Willie-Bulis-Smoke unit who were stuck in the defensive zone for 1:30 minutes!
         - Is it just me or did Pyatt just hit someone? I couldn't tell cause of the video quality :P

08:36 - Who predicted that? 0-0 after 2 periods again. At least there's a lot of scoring chances, so it isn't that boring.
         - Cowgary still leading Detroit. -_-

08:53 - WTF is up with Morrow? Pushing Pyatt when the Pyllow didn't even touch him. Just skating around the net. X(

08:56 - HOLY SHIT THAT ALMOST WENT IN. WHAT TERRIBLE LUCK. AND NO PK!!! AUGH

09:03 - This game is giving me a heart attack.

09:19 - Why does our powerplay suck so much??

09:24 - I HATE YOU DALLAS STARS!! WHY MUST YOU TAKE THIS TO OVERTIME. WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST LET VANCOUVER SCORE? I HAVE A FINAL TOMORROW I CAN'T STAY UP THIS LATE. I NEED TO CRAM. AUGH THIS IS HORRIBLE.

09:49 - Fuck they lost. -_-;

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Finals are coming and I definitely need more time to study, so I will keep this short, sweet and in point form.

• Another show of spectacular goaltending on display again tonight. Both Roberto Luongo and Marty Turco pulled the stops by keeping the score 0-0 until the last half of the game where Turco broke and Luongo did not.
  
• No scoring from the Sedin lines tonight doesn't mean anything as other players has stepped up when they were shut down. Although the Sedin-Sedin-Naslund line were kept off the scoresheet for the past 2 games now, they are still creating chances in front of Turco and making sure the momentum sticks our way.
• Taylor Pyatt and Trevor Linden definitely kicked it up a notch. Pyatt has been a real opposition killer.
• Willie Mitchell probably made the Top 10 saves of the series, but thank God for Willie's long hockey stick that was able to quickly shoot the debris on the ice faster and more enjoyable than a game with a whistle blown
• Markus Naslund and Jannik Hansen continue to impress. Okay, sure the goal by the Dallas Stars was because of a blown clearing attempt by Naslund, but other than that, he's been great.
  

    Above all that :D Vancouver Canucks lead the series 3 games to 1. 1 more win, you guys! Let's go do it!  

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