Friday, February 13, 2004

Thrashed!

Nothing positive can come from this game tonight. After losing to Calgary on Wednesday night, the Canucks dropped a second home game in a row, this one to the Atlanta Thrashers 4-1. Outplayed physically by the Thrashers, the Canucks failed to capitalize on the may chances they had to score. The game looked like it had the markings of a blowout early on, as the Canucks fired 13 shots to the Thrashers 1 in the first period. Spending most of the first period in the Thrasher end, peppering goaltender Pasi Nurminen with pucks. The Canucks got a taste of the frustration ahead when Jarkko Rutuu missed the net on a penalty shot, after putting Nurminen out of position.

To the Thrashers' credit they battled back in the second period, taking the play and dominating the Canucks outshooting them 11-7 and outscoring them three goals to one. Dany Heatley lead the Thrashers with a goal and an assist. Shawn McEachern, Ronald Petrovicky and Marc Savard rounded out the scoring for Atlanta. Daniel Sedin got the lone Canucks goal.

A lack of discipline and composure was the root cause of the Canucks loss tonight. Too many bad penalties, too much trying to even the score and not concentrating on the job at hand, were all part of the Canucks make up tonight. There's really no way that the Canucks should have lost this game tonight, Atlanta had not won in ten games, this was their first victory in seven games and they were coming in after a tiring trip through Alberta.

Fortunately for the Canucks, it's back to work tomorrow night as Anaheim comes to town. They need to get things back on track as soon as possible. The talk shows were full of critical fans following the game, angry at the effort, upset with the result.

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