Canucks Army Postgame: Almost Blue It

Highlights

Quick Hits

• The Canucks got down two goals early in the first period, and for a time, it looked like it was going to be one of those nights. Fortunately for the home side, Shawn Matthias was able to pot a goal on a nice saucer pass from Chris Higgins to get the Canucks back into the game. Matthias has been obviously good this season for Vancouver, especially since moving to the wing, but I also think that Higgins has been subtly good too. He’s generated shots, chances, and points at a near identical rate to Matthias, but where Matthias is having a career year for shooting percentage, Higgins is having his worst ever. We know these things tend to be fickle, so I’d expect Matthias to cool off going forward and Higgins to pick up some of the slack. If they make it through tomorrow’s deadline as Canucks, that is.
• There was a sequence in the second period where the St. Louis Blues fourth line was caught out against the Sedins and Zack Kassian, and as predicted, the shift ended with Steve Ott doing something dumb and stirring the pot. Kassian jumped in and as he was restrained by the refs, ate a stiff right hand from Ryan Reaves, cutting Kassian open and giving him quite the shiner. I have a problem with this because screw anybody that’s not on my team, but at the same time “make them pay on the powerplay” hardly seems sufficient if you’re not the legitimately better club anyways. I look forward to the day where if you take a shot at Hunter Shinkaruk, Cole Cassels will just do this to one of your best players:

• I thought for sure that Jannik Hansen’s 3-2 goal was going to be waved off due to the “intent to blow” rule, but the NHL amended the rule at the beginning of the season, allowing officials to consult with the War Room in Toronto on these types of plays. Will be good to remember tonight for when this inevitable pops up at the worst possible time of the year and goes against Vancouver then because of course it will:

• Ronalds Kenins added two assists tonight, giving him 10 points in his first 14 NHL games. Obligatory comments about having an inflated on-ice shooting percentage and how this level of offense is unprecedented at any level for him, and that he’s guaranteed to cool off going forward, but all that aside, he’s playing some legitimately fantastic hockey on the 4th line. Mainly playing with Bo Horvat, his energetic play has helped turn that once moribund unit into a strength for Vancouver, managing to push the play in the right direction and generate both shots and scoring chances. Here’s Bo Horvat’s rolling 10-game Relative Corsi%, with approximately where Kenins joined the team:

• Also, Ronalds is the most fun. Go Ronalds.
• Let’s not mince words: Eddie Lack was putrid tonight for the second outing in a row. He stopped 34 of 39 shots, and looked particularly shaky on Petteri Lindbohm’s 5-4 goal. The Canucks won in large part because Jake Allen and Brian Elliott were worse, but Lack’s had two bad games in a row here. Hopefully he can put them behind him, and the Canucks will need him to do so quickly since Ryan Miller won’t be back soon and Jacob Markstrom is extremely unproven.
• Fun stat of the night:

• Okay, so it’s not so fun. Or at least it wouldn’t be if the Canucks hadn’t managed to go 3/3 in the shootout and walk away with a 6-5 win. Rocking a 229.8 goals against/60 seems like a glitch, so I went back and checked all of St. Louis’ even strength goals just to make sure this checked out. Let’s have a look:
• Goal 1: Alex Biega blows coverage big time, Luca Sbisa chases his man up the wall. Reaves sends a one-timer past Eddie Lack. This is not how you defense, Canucks:

• Goal 2: Clendening steps on the ice as Sbisa bungles a clearing attempt, decides to carry it out of the zone, coughs up the puck, and falls over. Alex Pietrangelo scores on the ensuing rush:

• Goal 3: Clendening steps on ice as Blues gather puck in the DZ, Sbisa doesn’t change. Kassian and Daniel Sedin allow a clean zone entry to Tarasenko, who Sbisa chases down low. Tarasenko drops to Schwartz, who dances past Henrik and sends the puck to Lindbohm. Lindbohm puts a weak one through Lack. This one really isn’t on the D:

• Goal 4: Canucks can’t get puck deep while making a change, so Clendening steps on while Sbisa can’t get off again. Vey loses a puck battle to David Backes, Clendening gets isolated on a 2-on-1 down low between Backes and Oshie, and Sbisa stands around and does nothing while Backes has approximately fifty-six whacks at the puck:

• And that my friends is how you allow three goals in 47 seconds!
• One parting pre-trade deadline thought inspired by twitter-ist Kyle:

• The implication is not that the Canucks should blow it up like Phoenix is doing, but to consider that it’s dangerous just to fall in love with the young guys that you have. You’re going to be competing with other teams in the future, so how good you are isn’t just a function of how good your own prospects are, but also how good other teams prospects are. If you don’t make a concerted effort to maximize the quality of assets you have at a single point in time, you run the risk of being good rather than great. The arms race for 5 years down the road has already started.

Conclusion