.@VanCanucks guys its two goals
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) December 18, 2015
The Rundown
Henrik Sedin is just over 50 points away from hitting the centurian mark, so naturally he’s injured now (and there’s no telling whether it’s something serious or not, which could be something huge for the club).
The game could easily be blamed on the loss of a twin, but the Flyers have simply been good for spurts this year – and this was one of those games. The Canucks weren’t a mess, particularly on offense – but they ran into a strong Steve Mason (whose early year struggles have been all but erased by this point in the season) and Jacob Markstrom allowed just two too many goals.
Should the team be unhappy with this game? To an extent.
The first goal was practically a fluke; no one was even sure it was in until the replay, when Raffl was awarded his fourth goal of the year. That’s tough to overcome momentum wise, although the team did it’s very best – Daniel Sedin and Alex Edler each took seven shots on net, while Radim Vrbata followed up with six shots of his own – and although Markstrom had what many would consider a solid game, it just wasn’t enough for the team to walk away with a win.
The second goal sealed the deal, and that was that.
The Stats
High Points
The Canucks kept with the Flyers for the entire game; that’s a hard loss to overcome, although it’s certainly not an indicator of something severely wrong within Vancouver’s system. There wasn’t a whole lot that could be considered a “high” point, but the offensive possession numbers certainly get that honor.
Low Points
Uh… the loss of one of the Sedin twins is always a low point, even if he did manage to play five minutes and even if the club looked strong offensively without him. It was a close game, and there’s always going to be that wonder: would having Henrik in the game have been enough to win the contest?
This may have been the root of Henrik’s injury. pic.twitter.com/Yeqn8hlAWR
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) December 18, 2015
Overview
Look, this sucks. I know it does, you know it does. The best thing to do is just shake it off and remember – at least we aren’t Anaheim.
A great reminder that they traded Anaheim’s 2nd AND gave away defensive depth to make a lateral move for a guy that’s now injured.
That’s why it’s so important that the 1st rounders develop and they try and sway JB from making too many trades…
something about 2nd’s that Jimbo just can’t wait to trade kinda like when he gets the player he wants to bad and can’t wait to just sign to “undeserving” contracts… .
Yeah… totes should have known Sutter would be injured. What the heck was he thinking?? And the way Clendenning is helping to power Pittsburgh’s return to glory, I can’t believe we just gave him away…
BUT… I’ll grant you that it would kinda be nice to have Corrado around right about now. Unless you want to have the Canucks continue on this path to last place. Like I do. But Still. Corrado would be nice.
Besides the obvious in the lack of talent with the assembly of the team I honestly think that we have the wrong coach which I guess is a good thing in one way and bad in another.
Having another bonehead in the system such as WD we should be at least be in contention for a top 5 pick at the least
However, with his system at the moment the team is not scoring which in turn is not developing the younger players, their is only so much defense you can try and preach but goals give confidence and we are seeing far too many shutouts as of late.
Another pathetic performance. The Canucks are quickly becoming the team time forgot.
Play Kenins and Pedan. Bring up the boys from the farm and lets see what they can do in the show.
What a bunch of hot air in these comments, first it was tank and get some draft picks, so now we’re in tank mode and its fire Willie and fire brain dead Benning and Linden too. Hell fire everyone and trade the Sedins and get rid of this stale core and play the kids a la Oilers. What? We have injuries? Put them on waivers. Come on lets really stink.
I thought it was mostly a solid game,but one problem.One Big Problem…The Nucks can`t score.Edlar was robbed by Mason,who stood on his head.Now Henrik is injured and they are well and truly fu&ked.Been reading comments for awhile now and I agree with most posters.This team needs to go into full rebuild mode.Either play the hell out of the kids,or send them down.So they can develop.Its not the kids fault,like where the hell is Burrows or Higgins these days.The coach(Groundskeeper Willy) does look way, way,over his head,but I think Scotty Bowman couldn’t`t do anything with this sorry bunch.Look for a blowout tomorrow,if that doesn`t happen then Miller stands on his head and they lose 4 or 5 to nothing.
I wasn’t able to watch this game. What did Willie do with the lines? Did he plug someone into the 1st line? Did he just machete everything and jumble everything up?
I don’t even know who he would plug into Henrik’s hole in the lineup. Burrows moved to center for a while? Higgins? Cracknell? God forbid, one of the rookies?
Remember when the Canucks were so strong down the center, it was scary? Now they’re so weak it’s equally as scary.
The good news is, even loser points aren’t saving the Canucks now.
Only The Ducks horrible start is keeping them out of the basement in the worst division in the NHL.
The writing is on the wall for this season. With a handful of pending UFAs and some other veteran guys who will be attractive deadline additions for contenders, the time is finally right to sell some assets, settle into a lottery position, play some kids and look to next season with some cap space to play with in free-agency.
There’s a good core here to build around, both with veterans like the Twins and our young guys. Give Gaunce, Shink, Pedan and audition and move out the Vrbata, Prust, Higgins, Hamhuis types.
Best case scenario for the future. I was worried they would stay in the hunt because the rest of the division was so bad, and would hang on to these type of guys, just to miss out or get swept in rnd 1.
Remember last time Hank was hurt? If memory serves we had RK17 to fill in on that first line. *SIGH*
Not that I’m a huge Kesler fan or anything. It was just nice when the canucks had a borderline first line center on the second line. Now we’ve got… hopes.
The effort was there which is good, but the lack of scoring is worrisome. Our veterans are struggling and it’s rubbing off on our young guys. Horvat needs to sit out a game or two and regroup. Call up Linden Vey.
Canucks are turning into Vancouvers “no fun zone”. The team has to find a way to keep the entertainment value up. You do this by working hard. If you can’t score goals, take the body and play a physical game.
I’d start by claiming Kass off waivers. Sit him down, hand him a picture of Frankie and let him think about it for a few days or weeks. You can baby step this guy through a process and either he gets it or his career is done.
Second, call up who ever you need to from Utica and put together some lines for training and evaluation. Yes, its the big league, but its time to start evaluating the prospects a little more closely.
I used to hate the end of a loss speeches by Naslund trying to apologize for a bunch of vets who just aren’t getting it done.
Higgins is out of excuses … so is Burrows.
And yeah, call up Gaunce and Vey and whatever other guys who have played centre and put them on the wing to provide support for the guys who are playing centre.
I see Kassian cleared waivers.