13 posts tagged “canucks vs oilers”
Edmonton @ Vancouver aka Canucks got kicked out of the playoffs
This happened a week ago, so I don't remember the exact emotions I felt while watching the game at GM Place. I know I was depressed like heck (as you will see on my facebook status) afterwards and so on... I can't remember the efforts they gave during that gam, but I do know...
THEY HAD 923848235894758394 POWERPLAYS AND THEY FAILED TO CAPITALIZE ON EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE.
Yeah. Good work, guys. One of those powerplays was a 5-minute major.. the refs were practically GIVING the game to us, but it seems like Dwayne Roloson had other ideas.
Calgary @ Vancouver aka Canucks fans say goodbye to Trevor Linden, although he hasn't announced anything yet so he might feel even more pressured to retire now.
Another boring game. Seriously guys, it's FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT. The least you can do is score 3874829374 goals to show your appreciation to the fans, not get scored on 7 goals.
Although it's sort of like a win-win situation as a fan.. :P If they win.. yay they win.. if they lose, YAY HIGHER DRAFT PICK! But I was praying that they lost by like 10-9 or something.
So it was a very depressing game again, in more ways than one. The whole standing O Trevor Linden got was really sad and heartwarming. It was also very sweet of Iggy to take the rest of the Flames players and say their goodbyes to Linden.
But the most depressing for me is the fact that Markus Naslund may not be back as a Canuck or as a hockey player. :( I will really miss you Nazzy, if you don't sign with the Canucks. Don't worry, I'll jump on the bandwagon of whichever team you do sign with and cheer from you there... (Even if it's the Leafs or Flames... or someone I hate just as much.)
Very great of the Vancouver crowd to cheer for Iggy's 50th goal of the season. At first I thought it was only the Flames fans cheering, but they were so loud, and when they announced his 50th in the building, the cheering even got louder.
Anyway. Yeah. My friend and I ALMOST won a jersey. UGH. he guy who won Roberto Luongo's jersey is at Section 311, Row 12, Seat 9... WE WERE IN SEAT 111/112... SAME FREAKING ROW AND SECTION.
The Advantages of NOT Making the Playoffs:
- I save the money that I would have spent on Playoff tickets and can use that money on girly things like clothes, shoes, purses and makeup.
- Canucks get a bit higher draft pick than usual.
- I can fully concentrate on studying for my final.
- ... I'll think of a 4th reason.
The Disadvantages of NOT Making the Playoffs:
- I'd have to read the Canucks forums that's full of bitching everyday.
- It's hard to be rabid when I'm not cheering for the Canucks...
- I'd have to listen to Vancouver sports radio bitching about the Canucks the whole day.
- ... The Canucks are not in the playoffs.
- ... I'll think of a 5th reason.
The rest of the photos can be found on my flickr.
Oh. Wow.
How do you describe this game?
That was the best game I've seen in a while and I don't really even know where to begin.
It started out rough, and it ended pretty much the same way. Right from the first puck drop to the very end, the Oilers and the Canucks wanted to murder each other.
... I really can't find enough words to adequately describe the feeling I got after watching it, it's one of those things that you have to watch to understand how entertaining it was.
- Markus Naslund had a goal and an assist. Although his goal was flukey, his assist was not. I think Ladislav Smid must have hated Markus Naslund by the end of this game. First, Nazzy's goal deflected off his stick. Then he got called for 2 penalties against Naslund, one of which put the Canucks on a 5 on 3, eventually letting them take a 2-1 lead.
- Taylor Pyatt got injured on a hit by Stortini. :\ Yeah, I hope it isn't too bad. It would really kill the Canucks if Pyatt is injured for a long time.
- At the end of the game, I saw Markus Naslund jawing at Ethan Moreau. I really got to wonder.. what the heck does Naslund say when he trash talks someone??? I really can't imagine him trashtalking anyone.
- Ryan Kesler vs Ales Hemsky was epic. That whole Kes line did a terrific job against Hemskey and his line. I swear, Brad Isbister makes that line 10 times better than when Matt Cooke is on that line. Maybe it's the size? I don't know, but Izzlebizzle has been great. Not to mention defending Kes after he got hit by Matt Greene.
