Red Wings Destroy Canucks 2-0 - Post Game Wrap Up

The 1^st meeting this season of the big 2 in the west took place Thursday night. Corey Schneider got the start at the Joe Louis for the Canucks whilst Jimmy Howard returned between the pipes for the Redwings.

After a quiet opening to the game which saw both teams kill 2 minute minors, LaPierre  and Abdelkader decided to try and liven it up on the 7 minute mark as the gloves came off. Abdelkader got the better on this one with LaPierre taking some big whacks as he got caught on his knees.

Burrows had the 1^st great chance of the 2^nd period as he got behind the Detroit defence and went 1 on 1 against Howard. A pretty weak shot straight at the Redwings netminder and he fought the puck off easily.

Detroit took the lead just over 8 minutes into the 2^nd as Justin Abdelkader beat Schneider on the short side after a fantastic cross ice pace from Todd Bertuzzi found him skating in all alone infront of the Canucks goal.

Filuppla made it 2-0 around 2 minutes later as he and Franzen exchanged passes and Filuppla fired a quickly released shot that went in over Schneider’s glove. It was all Detroit in the 2^nd period as they created chance after chance, Schneider remaining strong in the Vancouver net to keep the score down.

The Canucks thought they were back in the game right on the buzzer to the end of the 2^nd period but a long range punt at the net that Howard let squeak through his body didn’t get over the line before the 0’s got on the clock and it was rightly called that time had expired before it crossed the line.

The third period was more even as the Canucks managed to play their way back into the game without being a major threat on the Detroit goal. Both teams had powerplay chances they couldn’t take advantage of, Detroit especially poor with the 1 man advantage as they went 0-15 on the PP so far in the season.

With 6 minutes left in the 3^rd Alexander Burrows had a glorious opportunity to make it a 1 goal game as he had a wide open goal to put the puck into but only managed to find the bar as a sprawling Howard was beaten all ends up.

The Canucks pulled Schneider with well over 2 minutes left on the game but to no avail as the Redwings saw the remainder of the game out and came away with a 2-0 win, their 2^nd shut out in a row.

Jimmy Howard saw off all 25 shots on goal to earn him my star of the game. A solid performance at the start of the game when the game was still 0-0 which enabled the Redwings to build towards a solid shut out win.

The Canucks struggle again and now have a 1-2-1 record to start the season whilst the Redwings start with an impressive 3-0 record, posting back to back shut outs in the process.

By Adam Yates

Tuesday and Wednesday NHL Roundup

Apart from the previously reviewed game between the Senators and Wild there was only one other game Tuesday which was the Pittsburgh home opener against the Panthers.

It was an uncomfortable win in the end for the Penguins. Malkin was missing from the line up but scoring duties were again picked up by Matt Cooke and Kris Letang. The Panthers looked well organised and tough to break down. The Penguins had a couple of lucky breaks which helped get them the win. They maintain their good start to the season.

Onto Wednesday night; where there were 3 games played.

Colorado beat Colombus 3-2 after a PS in what was a very even game by all accounts. Landeskog scored his 1^st NHL career goal with just over 40 seconds remaining in the 3^rd period to tie the game and send it to the extra period and penalties.

Carolina beat Boston 3-2 in what turned out to be the Cam Ward / Tim Thomas show with both net minders making numerous huge saves. Boston struggled on their PP and have started with only 1 goal on 18 attempts so far.

The other Stanley Cup finalist, Vancouver, was beaten 5-4 in the other game of the night against the Flyers.  Claude Giroux was the star as he put up 1+2 but the Flyers found points from all over the ice which shows the potential  of the sniper brigade they have this season.

Thursday night will see ten different matchups being played with some intriguing contests. The biggest  two games see the Canucks play the Redwings and the Capitals play the Penguins.

- Adam Yates

“C” Back on Luongo Would Be as out of Place as Hasek Back in NHL

The question is: Should goalie Roberto Luongo remain captain of the Vancouver Canucks? Barring a trade, does back-up Cory Schneider have a shot in hell of ever becoming a starter, let alone of starting even 10 games this season?

One has to think that even if Luongo gets injured, Canucks general manager Mike Gillis would sooner enlist the help of an arthritic 45-year-old Dominik Hasek before handing the goaltending reins over to the unproven Schneider. So, the answer, in both cases, is: “No.”

Gillis has publicly acknowledged that Luongo staying the team’s captain could become a distraction and that the possibility of him giving the “C” away would be discussed next week. Considering Luongo’s performance dropped off this past season, his second as captain, both issues have come to the forefront.

Luongo is the Canucks’ $10-million man, at least this year, and even if he starts to channel Andre “Red Light” Racicot, his job is safe to say the least. The Canucks need to justify the contract, and, even if that worst-case scenario becomes a very sad and unenviable reality for the organization, Luongo will get every second chance in existence before Schneider even gets a whiff of starter superstardom. Gillis wouldn’t have it any other way, because he’s the former agent that signed the goalie to the 12-year, $64-million deal that has since become the bane of his and the team’s Stanley Cup hopes. Clearly, he suffered through a bit of an identity crisis during negotiations. But that’s in the past. In the present-day one has to question Luongo’s worth as team captain, and it isn’t very sizeable.

Luongo may be the team’s highest-paid player. On some nights, he may even be the team’s best player, but he has as much business being the Canucks’ captain as Gillis does showing in face around General Motors Place (or Rogers Arena) or even in the mirror after negotiating that contract. That’s proof positive that Luongo may very well still bear the “C” at the start of the season. By now, though, the reasons why he shouldn’t have been discussed to death:

1) Goalies cannot efficiently relay referee rulings to the bench and coach, due to their need to remain in the crease.

2) Goalies cannot conduct post-game interviews with the media, answering questions as to why the team lost 5-0, for example, without seeming as though they’re blaming every other player on the team except themselves for all the defensive breakdowns suffered during the rout.

3) Fashionably, the “C” on the jersey takes away from the statements goalies’ masks tend to try and make.

"My head may just cave in from all the added pressure."

While Luongo found a way around point #3 by putting the “C” on his mask (and not trying to make a statement with his bland-looking mask to begin with), points #1 and 2, arguably the two most important of the three, have been left unaddressed. As such, the captaincy has to be given to another player. The most realistic alternatives include:

1) Rotating the captaincy between several players, working out a schedule around the few games defenseman Sami Salo has decided to stay healthy this season.

2) Giving Daniel and Henrik Sedin half-crests and allowing them to split the “C”. I mean, how can you choose between identical twins when you would always be mistaking one for the other outside of their uniforms?

3) Giving it to Alexandre Burrows in a bid to give him more alone time with the referees, you know, to give them a chance to talk about God knows what.

4) And giving it to Ryan Kesler, who best exemplifies the characteristics of grit, hard work, and performance on a game-to-game basis.

At the end of the day, there really is one choice, and that is to give Kesler the chance to prove himself in more of a leadership role. The team really has got little else to lose after two straight harrowing post-season defeats at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks, both series ending with Luongo doing his very best imitation of a sieve.

So, the question now becomes: Are the Canucks good enough to challenge for the Stanley Cup? With the additions of Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis on defense, the back-end is now probably the deepest in the entire NHL and will likely perfectly complement the little-changed, second-most prolific offense in the league from last year. It all comes back to Luongo... can he return to his all-star form? That remains to be seen.