I Watched This Game: Canucks vs. Ducks, December 08, 2010

Canucks 5 - 4 - Ducks (Shootout)

My favourite thing about come-from-behind victories is the following day's media coverage. Despite a Canucks' victory, articles are still overwhelmingly negative, because the journalists have pre-written pieces about a Canucks loss. When it becomes a win, they hold their tone. They'll claim it's because the Canucks shouldn't be in a position to need a desperate comeback, but I suspect it's because their workload just doubled with all the late revisions, and they're pissed. Late comebacks of this sort force them into a corner where they have to majorly overhaul their story and still meet their deadlines. As Iain MacIntyre tweeted, last night's outcome forced him to hammer out 800 words in about 35 minutes. Good thing he's a pro.

I'd like to take this moment to welcome our new readers from Canucks Hockey Blog, where PITB's popular I Watched This Game is now being cross-posted. Here's how we do it:

• Putting aside my massive Canuck bias, I do think the universe screwed Curtis McElhinney out of what would have been only his 11th career win in 5 NHL seasons. He played well enough to get it, and I'm pretty sure the rule in the NHL is that the play is blown dead when a goaltender gets hit in the mask, especially when he's bleeding all over the place. I felt like Daniel Sedin's goal, which came after Christian Ehrhoff's high slapshot broke the McElhinney's face, shouldn't have counted. That said, and this is in poor taste, it can now be safely said that Daniel Sedin is literally out for blood.

• Ryan Kesler was the night's first star, and for the second game in a row, he was clearly the best Canuck forward. His powerplay goal supports my controversial theory that he's the engine of the Canucks' top unit. His game-tying goal (above) was ugly, but it exhibited the high level of effort Kesler puts out every night. No wonder he made a baby.

• Let's talk about Jeff Tambellini, the plucky, manic, little Port Moody forward. Tamby scored his 5th goal of the season last night, along with the shootout winner on a beautiful, sudden snapshot. It goes without saying that Tamby is a goal-scorer; his goals per game average is .42, which puts him third on the Canucks behind Ryan Kesler and Daniel Sedin. Tambellini contributes defensively, too. He had five hits to lead all Canucks forwards, the fourth game in a row that he's done that. One of those hits was a brilliant backcheck, an Anaheim rush where Tambellini came all the way from behind the goal line to knock the Duck forward off the puck before he even reached the Canucks' blue line. I'm with Iain MacIntyre; Tamby's an NHLer.

• The Ducks had about six or seven just crazy, blatant offsides, most courtesy of an overeager Bobby Ryan. Seriously, it was like he built a crappy time machine, and was living about three seconds in the future. Not since Bob Saget's NSFW rendition of the Aristocrats has a man been so consistently offside.

• The penalties in this game wreaked brief havoc on Canucks units and my fragile psyche in the third, as Tanner Glass took shifts on both the first and second lines. I broke a lamp. I nearly called 911. But, thankfully, he never got on the third line, so it all worked out.

• I think the Canucks really miss Andrew Alberts. He averages 15:30 of physical, hitty hockey, and without him, the Canucks just aren't as big. Consider that, after he missed the game against the Blues--the first game he'd missed all year--we suddenly started hearing about the Canucks lack of grit. It might have been an issue last night as well, but thankfully, Anaheim/Vancouver games are always bloodthirsty, physical affairs. These teams hate each other like cats hate dogs. Or other cats. Or humans. You know what? Cats are jerks.

• Daniel and I often argue about Kevin Bieksa, but there's no dispute over Bieksa's fighting ability. He can chuck 'em. He is the last Canuck I would ever fight. I suspect Aaron Voros now feels similarly.

• The best Shorty & Garrett banter moment follows. Garrett, dubious of a Christian Ehrhoff penalty call: "Ehrhoff's saying, 'who's holding whom?'" Shorty: "You really think Ehrhoff is saying that?" That'll teach you to put words in Ehrhoff's mouth. Whom? English is his second language!
  

• Keith Ballard's minutes finally went up, as he played 17:19, including a tasty 1:45 of powerplay time. Let us congratulate Alain Vigneault for having both Kevin Bieksa and Aaron Rome in the lineup and resisting the temptation to give them a single second of powerplay time. You've turned a corner, AV.

• Correction: Aaron Rome got 15 seconds. I trusted you, AV.

• Anyway, I thought Keith Ballard had a great game. I especially liked the way he was skating the puck out of his own end. Remembering how sluggish his legs were in the preseason, it was great to see him beating forecheckers with his speed.

• This one should have been a laugher (the Canucks outshot the Ducks by 40 to 20), but there were two factors that kept this close. First, Anaheim blocking shots (they blocked 21), and second, Luongo not blocking shots. Both trends were unfortunate. But after you rag on Luongo for a few softies, remember to give him credit for his shootout performance. Before last night, he hadn't stopped a shootout attempt all season, leading to two skills competition losses. Last night, he stopped them all, and we won. Coincidence? No. It's a causal element.

• Ryan Getzlaf played just under thirty minutes last night. That's a ton of ice time, considering he's a forward. I'll tell you why Ducks coach Randy Carlyle has to do this: his defense-corps are not very good at starting the rush, and only the Ducks' star forwards can create offense from their pitiful zone starts. The Canucks did a good job of exploiting this, too. They were turning the puck up ice faster than I've ever seen them, even gleefully dumping it in because the Anaheim d-corps was just going to turn the puck over anyway.

• How do I know the puck spent an inordinate amount of time in Anaheim's zone? Offensive zone starts. The Canucks took 21 offensive zone faceoffs, and only 13 in the defensive zone. Kesler and Malhotra won 8 of 11 in their own zone, but Henrik Sedin won the night, breaking his brief faceoff funk with a 15-for-24 showing.

• And finally, a word about Henrik Sedin. His inclination towards passing the puck in traffic has made him fairly predictable, don't you think? He needs to be a little more surprising. Here's what you do, Henrik. Next time you're in a fight along the end boards, lick the defender's cheek. No one will expect that.