The Vancouver Canucks can only look at the state of their anemic power play, to understand the kind of hurdles they have ahead of them in their series with the Anaheim Ducks.
The Canucks have been woeful when given the man advantage, compiling a horrid 1 for 20 record in this series thus far when offered the chance to go on the power play, a strange situation that seems to render them incapable of finishing around the net, providing the puck actually makes it that far.
Once again the Canucks seemed to have the Ducks where they might like them, only to let them off the hook. Shots whistled wide, went over the top of the net or were routinely handled by J. S. Giguere, whatever the reason, few of them found a spot behind the Duck goaltender.
At the other end of the rink, Roberto Luongo gave proof that he is mortal after all, while still a major presence for the Canucks he found the Ducks troublesome on a couple of instances with goals he no doubt wishes he could have back.
Anaheim’s 3-2 victory gives the Ducks home ice advantage back and it’s an edge that may come in handy, as the play from the last two games dictates that these two teams may need all seven games to settle up accounts.
The loss will be a frustrating one for Vancouver, who controlled a good portion of the play for a fair amount of the game, despite giving up an early goal they battled back and gave the sold out crowd at GM Place cause for hope that a home ice win was in the cards.
But credit to the Ducks who not only killed off a high number of penalty situations, but who also took the play into the Vancouver end and as is the case were rewarded for their efforts in fore checking and facing the abuse that comes with play in the trenches. More importantly they took full advantage of their man advantages, scoring two goals on the way to their 3-2 victory Sunday night in Vancouver.
While Vancouver will have to learn to not take costly penalties at key moments of a game, the real work tomorrow at practice will be on the power play a portion of the game, a most important aspect of the game that has gone missing in Vancouver.
All the big defensive plays and stellar goal tending will help with the goal of advancing in the playoffs, but without goals that advance stands a very good chance of being sidelined.
The Canucks have been woeful when given the man advantage, compiling a horrid 1 for 20 record in this series thus far when offered the chance to go on the power play, a strange situation that seems to render them incapable of finishing around the net, providing the puck actually makes it that far.
Once again the Canucks seemed to have the Ducks where they might like them, only to let them off the hook. Shots whistled wide, went over the top of the net or were routinely handled by J. S. Giguere, whatever the reason, few of them found a spot behind the Duck goaltender.
At the other end of the rink, Roberto Luongo gave proof that he is mortal after all, while still a major presence for the Canucks he found the Ducks troublesome on a couple of instances with goals he no doubt wishes he could have back.
Anaheim’s 3-2 victory gives the Ducks home ice advantage back and it’s an edge that may come in handy, as the play from the last two games dictates that these two teams may need all seven games to settle up accounts.
The loss will be a frustrating one for Vancouver, who controlled a good portion of the play for a fair amount of the game, despite giving up an early goal they battled back and gave the sold out crowd at GM Place cause for hope that a home ice win was in the cards.
But credit to the Ducks who not only killed off a high number of penalty situations, but who also took the play into the Vancouver end and as is the case were rewarded for their efforts in fore checking and facing the abuse that comes with play in the trenches. More importantly they took full advantage of their man advantages, scoring two goals on the way to their 3-2 victory Sunday night in Vancouver.
While Vancouver will have to learn to not take costly penalties at key moments of a game, the real work tomorrow at practice will be on the power play a portion of the game, a most important aspect of the game that has gone missing in Vancouver.
All the big defensive plays and stellar goal tending will help with the goal of advancing in the playoffs, but without goals that advance stands a very good chance of being sidelined.
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