Vancouver Canucks Hockey Stuff

Vancouver Takes on Dallas on the road.

After a miserable loss to Phoenix’s Coyoties on Saturday night, that saw the Canucks score on their own net, deflect goals in past Roberto Luongo, and chase Luongo from the goal during the second intermission, the Vancouver Canucks will be looking to have a big game tonight in Dallas.  The Calgary Flames won last night, putting them 5 points ahead of the Canucks in the Northwest Division, making it seem more and more like the Canucks may not be able to catch up and take the division title.

Shane O’Brien has been rumoured as a cut for tonight’s game against the Dtars, and look for Ossi Vannanen to make his Canucks debut on defence.  This will be the Canucks second game on a 6 game road trip. 

Tonights game is at 5:30pm, is on Sportsnet Pacific, and you can listen to it live streaming on online radio at the team, team1040.ca

Popularity: 11% [?]

Shoot-out loss to Islanders after lackluster game.

The Canucks came ot steaming in the first period, having Pavol Demitra back for his 2nd game since being out with an injury, and he scores 42 seconds into the 1st period after a beautiful set-up by Daniel and Henrik Sedin.  The Canucks kept the pressure up throughout the first period, coming close on a few plays, and even a fight with Davison involved.

Roll onto the 2nd period.  Not so nice.  Roberto Luongo singlehandedly kept the Canucks from being blown out, stopping shot after shot from the Islanders, with one goal getting by him that was deflecting in off the Canucks’ Shane O’Brien.  Unfortunate for the Canucks but Doug Weight and the Islanders will take the goal.

Move onto the third period, the Canucks showed up for a bit, even though they showed us how much they like the penalty box.  Not a good start for them and i’m not surprised.  One glowing light was again the play of Roberto Luongo, who stopped the Islanders close up with less than 4 minutes to play in the third.  Earlier in the third Sami Salo had a great opportunity to put the Canucks up by one but his shot ricocheted off the crossbar and out.

Off to Overtime and neither team could ge the job done.  The Canucks looked very inspired late in OT with a flurry of shots including a close one by Nycholat to be the game winner, but he couldn’t lift it over the pads.

The Shoot-out, saw the Islanders come out on top.  Rpberto let in the islanders first shot, and the Canucks couldn’t follow up, with the isle’s goalie Macdonald stopping Canucks’ third shooter Alex Burrows with a pokecheck.

Tonight’s goal was scored by Pavol Demitra, and assisted by Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin.

The Canucks finished the game 0 for 4 on the powerplay, with the Islanders getting the only power play goal, going 1 for 5.  Tonight’s three stars, as picked by Islanders Media, were 1- J Macdonald, 2- F Nielsen, 3- R Luongo.

The Vancouver Canucks play next on wednesday night in New York at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.  It will be Markus Naslund’s first game against the Canucks as a NY ranger, and i’m sure it will be a game to remember for players on both teams.  The game starts at 4:30pm and is being brodcast in High Definition on TSN, and streaming live on online radio on Team1040.ca

Popularity: 8% [?]

Thanks Roberto, Another Canucks Win!

If it wasn’t for Roberto Luongo’s impressive first period, including almost a solid two minutes of 5 on 3 penalty killing time, the Vancouver Canucks would not have won the game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The Canucks netminder was stellar in the new Canucks 3rd jerseys,  while the offensive players scared away Toskala from the Leafs net after scoring 4 goals on 9 shots through a period and a half.  pavol Demitra returned to the line-up tonght, making a three assist effort.  Kyle Wellwood opened the scoring on a beautiful deflection into the net, against his former team.  Wellwood leads the Canucks in goals scored.

Tonight’s goal scorers included Kyle Wellwood (Pavol Demitra, Shane O’Brien), Ryan Kesler PP (Mattias Ohlund, Pavol Demitra), Willie Mitchell (Alexandre Burrows, Jannik Hansen), and Daniel Sedin (Laurence Nycholat, Pavol Demitra).

The Canucks found themselves in the penalty box alot again tonight, especially in the third period when the Leafs tried staging a comeback.  The Leafs scored on one of their third period power plays while pulling Curtis Joseph (who replaced Toskala in net half way through the second) for the extra attacker, making it a 6 on 4.  Overall, the Leafs were one for eight, and the Canucks were one for five on the power play.

Tonight’s three stars were picked by CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and were 1- Roberto Luongo 2- Willie Mitchell and 3- Pavol Demitra.  The Canucks ended their six game home stand with a 4-1-1 record.

