SB Nation - Andrew Raycroft

Erik Cole Breaks Through with Hat Trick: Hurricanes 5, Canucks 3

Bob Harwood — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:32:16 -0000

More photos » by Karl B DeBlaker - AP

6 days ago: Carolina Hurricanes' Erik Cole (26) looks up at the replay following his third goal of the game during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Vancouver Canucks in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. Cole notch his sixth hat trick of his career in the 5-3 Hurricanes win.(AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

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The Carolina Hurricanes, (6-17-5) put an end to their five game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks, (16-13-0) on Saturday afternoon at the RBC. Erik Cole netted the first hat trick of the season for the last place club. It was Cole's sixth hat trick of his career and his first in two seasons.

Manny Legace earned the victory and now leads all Carolina goalies with three wins.

The Canes had a lot of jump and for the most part played a very good game as they surged to a 4-1 lead after two periods, but fans got nervous as the Canucks would pull within a goal later on. With the score 4-3 and visions of another meltdown on many minds, the Canes killed an incorrectly called penalty, added an empty net goal, and hung on for just their third regulation win of the season.

The first period seemed to be a fairly even one, although the 'Nucks outshot the Canes 14-7. Keep in mind the home team had to kill two penalties during that time frame as well. Vancouver started the scoring off when Jannik Hansen would squeeze one by Manny Legace.

It looked like a softie, but Legace said afterward that the puck ticked Joni Pitkanen's stick and just got by him. He called it "bad luck".

It didn't matter though as Ray Whitney roofed a backhander past Andrew Raycroft just 20 seconds later to tie the score. Whitney had a great game, chipped in with two more assists, and was a pest all over the ice.

Eric Staal had a beautiful point blank chance during the period, but tried to over-fake and ended up too close to the crease as Raycroft stopped him easily. Staal had a very good game, but that was a move which seemed to indicate that he has little confidence in his shot. Normally, he would try a wrister in that situation from 10 to 15 feet out.

Steve Yzerman and a couple of others from Team Canada's brain trust were in the press box monitoring Staal's game. They could not have been too disappointed as the Carolina center finished with two assists, four shots on goal, and a +1.

The Hurricanes came out with a vengeance in the second period and jumped out to a 4-1 lead. At one point, they were out-shooting the visitors by an 8-1 margin.

Erik Cole started things off with his first goal, a perfectly placed wrist shot on an odd man rush. He had a similar chance in the first period as well, but just missed. Ray Whitney and Tim Gleason had the assists.

Sergei Samsonov then found himself all alone with the puck in front of Raycroft. He faked the goalie and also roofed his shot to make the score 3-1. Tuomo Ruutu and Matt Cullen worked to get a turnover at the blue line and created the opportunity.

Cole would get his second goal of the night on a strange play as the Canucks lost track of the puck in the crease and ended up putting it into their own net. It looked like defenseman Willie Mitchell might have kicked the puck in, but it was hard to tell. Raycroft might have put it in himself.

Number 26 joked afterward that while he took his buddy out to dinner the night before, "it was not that expensive of a dinner."

The third period started out all too familiar for the home team. The last time they took a 4-1 lead into the third period eight days ago against Atlanta, the Thrashers lit the lamp five straight times and won the game 6-4.

Once again, the Canes appeared to go into defensive mode and the Canucks were able to hold the puck in the Carolina zone for what seemed to be minutes at a time. Ten minutes into the third they scored their first goal of the period, then would score again less than five minutes later.

The Hurricanes called timeout to re-group, but faced real adversity as Sergei Samsonov was called for high sticking on a freak play as a Vancouver player was hit in the face with the puck. Samsonov tried to hit the puck in the air but missed and replays showed that he never touched the Canuck. But the ref didn't see it that way and the winger went to the penalty box with just 2:57 left in the game.

Last month or even last week, the team might have allowed the adversity to overcome them and submit to a tying goal, but not so on Saturday. They killed the penalty and as Vancouver pulled their goalie to keep the pressure on, Cole would score the empty netter to seal the deal.

The Canes now go on a very rough four game road trip as they will visit Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Washington, and Ottawa before returning home for a rematch against the Dallas Stars on December 16.

