News

Canucks Post-Game SixPack - Miller/Burrows steal a point

DH Vancouver Staff
DH Vancouver Staff
|
Dec 19 2017, 9:21 pm
Canucks Post-Game SixPack - Miller/Burrows steal a point

The Canucks played the Anaheim Ducks tonight and for the third straight time these two teams fought beyond 60 minutes. In a game the Ducks dominated, the Canucks were lucky to escape with a point in a 2-1 overtime loss. 

You wouldn’t have been surprised if the game went to a shootout tonight again either…

Way to jinx it, Theo.

After five straight days of no Canucks to watch on TV, it was nice to curl up on the couch and watch the guys play at 5pm on a Sunday.

 

Maybe you watched it with your family. Maybe you had a real fun day. But please don’t say Sunday funday or fam jam.

Thanks for that, Mike.

And now, the SixPack:

1. Outplayed

The Canucks were playing their first game in six days, while the Ducks played last night in Arizona. Usually in those situations, the tired team has a hot start and fades down the stretch, but tonight it was just the opposite. The Canucks played well in the first frame, outshooting the Ducks 8-7. After that, it was all Anaheim. The Ducks outshot the Canucks 24-6 in the remainder of the game.

The Canucks looked like a team that was at the tail-end of a 10-game road trip for most of tonight. That included the overtime winner where Shawn Matthias got caught in no-man’s land, watching the puck and failed to pick up his man, Cam Fowler, who scored the overtime winner.

 

It wasn’t a banner game for Matthias and one fan has a theory:

https://twitter.com/cpeck29/status/549378849260048384

Matthias was playing his best hockey of the season when he was elbowed in the head in the Toronto game three weeks ago. Since then, he has just 1 goal in 5 games.

For what it’s worth, intermission guest Colby Armstrong theorized that playing the first game after the Christmas break is tougher than playing back-to-back nights.

2. Enough about Peterborough already!

Speaking of the intermissions, is everyone as sick and tired of hearing about Peterborough yet?

Today’s game was another edition of Rogers Hometown Hockey, the weekly feature where Ron MacLean travels to some town in Canada and they run a mini Hockey Day in Canada feature.

I have always thought that Hockey Day in Canada was a nice annual feature, but this is overkill. I really would prefer an intermission about the Canucks and Ducks than an intermission about Steve Larmer, Bob Gainey or John Druce. Did you know all three of those guys are from Peterborough??? It’s true! And did you know that Chris Pronger once played for the Peterborough Petes? Also true!

3. Miller/Burrows

The Canucks can thank some solid play by goaltender Ryan Miller and some sneaky footwork by Alex Burrows for stealing a point in Anaheim tonight.

Miller was sharp all night long. He stopped 29 of 31 shots against the league leading Ducks and couldn’t be faltered on either goal against. The first was a screened shot that he never saw by Francois Beauchemin. The game winner was scored on a rebound after he stopped the initial double-deflected shot.

Alex Burrows provided a much needed net-front presence yet again tonight. On Yannick Weber’s goal, he also dragged his leg and interfered with Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen.

From a Canucks fan’s perspective, it was a wonderfully sneaky play.

It is interesting that head coach Willie Desjardins is sticking with two of his best wingers this season on the 4th line. Of course, the “4th line” is a bit misleading, as the trio of Burrows-Horvat-Hansen played about as much as the “3rd line” of Matthias-Richardson-Vey. Still, the Canucks would have been well served getting a few more minutes from Burrows and Hansen tonight.

4. The PK

Give Willie Desjardins and the Canucks’ coaching staff a lot of credit. Somehow this team hasn’t missed a beat without Ryan Kesler and Roberto Luongo when their opponent has the man advantage.

The Canucks PK was perfect once again tonight. They’re the 5th ranked penalty kill in the league and it has flown a bit under the radar this year. A great PK can carry a team a long way and it’s a great sign for this team.

5. Where were the Sedins tonight?

Henrik and Daniel Sedin had a disturbingly quiet game tonight. With the Canucks receiving just 5 seconds of power play time, the twins only saw the ice for about 16 minutes each. Henrik had just one shot on goal while Daniel had none. Their linemate, Radim Vrbata, also didn’t register a single shot on net.

One major criticism of the Sedins is that they aren’t able to dominate against the good teams in the league and tonight did nothing to silence their critics. They’re both legitimate first liners, but they will need to get the job done more consistently against powerhouse teams like the Ducks.

6. The Shapys

It was a big night for another reason, as the annual Shapys awards night took place during the second period of tonight’s game. If you don’t know what the Shapys are, I’ll give you the quick explanation.

The Shapys are a fictional awards banquet put on by some Canucks fans on Twitter who identify themselves as the “shap crew”. They have their own slang that is difficult to understand and I would need to dedicate my time to an entire article to accurately explain it all.

But every year they have an awards banquet to help celebrate the good, the bad and the hilarious of tweeting about Canucks hockey. The awards are fake, but the importance is real.

The Shapys gained a lot of street cred when Roberto Luongo filmed himself giving an acceptance speech for his Shapy during the NHL lockout in 2012. Last year, Jason Botchford made an elaborate video to help kick-off the event.

Roberto Luongo didn’t win anything this year, but he did weigh-in on Twitter about losing to Eddie Lack in the celebrity category:

https://twitter.com/strombone1/status/549400478514425856

TSN’s Aaron Ward won his first Shapy:

The class act that he is, he gave credit where credit is due:

We were happy to help, Wardo.

ADVERTISEMENT