The Canucks now head out on a four game road trip, playing their next game agianst the New York Islanders on Monday night at 4pm, the game being broadcast on Sportsnet Pacific and streaming live online on Team1040.ca

Popularity: 10% [?]

Canucks Lose in Buffalo to go 3-2 on Season

After a disastrous first period, the Canucks couldn’t seem to crawl out of the negative column to beat the Sabres in tonight’s game at Buffalo.  The Sabres came out fast and quick with three goals in the first 13:10 of the first period, after the Canucks had some serious troubles with penalties, including a double-minor for  roughing against Shane O’Brien that cost the Canucks one of Buffalo’s early goals.

Penalties haunted the Canucks all night, with Buffalo going 2 for 5 and the Canucks being ousted with a miserable 0 for 3 on the power play.  Thomas Vanek buried the Canucks with the Sabres 5th goal of the night mid way through the 3rd period, on a beautiful goal with NO defence anywhere around to help Curtis Sanford out.  Sanford played his first start of the season, without a W to show for it.  The night contained a bucketful of defence errors, with Willie Mitchell playing a mediocre game, and several other mistakes all around.  A bright spot again was the Kesler Burrows Hansen line, however they couldn’t pull anything together in the third after Burrows was given a 10 min misconduct half way through the third period.  One bright light on Defence was the play of Alex Edler, who looked good all game long while he was on the ice.  The Sedins were broken up this game half way through, and didn’t play as linemates through the end.  Will Vigneault pair them up again?  We will have to see in Chicago on Sunday.

Tonight’s goal scorers included Ryan Kesler (Alexander Burrows, Willie Mitchell), Steve Bernier (Henrik Sedin, Mason Raymond).

The Canucks continue the road trip, flying into Chicago to play the Blackhawks at 4pm on Sunday.  The game will be broadcast on TV on Canucks PPV ( Pay Per View ) and if you don’t want to pay, you can always listen to the game streaming live on the internet at team1040.ca

Popularity: 11% [?]

Burrows scores winner 27 seconds into Overtime.

After a “get back to earth” loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday night,  The Vancouver Canucks had alot to prove tonight as they played in Detroit against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings.

The Canucks got on the board first, and it was the grit and character of the third line that got the job done (really, they got the job done for the Canucks all night long).  The Red Wings came back and tied the game with a power play goal by Holmstrom, only for Vancouver to come back four minutes later halfway through the first to take the lead on a goal by Ryan Kesler.

The Canucks fell behind 3 -2 halfway through the second period when Cleary scored a beautiful breakaway goal for the red wings, having received the puck just as he stepped out of the penalty box, going in for the breakaway goal.  It wasn’t until 2:23 of the third period that the Canucks tied it up at 4-4 when Mason Raymond followed a 2 on 1 play with Willie Mitchell and Pavol Demitra, and sent the puck flying into an empty net behind Chris Osgood.

It only took 27 seconds for the third line to strike again in overtime, when Alexander Burrows errant shot off the end boards came right back to his stick and he one-times it past Osgood for the game winner.

Tonight penalties were very costly to the Canucks, having given up 2 goals on 5 penalty kills, while going 0 for 4 on the power play themselves.  Robert Luongo got the win in net tonight stopping 32 of the 35 shots he faced.  Osgood let in  4 goals out of 29 shots.

Tonight’s Canucks goal scorers included Jannik Hansen (Alexander Burrows), Ryan Kesler (Shane O’Brien, Sami Salo), Mason Raymond (Willie Mitchell, Pavol Demitra), Alexander Burrows (Alexander Edler, Willie Mitchell).

The Canucks are now 3-1 on the season, and the meet up against Buffalo on Friday at 4:30pm.  You can see the game on Sportsnet, or listen to it streaming live on Team1040.ca

Popularity: 11% [?]

Lukas Kajieck and Juraj Simek out, Shane O’Brien and Michel Ouellet in.

Maybe not quite the blockbuster trade you’d think was coming from Canucks GM Mike Gillis, however the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks have made a trade that see the teams swap a right winger and defenceman back and forth.

To the Tampa Bay Lightning, defenceman Lukas Krajicek and right winger Juraj Simek.  The Vancouver Canucks receive defenceman Shane O’Brien and right winger Michel Ouellet.  Both players are young and show alot of promise, especially Ouellet who, if given the right teammates, can turn into quite a player.

Popularity: 8% [?]