Game Notes:

Carolina is now 5-2-2 when they score three goals or more. The problem? They have scored two goals or less 19 times this season and have a record of 1-15-3 when that happens.
Matt Cullen has now scored in five consecutive games. He displayed a couple of breathtaking moves and played another overall solid game.
Legace made several tough stops as Vancouver would periodically put heavy pressure on him. Coach Paul Maurice was happy with his game and said that the goalie is a real battler. "But, he has to be", the coach added. The Canes will need to make a big decision this coming week concerning their goalies when Cam Ward returns. Let me just say that opinions were mixed in press row on what will happen. More about this soon.
The team didn't have many chances with the man advantage but converted one of two opportunities. They remain at 29th in the league at that important statistic.
Carolina was given credit for 41 hits although it did not seem to be that physical of a game. The 'Nucks only had 20. Tom Kostopoulos led the way with seven and Scott Walker looked no worse for wear with five.
The fourth line of Brind'Amour, Yelle, and Walker looked good although that might be the oldest line in the NHL. (someone said the average age is 36).
Joni Pitkanen led the way with very reasonable 24:43 of ice time. Low ice time for the team was just over 10 minutes for Walker. Maurice will probably need to continue to spread the ice time and play four lines as the games come up fast and furious next week.
Jussi Jokinen was scratched although Maurice said that the Finn wanted to play. The coach held him out because he was not 100% and probably the worst injured of the forwards. But while Chad LaRose had good jump this game, the coach might want to switch places between these two.

Here is some post-game video of Manny Legace meeting with the press.

Hurricanes 5 Canucks 3: Sloppy Seconds

Sean Zandberg — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:04:59 -0000

I said in the game preview: Should be an automatic win, right? Nope. That depends on how lightly the Canucks take these guys. They have to go out there and pretend those guys are wearing Devils jerseys.

Didn't happen.

A so-so first..outshooting the Canes 14-6 but not capitalizing on 2 power play chances, and bagging one past Manny Legace (Jannik Hansen).

An atrocious 2nd period..getting outshot 13-6, coughing the puck up, hanging Andrew Raycroft out to dry (which Alain Vigneault alluded to after the game), and surrendering 3 goals. Yeah, the refs should have blown the play dead on that Mitchell-Raycroft fiasco, but really, the score could have been 6-1 at that point anyways.

The 3rd period was all Canucks,

as they put the heat on Carolina, who have had a terrible time in 3rd periods this year. It almost worked. The Canucks almost erased a 4-1 deficit and pulled within a goal, but Erik Cole, who, thanks to us, has awoken from his slumber and bagged his hat trick goal into the open net to seal it.

Final shots: Canucks 36 Canes 27.

8 points combined for Erik Cole, Eric Staal and Ryan Whitney.

Can you believe that Christian Ehrhoff finished a +3?

I thought Kyle Wellwood looked alright out there today. He was rewarded with over 15:00 of ice time. His line kickstarted the Canucks in the 3rd, and I thought dominated that period.

You almost can't fault Andrew Raycroft on any of those goals. But then...as myself and others have said many times before: he goes down into the butterfly position so quickly all the time. The Canes picked corners on him. Maybe a tremendous save or 2 were in order. I think it's fair to say that. None came.

BOXSCORE (bring barf bag)

HIGHLIGHTS (stab your eyes out first)

My 3 Stars:

1. Erik Cole. (Rise from your grave)

2. Ray Whitney (1 goal and 2 assists)

3. Manny Legace (Yeah, yeah, 3 goals against but I'm going to throw him a bone for giving his team a chance to win it especially in the first)

Canucks-Hurricanes Preview: Gee, Nice Start Time...

Sean Zandberg — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:00:16 -0000

Probably the only good thing going for the Hurricanes these days.

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10:29 PM ET Update: WAKE UP YOU FILTHY BUGGERS!

Dan Murphy just tweeted the following: "Aside from Raycroft, no line-up changes expected today. Hansen likely to stay on 2nd line."

**************************************

GAME TIME: 10:30 AM PST

TV: Sportsnet

The Opposition: Canes Country

Like Jason Botchford mentioned in the Province today, it was about a year ago that Roberto Luongo played in a morning game (pacific time) against the Penguins. He wrecked his groin on that fateful day. I don't think that plays a role in Andrew Raycroft getting the start against the Canes. Louie has played in 10 straight games, and has a 6-4-0 record in that span, along with a shiny 2.01 GAA and a .929 save percentage.

Raycroft's last start was not very pretty. On November 10th he started a game against the Blues and allowed 4 goals on 13 shots in the first period and was yanked. The Canucks admitted that they hung Raycroft out to dry in that game. They had also just come off a 5-day layoff and were not sharp. Now, with a healthy roster and less days off, the Canucks are kicking some serious ass on this road trip.

So, what on earth is wrong with the Hurricanes?

