Well the changes WG made certainly appeared to work. The Flames had no idea what hit them. Between the pieces falling into place sweetly for the Yotes and the Flames own lack of fire, the boys were really clicking on Tuesday. It will take even more of the same to beat the Canucks tonight.
Physicality and bravado and ingenuity. The boys have their work cut out for them just to be creative enough to get past Luongo. Throw in Davison, Burrows and O’brien for agitation and physical dustups and the road to a win gets just that much tougher. Hopefully Burrows learned the lesson about messin w/ Carci because Davison sure as heck will be after the boy all night. O’brien may be a bit much for Carcillo to chew up and spit out but thats why we have Fridge and Murray or in a pinch… the Doaner.
IDK what the heck TGO is going to do about gettin KT into this hometown game. The philosphy has been that winners keep playing and after the upset that Tuesday’s lineup handed the Flames, surely they deserve to give it another shot tonight. Which would leave KT in the pressbox and I’m pretty sure Wayne and Co. don’t want to do that to the kid. Interesting delimma to have for once (too much talent to leave in the press box) and of course there is the desire to see if KT can come out firing on all cylinders like Mules did last season after a quick stint in the box to get a different view of the Pro game.
Last season we split a 4 game series. For us the Mighty Finn scored 2 GWGs, for them it was Taylor Pyatt. Pyatt is still on their roster but lil Niko Kapanen has moved on from the desert. The Nucks started a bit slow but have been ridin a wavelet created by former Leaf Kyle Wellwood. After winning their last game (against the Predators w/ a stunning shutout) , Vancouver will be looking to build on that success. But we’re coming off an even bigger win (against one of our most pernicious rivals) and hopefully that confidence will give us an edge. Both teams seem to have their main firepower rolling (the Swedish Twins have 3 goals and 8 assists in the last 6 games) and we have finally gotten some production from our big blueliners DMo and Jovo as well as our vet forwards (Doan- 3 goals and 5 assists in 4 games, Rhino- with 7 points in 8 games and Joker w/ 11 points in 10 games). It will come down to a couple of key points.
Secondary scoring - the kids will have to contribute. The Canucks don’t have the depth of weaponry that we do. Boedker, Mueller, Porter and KT (if he is in the lineup) can seriously turn this game on its ear if they get rollin. Somebody pleeeease create some traffic in front of BobbyLou… if he can see you… he can stop you!
Role players - Garth Murray, Danny Carcillo, Todd Fedoruk are going to have their hands full walking that thin line between protection and energy. If they have to drop ‘em, thats fine…can’t let anyone push us around anymore. But they HAVE to avoid the stupid penalties, and the extra box time while making the Canuck agitaters parade to the bin alone if at all possible.
Goalie showdown - Breezy is going up against a proven #1 goalie, Louie doesn’t make many mistakes (3 shut outs so far this season) so Bryz has to be at the top of his form tonight in case it becomes one of those whoever-blinks-first-loses games. As the Yotie billboard used to say… “blinking not recommended”.Coming out ahead against Kipper is one thing, back-to-back top performances, against netminders of this quality, would be simply HUUGE, not only for Breezy’s hutzpah but for the team confidence as a whole.
Discipline - The Canucks can really make a team pay on the PP. We can’t let them have too many chances at it. Our PK team has been solid and is ranked 16th in the league but with Klee playing through a leg injury we don’t want to risk anything by forcing the PK guys to battle very often. STAY OUT OF THE BOX giving the Sedins or Pyatt or even Wellwood free shots at Breezy could prove to be our undoing.
Thanks to OdinMercer and CoyoteQ for the graffix