- I could mention all the rough stuff in the game, but... I won't. Since there's a lot. The rough stuff WAS the game.
- Sam Gagner vs Ryan Kesler though. Probably a slight edge to Gagner, but most of the punches he threw at the end didn't land on Kes.
- WTF MacT. Good job on putting Stortini and your goons in the last 20 seconds. It must really feel great that they match up well against Ryan Shannon and Mason Raymond.
- Willie Mitchell vs Brodziak though.. XD Willie was just all :DDDDDDDDDDD >DDDDDDDDDDD the whole time. I love when the ref gave him a pat on the helmet after the fight.
Ugh. I have so much more I want to say, but I just can't find the right words right now. XD I am still very high over this game.
The best news is... with the Canucks win, they currently sit on the 8th place spot.
But Canucks fans suck more. This is their reactions after each loss:
After first 2 SO Losses against Edmonton: "ZOMG AV WHY ARE YOU USING RITCHIE! PUT NASLUND AND SEDIN IN ROAR!!!
After SO loss against Pittsburgh: "ZOMG AV WHY ARE YOU USING NASLUND AND THE SEDINS???!!111ONE THEY FUCKING BLOW! USE BURROWS ZOMG!!! AV SO STUPID!111ONETWOTHREE"
After SO loss against Edmonton last night: "ZOMG AV WHY ARE YOU USING BURROWS!!! PUT JAFFRAY AND RAYMOND IN! ZOMG SO STUPID AV! DO I HAVE TO THINK OF EVERYTHING??111 LULZZ BURROWS SUCKKKK"
My prediction after the next SO loss: "ZOMG AV WHY ARE YOU USING THE N00BS LIKE JAFFRAY AND RAYMOND! THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT A PUCK IS! PUT WILLIE MITCHELL IN!!!"
:P
Though I have to admit, I did give up after Horcoff scored for the Oilers. I couldn't look at the Slingbox screen for a while, and had to go out of the room to calm myself.
When I went back in, I was lucky enough to catch Mattias Ohlund's tying goal, which also serves as the record breaking goal as he is now the Canucks All Time Goal Scorer for Defencemen. Congrats, Ohllie.
I stuck around for the shootout, and when I saw AV used Trevor Linden first, I knew he wasn't going to score and even predicted that Linden will not shoot the puck like he always does just to change his routine up. True enough, Linden went for the deke move and wasn't able to get the goal.
Kes finally got his first shootout goal this year, though. Good job Kes. :D
But yeah, Canucks definitely need to practice the shootouts. Brendan Morrison has already mentioned it a few times how they never practice it and I think it's time that they do. I understand why AV is hesitant in doing so because shooting at your own goaltender doesn't guarantee that the opposing goalie would be thinking the same thing, but the players at least need to practice some moves.
Anyway, yeah I said I'm on hiatus, but I caught the 3rd period of the game over slingbox and thought I should at least blog about CDC's reaction to the loss. lulz.
So, I once again declare my hatred for school, keeping me from watching the Canucks.
Basically, this post has no substance except to say...
OMG ALEXANDER EDLER SCORED HIS FIRST GOAL THIS SEASON, AND ALSO NOTCHED AN ASSIST ON NAZZY'S GOAL!!! BOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Brad Isbister had another goal, and from the replays, Alex Burrows scored another beauty.
The Canucks lost on the shootout again, where only Trevor Linden was able to put the puck in net. The good news though is that we are actually scoring goals.
Usually a 3-1 lead for the other team would be hard to overcome for the Canucks, but at one point in this game, we were leading 4-3.
Markus Naslund had another fantastic night tonight, apparently. He also now has a 3 game goal/point streak and his 2nd game in a row where he score 2 points. Keep up the good work, Nazzy.
Next stop: Minnesota Wild.
I hate PPV.
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.
I really can't comment much on the game since I was only able to catch the last few minutes of the 2nd period and then the 3rd period, but I am very pleased that they bounced back from the loss and continue to dominate over Edmonton.
