Tuesday, February 17, 2004
CANUCKS 1, AVALANCHE 0
The Vancouver Canucks had just blown all three games of a homestand, and had to enter the rarefied air of Denver to face the mighty Avalanche in a meeting of two of the most potent offenses in the NHL. The result: one goal. Total. The game was scoreless after two periods, and neither team was at their sharpest.
The Canucks went into Denver for the second time this year and, like the last visit to Denver, blanked the NHL's number one power play on seven chances, including a four-minute minor against Matt Cooke for a blood-drawing high-stick on Derek Morris. It's no secret that the Canucks' power play has been crap all year (0-for-6 in this game, four chances in the first period), but heading into the game, the Canucks were 2nd in the NHL on the penalty kill behind only the San Jose Sharks. This is mostly due to the guys who don't get the glory on the stat sheet, but just do the dirty work -- Brad May, Artem Chubarov, Trevor Linden (he gets his points though), and Jarkko Ruutu, who covered Peter Forsberg most of the night.
Dan Cloutier returned from the flu (apparently not a suspension from the match penalty for hitting a player with his blocker the other night) and though he didn't face many shots, he had to earn this shutout. He had some solid pad saves on Teemu Selanne in the third period and fended off Milan Hejduk in the waning seconds. He also had to stop (only) two shots in the four-minute minor penalty. Cloutier didn't allow a lot of second and third chances off the Colorado shots, partly credited to him and partly due to the defensemen.
The score remained until the third period, when Todd Bertuzzi wiped out two Colorado defensemen behind the net with one hit to cause a turnover leading to Daniel Sedin's 11th goal of the season at the 2:09 mark. Daniel has 40 points on the season, with 26 of them coming on the road.
The big story of this game, though, happened late in the second period, when Markus Naslund was skating across the neutral zone and was elbowed/shouldered in the head by Steve Moore. Naslund was caught off guard after being hit with the elbow and/or shoulder, and then his head hit the ice. Somehow no penalty was called, though when Brad May came in to defend Naslund, he was sent to the penalty box. Naslund sat for the rest of the game and was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures. Not sure what the prognosis could be, but a concussion isn't out of the question.
Post-game talk centered around the Naslund incident, for which coach Marc Crawford was the most ticked off that anyone has seen in his Vancouver tenure...
"It just mystifies me why this happens in this league," Crawford said in as fiery a post-game speech as he's had all season. "They talk about players not having respect for players -- how about the officials? Should they not have respect for the leading scorer in the league? When does that come?
"It could have been an obstruction call, it could have been an elbow call. It could have been anything. I have no idea what's going on. It was a cheap shot by a young kid on a captain, a leading scorer in the league, and we get no call? That is ridiculous. How does that happen? That's got to be answered.
"Why is there no respect from those referees for the leading scorer in the league? I do not understand that for the life of me. I don't care if they fine me. That needs to be answered."
Postgame host Dan Russell had a conspiracy theory about this. Crawford said something after the Atlanta game about one of the refs having a bad game last year, basically singling out one of the refs (Rob Martell), and saying he had another bad game, and that the refs had to step up and take control of the game, due to the physical character of the Atlanta game. Martell was on the ice for last night's game. Did he not call a penalty on the Naslund play on purpose? It's a reach, but you never know...
Anyway, the Avs lost their 1st game in regulation in 13 tries, and their 2nd in their last 26, which is an easy reason as to why the Canucks lost their division lead to Colorado a while ago. The Avs just wouldn't lose. The Canucks are now four points behind Colorado, with the Avs having two games in hand. Of course, since the Canucks had been pathetic this month, they have to be worried about Calgary, over whom they now have a 6-point lead. A loss to the Avs would have put the Canucks down 8 pts, and they basically could have kissed goodbye to anything above a 4th seed in the playoffs. Now they at least have a chance at one of the top three. Doubly important about the win tonight, though, was to hold off the Avs late so the game didn't end up tied, and so the Avalanche couldn't get any points in the standings out of the game.
