(I typed up the following piece on February 6/07, prior to the Canucks match versus the Oilers. I’m posting it now, even though it’s slightly out of date since the Canucks have played 2 games since then, but I feel the general message still applies)
What do the Canucks need to focus on?
Here are my thoughts… It all comes down to toughness.
It’s been a (somewhat unexpectedly) good season for the Canucks thus far. Sure, it took a while for everything to gel, but I think the big Eastern road trip in January really showed the league, the fans, and even the team itself just what the Canucks are capable of.
There’s pretty much two ways to look at it. Either the Canucks have only lost two games in regulation since before Christmas, or they’ve lost four out of their last six games.
Unfortunately, I was unable to watch most of Saturday’s game against Calgary since I had to work. From what I understand, they did not play well. They had a two goal lead after the first period, which ended up as a 4-3 loss.
Since the All-Star break, it seems pretty evident to me that teams are pulling out all the stops, so to speak. The Canucks can’t just sit around and watch the game be played around them as they did against San Jose where Luongo, in what I think was his best game of the season, stole a win for his team. Luongo is obviously fantastic, but it’s still a team game. He’s bound to make some mistakes, and it’s up to his teammates to help him out. Furthermore, I think we’ve all seen an increase in players crashing the net because they seem to be convinced that it’s the only way to score against this guy.
Personally, I’ve had enough of the guys allowing the opposing team’s forwards to crash the net as much as they have been lately. In the recent game against Columbus, Luongo uncharacteristically pounced on the Blue Jacket’s player (I think it was Malhotra) after he had been run down I guess one too many times. As far as I’m concerned, Luongo shouldn’t have to stand up for himself in this regard. It seems that some of the Canucks “tougher” players have been instructed to tone it down a bit in what I can only imagine is an attempt to avoid penalties. I think this is the wrong approach for a few reasons:
1) Luongo is pretty much the entire team right now, and all efforts should be made to protect him. He may seem like it, but the guy isn’t invincible. If Luongo goes down to injury, the team is pretty much going with him. The grit players such as Bieksa, Mitchell, Burrows and Cowan may need to remind the opposing teams that rushing the goalie isn’t going to be tolerated. In fact, they may need to remind themselves.
2) They’re not even avoiding penalties! The difference is that the penalties that are being taken are the stupid, avoidable ones such as hooking, holding etc. Morrison has been especially bad for this of late.
Pretty much, to sum up this extremely long-winded rant…Starting with Tuesday’s game against the Oilers, the Canucks need to start out the game strong, (hopefully build a bit of a lead) and keep Smyth and the Oilers on a very short leash, and away from Luongo. Intimidation will be a factor. If the Canucks have to take a couple of roughing penalties to show the Oilers that they mean business, so be it. Hopefully at the same time, the Canucks will not handcuff themselves by also taking the sloppy hooking and holding minors that they are so prone to.
This is just my opinion, and I welcome any criticism or comments…
Go Canucks!
Endnotes: The Canucks played a terrific game against the Oilers on Tuesday night. They used their toughness and limited their lazy hooking penalties etc. To me, it was one of the most exciting games of the year.
Wednesday night against Chicago, on the other hand, was a whole different story… I think it’s best if everyone just forgets that game even happened, because I’m not sure there is anything the team can learn from that experience that they shouldn’t have already learned in peewee hockey…
