Coming off of their first regulation loss of the season, the Canucks returned to Rogers Arena Tuesday night to face Erik Karlsson and the Ottawa Senators. It’s always fun to watch a game-changing defenseman and Troy Stecher did very well in his debut. In fact, his neat breakouts and crisp passes were probably the Canucks’ best plays of the game! Aside from Stecher, there aren’t too many positives to take from this game for Vancouver, who came up goalless against the Sens.
THE GOALS
Ryan Dzingel, who has a great name, opened the scoring midway through the first after a sloppy Canucks change led to the first minus of Troy Stecher’s career.
that was some line change for the canucks, skille just skates right by puck too pic.twitter.com/lNVgHsrCov
— Jason Botchford (@botchford) October 26, 2016
Ryan Dzingel scores to put #Sens up 1-0 early#Canucks pic.twitter.com/eXjxC1Rl79
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 26, 2016
Almost nothing happened after the opening goal until Ryan Dzingel scored again early in the third.
Ryan Dzingel scores his second goal of the game – #Sens up 2-0 early in the third#Canucks pic.twitter.com/86t1B2EfRY
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 26, 2016
Jean-Gabriel Pageau also added an empty netter, making the final score 3-0 for the visitors.
The Canucks did not generate a lot of chances to break Craig Anderson’s shutout. Henrik Sedin did get this opportunity, but he passed the puck. As he tends to.
I dunno shoot maybe pic.twitter.com/kAyT9cgFPo
— Mike Halford (@HalfordPHT) October 26, 2016
THE STATS
via hockeystats
THE STECHER
Only his defensive partner Alex Edler played more minutes than Troy Stecher, who looked extremely comfortable in his debut. Gif-master Ryan Biech singled out some of Stecher’s nicest moments. That puck movement! Swoon!
Stecher fakes the ‘off the glass’ play – then hit Eriksson in transition.
Those kind of plays create offence.#Canucks pic.twitter.com/Cxf76KIDSJ
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 26, 2016
Stecher just takes the puck and leaves the zone.@BlakePriceTSN #Canucks pic.twitter.com/8EDpL6sBOr
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 26, 2016
Hold onto the puck, create a lane for a shot.
Possession = good
?#Canucks pic.twitter.com/AaN24GB8oh
— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 26, 2016
And there’s nothing quite like the captain of the team you grew up loving singing your praises!
Henrik on Stecher: “He looked really good. Poised. Made some really good plays and was fun to watch.”
— Jason Brough (@JasonPHT) October 26, 2016
The Canucks don’t play again until Friday when some kid named Connor McDavid comes to town.
The Canucks have had sloppy changes since the lockout season, it seems like an issue every year. Maybe I’m just singling things out, maybe it’s just me.
That line change was hilarious. They all stopped at the bench looking at the puck across the ice for what seemed eternity, not getting off or going for the puck. You could almost see them thinking “should I get that, nah what could possibly go wrong”.
Nothing came of it, but Virtanen seemed to be playing with a bit more pop and confidence,
I’m trying to pinpoint what it is about the team that looks so off from the first few games. Whereas those generally seemed to have at least some structure and flow, there are far too many missed passes, stalled breakouts and giveaways now and simply not enough consistent pressure applied on offense. There were a few shifts (especially at the start of the 2nd) where the Canucks seemed like they were actually playing but far too often there just wasn’t much there.
On the good side Gudbranson and Hutton seem to be getting a bit better together and Hutton in particular seems to be getting more confident. On the bad side there were far too many times when Gudbranson in particular failed to clear the puck out of the zone even when having the time and space to do so. Sbisa looked ok despite the couple of pizza deliveries. Without question the most impressive d was Stecher who looked confident, poised, creative, and made Edler better. When Tanev is back (Friday?) they need to sit Larsen and keep Stecher in the lineup. If we have to see Larsen yet again shy away from a hit and concede the puck…and it’s not like he’s been offensively dynamic or even competent.
The biggest problem still has to be the Sedins. If you effectively don’t have a first line, you’re not going to sustain a game with a good second (Sutter’s), an inconsistent third (Horvat’s) and an adequate fourth (Gaunce’s). The Sedin line is basically invisible for shift after shift and then has maybe 2 good shifts a game. What consistent pressure do we put on the other team? Is Henrik hurt (again) or does he have a longterm problem with his hands? Because his passes are simply not getting through.
