I Watched This Game: Canucks vs. Coyotes, November 21, 2010

Canucks 2 - 3 Coyotes

Crud. We watched this game, and crud.

• For the fifth game in a row (!!!), the Canucks dug themselves a two-goal hole before they generated anything. This is a problem. They dig more holes than Dig Dug. Word of advice to the Canucks: I have personally found it is easier to win games when, at some point, I am winning.
  
  
• We at PITB feel like the topic has been a little played out, but the Canucks defense corps is a shoddy six-man unit right now. There is a corpse-ness to their defensive game, and the holes that they dig for themselves are becoming graves. Wasn't defensive depth supposed to be a strength going into this season? I've never missed Sami Salo so much, and he once spent a wonderful summer living in my backyard, teaching me lessons about life.
  
  
• Has anyone seen the Sedins cycle, maybe in a lost and found box somewhere? If so, please return it to Rogers Arena, care of Daniel and Henrik. They continue to avoid sustained offensive pressure like it was housework assigned by their wives (say, doing laundry or taking out the trash--they avoid cycling and recycling). Tonight we noticed that the crummy defense is also playing into this problem, as pucks sent to the blue line have a tendency of sitting on a defenseman's stick long enough for opposing defenders to recover and take away shooting lanes. We request quicker decisions and puck movement.
  
  
• We saw hot and cold from the fourth line tonight. I was just beginning to rag on them for playing ungood when Tanner Glass scored on a heads-up setup from Peter Schaefer, briefly nullifying the statement. Then they gave up the game-winning goal, so... yeah. Note: we were going to link to TVTropes.com's "So yeah" entry here, but it appears to be gone. In it's place, let's try: Sorry, I'm Gay.
  
  
• Anyway. Tanner Glass pounced on that loose puck like it was an unpluralized word dangling over a triple word score (#ScrabbleMeTanner). He read that play like it was 1984.
  
  
• In case anybody thought Joel Perrault was going to accomplish anything, he had 8 shifts tonight and a team-low 4:49 of ice time. He won zero draws, which is notable, as he took two. Who else is left to play center? Bryant "Big Country" Reeves is a natural center looking for a contract, and he's already got some ties to Vancouver.
  
  
• Unfortunately, the 4th-line center role is no longer the Canucks key concern. They have more worries than Simba the lion king, pre-Hakuna Matata.
  
  
• Mason Raymond is simply struggling with his confidence. He hasn't scored since the fluke in Toronto, and that's his only goal in November. His last tally came on October 26 versus Colorado. You could see his lack of confidence tonight on a shorthanded 2-on-1, when he passed the puck off to Alex Burrows, despite having a step on the lone man back. Mason Raymond is a speed demon, not a passing demon. Maybe he should watch every goal he scored last season to get his confidence back?
  
  
• On a positive note, this was a better game than the game which shall not be named, otherwise known as the Voldemort game. Our theory is that the Canucks played the Voldermort game against the Blackhawks in honour of the new Harry Potter movie, which they obviously all saw when it opened the night before.
  
  
• Though it didn't lead to a tying goal, the Canucks' urgency in the game's final minute was something to be praised. They should do that fifty-nine more times each night.
  
  
• I feel like the sun might be setting on Alain Vigneault's heavily-criticized faith in Aaron Rome. It appears all roads are being diverted away from Rome, having previously led to him exclusively, at least in a common idiom. He played 10:30 tonight, and still managed to find time to take a minor penalty and finish the night minus-2. How does he fit it all in?
  
  
• That's what she said.
  
  
• Lucky for Aaron Rome, the team is sucking collectively, like they're all on a date at a malt shoppe. Andrew Alberts wins the participant ribbon for his non-play on Scottie Upshall on the game's first goal. Take the stick, NHLberts, or we'll send you down to AHLberts faster than you can say, "Please don't do that."