When this game ended, I opened up the boxscore and laughed out loud. There it was, as Ann as the nose on plain’s face: the Canucks out-shot the Ducks in this game, 29-24. If ever the shot total in a game was misleading, this was it.
The Ducks brutally outplayed the Canucks in this game. They played harder. They were just plain better. They were faster. They were stronger. They were the Daft Punk to the Canucks’ Eiffel 65.
Blue were the feelings that lived inside me when I watched this game.
- There’s no getting around it: Willie Desjardins was soundly out-coached by Randy Carlyle. That’s the same Randy Carlyle that ran the Toronto Maple Leafs into the ground. The same Randy Carlyle that many consider to be one of the worst coaches in the NHL. Getting out-coached by Randy Carlyle is really, really bad. It’s like getting dunked on by a Smurf, and not even by Sporty Smurf: like, Brainy Smurf or Lazy Smurf.
- How did he get out-coached? For starters, he was completely unable (or perhaps uninterested in even trying) to get the Sedins away from Ryan Kesler, whose line with Jakob Silfverberg and Andrew Cogliano gave the Sedins fits with their speed, shutting down their passing lanes and taking away time and space like classic Legion of Super Heroes villain, the Time Trapper.
- In some cases, Desjardins simply out-coached himself. Deciding that the fourth line of Brendan Gaunce, Jack Skille, and Jayson Megna was having a good game, he gave them a little extra ice time in the first period, at the expense of Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi, and Alex Burrows. Sorry, slight typo there: that should read, “Canucks’ leading scorer Bo Horvat.”
- Heading into this game, Horvat had 12 points in his last 11 games. He played 3:55 in the first period and just 15:05 overall. Baertschi had 8 points in his last 8 games. He played 3:07 in the first period and 12:14 overall. Burrows had 9 points in his last 10 games. He played 3:30 in the first period and 12:39 overall. Together, they’ve been the Canucks’ best line over the last month. In this game their ice time was cut and the team had one of their worst performances in a month. Gee, I wonder if these two random facts might somehow be connected?
- Ryan Miller managed to hold the Ducks at bay in the first period, but he couldn’t do a thing on their opening goal in the second. When Cam Fowler gained the offensive zone, Nikita Tryamkin and Philip Larsen backed in like Charles Boyle and Jakob Silfverberg provided the Gina Linetti throat-chop with a vicious one-timer top corner.
- The Ducks went up by two when Ondrej Kase’s first career NHL goal, which was part luck, as the puck banked off Tryamkin’s knee, Gudbranson’s body, the post, and then off Gudbranson’s glove into the net. But also, what the heck was Gudbranson doing sprawled in the crease? He just awkwardly fell across the front of the net, both preventing Miller from scrambling back and providing a bumper so the puck could pinball in. Gudbranson? More like Badjoffreydad.
- In the above bad joke, I chose Joffrey Baratheon as the Game of Thrones character who is the opposite of Bran Stark. If you can think of a GoT character that is a more fitting opposite, I am taking submissions in the comments.
- Down by two goals heading into the third and looking for offence, Desjardins spun up the Line Blender 3000, set it to “fricassee,” and wound up with Jayson “Megna Carta” Megna, of all people, on the top line with the Sedins. I guess without Derek Dorsett in the lineup he needed to promote some other fourth liner into the top six.
- Look, I like Megna. But it was clear that, like Canucks fans, Megna had no clue what he was doing out there with the Sedins.
- Then Loui Eriksson was moved to the Sedin line and they scored within 30 seconds. Sure, it took some luck, with the puck deflecting off a stanchion directly to Eriksson, with Henrik wide open at the side of the net to tip in Eriksson’s pass, but it’s not a coincidence that the Sedins looked massively improved with Eriksson on their wing instead of Sutter.
- The goal seemed to energize the Canucks and they pushed hard to tie the game in the final minutes. It looked like they might even manage it and Rogers Arena began to buzz with excitement, but then Andrew Cogliano took all the air out fo the building when he beat Miller 5-hole with an incredibly weak goal, even if it was slightly tipped by Troy Stecher. It was the most deflating thing in Vancouver sports since BC Place.
- Finally, the Ducks seemed to have the measure of Troy Stecher, who is normally adept at getting the puck on net through traffic. The Ducks clogged up lanes like an accident on the Lions Gate Bridge, blocking seven of his nine shot attempts. It was particularly noticeable on the Canucks' 5-on-3, where Ryan Kesler seemed to spend the entire penalty killing shift standing in front of Stecher. That's a sign of how much respect opposing teams already have for how he shoots the puck: Stecher leads the Canucks in shots on goal per game.
