The Canucks played three games this week (yes I am counting the Montreal game), and went 1-2. They were outscored 8-6, which doesn't look that bad at all, but sadly the only good, complete game they played was last night against Boston. Montreal controlled that game, despite the final score, and the Canucks were only able to score on the PP. You should be able to get some even strength goals on the sixth seed in the East. They came out like a gun shot against the Blues on Thursday, and dominated the first, going up 2-0. Then they let the Blues score twice in about 70 seconds in the second. They were able to go ahead in the third to secure a win. Saturday night was a different story. They got chances but couldn't score on a red hot goalie, Tim Thomas, and the Bruins capitalized on the opportunities they created. So here are the grades:
Forwards: C+ Kesler and Sammy were each minus 4. Raymond had 11 shots, and zero points. The Twins had two points, collectively, during 5-on-5 play. That is ridiculous, considering two out of the three games were against teams pretty far back from the Canucks in terms of team stats. The one shining light, again, was the third line. Manny, Raffi, and Hansen, combined for 4 points, a plus 6 rating, and was around 55% for face-offs. They appeared to be the only line that played at full speed every second they were out there. Now you can say the Twins play more minutes, and they do, but guess what? They are also exponentially more talented than the third line. They need to step it up. The fourth line of Glass-Oreskovich-Hodgson looked good as well. They didn't help all too much, with limited minutes, but didn't hurt the team either, combining for a plus 2 rating. They also generated some good scoring chances all week.
Defense: C I know blue-line has been banged up. And I know this is the first full week that Ballard and Hamhuis have been back, but they both combined for six shots in three games. Ehrhoff was the lone bright spot here, getting three points and an even rating. Salo went -3 on the week, Tanev got caught out of position leading to two goals in the Montreal game, and Aaron Rome, was Aaron Rome, two shots, minus 1 rating, and was a solid third pairing guy. They weren't moving guys out from the front of the net, and need to get better on their positioning. Something has got to start working here.
Goalies: C Once again this was dominated by Schneider. He got the start against St. Louis, and stopped 28 shots, allowing two goals. He came up with a bunch of key saves, and survived his teammates deciding not to back-check or clear guys out from the front of the net, in the second period. Luongo, played solid despite his stats: 0-2-0, 2.50 GAA, .898S%, with 44 Saves. He was hung out to dry in the Montreal game, giving up a break-away goal, and some porous defense. He played solid on Saturday, but was outplayed by Tim Thomas, you know the 36 year old coming off hip surgery. He has got to get better if they want to go far.
Coaching: D+ Obviously Alain has not solved the problem of his team just deciding to take entire periods off, or get dominated by a six seed from the East. Sometimes the top lines, save for Kesler, and Raymond for the most part (despite his lack of point production), decide that back-checking is more of an option rather and would rather save their energy. Tanev was out of place twice in the Montreal game, both led to goals. Hey Alain, I know you are missing a lot of Defenseman but you might want to spend more time in practice working with the ones you have, so problems like these don't keep occurring.
Next week they are at home Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Thursday against the Nashville Predators. Then they go on the road on Saturday to play the LA Kings. These are all winnable games, and there is no reason why they shouldn't at least for 2-1, especially when two games are at home.
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