Pre-Game
- Oh man, I'm so glad that Japandroids won that fan vote for the Canucks entrance song. On the other end of the spectrum, apparently the Leafs are using Harlem Shake as their goal song...
1st Period
20:00 - Lots of Canucks having kids this week; Burrows had a daughter born last night.
19:26 - Bracken Kearns is an amazing name!
18:40 - Murray must have hated that Higgins attempted a spin shot in tight on him; shoved him down well after the puck left the area
18:00 - Barker and Ballard is a pairing, eh? Okay then.
14:32 - Thornton misplays the puck at the blue line, leads to a semi-breakaway for Kassian. If he had scored, it would have led to a benching for Thornton... You know, if he wasn't Joe Thornton.
12:18 - Gomez's first goal as a Shark. Nice shot. I think that was the first stoppage of play in 3 or 4 minutes. Great pace to the game so far. 1-0 Sharks.
11:07 - Edler has had better shifts; gets muscled off the puck in the zone by Brad Stuart (why is he the forechecker?), which leads to a shot attempt that Tanev blocked. Tanev then left for the dressing room.
10:25 - Gomez looks really good. Almost set up a goal there; but the shot went wide.
9:39 - Tanev is back to the bench; he goes to stretch out either his hip or foot on the ice as we go to a T.V. time out.
9:06 - Keystone's new slogan is "Why not grab some stones". Not only is it blatantly ripping off Budweiser, it's also awful.
7:35 - Kassian and Booth do a great job to keep the puck alive in the zone. There were two instances where Murray could have been called for holding.
6:35 - I'm so sad that Sestito is wearing Rome's number.
5:55 - Sestito is not going to be winning fastest skater at the Canucks Superskills next year.
4:36 - Booth just threw the only Canucks hit I can think of thus far. (Apparently the hits ended 21-19 for the Sharks. I'm watching a recording of the game, so I couldn't check at the time because it would have spoiled the game.)
3:45 - Niemi makes a save off the mask from a Hamhuis shot. He's shaking his neck out afterwards. I would be weeping in relief of still having a head attached to my shoulders.
2:10 - I think Murray has been iffy so far. There have been several chances in tight on him where he's shaky on his skates, but at the same time, he's in the right lane and isn't being blown by. So, yeah, not sure what I think.
0:43 - "Whistle went boys!" Clowe and Edler didn't hear the icing whistle. Neither did I actually.
0:03 - 40 second Sedin shift looked like a power play. Play stops with a Tanev shot stopped from the point by Niemi.
0:00 - I'm so glad I'm watching this on PVR; Sportsnet doesn't go to a panel for intermission during home games. Instead, they interview newspaper beat writers. I just don't understand.
2nd Period
20:00 - Apparently Bracken Kearns' dad played for the Canucks back in the day. Sportsnet really sells that Dennis Kearns was an old-time player by showing his graphic head shot in black and white.
19:12 - Thornton is over a point per game for his career. Wow.
18:20 - Tight camera angle in the corner led me to believe that Booth drew a slash against Marleau. Other way around though; Booth just broke his own stick. Replay leaves no doubt.
16:35 - The Sharks' first PP unit looks great. They even had a drop pass zone entry; that's how you know it's good!
15:58 - So the first unit is Thornton, Marleau, Couture, Pavelski, and Boyle. The second unit is Gomez, Kennedy, Demers, Clowe, and Irwin.
15:16 - Burish scores shorthanded, as the Canucks defencemen were in too deep to recover. Schieder should have had that though. 2-0 Sharks.
14:55 - Daniel skates himself into the Sharks' net, mistakenly thinking that it might count. Unfortunately, it didn't.
14:23 - I'm now convinced that Murray is playing well. He just bowled over Burrows along the boards.
13:10 - I feel like a disproportionate number of players score their first goal of the season against the Canucks. Both Sharks goals were firsts. If I could think of a good way to compile those stats, I might, but I can't, so I'm sticking to my gut feeling that this is correct.
10:06 - Sestito and Handzus are shoving on the draw. Wasn't it against the Sharks that there was a scrum off the opening draw and Hansen cross-checked a ref? Yep. Still not sure how he didn't at least get a talking to for that.
9:33 - Barker's facial expression always seems a little vacant.
7:23 - Gomez looks fantastic. He's everywhere on the ice in this one.