- Looks like Roberto Luongo had a huge bounceback after the horrible game he (and the whole team) played last Wednesday. I saw some of the saves he made in the highlights and they were beautiful. I especially like the save he and Morrison made on Steve Staios' shot. I was listening in on the radio at that time, and I was so sure it would have gone in and Shorty was about to say that Staios scored or something, but he and Mo's joint effort saved the day.
- The funniest moment of the game? Edmonton scored on the powerplay in the 2nd period, just as Shorty and Tom paused for a moment on the radio so we can listen to the goal announcement in Edmonton, right in the middle of it, Shorty just said so loudly, "AND MORRISON SCORES ON THE OTHER END" and the goal announcement was cut off. HAHA. Yeah, I laughed out loud in the car.
- Alex Burrows doesn't score a lot, but when he does, they deserve to be on the highlight reel. And no, it's not because it's so rare that you have to show it every chance you got, but because he scores some sick goals. I think the refs last year made an agreement that they'll disallow all "ugly/weak" Burrows goals... since all the goals they allowed were nice.
- I want to see Taylor Pyatt use his wrist shot more. And I want him to learn how to shoot it top corner. Or something. The "ping" was music to my ears, knowing it was Pyatt using his wrist shot.
- Markus Naslund? King of goofy goals? Both goals by Nazzy this year is not what you'd expect from him... Maybe this is why goalies have such a hard time dealing with it. Good job, though Naz.
- Oh yeah, good news! Rick Rypien didn't get injured this game!
- Is this the last we'd see of Mason Raymond and Trevor Linden? I sure hope not! I'd honestly see both Raymond and Linden over Cooke/Isbister/Cowan/Burrows right now. I wish they rotate between those 4 players instead of rotating Trev and Mase in and out of the lineup. :\
Well, the Oilers will face the Canucks again tomorrow and try to avenge their loss. Meanwhile, the Canucks are still winless at home, but they hope to amend that tomorrow with another win against the Oil.
Oilers recalled Schremp and Stortini from Springfield, while sending down Nilsson and Jacques.
Just a few quick notes because I have tons of homework due.
Lukas Krajicek was the only "veteran" defenseman in tonight's lineup. In fact, I'd use the term veteran loosely, considering Krajicek has only played around 160+ games in the NHL. Definitely proved that he is reliable, considering who he had to work with.
You can tell it wasn't veteran defencemen on the ice with the way they played on the defensive zone. They were often scrambling around or they just looked so organized. The same were evident on the penalty kills; it just did not look as efficient as it normally did when at least one other veteran is there to hold down the fort.
The rookie defencemen were okay... They're not extremely horrible, and of course they had some bad plays, but they can only correct that in time. Unfortunately, I did not notice Luc Bourdon all that much tonight. Or maybe this is a good thing? Well half good, half bad. Good because if I had noticed him, it's probably because he made a huge mistake or something. Bad because he didn't do anything overly impressive to get me to notice him?
Cory Schneider started in goal today and had the misfortune of playing for veteran-depleted team who took A LOT of penalties. First goal he let in was Sheldon Souray's bomb from the point and the second was from a shot by Gilbert, but was tipped over Schneids. If I just look at the stats and see that he let in 2 goals out of 4 shots, you'd think he's a horrible goaltender, but honestly, the goals he let in was not that bad. Not a lot of goalies can stop Souray's shot on a regular basis and then there was that deflection for his 2nd goal.
I'm sure Ian Clark would train him and improve his skill.
As for forwards, I loved the Raymond-Kesler-Grabner line. Really. They were speedy, especially Mason Raymond who showed off his speed and finally also showed that he can score a goal.
Kes had a big night-- 1 g 2 a. Not too shabby. Michael Grabner also picked up an assist on Raymond's goal.