They have been without Cam Ward since November 7 due to a leg injury. In the 15 games with Ward in the lineup they had only won 2 games. Up to his injury, Ward and his mates had lost 10 straight games. Even so, his numbers were not terrible, according to ESPN.

Since the Ward injury, the Hurricanes have gone with the goalie tandem of Michael Leighton and Manny Legace. In those 11 games they lost 8. Manny Legace will start against Vancouver. Carolina has had 4 days off.

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Manny Legace	8	465	2	4			25	3.23	227	202	.890	0

If you take a look at the Hurricanes' scoring leaders you can see many glaring problems. Tuomo Ruutu is leading the team in scoring with 6 goals and 16 points in 23 games. Rod Brind'Amour is a -19! Eric Staal..where did you go? 3 goals and 9 points in 17 games. He won't stay that lousy forever. Their highest scoring d-man is Joe Corvo with 4 goals and 12 points in 27 games played. He is a -10. Edit: He's also injured.

Will Chad LaRose and/or Jussi Jokinen play?

I wonder how well newly-acquired Jiri Tlusty will fit in.

Let's look at the comparative stats:

-The Hurricanes sit last in the East and the NHL...8 points behind the Leafs! Yikes!

-The Canucks are trying to get into the top 8 in the West and are almost there.

-Goals Per Game Average: Canucks 5th, Canes 30th

-Goals Against Per game Average: Canucks 7th, Canes 30th

-5 on 5: Canucks 5th, Canes 30th

-PowerPlay: Canucks 3rd, Canes 29th

-Penalty Kill: Canes 20th, Canucks 21st

-Shots Per Game: Canes 9th, Canucks 13th

-Shots Against Per Game: Canucks 11th, Canes 16th

-Faceoff %: Canucks 9th, Canes 22nd.

Should be an automatic win, right? Nope. That depends on how lightly the Canucks take these guys. They have to go out there and pretend those guys are wearing Devils jerseys.

Back-To-Back Is Back! Canucks-Kings Preview

Sean Zandberg — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:15:09 -0000

We know who the real kings are.

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Kings (13-9-2, 6th in West) vs Canucks (12-11-0, 11th in West)

GAME TIME: 7:00 PST

TV: Canucks PPV

The Enemy: Battle of California

UPDATE (2:13 PM): Rick Rypien has a sore hand because Ben Eager's ugly face hit it last game. If he isn't good to go, Darcy Hordichuk will take his spot tonight.

UPDATE (12:00 AM): Sami Salo's ice-time has been reduced lately, but he's not giving up. You may be surprised at what else he has to say.

***********************

"They played a real slow-the-game," Murray said, "five guys back at their own blue line kind of a game, and took a lot of the emotion and speed out of the game. That was a good strategy by them. It was a good plan."

That is what Kings coach Terry Murray said of the Canucks' play the last time these 2 teams faced eachother in late October, where the Canucks won 2-1 in a shootout. Vancouver shut down the Kings' top line and limited L.A.'s prime scoring opportunities. Andrew Raycroft stopped 30 of 31 shots and was the first star of the game. Mikael Samuelsson scored the tying goal and the winning goal in the shootout.

Once again, the Canucks get to play a team that is playing in a back-to-back scenario, and Vancouver is coming off an extended layoff. This really has to play a role in the outcome of this game. There is no reason for the Canucks not to maintain a strong consistent effort against the Kings. The Kings beat

the Oilers 3-1 last night after a 4-day layoff. Their top line (Kopitar-Williams-Brown) was kept off the scoresheet, but guys like Frolov and Simmonds responded. Anze Kopitar played over 23:00 in that game, second only to Jack Jerkson, I mean Johnson.

I read somewhere that after the Kings lost to Flames on Saturday, the Kings had played 24 games in 50 days, and that was the second-most grueling schedule in the NHL this season behind San Jose. Cry me a river. The Canucks have played 23 games in 52 days. STFU. That being said...

Now that the long layoffs are over the Canucks will play 6 games in the next 10 nights and 14 games in the next 27 nights. They will play back-to-back games 3 times between now and January 2nd. The longest layoff will be a 4-day rest at Xmas time. Perfect! We'll be too busy shoving turkey and salad down our throats and putting up with family to care! Yeah, there is going to be a lot of Canucks hockey from now until the Olympic Break. Ole!

No Ryan Smyth in the Kings' lineup tonight and that is a good thing, as he not only is a smaller, feistier version of Dustin Byfuglyen, he also had 24 points in 23 games in the Kings' top line.The Kings are now 1-2 without him.

