Saturday, April 15, 2006
GAME 82: CANUCKS 4, AVALANCHE 3 (OT)
Canucks 4, Avalanche 3 (OT)
[initial partial post]
And so it ended. This game was completely meaningless in the standings as the Canucks had been eliminated from a playoff spot two nights earlier in San Jose. Thus, the speculation in Vancouver has already run rampant as to what happens in the offseason. There will be some big changes for sure, but it's a matter of who goes that's up for debate. One postgame caller said one of either coach Marc Crawford or Todd Bertuzzi has to go, and I think that's probably a popular point of view. Another feather in the cap for ousting Crawford came from CKNW postgame host Jeff Paterson, who nicely pointed out that Crawford never seems to give backup goalies a chance. This year, Alex Auld probably only got the time in net because Dan Cloutier was badly injured. After having 14 prior regular-season games of NHL experience, Auld started 56 of the final 60 games this season, which is crazier than Dustin Butler's run in the Portland Winter Hawks' net last season when Blake Grenier went down (that was 18 straight, by the way, for a kid in junior). The Canucks earlier this season traded for Maxime Ouellet and Crawford barely used him. They traded at the deadline for Mika Noronen and he didn't get off the bench that much. Before the lockout, Johan Hedberg got the shaft from Crawford despite being popular among teammates. Paterson also mentioned Martin Brochu and Peter Skudra among the names of backup netminders that fell by the wayside under Crawford. I particularly feel Hedberg got screwed, but that's just me.
As for my relatively short time following the Canucks, I've only been able to do so through internet radio telecast, and that's been done by me listening through the live feed at CKNW.com. This game was the last game to be aired on CKNW, as the team has decided to move the flagship and the games to Team 1040. Though color commentator Tom Larscheid got choked up after the game in addressing everyone who's been part of the broadcasts for the years as well as play-by-play guy John Shorthouse, Paterson said they'll both probably be together next year as well. I know it just wouldn't be the same for me if it were otherwise.
Oh yeah, the game. Let's just say it took until the 82nd game of the season for all three members of the Naslund/Morrison/Bertuzzi line to score goals in the same game. Oh, what might have been if that happened a little more often this season...
1st period
»» 1, COLORADO, Alex Tanguay 28 (Patrice Brisebois, Andrew Brunette) 19:46
2nd period
»» 2, VANCOUVER, Todd Bertuzzi 25 (Ryan Kesler, Alexandre Burrows) 2:13
»» 3, VANCOUVER, Markus Naslund 32 (Ed Jovanovski, Brendan Morrison) 13:46
3rd period
»» 4, COLORADO, Pierre Turgeon 16 (Brad Richardson, Brisebois) 8:22
»» 5, COLORADO, Tanguay 29 (Rob Blake, Ian Laperriere) 17:54
»» 6, VANCOUVER, Anson Carter 33 (Henrik Sedin) 19:17
overtime
»» 7, VANCOUVER, Morrison 19 (unassisted) 4:23
Three stars -- (1) Morrison, (2) Colorado's Alex Tanguay, (3) Naslund
skater, goals-assists-points
Morrison 1-1-2
Bertuzzi 1-0-1
Carter 1-0-1
Naslund 1-0-1
Burrows 0-1-1
Jovanovski 0-1-1
Kesler 0-1-1
H Sedin 0-1-1
With their season done, the win gave the Canucks a final record of 42-32-8 (4-4 shootout, four overtime losses), good for 92 points, but not a playoff spot. The Canucks are one point short of eighth-place Edmonton, but that's moot. Edmonton has a game left, as does everyone seeded third through eighth. Detroit and Dallas have two games left. The Canucks, fourth in the Northwest Division, finished 25-10-6 at home, 17-22-2 on the road, and 15-12-5 within the Northwest Division. Division games killed the Canucks early on in the season. Of course, that's just one of many things that went wrong for the Canucks this season.
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