Remember how it felt to beat Minnesota at home? The positive feeling of battling Dallas down to the wire and losing in a shootout?
Would fans have any recollection of positive Canucks feelings?
@omarcanuck just blow it all up already. 15-20 pick overall again ain’t gonna do jack shit
— Cody Lajeunesse (@CFL88) December 1, 2015
I could pull a hundred tweets like this one from Monday’s game. Facing the Ducks, the Canucks did everything in their power to eradicate any memory of last week’s strong performances.
They barely showed up for the first period, getting outshot 14-8 and out-corsid 30-17.
The defense was a mess, the forwards – Jared McCann was almost the only noticeable player, and the goaltending… I better watch out, people don’t like when I talk about bad goaltending.
The Canucks lost 4-0, a flattering scoreline when you consider all the glorious chances Anaheim missed.
More summaries?
@omarcanuck Kinda looks like “rookies have to buy the booze night” was too close to game night. #hungover
— Deedlbug53 (@deedlbug53) December 1, 2015
Seriously tho,, have the #Canucks had ONE good scoring chance tonight?!? Toss this one in the trash and move on to LA #vcbcanucks
— Mike S.™ (@Mike_Stefanuk) December 1, 2015
Wyatt has the best summary though.
— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) December 1, 2015
1. Thoughts on the defence…
You know it’s not going to be a good night when the top D pairing looks like the third pairing on the opening goal.
Tanev and Edler were dominated on Shawn Horcoff’s goal, and the entire defence was dominated for the rest of the first period. Tanev also missed a few shifts after blocking a shot with his hand, and that had Canucks fans ready to jump
(off the bandwagon).
Felt like a good time to ask fans how they felt about the Canucks’ D.
@omarcanuck like a public open tryout is imminent
— Sleek Vigilant Puma (@Swizzler16) December 1, 2015
Don’t laugh, it probably is.
@omarcanuck like I have a shot at making the NHL
— Mo Rex (@Morock90) December 1, 2015
Don’t laugh, you probably do.
This is cold, though.
@omarcanuck like an Oilers fan.
— Face ofthe Franchise (@AndrewAllen2) December 1, 2015
2. Look at the bright side – only one injury
There are a few games every season where you’re hoping the team just escapes mostly healthy. Last season, it was every time Vancouver played Arizona and Martin Hanzal. This season it might be the Ducks.
During the first period Alex Edler took a shot off his knee and Chris Tanev took a shot in the hand right after. Both went to the bench in pain.
Henrik Sedin went down, and later in the game Chris Higgins was run into the boards by Nick Ritchie.
Looked like a dirty hit to me, but it went unpenalized.
Higgins played his next shift, so it looks like he’ll be alright.
Jake Virtanen was not so lucky.
What happened to Virtanen? Just Getzlaf, being Getzlaf. pic.twitter.com/kaumRAwA3A
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) December 1, 2015
Virtanen was out the rest of the game after that first period hit. So what happens Tuesday if he can’t play… who suits up against Milan Lucic and the Kings the night after the Canucks showed no physical push back?
Surely Grenier deserves another shot after he looked immovable in his first NHL game. Or even Shinkaruk, who can help put the puck in the net.
Or will Willie be cunning like a fox and go with Mr.Perimeter, the un-physical Sven Baertschi for no logical reason like he did with Brandon McMillan in the playoffs last season?
Having seen Baertschi play a lot more now, that decision’s making a lot more sense, btw.
3. Does Miller play Tuesday?
Let’s be clear – the Canucks didn’t lose because of Ryan Miller. Vancouver scored a combined total of… hang on, let me add the numbers… carry the one… tough math here… zero goals.
Obviously it didn’t matter who was in net.
After seeing Ryan Miller allow two goals in the first, I felt he wasn’t tracking the puck all that well, didn’t have that quickness we see when he’s on his game. So I suggested it to Twitter.
@omarcanuck how is Eddie doing again?
— phil verret (@BasketballPhil) December 1, 2015
@omarcanuck Miller’s the reason why we’re not down 5-0
— Serena (@CaptToeDrag) December 1, 2015
@omarcanuck lol Miller is the least of the problem right now.
— Sandy (@SandyP4025) December 1, 2015
Miller never looks sharp to you, you critique every movement he makes. Just shut the hell up and support the starter https://t.co/D3TQdrzdT5
— Jovan ‘DJ HEER’ Heer (@JovanHeer) December 1, 2015
Some people sure get sensitive about Miller.
First, Jovan’s wrong – sometimes Miller looks very sharp to me. Pretty sure I mentioned his solid play a couple times in the SixPack last week.
Second, after allowing this 4-0 goal in the third, Miller was pulled. No, he wasn’t sharp.
Look, it happens – all goalies have bad games. Question is how do you get Miller back to top form? Anyone who’s watched this team closely the past two years would have to say make sure he’s not tired. Well, maybe not Jovan.
But pulling Miller in the third period when Markstrom should be getting the second game in the back-to-back Tuesday… that’s weird. It makes you think crazy things.
I certainly hope that pulling Miller now isn’t to rest him so that he can play tomorrow. #Canucks
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) December 1, 2015
After the game the Sportsnet panel discussed what pulling Miller meant and Doug MacLean said, “I would think by taking him out, (Desjardins) is going to go back to him again.”
Boy, if Markstrom doesn’t get the second half of back-to-backs he might as well be sent back to the AHL.
4. McCann’s got heart
Down 4-0, game’s nearly over, and one of the the league’s biggest, toughest centres knocks Jared McCann over.
And McCann came up swinging.
Shows his heart’s in the right place even if it was the worst idea in the world.
Lucky for McCann and the Canucks Getzlaf held him off with one arm and seemed to tell him to calm down or something to that effect.
Not worth it in this one, kid.
5. Who wants Brad Marchand as a son?
I could show more gifs of Canucks making stupid plays. I could do a 20 pack for you and really make you cry…
Nah. Let’s move on.
There was some pretty epic stuff this weekend from two people who have been closely tied with the Canucks in the past.
First, Brad Marchand called out Henrik Lundqvist for embelleshing. Alain Vigneault took exception, saying:
“Who would you rather have as a son, Henrik [Lundqvist] or Brad Marchand?”
Pretty sure all Canucks fans would even take the kid from Problem Child over Marchand, forget King Henrik. (If you’re too young to get the Problem Child reference… it’s self explanatory, isn’t it?).
Marchand replied Sunday:
“I don’t know if my mom has seen that, and I haven’t talked to my father about it…”
“I think they love me, though…
“I thought I was a likable person.
Next person we need a comment from: Alex Burrows.
6. Ottawa Senators are scouting on Reddit
People have a lot of in depth conversations on Reddit and I’m not really sure the purpose, other than wasting time. Sometimes you do see some funny comments, though.
I saw the following question posed earlier today.
Really great response:
Anyways, no idea how they make a highlights video from this game, but here it is.
Thanks to Ryan Biech and his computer hacking skillz that produced the gifs used in this post.
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