A bit more about the Kings:

-they are Alyssa Milano's favorite hockey team. Yeah, she told me that on Twitter, yes I'm bragging. Damn she has bad taste.

-the Kings rank just a bit higher than the Canucks in goals per game.

-they allow more goals per game than we do. (rank 25th...are you listening Wellwood?)

-the Canucks are better than the Kings at even strength.

-Vancouver ranks better than the Kings on the powerplay.

-the Kings and Canucks both suck at killing penalties, with Vancouver holding a slight advantage.

-L.A. averages less shots per game than we do.

-The Kings and Canucks both allow a lot of shots per game on average, both in the bottom 10 in the category with the Kings being worse.

-The Kings lick in the faceoff category, where the Canucks don't.

Keep an eye out for updates at the top of this post as game time draws near. Let's see if Bolduc replaces Wellwood or not. You never know. That noose is getting tight around Woody's neck right now.

Are the Kings going to rest Jon Quick and play Erik Ersberg in a back-to-back scenario? Let's hope so!

See? There is no reason why we can't hand these guys their asses tonight. No excuses at all.

Don't forget to add your score prediction in the comments thread. 1 point for guessing the right score, 1 point for guessing the right team, and 1 point for guessing who scores the game winner. Not as easy as it sounds. After 2 games nobody has a single point yet! Somewhere Nostradamus is rolling in his grave.

Evacuate The Dance Floor: Blackhawks 1 Canucks 0

Sean Zandberg — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:10:57 -0000

More photos » by Darryl Dyck - AP

I don't know where he is, Bryan! All I know is that he has a long stick and he wears #8! Hold me!

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Final shot count: Canucks 30 Hawks 17

It what was projected to be perhaps a goal-fest turned into a chess match between evenly (?) matched teams. Sure, Antii Niemi stole the show tonight, but I have to be honest here: he had to be solid not GREAT. Niemi was solid along the ice with his saves and that is where the Canucks put most of their shots tonight. It reminded me of a recent Andrew Raycroft game or two where he was "dominant". That is where you can also credit the rest of the Blackhawks team for limiting Vancouver's quality chances. However, they were hardly any better than we were.

Ugh. To have the game decided by a lousy-bounce goal by Bryan Bickell....depressing. I can hardly fault the Canucks' play except that they couldn't present a formidable scoring chance on Niemi except for Steve Bernier's breakaway, which was stopped by Auntie....along the ice.

Daniel Sedin may need another game or two to get into his groove. Kyle Wellwood especially is running out of chances. No shots or points for him tonight. That is all I have to say about this mishap. So unfortunate. Now we wait until Thursday for the next game to see what our team is made out of.

Chicago got their "revenge", and no taxi drivers were hurt in the process.

BOXSCORE

HIGHLIGHTS

3 Stars:

1. Aunti Niemi

2. Jonathan Toews

3. Roberto Luongo

Your Toronto Maple Leafs: How Did We Get Here?

mf37 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:32:36 -0000

An anonymous comment over at my blog Bitter Leaf Fan raised the question of how exactly the Leafs arrived in their current mess.

There’s not a single cause or easy explantion.

This franchise has gone through three, maybe even four, different phases since 2000, however; with the exception of one small window, all of these phases have focused on the short-term, sacrificing picks and prospects for a supposed fix.

After the jump, a look at the Leafs' propensity to deal away the future and the pile of pocket lint, loose change and used gum wrappers they got in return.

Pre-Lockout

The Pat Quinn teams of the early 2000s were powerful clubs. Each made the playoffs and several flirted with 100 point seasons. They combined a nice mix of talent and flair (Sundin, Mogilny) with grit (Roberts, Tucker) and solid goaltending (Cujo, Belfour).

These teams were often legitimate threats to go deep in the post season and on more than one occasion it was widely thought they could challenge for a cup. As a result, these teams made a number of trades where the future was sacrificed for the present. There was a small window of success and the Leafs went for it, selling off the future in the hopes of a big pay-day.

In 2003, the Leafs trade Brad Boyes (2000 1st round pick), Alyn McCauley and a 1st round pick for Owen Nolan

In 2004, the Leafs trade two prospects, a 1st and 2nd round pick for Brian Leetch.

In addition to dealing away those three first round picks, the Leafs also had some bad luck when their 1999 first round selection (and WJC 1st team all-star) Luca Cereda had to hang up his skates due to health complications with his heart.

From 1999 to 2004, the Leafs emerged with just two first round draft picks: Carlo Colaiacovo and Alexander Steen. Both would later be traded to St. Louis for Lee Stempniak.

