Postgame Analysis- Van at Ana Game 1 WC Semis

Final score: Ducks 5 Canucks 1

The Ducks lead the best-of-seven series 1-0.

Outside of fourth liner Jeff Cowan’s goal which we’re still trying to figure out how it could’ve happened, this wasn’t a good start for VanCity. He’s got ~~stone hands~~. What can we say?

Anaheim got a hat trick from Andy McDonald as the underrated top center got his first career trick with 51.8 to go via the power play putting an exclamation point in a game they chased Roberto Luongo from- scoring the final five goals at The Pond. The most scary aspect for me was that ridiculous goal horn. Ugh. LOL

So what do the Canucks have going for them? As what’s his face said from Necessary Roughness, “Not a god damn thing!”

But the good news for Vancouver which had to be tired from that grueling seven-game marathon against Dallas is that they get to do it all over again in a couple of nights. It’s a seven-game series. So nothing is decided yet. Ditto for the Rangers who were just as off at Buffalo in their 5-2 defeat which we broke down earlier tonight.

The Ducks PP is just scary. All those weapons. Pronger. Niedermayer. Beauchemin. Selanne. McDonald. Kunitz. Getzlaf. Perry. Penner. Are you sensing a theme here? All these guys can contribute on it and they spread it out so well that it makes defending it a nightmare. Play the points and they’ll work it down low. Play aggressively down low and Pronger and Niedermayer and even Beauchemin can bomb away. Getzlaf sometimes plays point too. They all possess top heavy one-timers which can give goalies trouble meaning bad rebounds.

It’s going to be tough. The Canucks need to stay out of the box. They weren’t able to do that tonight giving Anaheim nine power plays. The Ducks converted twice with both via McDonald.

What made it worse is that Vancouver’s power play struggled finishing a dreadful 0-for-7 including a missed two-man advantage early on which could’ve set the tone.

One comment on all these power plays which was a theme tonight. That’s 16 total for this game. The other one featured 13. So that’s 28 on the night, meaning an average of 14 total PP’s took place in the two games. Come on. Let them play! Alright. Maybe some of the players weren’t as sharp at the outset. But you can’t tell me the games have to be this tightly officiated. Hockey fans want the players to decide it.

A few other rumblings:

1.The top line of Kunitz-McDonald-Selanne combined for nine points. They’re a lethal line which has great chemistry and speed to burn. Vancouver must find a way to slow the trio down.

2.J.S. Giguere improved to 8-0-1 in his last nine games against Vancouver, finishing with 26 saves. He was particularly sharp early when his team needed it making a few denials in close. If the Canucks want to win this series, they must get traffic and find a way to reverse that trend. They got to make it tougher on the 2003 Conn Smythe winner or it will be a quick 2nd round exit.

3.Luongo botched a puck behind the net in the third and didn’t recover in time as Getzlaf redirected a Penner shot in for a 4-1 lead. The Quebec native who will be up for the Vezina was brilliant in his first ever series. We wouldn’t say any of the other three goals were his fault as the Ducks got point blank chances a la Buffalo vs New York. He was peppered in 49:05 facing 31 shots- making 27 stops before giving way to backup Dany Sabourin who allowed McDonald’s hat trick goal in the final minute. Giving Luongo a breather wasn’t a bad move by Alain Vigneault. He had to be a little fatigued. Maybe he’ll comeback fresher for Game 2.

4.The Canucks took 10 penalties and lost their discipline. A similar theme we saw with the Rangers at HSBC. They’ll need to stay more disciplined the rest of the series to have a chance.

5.VanCity will also need it’s best players the Sedins to show up. They’ll also hope that two key top four defensemen Kevin Bieksa and Sami Salo comeback healthy for Game Two. Without those two, forget it.
Here are my three stars:

3rd star- Jean-Sebastien Giguere (26 saves)