Hockey
Battle Of “Tenders”
The Canucks returned home to take on Phoenix in a game that sees’s them separated by one point.
Phoenix has a record of 16-8-4 for 36 points, while the Canucks are 15-10-5 for 35 points, but looking at moving up in the standings.
Following the debut of BC Place, that will play host to the Winter Classic March 2nd and hopefully a sell-out of 55,000 Canuck supporters, with winter conditions playing a huge role.
The Canucks come off a win in Nashville by a narrow margin of 3-2, in a game where Kesler recorded two goals, including the game winner.
The |Canucks are no stranger to making moves and most recently they assigned Yannick Webber to the AHL farm club, the Utica Comets.
As we all know far too well, the Canucks were faced with the dilemma last year of having two number one “tenders” on the roster.
Namely Roberto Luongo and Corey Schneider, both of whom are clearly number one starters on any club.
Both starters tonight are in the running for Team Canada for the upcoming Sochi Olympics’, so this is somewhat of a test for both.
Following the move on the day of the NHL Draft, they moved Schneider to New Jersey, leaving them with Luongo and the need to fill the void for the back-up spot.
Training camp was successful for many newcomers, including Eddie Lack, who played for the Chicago Wolves last season.
They were the farm team for the Canucks last season, as in the off-season they went with Utica in upper state New York.
Ryan is still working with his “tutor of shooting Coach Ron Johnson on North Delta, who clearly see’s the game far different than most.
Kesler is tied for fifth in the league for game-winning 4 goals and has helped lead the Canucks to a record of 10-5-1 when he get’s at least one point.
His five power play goals has him tied for ninth in the league aside Crosby and Alex Steen, to name only two.
The Canucks have managed to produce the league’s best penalty kill with an impressive record of 89%.
The Canucks have played seven (7) straight games and not allowed the opposition to score on the power play dating from October 25 to November 14th.
When you look at the Canucks, three of the forwards rank in the top five among league forwards for the most ice time this season.
They include Ryan Kesler (22.12), Henrik Sedin (21.59) and Daniel Sedin (21.49) which says a lot about the confidence that the coaching staff have in them.
Head Coach John Tortorella is in his 14th season as a head coach and his first as the Canucks boss.
He ranks first among US born coaches in all-time NHL wins with a record of 425-350-37-72. He was also the 30th coach in the NHL to reach 800 games.
The Coach that holds the record among active Coaches is Joel Quuenneville of Chicago with 680, followed a second by Ken Hitchcock of St. Louis with 624. Not too bad for an ex-Blazer coach.
While the Canucks won, John Tortorella was not pleased with the manner in which they allowed the forwards of Phoenix to come across the neutral zone and penetrate there zone.
As he mentioned ” that’s not something we teach on the ice, but rather a tape session”, meaning video review for the team.
He continued “it was nice to see Higgins score as he has sort of been snake bit the last while, so at this course it’s nice to see it go in for him.”
Next up is Carolina where they should be well rested.