The Missing Years

John Ferguson Junior’s tenure was like a ship lost at sea…or maybe it was a ship that kept running into ice bergs…or a lost ship, on fire, that kept hitting ice bergs. Choose your own nautical disaster metaphor and, in keeping with JFJ’s reign of error, the more apocalyptic and dire your selection the more accurate it will be.

Ferguson was GM from the 2004 to 2007 drafts.

Out of those five drafts, he managed to hold on to his first round pick in just once – giving the franchise Jiri Tlusty and a whole lotta NSFW jokes.

Unable to shake-off the "win now!" edict from the MLSE board, in just two years Ferguson sacrificed two first, a second and a fourth round pick in an effort to shore-up the team’s goaltending. Some four years later, goaltending remains a position of weakness that hasn’t been adequately addressed.

JFJ's draft day magic:

The 2005 first round pick (Tukka Rask) dealt for Andrew Raycroft.
The 2006 first round pick was Jiri Tlusty.
The 2007 first round and second round picks (along with a 2009 4th) to San Jose for Vesa Toskala.
The 2008 second round pick to Phoenix for Yannic Perreault.

Draft Schmaft Redux?

In 2008, Cliff Fletcher was brought in to try to move out the NTCs/NMCs on the club and start the, ahem, rebuilding process.

Given the need to get more talent into the system, he made some, shall we say, curious moves:

A swap of first round picks, 2008 3rd round pick, 2009 2nd round pick for Luke Schenn
2008 3rd round pick for Jamal Mayers
2008 4th round pick to get rid of Bryan McCabe
2008 5th round pick for Ryan Hollwegg
2010 2nd round pick for Mikhail Grabovski

In fairness to Fletcher, he also acquired a small parcel of picks:

2008 2nd round pick and a 2009 5th round pick for Hal Gill
2008 3rd round pick for Chad Kilger
2008 5th round pick for Wade Belak

An Eye for Talent? Um. Not really...

If you’re going to trade away picks and prospects, the returning players better pan out.

Clearly that has not been the case for the Leafs.

By my math, the Leafs traded five first round and three second round picks for the following return:

69 games from Owen Nolan.
28 games of Brian Leetch.
91 games (and 268 goals against) of Andrew Raycroft (plus a multi-year buyout)
17 games of Yanic Perreault
127 games (and counting) from Vesa Toskala

Stop and marvel at that return.

Five first and three third round picks for 332 games played (plus Toskala's starts until the end of the season).

I'll spare the Leaf defenders from doing the math - Brad Boyes, one of the former first rounders traded away, has played 347 NHL games, 15 more than this motley collection managed for the Leafs.

What's worse is that every single one of these players left the Leafs without a single asset coming back in return.

I'll wait while you drink it all in.

I don’t know about you, but I don't think there’s an adjective that can adequately summarize this. One could argue that only Bernie Madoff has done a worse job of asset management - and even that might be a stretch.

Making Mistakes Beyond the Draft

Even more painfully, that poor return only reflects the draft side of the equation.

The Leafs have not excelled in the free agency department (Blake, Finger), have made poor decisions in awarding NMCs and NTCs, and have made a series of poor decisions on talent retention – signing McCabe, Tucker and others to long-term deals rather than trading them at peak value. But I’ll save that rant/analysis for another day…

For now, in a nutshell, this is a good first step toward building a franchise that’s on target for a 50 point season and has limited options at hand.

Game 20 Preview: Canucks at Avalanche

David Driscoll-Carignan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:24:41 -0000


Vancouver Canucks	8 MT / 10 ET / 3 GMT	Colorado Avalanche
10-10-0	November 14th, 2009	12-4-3
20 pts	Pepsi Center	27 pts
t-9th in West	Denver, CO	2nd in West

The Avalanche host the Vancouver Canucks tonight, a game Joe Sacco has called "must win" (geez, he throws that phrase around like our own Joe does*). But this game is really about one thing: the jerseys. The Avs wear their new ~~revenue source~~ third jerseys tonight for the first time. We've all seen them by now, but this will be our first chance to see them on the ice. For those of us who can stay up that late, that is. (For the record, no recap from me tonight)

Craig Anderson will start for the Avs. Tom Preissing could make his season debut (I think he will) and Milan Hejduk could return as well (bank on that). Ruslan Salei took part in a full practice Friday, so he's close to returning too - but I don't think we'll see him yet. John-Michael Liles and TJ Galiardi are getting closer, but they won't play. Philippe Dupuis has been returned to Lake Erie.

