Canucks Henrik Sedins’ Best Game of the Play-offs!
Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson
It didn’t start off to well for the Canucks Captain Henrik Sedin, as he and Brother Daniel were on the ice for the Sharks first goal. This was not their fault, as Roberto Luongo served up a gift wrapped pass onto the stick of Sharks Joe Thornton (best Shark), who quickly deposited into the back of the Canucks net for the first goal of the game.
That silenced the Canuck fans in Rogers Arena except for a lot of groaning, gnashing of teeth, and the comments about Luongo just staying in his net and if not, stopping and setting up the puck for the D-man to take. Because Marty Turco he ain’t!
This is just a short excerpt from Luongo about his stick-handling prowess after Thornton had scored.
“Well, I was a bit more careful,” he said. “I didn’t want to make another turnover. But I should probably just keep playing the puck as I did, I’ve done a great job all year, and I don’t think it’s a weakness in my game.”
Talk about being in denial, if Luongo has a weakness, than stick-handling is at the top of the list.
But this is about Henrik ,who went on to have his best game of the play-offs. I’ll start in the face-off circle because both teams play a puck possession style of game, and Joe Thornton was a one-man show for the Sharks. Big Joe went 66.7% in face-offs and if not for Henrik’s outstanding 70.6%, the Canucks may have been chasing the puck all night long.
Even though Henrik seems to be slowed down by a “lower body injury”, he was able to crank the cycle game up with Daniel and Alex Burrows. This led to a couple of goals.
The first one by Kevin Bieksa coming off the point to wrist one by Antti Niemi, and the second, a much needed power play goal. This was a thing of beauty, as point man Christian Ehrhoff faked a slap shot and then found Henrik in the low slot cutting across the front of the net.
With Niemi being out of position, Henrik slid a back-hand into the open net for the third and winning goal.
Although the Canucks have struggled with their power play in the play-offs (5th), it has won them five games to-date. Besides that, it sure is a whole lot better than San Jose’s, who sits at 10th.
The Sedin line had a huge part in wearing down the Sharks defense, as the cycle has a way of doing that to a team when they are chasing the puck. The other area of the game that contributed to the Sharks running out of gas was the Canucks hitting.
That was led by the third line of Maxim Lapierre, Jannik Hansen and Raffi Torres, who had total of 10 between them. As I mentioned in one of my earlier tweets, Lapierre leads the play-offs with 52, which includes his three from the Sharks game. He has proven to be a thorn in the side of the opposition and provides a lot of energy to that line.
Not only that, but get this – he leads the Canucks in face-off percentage in these play-offs with 54.0. Who knew that he would be this valuable in all areas? You don’t go to the finals without a good, tough third line, and a centre like Lapierre. With the loss of Manny Malhotra, Lapierre has taken up the slack. Kudos to him.
Not only was the third line banging, creating havoc and demonstrating their own puck possession wizardry, but Lapierre scored his first of the play-offs and the Canucks first goal of the game. I thought Torres had his most physical game since the Chicago one, which involved the Seabrook hit.
The Canucks D-men were also providing their share of the hitting with Bieksa (5), Christian Ehrhoff (3) and Alex Edler with five. This is so strange. Edler seems to have these all-world games in each of the opening rounds and just when you think he’s going to be a physical force for the rest of the series – he stops.
It sure would make a difference if he could carry on for a few games. Looks like Edler and steady Sami Salo are a much better pairing, with Ehrhoff and Aaron Rome as the final pair.
Dan Hamhuis continues to thoroughly impress me with his outstanding defensive game. There was one play in the third period where the Canucks were in a bit of trouble in their own zone, where he went in on Thornton along the boards, and using body position, took Joe off the puck and passed it onto a Canucks forwards stick in stride. What a great play!
He does the little things so well, you sometimes forget how important they are.
This guy continues to be Mike Gillis’ best off-season acquisition – ever. His partner Kevin Bieksa, had his best game of the play-offs and as I said before, it’s no coincidence that both are playing so well, as they are in total sync with each other. Well, at least most of the time.
With San Jose just finishing a seven game series with Detroit, and yes, they did have a couple of days rest before game one in Vancouver, the Sharks did not have the reserve energy they needed in the third period. I expect a much more physical game from them on Wednesday with more than just Thornton leading the way.
Who knows how the second game will turn out. I mean, the Canucks only won one home game against Nashville.
Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images and Yahoo Sports!
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