Lots of fights and lots of spirit among the players tonight. Good to see that, maybe they'll kill each other in the AHL. :P
Somehow, this win against Edmonton feels so empty. They have been one of our best rivals and it's unbelievable to see how low they've fallen since the Smyth traded. On the one hand, I want the Oilers to win soon as they are my 2nd favorite team, but on the other hand, I didn't want them to win against the Canucks. Still, I don't really feel satisfied with this win especially when fans of both teams were spoiled by the displays of energy everytime we played.
I didn't get to catch the first 15-something minutes of the first period, but I found out through my mom that the Oil were leading 1-0 at that point. I laughed a little since I almost expected this result. The Canucks have a habit of downplaying their opponents, and they bite them when they're not looking.
Anyway, so when I finally caught up to the game, Canucks were on the powerplay and the 2nd unit had a new look. Naslund-Smolinski-Pyatt and Morrison-Sopel as pointmen. I got to admit, I like that unit. Only need to change Sopel with Salo, once he returns, but in that late PP I watched, they had pretty puck movement. Pyatt was on the goal line, while Smolinski is up in the slot in front of the goalie, Naslund and Morrison were on the faceoff circles and Sopel is at the point. They should really keep this unit.
Eventually, it was the other powerplay unit that was able to tie the game for the Canucks. Trevor Linden replaced Bryan Smolinski in that unit and he was able to (finally) put the puck in the net from a beautiful saucer feed from Daniel Sedin.
The Twins work their magic again, this time on even strength, as Henrik Sedin gathers a Mattias Ohlund rebound, backhands a pass to his brother for an almost empty net goal. Taylor Pyatt will not get an assist on this play, but it was his pass out of the defensive zone that sprung Daniel Sedin and Mattias Ohlund, and he also kept 2 defencemen tied up in front of the net, leaving Daniel open to bang it in.
After those 2 goals, it was all Roberto Luongo. He kept the score at 2-1 by making gigantic saves off every Oiler. The Canucks were pretty sloppy defensively, but thankfully, Lui was sharp and held on for the win.
Next game is against Nashville Predators, and you can bet this is another "statement game" for the Canucks.
Right at the get go, the Oilers immediately set a physical tone to the game, as Zack Stortini laid a big hit on Lukas Krajicek in the opening minute of the first. Unfortunately for them, the Canucks were able to respond to the physical challenge and turned the game around to their advantage.
Although it was Edmonton who strikes first on 4-on-4 play, two full 2 minute 5-on-3 powerplays for Vancouver proved too costly for the Oilers.
First, Raffi Torres and Ales Hemsky were penalized after Matt Cooke threw an open ice hit on Hemsky, and both players retaliated and roughed Cooke up. In the ensuing 5-on-3, Henrik Sedin just threw the puck in front of the net and it was safely redirected (without kicking motion!) into the net by Daniel Sedin and tied the game 1-1.
In the 2nd period, it was also Raffi Torres who got the Canucks into another 5-on-3, and they didn't hesitate to bury this one as well as the Sedin Twins did their magic passing, straight into the stick of Markus Naslund.
The Twins were just amazing tonight, 9 points between the 2 of them tonight, 3 goals and 2 assists for Daniel, and 4 assists for Henrik.
Yes. You read that right. HAT TRICK FOR DANIEL SEDIN! woot! First for the season.
It was just an overall big night for the Sedins, but also a good game by the team as a whole. All lines were good, did what they had to do, especially the 4th liners as they were able to match the level of physicality that the Oilers set.
- Taylor Pyatt scored his 16th goal tonight, and he's 1 point back from matching his career high in points. Go Py!!!! He also threw a couple of hits tonight. I was so shocked. In the first period, he tried for an open ice hit against Hemsky, but Hemsky saw him coming in time to dodge Pyatt. Later on in the game, I'm pretty sure I've seen him hit a few players. O_O It was weird! Pyatt never hits! He's usually the one that gets hit!
- After scoring, Pyatt also ran Dwayne Roloson over. Sorry, that really made me laugh.
- Lukas Krajicek is injured, probably listed day-to-day. That means we're calling up someone from the Moose and I hope to god it's not Yannick Tremblay, but Alex Edler. Go Edler!!!!
- Markus Naslund had a 2 point game tonight. Glad to see him rack up the points quietly, but he sitll needs to take more shots on the net, especially on 5-on3s. I was waiting for him to unleash that wrister but it never happened.
- We only took 2 penalties!!! I'm not including the ones that turned out 4-on-4 because both sides deserved it, but wow. I love how disciplined we were. The defencemen used good sticks and positioning to stop any incoming Oiler traffic.
Next is against Chicago Blackhawks, who came from behind and won their game tonight against Calgary. They're using Patrick Lalime, a goalie who hasn't played in a long time, in lieu of Nikolai Khabibulin.
The Canucks usually play worse than they usually do against goalies like Lalimi, Bruke, Conklin ... I don't know why. In any case, Good luck to them!
Some nights I'm going to bail them out and some nights they're going to bail me out - Roberto Luongo
And that's how it was last night. Luongo didn't look like he played as fantastic as he has been compared to previous games, although most of the goals that was scored on him were fluky, and the team bailed him out. Goalies from both teams were on the receiving ends of fluky bounces that went into the net.
The Canucks' first goal by Mattias Ohlund got deflected towards the net by an Oiler defenceman. The second goal, which Henrik Sedin deflected in, bounced off another Oiler before it reached the back of the net. On the other end, Oilers' first goal was deflected off Sami Salo's stick and in.
In the end, no matter how close Oilers were to tying the game (they cut the lead in half at the end of the 2nd period, then were able to keep the Canucks lead to 1 on 2 occassions), the Canucks simply scored their way out of those troubles.
It seems only yesterday that we can't get past 3 goals or 2 goals and scoring 3 goals or more seems almost impossible and the only way we can win is if Luongo can hold the fort down, tie it up and win in overtime.
One of the most noticeable difference in the game tonight compared to our last 5 or so games is the presence of Willie Mitchell. I don't know what it is, but last night, during Mitchell's first game back, the defense seemed better. They seemed more confident and edgier. They just generally played better and in turn the forwards got into the act and also played with a more mean edge, too.
A lot of people have been slamming Willie Mitchell's contract with the Canucks, wondering if he's worth the $3.5 million we're paying him when he's only had 1 goal and probably a few assists. Mitchell's worth is not in the points column of the stats sheet, but in how he defends against the league's top lines, how he kills penalties. He's only had 2 bad games this year that I can remember? I don't know. I'm really happy we finally got Willie back, and much happier we have him pencilled in for the next 3 seasons.
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Markus Naslund had a fantastic game last night. Coupled with his 1 goal and 1 assist, he also lead the team last night in shots no goal! Somehow, I find the stat "5 shots on goal" much more amazing than the 1 goal and 1 assisst only because we haven't seen Naslund shoot the puck as much this season. His goal was a beauty, too. Love how he forced Torres to give up the puck, made Bergeron and Roloson look like a fool when he tried to defend against Naslund 1-on-1 and having that backhand go in, when Rollie could have saved it. Though, I think it was a pretty hard backhand shot, but wow. Good job Nazzy! Definitely deserved the first star this game.
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Jan Bulis has been playing great since the beginning of the New Year.. or really since Boxing Day. (Most of the players has been playing well since that day, anyway). He almost scored short handed, and he totally owned the 2 Oilers in their own end as he was able to slip past BOTH of them to get to the puck and even get a decent scoring chance to the net.
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Even though Taylor Pyatt had 3 minor penalties this game, he was still a solid force in the Sedin line. He works really well with that line lately because it seems that he's been winning all those puck battles on the board recently, and has learned to use his size to dominate those battles, and to screen. He played such a big role on that Henrik goal, I was almost wishing that he tipped it so he can set a new career high in goals. What a weird game for him though.. 3 penalties in 1 game, when I don't even remember the last game he's taken a penalty.
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Trevor Linden looked slow last night. I don't know, it didn't seem like a good game for him, and that PP unit with the Sedins... he just hasn't been as effective on it recently. That unit is slumping, as the Sedins were slumping, but I don't know.
Next up are the Calgary Flames! Let's go win this one Nuckies!