For the Canucks, Roberto Luongo is back and he's the presumed starter tonight (thank goodness, as I don't think I could stomach getting shut out by Andrew Raycroft again). One of the Sedins is out (no, not that one, the other one. Or is it? I can't tell). The Canucks still have a very potent powerplay but are so-so at even strength. They have 18 goals at 5 on 4 and 28 at 5 on 5. The Avs have 11 PP goals and 36 5 on 5.

I am very excited today as we're taking the kids to Boston to see Star Wars in Concert. I've heard nothing but raves about this, and my kids are stoked (even my daughter who is under the weather). Why am I mentioning this? I actually do have a reason. My wife and I debated going to this for quite some time, as tickets were something like $60 each. To me, that was a lot of money for a concert. While we ultimately relented (and I'm glad we did), it occured to me later that that's considerably less than I would pay for one hockey game. To see the Bruins, only a handful of shitty seats are under $60. Where we're sitting for Star Wars (Loge 9), B's tickets cost $130 (plus fees) to see the crap teams and $150 to see the good teams. To me, that is an insane amount of money to spend on one hockey game. Playoff game? Sure. Beyond that, I can't justify spending $300 for tickets alone for my wife and I to go to a game (nevermind the price for parking, food and street hookers). We've been to 2 hockey games in the last 5 years, and both were special occasions (once for my birthday and once as a Christmas present for my wife). I really don't mind spending all the wads of cash I rake in from this site (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha), but $300 for a single hockey game? Not worth it. I know lots of you have weighed in on the reasons for the Avs' attendance woes. As of this 10am this morning, I could buy tickets for great seats next to the glass (sect 130, row 1) for tonight's game...at $216 a pop. To me, that's just simply too much. Call me when tickets are $20.

*[Geez, you make a mistake two years ago and they never let you hear the end of it. Tough crowd. -Joe]

Canucks vs Avalanche coverage

Nucks Misconduct

Preview

The Blues Get Their Revenge

Sean Zandberg — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:03:26 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

Fair enough, Blues fans. Even Lou got Perrowned on this night.

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So the Blues got their revenge tonight, winning 6-1 in convincing fashion. Why am I not surprised? Before the game I said (in response to Temujin's 4-1 Blues win prediction):

Funny you say that, because I’m thinking along the same lines. If I was a betting man, which I am, I’d pick the Blues because:
-Revenge factor
-Hence the McDonald-Boyes shows gets going
-the layoff and possible lousy play in front of Raycroft = Blues goals.
5-2 Blues in an angry, penalty-filled night.

Well the prediction came true mostly. Andy McDonald scored 18 seconds into the game (assisted by Brad Boyes). McDonald had 1 goal and 3 points, Brad Boyes had 1 goal and 4 points, and some schmuck named David Perron scored 3 goals. The Blues got only their second win on home ice by playing a stellar game.

Already down 5-0 going into the 3rd period, the Blues outshot the Canucks 8-2 in the final frame and 30-23 overall. We never saw a Rypien-Janssen fight, rather, Tanner Glass and Darcy Hordichuk fighting the Blues' goon and perhaps those were the highlights of the night. To make this sound even more pathetic, Janssen handled himself pretty well in both tilts.

3 Canucks finished -3 tonight: Steve Bernier, Alex Burrows and Sami Salo. The Blues' Barrett Jackman, Andy McDonald and Brad Boyes managed a +3 rating. Chris Mason more than avenged his Game 4 flubbery by stopping 22 of 23 Canucks shots.

That was an absolute fail by the Canucks, pure and simple.

BOXSCORE

HIGHLIGHTS

QUOTED:

"I don't know if it was too much time [off] or whatever — we weren't sharp," said Henrik Sedin, who scored the lone Canuck goal in the third period.

"We gave them too many chances and left Razor out to dry. It wasn't good enough. It's inexcusable. We didn't create a whole lot."

The rousing reception to the in-house game promotion said it all Tuesday.

Reminded that the St. Louis Blues needed one more effort to hit the five-goal plateau and reward the Scottrade Center faithful with free Big Macs, there was a fan frenzy. After all, Andrew Raycroft had allowed four goals on nine shots through the opening eight minutes.

Anybody hungry? -The Province

Flames Game Day: Shot by both sides

Robert Cleave — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:59:18 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

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Calgary Flames vs. New York Rangers

Pengrowth Saddledome

8 PM MT

Opposition: Blueshirt Banter

TV: CBC

Good luck's a nice thing to have, you know. Puts a spring in your step, makes you feel like you can do anything, like you haven't a care. When it turns, your food doesn't even taste right. I play enough golf to be all too familiar with both sides of the coin.