As I thought too when we were winning in a season like this where we’re in tough to be competitive, it’s the underlying play not the results that’s what we have to focus on. And the underlying play is not terribly encouraging the last three games.
Looks to me like a lot of the structure they had over the first four games has gone out the window. “Hey this is working, let’s stop doing it.”
this passage from your post captures my thoughts exactly. i don’t know if the weekend games just totally demoralized the team or if something is going on behind the scenes or they are just snake bitten, but that was truly terrible hockey. they will indeed be a 65 point team if that is the real canucks this year.
“I’m trying to pinpoint what it is about the team that looks so off from the first few games. Whereas those generally seemed to have at least some structure and flow, there are far too many missed passes, stalled breakouts and giveaways now and simply not enough consistent pressure applied on offense. There were a few shifts (especially at the start of the 2nd) where the Canucks seemed like they were actually playing but far too often there just wasn’t much there.”
Stecher, Virtanen, and Miller all looked good. I dont know what is up with the sedins lately, especially Daniel. They gotta click in sometime I guess, but for now they are playing ol’ timer’s hockey.
Megna didn’t look bad, and I thought the fourth line was the only one to actually push the play and check.
Here’s how I imagine the pre-faceoff huddle went for everyone else…
“OK, I’ll win the draw and whichever you guys get it, ice it right away and we’ll just do that all game. If you can’t do that, just turn it over”
I love the canucks, but my forehead is sore from smacking it too much watching these last few games.
Get fat Tryamkin out of the food court and in the game again, at least I can get a consolation prize from watching him sit people down. also, buy him a big boy helmet. His visor doesn’t even protect his eyebrow. He looks like my grandpa wearing his trucker hat by resting it lightly atop his hairdo.
cripes. I need to go buy some blood pressure meds.
It’s abundantly CLEAR that after these last three WOEFUL LOSSES in a row, the REAL Canucks have shown up and I, along with every EXPERT in the game, were bang on with our prediction. BASEMENT TEAM here we come.
Here’s the heads up so far
PP 26th out of 30
PK 15th when we once OWNED this category
GOAL SCORING 26th!!!!!!!!!!
As i told you BEFORE the season began, the Sardines are DONE – 2nd line players at best and how long did they last with Eriksson?.. as i again told you.
The kicker is, the Rog is as empty as Wreck Beach on a frosty winters morning whilst in SEATTLE a new arena is once again going ahead and the Aquas have been spotted down there… tick tock
Well, keep licking those windows while you can fickle fans because it’s YOU who are ultimately KILLING this team… The SEATTLE ORCAS anyone?
Who let the village idiot back out on the streets…?
Well CA operators and your new policies, here’s your chance….
……licking windows?
And obviously they would be the ‘Seattle Flying Fish’.
Very dissatisfied with your effort on this one.
from the Oct 21 post on changes to the comments section
About those trolls… we’ve had enough! If you don’t intend to add anything meaningful to the conversation, why bother? If you’re just aiming for a rise, chances are your comment will be deleted. If you do this with obvious malicious intent, you will be flagged and banned.
This applies to Hockey Warrior and everything he posts.
JD Please apply the rules you have put in place.
I happened to be at the game yesterday.
There was just a lack of overall effort in general. Couple that with a very structured Sens team and it was a boring game.
Miller was the best Canuck on the ice.
Stecher was okay. He reminds me of Hamhuis in the defensive corners, relying on a very good stick, positioning and overall compete to win the puck. His glaring weakness, in my opinion is a below average shot. It is anything but crisp (dare I say Hendrik like).
Gudbranson continues to impress and was solid. He is carrying Hutton, who was also okay. Sbisa had a weaker game, although not awful. An Larsen was good in the offensive zone, but size is a problem in the D-zone. Larsen is better than Stecher in the offensive zone. His skating, passing and shooting are a step above Stecher. Stecher has more compete in the D-zone.
DJ44
You always post good stuff and I have come to respect your opinion, and seeing as you were there, I gotta take your word, but it must be that the cameras pan away from stecher every time he is going to do something bad, and pan in on Spisa when he is about to flub it.
Or maybe because the camera always follows the puck we only get the version of that player of when he has it. Maybe Spisa is really good away from it, and maybe we viewers buy into Stecher’s energy because he seems so dynamic with it?
