"It was our worst game of the year. We deserved to lose that one." - Torts
— Vancouver Canucks (@VanCanucks) January 2, 2014
Tortorella's quote sums up the night. The Canucks played a sloppy game which produced sloppy results. They will throw this tape in the garbage.
The first period provided little action. The Canucks buzzed a bit on their lone powerplay, but just like many previous powerplays in the past, they could not convert. The shot totals were even on each side 11-11.
The second period provided some much needed excitement as the ice began to open up. Brad Richardson would start the scoring as Dan Hamhuis provided a nice hip check in the neutral zone which helped create Richardson's opportunity to spring toward the net. Four minutes later, Valtteri Filppula would tie the game on a poor defensive breakdown by the Canucks. Filppula had all day to shoot at the net as he was not challenged at the top of the circle. Twenty seconds later, the Lightning took the lead on another defensive breakdown caused by Kevin Bieksa. Tyler Johnson netted his eleventh goal of the season on a two on one break. About thirty seconds after Johnson's goal, Zac Dalpe would score his first goal as a Canuck. The dagger for the Canucks would come with three seconds left in the second. Nikita Kucherov shot a wicked slapshot from the circle on the powerplay which took the wind out of the Canucks sails.
In the third period, the Lightning added another goal from Alex Killorn. He provided a deflection in between the two circles, which Eddie Lack had no chance of stopping. Lack was screened by Dan Hamhuis and had no vision of where the puck was.
Ben Bishop stopped 28 of 30 Canucks shots. Eddie Lack stopped 29 of 33 Lightning shots. Dan Hamhuis led all skaters in ice time with 29:29.
Luongo Update:
Nux send G Joacim Eriksson back to Utica Comets so obviously Roberto Luongo is ready to go for weekend games in SoCal. #Canucks
— Elliott Pap (@ElliottPap) January 2, 2014
It looks like Bobby Lou is ready to go for the upcoming road trip to southern California. If I had to make bets, I would think that Luongo gets the start against the Kings on Saturday. I would not be shocked if Eddie Lack started on Sunday in Anaheim.
Kesler Named for US Olympics
Canucks centre Ryan Kesler has been selected to represent the United States at Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. He was also a member of the US team back in 2010 in Vancouver. He is projected to be one of the top two centres in the US lineup. He played with Patrick Kane back in 2010, so we will see how the lineups shake out.
Until next time, stay classy! -George
Off to Southern California for the week. I will be attending the Ducks/Canucks game on Sunday.
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