After a brutal outing in Minnesota the Vancouver Canucks bounced back with a solid outing in a shootout loss to Chicago and a dominating home performance against the Wild.
The Canucks were simply brutal in Minnesota. Short two of their top defensemen it was an embarrassing night, culminating with Rick Rypien's stupidity. In the end Rypien got six games, which was in the range of what most expected. Unfortunately for the Canucks this leaves them without a natural 4th line centre. It looks like they don't intend to call anyone up to fill the void, this is likely due to salary cap concerns and also their extremely light schedule over the next week. They appear to be content with Schaefer filling in at center, while having someone else take the defensive zone draws if the 4th line happens to be in their own zone.
On Wednesday the Canucks bounced back with a solid game against a Chicago team that's still pretty damn good. The Hawks were the better team for the first half of the game, but the Canucks built momentum and took over the second half. Unfortunately Roberto Luongo couldn't keep the puck from trickling into his net in the shootout and the Canucks lost despite scoring on 2 of their 3 shootout attempts.
Last night the Canucks got some payback against the Wild as they dominated the game, giving Cory Schneider his second easy win and near shutout of the season. Coach V finally stopped the sillyness and put 3 solid lines on the ice. Jeff Tambellini had a very good game with the Sedins. Ryan Kesler finally had some linemates and the third line had their best game of the season putting up seven points.
The Canucks now play one game in the next nine days, more brilliant scheduling from the NHL. The break actually comes at a pretty good time as it will give Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard time to recover from their respective injuries.
Next game is Tuesday vs the Avalanche.
