Hey Mr. Tambellini, Play a Song For Me

Preferably something upbeat, with a catchy chorus.

At the beginning of the season, Jeff Tambellini looked like a young hotshot poised for a breakout season. After struggling to work his way into the lineup, Tambellini found chemistry on the second line with Kesler and Raymond, forming a speedster trio that wreaked havoc on opposition defenses.

With 15 points (9 G, 6A) in his first 21 games with the Canucks, it looked like Gillis had found a cheap replacement for the departed Michael Grabner. Their similar attributes - speed and an accurate wristshot - made the two players seem eminently comparable: last season, Grabner had 11 points in 20 games with the big club, so it seemed, at the time, that Tambellini was even better, especially when Grabner was waived by the Florida Panthers out of training camp.

Tambellini capped off his first 21 games with a 6-game point-scoring streak in December, culminating in a contest on December 28th against the Philadelphia Flyers in which he took a game-high 9 shots, finished +2, and even won a faceoff for good measure. He managed all of this in just 13:18 of ice time.

Since that date, he has a grand total of 2 points in his last 40 games, both assists. He hasn't registered a point since February 2nd against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Last night, in a rout of the Minnesota Wild, Tambellini played only 13 shifts, for a grand total of 8:33 of ice time. While he previously appeared to be a source for secondary scoring, he's become a spare part that will likely see plenty of press-box time in the playoffs once Raffi Torres returns.

With his scoring touch disabled and his magic shooty spot cursed, Tambellini has been shuffled down to the fourth line when he's in the game at all. There, he's struggled to provide a contribution, managing 112 hits on the season, but rarely making much of an impact with his small frame. Meanwhile, the player that seemed so eminently comparable has exploded for the New York Islanders: Grabner has 33 goals this season and has launched himself into the Calder Trophy debate.

So what happened? How does a player go from being so effective to so defective?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not quite sure. Certainly, his ice-time has dropped, but he was able to score in limited minutes prior to his slump and has been given opportunities several times since. He has still been willing to get to the dirty areas of the ice and still forechecks with speed. He's shooting the puck less - he averaged 2.333 shots per game through his first 21 games and 1.625 shots per game during his slump - but much of this can be attributed to the decrease in his ice-time.

While I may not have the answer for why Tambellini has fallen into such a funk, I can admit that I should have seen it coming. In 2009-10 with the Islanders, Tambellini scored 10 points (7G, 3A) in his first 15 games. He managed 4 points, all assists, in his remaining 20 games. In 2008-09, Tambellini split up his slumps, starting the season with only 2 points in his first 24 games, before scoring 4 points in 8 games. He followed that up with 0 points in 13 games, then a hot streak of 5 points in 4 games, then rounded out the season with 4 points in his final 16 games.

Jeff Tambellini is the definition of a streaky player. He'll heat up for brief stretches where he will show flashes of why he was a first round pick in 2003 (taken just 4 picks after Ryan Kesler), but then will struggle mightily for long periods of time. This is arguably the worst slump of Tambellini's career and there doesn't seem to be any indication he'll be able to break out of it any time soon. That said, he's entering the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career, which can have a strange effect on some players.

With Raffi Torres suspended, Tambellini will likely get a chance to play in at least the first two games of the first round, albeit on the fourth line. With a strong playoff performance, he could potentially get re-signed in the off-season, but at this point it seems unlikely. At the age of 26, he's looking less and less like a young player with potential and more and more like another Jason Krog, who his point totals in the AHL and NHL are beginning to strongly resemble.

I Watched This Game: Canucks vs. Flames, January 5, 2011

Canucks 3 - 1 Flames

The Canucks showed why they're first in the NHL with a calm, easy-going win against the regrettably terrible Flames. As I've mentioned before, I miss the days when these games were bitter battles against a legitimate rival. Instead, the Flames are a sad-sack team that bears no threat. The Canucks were content to allow the Flames to set the pace and control the puck, confident that Luongo and the defense could contend with the Flames' efforts and confident that the forwards could capitalize on their opportunities.

They were absolutely right. The Flames outshot the Canucks 44-21 but never once threatened to win the game as the Canucks took the lead early and calmly repelled the Flames offense time and time again. Unlike Team Canada, the Canucks made their 3-0 lead going into the third period last, coming just 11 seconds short of giving Luongo the shutout. The game featured two milestones: Raffi Torres notched his 200th point and Daniel Sedin scored the 10,000th goal in franchise history. That, my friends, is over 9000. I watched this game.

