I am back to cover the post-gamer for Canucks Army because of the very inspiring words of dear leader Rhys, “I’ve asked everyone else – there’s literally no one else to do it”.  But nonetheless, as a power-forward blogger I gave it my 110%, competed hard and watched the game.

Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy said the wise words before the game, “The Canucks offence is better with Ryan Miller in net” – I am not quite sure what it means, but it seems to have held true.  The Canucks came into Raleigh and faced the Hurricanes tonight; despite being tired from a road back-to-back, and playing Miller again, the Canucks shut out the ‘Canes and won 3-0.

Read past the jump to see what went down.

Highlights

Quick Hits

5v5 Shot Attempts Chart

• Before the game even started Bo Horvat was in full Keslurking mode behind Sportsnet Murphy:

• Some what expected, the Canucks looked a step behind in this game, but the Hurricanes did not have the puck luck to come close to a win.  The first period the Canucks managed a 34.38% Corsi while the score was tied (11-21); in the second they decided to show up and outplayed the ‘Canes with shot attempts 20-17 (54.05%).  Then, score effects took over in the third period and the Canucks were outplayed for the rest of the game.
• Scoring was spread over all the lines today with Derek Dorsett, Shawn Matthias and Alex Burrows scoring similar goals where they went one-on-one with the Carolina’s netminder Cam Ward (whom Twitter reminded us is bad) and scored.  Burrows’ goal was particularly odorous, and Ward did not play in the third period as he was pulled.
• Ryan Miller was given the start in this game, despite having played the night before, because coaches love to play the hot hand.  This seems to be an old notion with hockey that is fighting analytics the hardest.  Yet when Lack earned a shutout in December against Pittsburgh, he was not gifted the start in the next game.  Miller did not look like he was having the greatest night technique-wise, he seemed to be reverting to his old habits and even had to go to the old pad-stack in the second period to make a save.  But hey, it worked.

• With Luca Sbisa a healthy scratch (Praise David Booth!), Frank Corrado was back in this game paired with Dan Hamhuis.  Corrado received 14 minutes of Time-On-Ice (TOI) but was a -19.14% in Corsi Rel. 
• In Dan Hamhuis first game back with the Canucks he give over 19 minutes of TOI and was a -26.55% Corsi Rel – it always takes a bit of time to get back into the motions when returning from an injury.
• Bo Horvat played 12:28, was a +7.11% Corsi Rel and won 6 of 11 face-offs.  It was one of his and the 4th line’s better nights in a while.
• Linden Vey was playing in this game while young Invincible Power Forward Zack Kassian sat out the second consecutive game as a healthy scratch.  

• Kassian may get his chance to get back in the lineup next game though, as Brad Richardson was sighted on crutches after the game.
• A shout-out to the Comets who played tonight.  They dominated the Milwaukee Admirals all night while trailing as the first shot against Jacob Markstrom went in the net.  It took the Comets 50 minutes to finally put a goal past Magnus Hellberg, only to have the Admirals break the tie with 33 seconds left to go.
  

Conclusion

The Canucks have the weekend off with their next game not until Monday.  It will be another afternoon game for you on the West Coast as the Canucks will be in Florida to face the Panthers.  The Canucks will go up against Roberto Luongo, Willie Mitchell, and Shane O’Brien, who recently shutout the Canucks when they visited Vancouver just last week, for the second time this season.

The Canucks will be looking to get their revenge and show they are able to score more than once on their old netminder.  It won’t be an easy match up as the Panthers are in the top half of the league in terms of Score-Adjusted Corsi.  We’ll see if the Canucks new found PDO hot streak continues in Florida.