I do not know what the camera was panning in on. To be honest, I did not see too many mistakes by Stecher, other than the weak clear to the Canucks bench during that cluster**** of a line change that resulted in the first goal. The difference with Stecher, is he has the ability to recover (and uses it), probably due to superior puck-sense/hockeyIQ and a great compete level. I characterize his game last night as solid; not dynamic.
Ottawa took away the primary pass and clogged the middle last night. How many icings did the Canucks have? The forwards need to give the defence more options if the opposition denies an option.
As for Sbisa, he did not have a great game. He failed to clear the puck on the second goal.
Is it just me, or are dump outs and dump ins killing this team. When you don’t have the speed to skate onto those loose pucks all of those plays just become turn overs. I believe you could honestly count the successful dump ins on one hand. Virtanen has bought right into this. Almost everytime the puck is on his stick in the neutral zone he is dumping it in. Majority of the time his feet aren’t moving after he does it and neither are his linemates and the other team recovers it. I wasn’t on this train before but I think the AHL for him, get some confidence.
When I look up and down the Canucks line-up I see that each player is defensively responsible to the point that they should not be bleeding shot attempts and scoring chances. They might not have the most potent offence, but their top 9 forwards and top 4 defenceman all have the ability to put the puck in the next on at least a semi-regular basis. There goaltending is unspectacular but competent, I’d say slightly above average to the point that no easy goals should be going in. I see a team that should be at the very least competitive in every game. Then they hit the ice….
There is no way they should be playing this bad. I can’t really explain it or put it into words but something just seems off. When you watch them play there is no continuity, no smoothness, breakouts are getting stalled, lots of missed passes and turnovers in the neutral zone, guys are constantly out of position and getting crossed up, there is blown defensive coverage all over the ice, their forechecking seems to have turned into a “one-man approach” with one guy in with no support, and there is almost no sustained offensive zone possession/pressure. Its like they are playing as a group of individuals running around all over the ice and not playing as a 5-man unit. It could just be a byproduct of heavy turnover but they played it perfect the first 4 games. I am beginning to suspect it’s either systems related or a case of over-coaching causing the players to over-think rather than letting instincts take over. What the heck is happening?
I am wondering if there a correlation between the last two losses and Burrows and Dorsett not being in the line-up. There is hardly any physicality or urgency, as they seemed extremely disorganized the last two games, particularly last night with Megna and Skille in the line-up…
I’ve harped on this so many times, but having the farm team in the east coast instead of your back yard makes it really hard to establish continuity between the big club and the farm team. I hate TO, and pick on them whenever I can (I’m loving Toskala part 2 however)- but they at least got one thing right having the Marlies and Leafs in close proximity.
the farm team in utica argument makes sense if you can be patient with prospects and park them there. it’s a great environment with some tradition and they have limited bus time.
but a local team may have more merit with a rebuilding parent club where you have to bring players in and out a lot.
Stecher was fun to watch. JV actually made a hit last night as well. The dcore looks fine to me it is the offense that is MIA. Stecher could have had a few assists if he was passing to say….Brock Boeser. Sedins look lost. Ah well only one more year of them. If they play like this all season maybe they will pull a Naslund and retire a year early. Sedins are class acts. Brought a lot of joy to this city. Who knows though maybe they will pick it up. Monohan and Johnny seem to have in Calgary.
With only two off setting minor penalties the game was played 5 on 5. Willie`s version of rolling four lines is Virtanen gets 8 minutes, Gaunce gets 8 minutes, Megna gets 11 minutes and Skille gets 12 minutes.
So what does that say about Willie; He knows how to talk the talk in the pre-game and the post-game but during the game he is overwhelmed with information forcing his gameplan out the window. Willie behind the bench is demoralizing. His players are shaking their heads in wonder at the way he makes decisions in-game.
As noted above the Canucks kept dumping it in and Ottawa kept passing it out. The forecheck disappeared, but let`s give Ottawa some credit; They were tough and physical in the neutral zone. They held the blue line. They made very few mistakes and their goalie was on the ball when needed.
We are simply not taking enough shots on net. I am not sure if it is confidence or what-not, but everyone is passing instead of shooting. Our defence has been putting more shots on net than the forwards.
Also, Baertschi needs to start driving for the net like he did at the end of last season. Too much perimeter play for Sven and really for the rest of the forwards.
Defensively, I think we look better than last year. Offensively, we need to kick it up.