Oh lord. I hope all you drunks had a good time at the Whirlaway or in the gamethread because this was certainly a game where there wasn’t a ton of fun to be had. Unlike the Ottawa game, where the Hawks seemingly just couldn’t give a shit, this was an example of the Hawks being out-played and uh.. out-lucked, if that’s a thing.
I haven’t checked the gamethread but I’m guessing we’ll have more than a few confused people in there wondering what happened to the Antti Niemi that was supposed to become our starter and savior between the pipes. They should take some solace in the fact that the big first period for the Canucks was hardly all on his shoulders. While he didn’t look his sharpest, he wasn’t getting the greatest support from the rest of the team and the Canucks were able to capitalize on just about all their chances.
Worse than the goalie issue is perhaps the Hawks inability to even phase the creepy wonder-twins. They Hawks talked before the game of the need to shut them down, or at least try to slow them up… but they ended the game with 6 points total off and 9 shots.. oops. Looking at the shifts charts, you get to see who Q tried to match up against the twins. John Madden shadowed them for most of the beginning of the game before things got out of hand and we saw the fourth line get a chance at them. This is perhaps a moment where we all need to stop, step back and realize we’ve been absolutely spoiled by this team this year. We’ve seen them shut down top lines game after game to the point where we simply expect it always happen. That’s not going to be the case though, sometimes players like the Sedins will make the game tough for you.
The Hawks have one final chance to even up the series before the playoffs. Circle March 5th on your calender if you haven’t already, it should be a good one.
Random Observations:
- Sorry for the delay in the recap again. The plan was for me to write it after I got home since I’d be sober and could get to it quicker. I didn’t plan on working til 2:00 AM though and only barely being able to watch the game.
- Lets hope other teams lose the tape of these games, the Canucks are one of the few squads that are able to completely shut down the Hawks. The fact that they can do it even with a scrub defensive squad (Nolan Baumgartner is still alive?!) means other teams are sure to try it.
-
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Whirlaway, even though I couldn’t make it I hope you all had a good time.
- So this is what I feels like to lose by more than 3 goals, interesting…
Player of the Game:
Andrew Ladd‘s left fist.
If you can’t beat them, it’s at least nice to bloody them up a little bit. Ryan Kessler is just one of many utter douchebags on this Canucks squad and it’s good to see him get rocked with a solid jab, forcing him to bail on the fight before it even gets started. According to Nucks Misconduct, Kessler after the game, “He’s a coward, he’ll always be a coward,” Ryan Kesler said of Andrew Ladd. “At least he was man enough to hit me when I was looking this time.” Christ, what a bitch.