The Canucks go to Minnesota Thursday, where hopefully they will have Naslund back. Todd Bertuzzi, however, will be booed mercilessly for probably no good reason.
The Canucks went into Denver for the second time this year and, like the last visit to Denver, blanked the NHL's number one power play on seven chances, including a four-minute minor against Matt Cooke for a blood-drawing high-stick on Derek Morris. It's no secret that the Canucks' power play has been crap all year (0-for-6 in this game, four chances in the first period), but heading into the game, the Canucks were 2nd in the NHL on the penalty kill behind only the San Jose Sharks. This is mostly due to the guys who don't get the glory on the stat sheet, but just do the dirty work -- Brad May, Artem Chubarov, Trevor Linden (he gets his points though), and Jarkko Ruutu, who covered Peter Forsberg most of the night.
Dan Cloutier returned from the flu (apparently not a suspension from the match penalty for hitting a player with his blocker the other night) and though he didn't face many shots, he had to earn this shutout. He had some solid pad saves on Teemu Selanne in the third period and fended off Milan Hejduk in the waning seconds. He also had to stop (only) two shots in the four-minute minor penalty. Cloutier didn't allow a lot of second and third chances off the Colorado shots, partly credited to him and partly due to the defensemen.
The score remained until the third period, when Todd Bertuzzi wiped out two Colorado defensemen behind the net with one hit to cause a turnover leading to Daniel Sedin's 11th goal of the season at the 2:09 mark. Daniel has 40 points on the season, with 26 of them coming on the road.
The big story of this game, though, happened late in the second period, when Markus Naslund was skating across the neutral zone and was elbowed/shouldered in the head by Steve Moore. Naslund was caught off guard after being hit with the elbow and/or shoulder, and then his head hit the ice. Somehow no penalty was called, though when Brad May came in to defend Naslund, he was sent to the penalty box. Naslund sat for the rest of the game and was taken to the hospital for precautionary measures. Not sure what the prognosis could be, but a concussion isn't out of the question.
Post-game talk centered around the Naslund incident, for which coach Marc Crawford was the most ticked off that anyone has seen in his Vancouver tenure...
"It just mystifies me why this happens in this league," Crawford said in as fiery a post-game speech as he's had all season. "They talk about players not having respect for players -- how about the officials? Should they not have respect for the leading scorer in the league? When does that come?
"It could have been an obstruction call, it could have been an elbow call. It could have been anything. I have no idea what's going on. It was a cheap shot by a young kid on a captain, a leading scorer in the league, and we get no call? That is ridiculous. How does that happen? That's got to be answered.
"Why is there no respect from those referees for the leading scorer in the league? I do not understand that for the life of me. I don't care if they fine me. That needs to be answered."
Postgame host Dan Russell had a conspiracy theory about this. Crawford said something after the Atlanta game about one of the refs having a bad game last year, basically singling out one of the refs (Rob Martell), and saying he had another bad game, and that the refs had to step up and take control of the game, due to the physical character of the Atlanta game. Martell was on the ice for last night's game. Did he not call a penalty on the Naslund play on purpose? It's a reach, but you never know...
Anyway, the Avs lost their 1st game in regulation in 13 tries, and their 2nd in their last 26, which is an easy reason as to why the Canucks lost their division lead to Colorado a while ago. The Avs just wouldn't lose. The Canucks are now four points behind Colorado, with the Avs having two games in hand. Of course, since the Canucks had been pathetic this month, they have to be worried about Calgary, over whom they now have a 6-point lead. A loss to the Avs would have put the Canucks down 8 pts, and they basically could have kissed goodbye to anything above a 4th seed in the playoffs. Now they at least have a chance at one of the top three. Doubly important about the win tonight, though, was to hold off the Avs late so the game didn't end up tied, and so the Avalanche couldn't get any points in the standings out of the game.
The Canucks go to Minnesota Thursday, where hopefully they will have Naslund back. Todd Bertuzzi, however, will be booed mercilessly for probably no good reason.
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