• Luongo made 43 saves for his 3rd win in a row. He's 12-1-1 in his last 14 starts. After a rough start statistically, he's 11th in the league in GAA and save percentage. Don't listen to anyone who suggests that there's a goaltending controversy. Unless they're telling you to call 911 because there's a fire in the house. Then you should listen.

• The Canucks' first goal came just 1:10 into the first period (above). Mason Raymond makes Olli Jokinen look dumber than normal before feeding Kesler in front. Neither Tanguay nor Bouwmeester show much interest in taking Kesler, who now has 20 goals, putting him on pace for 42. Clearly, Kesler is a Douglas Adams fan. It's marvelous to see Raymond and Kesler together again, like when Andy Richter came back to join Conan O'Brien when he took over The Tonight Show.

• Kevin Bieksa had a stellar game tonight, with a goal and an assist in his near 22 minutes of time-on-ice. Juice has 7 points in his last 6 games and looks like he might actually manage 30+ points this season. There are many things to like about his goal: the patience he shows to allow traffic to pile up between him and the net, his ability to get the shot through said traffic, and the delightful grin on his face as Torres comes up to congratulate him. But the best part comes after the goal, as the camera finds an excited fan in a classic yellow V jersey holding a sign saying "WE ARE ALL BIEKSA" on it. And with that a ridiculous Twitter hashtag began and the Bieksa bandwagon filled up immediately.

• The Sedins and Burrows were the best forwards on the ice tonight. Burrows ended up with 2 assists (but only finished +1 because he was off the ice before Kesler could score), Daniel had a goal on 4 shots, and Henrik constantly made beautiful passes, the best of which had Shorty quit doing the play-by-play for a moment just to say "Oh my goodness." It was that good. Astonishingly, like "Dude, Where's My Car?" Henrik ended without a point.

• Daniel Sedin's 22nd goal of the year featured some great work by Burrows to gain the zone, a purposeful shot wide by Bieksa, and a perfect tip by Daniel to beat Kiprusoff. John Garrett instead insinuated that the puck only went in because Kiprusoff didn't have his stick and without it was like Linus without his security blanket. I am instead going to blame Jokinen for standing three feet in front of Daniel, carefully defending the completely empty slot.

• Dan Hamhuis did his best Olli Jokinen impression on the goal that broke Luongo's shutout, as he too decided to defend the empty slot instead of picking up Tim Jackman in front of the net. Hamhuis had a bit of a rough game, as this giveaway earlier in the third led to a flurry of chances for the Flames. The fourth line had the misfortune of being on the ice for his mental error, dropping each of their plus/minus columns by one.

• That said, Bolduc is the one who lost the faceoff: he actually lost all 8 of his faceoff attempts, dropping his faceoff percentage for the season below 50% for the first time. Kesler and Malhotra were both solid at 67% and 79%, including going a combined 15-for-17 in the defensive zone. Unfortunately, Henrik was not as good at 38%, with Olli Jokinen being his main antagonist. It was the only good thing Jokinen did all night and the only flaw in Henrik's game.

• Christian Ehrhoff was stellar defensively, once again using his stick effectively in the defensive zone to take away passing lanes and sweep pucks off sticks. I suspect that Ehrhoff has heard all the rumblings that he's more likely to be traded now than Bieksa as he seems intent on proving that he's not one-dimensional. In case anyone's forgotten, Ehrhoff is good at hockey.

• Jeff Tambellini throws his tiny body around as if he was a borderline NHLer on what might potentially be his last chance to prove he belongs in the big leagues. Which makes sense. He had 4 hits tonight. He now has 34 hits on the season, putting him third amongst Canuck forwards despite playing 13 fewer games. Also very hitty, Andrew Alberts and Jannik Hansen, who both had 5 hits tonight and lead all Canucks players with 83 and 82 respectively. Not very hitty: Harvey Danger. Despite three fantastic albums, they only had one hit, "Flagpole Sitta." Now that, Evander Kane, is a national travesty.

• And finally, my wife would like to let everyone know that Alain Vigneault's tie was very nice. Good work, AV.