The trick, of course, is not to confuse luck with merit, and I'm having a pretty hard time shaking the sense that the Calgary Flames have been riding their luck a bit this year. Tonight, they return home for one night only, full of good feeling, to play a Rangers squad with a few of those characteristics as well, although not quite as pronounced as the locals.

The Flames won both games on their jaunt south, with goaltending, particularly against Dallas, featuring to a large degree. For all the nice talk about Iginla's better play, if McE and Kiprusoff aren't very good on consecutive nights, it would have been a fruitless journey. Now, in the interests of fairness, Maimster has pointed out in comments, correctly, that the Flames were better in the third against St. Louis, and they did out-shoot the Blues 16-9 in the third and OT. Still, they spent more time in their own zone than one might like, and the kid line for the Blues gave them fits.

I suppose what's driving this feeling of unease is that the numbers suggest the Flames are a team prospering via good fortune. The number that's most illustrative of this is the Flames' 5 v 5 SH%. After the game on Thursday, the Flames were shooting 12% 5 v 5. As a frame of reference, the Penguins have led the league the last two years, at around 10% each season. Now, I don't want to over-sell this, but I'm having a hard time believing that the Flames are likely to continue being 20% better than the NHL's recent best.

Some of the individual numbers are striking. Of the Flames' regulars, only Dawes, Conroy, Regehr and Moss have on-ice 5 v 5 shooting numbers below 10%. Last year's team had 4 players finish at 10% or higher, and the Flames have really only exchanged Joker for Cammalleri up front, which doesn't exactly seem like it would be helping.

Speaking of the Finn, it's been noted that he's a bit of a target around these parts, and from my end, that's true, but only in part because he's not scoring. Players occasionally go through down periods in their SH%, so I mostly look to see if the attempts are still there. Jokinen is averaging 2 SOG and has a pretty dreadful Corsi to boot. Combined with so-so defensive play, well, his +/- at EV would be dead without some pretty fair goaltending backing him up. I suspect as long as the team is winning, they'll wait for him to mesh with Iginla, which I hope against hope isn't misplaced patience. As I said, a lack of scoring is only part of my issue with his play so far, but it has to be pointed out that he has 2 goals in his last 27 regular season games and both were based more on good bounces than shooting skill. For an alleged elite scorer, "slump" doesn't seem to do it justice.

The lines and pairings look to be unchanged for the Flames, and Miikka Kiprusoff gets the nod in net. He was very good in St. Louis. More, please. Hey, if Andrew Raycroft can look like an NHL goalie again, I suppose Kipper could get at least part of the way back to where he was. Honestly, if he's just a good goalie again, that would do. He's pretty close to being there 5 v 5.

The Rangers, as mentioned, have been winning without out-shooting, although they aren't in the ditch at anywhere near Calgary's level. Like the Flames, they aren't the Corsi-happy crew of last season, but adding Marian Gaborik has put a bit of sting in their tail. He's been mostly healthy so far, and already has a dozen goals. They also feature a couple of young men on the back end, with Del Zotto and Gilroy soaking up some decent minutes. Del Zotto is also a major part of a good power play, which is 6th by percentage to this point. One thing that was of interest is that John Tortorella advised the morning scrum that he was inclined to rest Henrik Lundqvist, which seems odd given that Valiquette played in Shelbyville on Thursday. I haven't heard anything regarding an injury.

Game-wise, I'm looking for the same things as every night, Pinky. A win, more shots than the other team, and a likely-to-be ungranted wish that the Flames' purported number one center starts playing like one. Or leaves. I'm OK either way at this point. Keeping a lid on Gaborik and continuing the successful PK of the last few games wouldn't be bad things while they're at it.

Game time is 8 MT, and actually appears on television (fancy that) via the CBC.

Gameday Preview: Vancouver Canucks @ Dallas Stars (7:30p CST)

Brandon Worley — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:45:02 -0000

Next Game

Vancouver Canucks
@ Dallas Stars

Friday, Nov 6, 2009, 7:30 PM CST
American Airlines Center

TV: FSSW
Radio: KTCK 1310 The Ticket

Opponent's Blog: Nucks Misconduct

Complete Coverage >

[UPDATE] James Neal is out and there's a change in net for the Canucks. Details after the jump.