6:37 - Henrik scores as the puck got lost off a Shark and Henrik in front. Niemi had no chance, as the puck dropped right onto Henrik's stick. 2-1 Sharks.
3:25 - Niemi takes another one off the mask.
2:05 - The Sharks' neutral zone defencive play is tight.
0:55 - Hansen, Raymond, and Higgins have been by far the best Canucks line for the past 3 games.
0:24 - A great shift from them ends with Hansen scoring to tie the game. Higgins gets Niemi looking the wrong way with a perfectly timed screen. 2-2.
0:05 - Booth's hair.
0:00 - Hansen has been great so far, but his on-ice shooting percentage so far is 13.33%. That's not sustainable. And two of his goals have been from behind the net. Nonetheless, he's been arguably the best Canuck this year, just don't go picking him up in your fantasy league.
3rd Period
17:40 - Look, I get it if you fall over another player, that's just incidental contact, but if you then lie on top of him for the next 8 seconds, isn't that then interference? No? Okay then.
16:53 - Lapierre goes down and Kearns throws his hands up exasperatedly. Thankfully for him, there's no call. I think Lapierre might have tripped on the puck. The fans don't like the non-call, but it's probably the right call.
16:14 - Shorthouse and Garrett bemoan having to go to Columbus. Way to sell the upcoming game, guys.
15:40 - First time I've noticed Barker since the first.
13:19 - Pavelski has an all white stick. I like it a lot.
10:45 - Fans do the wave while players battle for the puck along the boards. The third hasn't been as up-tempo as the first two periods.
9:52 - Higgins deflected a Sharks shot that almost went in. Schnieder made a difficult blocker save there. Yikes!
9:40 - Sportsnet has the scoring chances 13-6 Vancouver. Play like this will lead to leads more often than not. (The scoring chances finished 19-11 Vancouver. Thanks to Canucks Army for the scoring chance data.)
7:56 - Barker turned the puck over into the slot, which led to a Couture wrist shot. Schnieder with a nice glove save. That was one of the Sharks 5 scoring chances through the rest of the game.
6:34 - Raymond took a hard swipe to the ankles from Sheppard. Cancuks to the PP, and it's not Raymond's fault he fell down this time.
4:13 - After great pressure from the Canucks on the PP, Marleau is hooked as he slides the puck wide. The Sharks to the PP now (it was called holding - okay then). It would have been devastating if Marleau has scored there with the way the Canucks have been carrying the play.
4:13 - Replay shows that Stuart was hit in the face by a puck during the last PP. Jeez, I'm glad he's okay, given that this happened to Marc Staal on the same night. What has to happen for visors to be mandatory?
3:17 - It was just announced that Ballard will not return due to a lower body injury. I'm not sure when it happened. Regardless, with Edler also in the box, the Canucks are down to 4 defencemen on this kill.
2:48 - Clowe somehow didn't score. Empty cage with Schnieder diving across. Cam Barker blocked it.
0:54 - Garrison hit the post, and it looks like overtime is coming. Could really use Bieksa and a stanchion right about now.
0:00 - Just Cam Barker looking vacant again. But it's okay - if he's blocking sure goals, he can wear whatever facial expression he wants.
Overtime
4:50 - Boyle turned the wrong way as Daniel moved into the zone. Nothing came of it.
3:26 - Gomez gets called for goalie interference, although he was actually pushed in by Raymond. That's a rough call for San Jose.
1:57 - Henrik gets hit by Edler's slapshot. Play stops, but he's okay. Looks like it got him right in the mouth.
0:54 - Please score, the shootout blows.
0:04 - Henrik back out for the last shift. He's a machine. He beats Thornton off the draw, Edler gets a shot off, Niemi makes the save, and I bang my head against the table, as we're off to a shootout.
Shootout
- I hope Gomez gets to shoot. He's been by far my favourite Shark tonight. Weird...
- Higgins to start things off. Beats Niemi glove side after coming in from the left. Niemi should have had that.
- Hansen's first shootout attempt ever. Fake shot, to backhand, stopped. Dubbed the Harry Potter deke by Garrett.
- Couture scored to extend it. Backhand 5-hole.
- Burrows also does the HP.
- Pavelski wins it with a wrister. I'm telling you, it's the white stick; the goalie can't see the release as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment