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Canucks Post-Game #Sixpack: The Stork Comes Up Big

DH Vancouver Staff
DH Vancouver Staff
|
Dec 19 2017, 8:44 pm
Canucks Post-Game #Sixpack: The Stork Comes Up Big

Coming off an embarrassing effort against the Los Angeles Kings, the Vancouver Canucks were looking to redeem themselves in their final test of their road trip through Death Valley.

Although both teams were depleted with injuries and flu-like symptoms, the Canucks had themselves one hell of a rebound as they defeated the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 to earn 6 out of a possible 8 points on the road trip.

The Canucks have surely earned themselves a couple of six packs for the short flight home to Vancouver. So why not join them with a #Sixpack of your own?

Final score: Canucks 2 – Ducks 1

Canucks goals:

  1. Alex Burrows (3rd of the season) – Assisted by Dan Hamhuis and Nick Bonino

Ducks goals:

  1. Sami Vatanen (4th of the season) – Assisted by Ryan Kesler (of course)
SHOOTOUT
ROUND ANAHEIM DUCKS VANCOUVER CANUCKS
1 Ryan Getzlaf  No Nick Bonino  Yes
2 Jakob Silfverberg  No Chris Higgins  No
3 Ryan Kesler  No

1. When Will Willie Learn?

So far this season, I have been happy with about 90% of Willie Desjardins’ lineup choices. I also appreciate that when things aren’t going well, he doesn’t simply toss his players into a blender and see what pointless combination comes out. However, the big thing that confuses me is giving Jannik Hansen promotions to the top two lines.

I’ve talked about this before in the #Sixpack, but here’s a quick refresher: Jannik Hansen in not capable of playing in a scoring role because he intentionally stops doing what made him successful. It just doesn’t work long-term and we have years of historical evidence to back this up. With Radim Vrbata hurt, the Sedins needed a linemate for tonight’s game and lo and behold, Hansen’s name was drawn. Here’s a brief summary of how that went:

And it lasted all but a period and a half. With Vrbata and Kassian hurt, I’m guessing Desjardins didn’t think there was another option for a scoring winger besides Hansen. Except there are two. One has been playing with the twins for five years and the other is a young scoring winger that also hails from Denmark.

2.  Yeah, Heatley…

What in the world happened to Dany Heatley? He’s gone from being a perennial all-star to a parody account on Twitter. Thankfully, it’s an awesome parody account and I bet the royalties from all the merchandise it pushes will keep the real Heatley going for a while.

After three sub-par seasons with the Minnesota Wild, the Anaheim Ducks signed Heatley hoping he would regain his scoring touch playing with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. Although I’m pretty sure I could regain my scoring touch with those two…

But like most free agent signings, things haven’t unfolded the way they should have and Heatley is barely scraping by on the fourth line. The all-star really has become a parody of his former self.

3. Death, Taxes, and Jannik Hansen Botching a Breakaway

I feel bad for ripping on Hansen so badly tonight because he actually had a decent game and is fantastic when put into the right role. But Hansen missed yet another breakaway Sunday night and some of the responses on Twitter were amazing. Sorry Jannik:

4. Eddie Lack

It was pretty surprising that Eddie Lack got the start on Sunday after coming in to relieve Ryan Miller who got shelled by the Los Angeles Kings. Willie Desjardins defended the decision saying that he needed to get Lack going. And looking at Lack’s start to the season, the coach isn’t wrong.

Getting the start in the second game of back-to-backs is never an ideal situation, especially considering this game was in the more dangerous part of Death Valley. But Lack stood tall and got the team into overtime, ensuring that the worst the Canucks could do on the road was was a 2-1-1 record.

But Lack still wasn’t satisfied with 5 out of 8 points, and backstopped the Canucks to their third win of the road trip. Although the Canucks have a lot of work to do, it was an encouraging finale to the road trip that even impressed Sportnet’s Mark Spector:

5. The Canucks Win Another Shootout!

The Canucks have now been to two shootouts this season and somehow they are now 2-0 in the sideshow that’s used to decide hockey games. It’s obviously still early, but the players that Jim Benning picked up this offseason have completely changed the complexion of the Canucks’ shootouts.

Over the last few years, we’ve had to witness countless missed opportunities by Ryan Kesler, Alex Edler, and Alex Burrows who used to be good with that one move of his.

With the additions of Radim Vrbata, Linden Vey and especially Nick Bonino, the Canucks now have an arsenal of weapons to use instead of resorting to the above mentioned players or the Sedins. I sincerely hope we never see that again.

Anyways, here’s Bonino’s goal for you to enjoy:

6. The Kesler Show

I guess I shouldn’t finish the #Sixpack without mentioning our old friend Ryan Kesler. After all, he was the ongoing narrative going into this game. Other than the Olympics, this was one of the first times that Canuck fans cheered against Kes and it isn’t really fun:

Kesler brought his usual bag of tricks. There was the agitation, stick taps and dominant faceoff performance. The only thing that was missing was a solo rush followed by a wrist shot into a defenceman’s shin pads.

Oh yeah, and Kesler had the chance to keep his team in it in the shootout but hit iron. The smirk on Eddie Lack’s face was absolutely priceless.

I’ll just leave it at that.

DH Vancouver StaffDH Vancouver Staff
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