On Wednesday night the Dallas Stars returned to the ice after four days of rest with a full roster for the first time all season. In a lot of ways it was an extremely impressive performance as the Stars skated dangerous and deep lines and the defense finally seemed to start getting the hang of pushing the tempo in transition. 40 shots on goal and nearly a full game of intense, great hockey where the execution was flawless for stretches and the Stars maintained pressure for a better part of three periods.

It was a momentary lapse that made it all go wrong. The Stars let up in the final minutes, getting away from the game plan that had gone so well for them for most of the game. The Calgary Flames applied the pressure and were stronger than the Stars along the boards in the final minutes, and a defensive breakdown led to the tying goal with under a minute remaining in regulation. Add in a bogus penalty call and a quick overtime goal and you have the recipe for perhaps the most frustrating game Stars fans have witnessed in a very, very long time.

Yet perhaps that was a game this team needed, a pivotal moment in a long season.

The Dallas Stars:

Despite the disappointment of the loss on Wednesday night, the Dallas Stars are starting to believe that when they play to their full potential special things will happen:

"We had the better chances, we earned our power plays, we did just about everything right – except win the game," captain Brenden Morrow said. "To play a team like Calgary that was really motivated, to have some key players come back into the lineup and play well together, I really do think it was a good sign."

"When we throw that type of performance in most games in the National Hockey League, we're going to win," coach Marc Crawford said, "and we're going to win quite handily."

"I do think we have the ability and the talent to play that way, and we're starting to see that," general manager Joe Nieuwendyk said. "But what we have to have is consistency. We didn't have it last week. Can we build on the last game and show we can do this for weeks at a time? That's our goal."

"It was good to see what we looked like with a full lineup," defenseman Stephane Robidas said. "I thought we were the better team against a very good team out there, and there's no reason we can't do that on a consistent basis if we play the game as a team."

Unfortunately, the Stars might not have a full lineup tonight. James Neal pulled his groin on Wednesday and while he looked fine walking around yesterday (he did not practice), he's questionable for tonight's game against Vancouver.

[UPDATE] With James Neal out tonight and possibly tomorrow night, here are Heika's proposed lines for the Stars, with Marc Crawford hinting he doesn't want to disrupt the forwards too much:

Petersen-Richards-Eriksson
Morrow-Ribeiro-Lehtinen
Ott-Modano-Benn
Sutherby-Wandell-Brunnstrom

[END UPDATE]

Marty Turco in net tonight and could possibly also play tomorrow night as well.

The Vancouver Canucks:

A hurting and injured Canucks team are coming off three straight wins, including a 5-2 over the Minnesota Wild last night. Nucks Misconduct is calling it their "B" squad as the team fights through the injuries to key players, as there are a number of skaters playing out of position. Whatever they're doing is working, although it looks like they might be getting some of these players back soon:

So on a night when the team's best line (Kesler's) finished a combined -5, they found another group of heroes. And, once again, Raycroft played a strong game in net for his fourth win of the year. And best news of all: unless they're being coy, no one was injured. I'm as shocked as you are.

If the rumors are true, then it's likely that both Luongo and happy fists Hansen will slot in for Tuesday's game against the Blues. That means tonight - as they head into Big D to visit with their old coach and the rest of the Stars - could be the last time we'll see the B squad together. Based on the way they are playing, that may not be a good thing. As broken as they are with injuries, their game sure doesn't look broke so why fix it?

~~Andrew Raycroft in net tonight, and he's been phenomenal so far filling in for Roberto Luongo.~~ Cory Schneider will be in net tonight for the Canucks.

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Cory Schneider	1	20	0	0			3	9.00	12	9	.750	0

The last time these two teams met the Stars lost in a shootout. Imagine that.

Andrew's Stars Page has some great tidbits about the two teams:

* The Stars are averaging just under 35 shots on goal over their last five games.
* The Canucks have allowed 26 shots or fewer in five of their last eight games.
* The Canucks are 12-12 on the penalty kill over the last three games.
* The Canucks have scored ten power play goals over the last nine games and are 10-40 (25.0%) during that stretch.
* Stars LW James Neal has points in seven straight games (six goals, four assists).
* Stars C Brad Richards extended has points in six games (two goals, seven assists).

Key Injuries:

Dallas: LW James Neal (groin) is questionable. [UPDATE] The Dallas Morning News reports that James Neal is out tonight, and will not make the trip to Minnesota tomorrow. -BradG[/UPDATE]

Vancouver: G Roberto Luongo (ribs), LW Daniel Sedin (foot), RW Pavol Demitra (shoulder), RW Jannik Hansen (hand) are out.