Canucks vs. Sharks: Thoughts on the Third Round Matchup
Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson
So finally the Detroit Red Wings succumbed to the Sharks in game seven. By that time the Wings had lost Johan Franzen, Todd Bertuzzi and Dan Cleery, who were either not able to play or were injured during game seven and could not return to play.
Let’s face it; the Sharks pounded the Wings into submission. To say that the Sharks are big and physical would not be giving them their credit. They play a down low game in the opposition’s zone and make it very hard to defend with the big bodies always going to the net.
Joe Thornton (6’4” 230 lbs.), Dany Heatley (6’4” 220 lbs.), Patrick Marleau (6’2”, 220 lbs.), Ryan Clowe (6’2”, 225 lbs.), and even their second and third tier players have size going for them. Devin Setoguchi (6’0”, 200 lbs.), rookie Logan Couture (6’0”, 195 lbs.), and Andrew Desjardins (6’1”, 200 lbs.) are just to name a few.
So the Canucks are definitely undersized in comparison to the Sharks line-up. The Sharks are built for the play-offs and the Canucks are not.
I’m not picking on the Sedins, but let’s face the facts, they are not going to punish any line they play against. You’re lucky if either of them throw a hit in a game. In fact, in the Nashville series, Daniel was credited with one hit and Henrik none.
Most or should I say 99% of their hits, five for Daniel, and six for Henrik came in the Chicago series.
How can you not throw a body-check in the play-offs? That’s what I mean about the Canucks not being built for the play-offs.
I can see the Canucks best player in these play-offs, Ryan Kesler, being matched up against the Thorton line. Kesler has played against Jonathan Toews and David Legwand, but Jumbo Joe is much larger than either of those two and better in face-offs. Thornton might prove too much for Kesler to handle.
Puck possession as always is going to be a key between the Canucks and Sharks and that’s not going to be easy, with Thornton currently in second spot in face-offs with a 60.6%, in comparison to Kesler’s 53.8%.
Joe Pavelski and Ryan Clowe will certainly be able to shut down the Sedin line the way they are playing, and bang them into ineffectiveness.
So with the Canucks Kesler seemingly being a one line team again, just who is going to score?
The third line has Maxim Lapierre, who has no goals yet, Jannik Hansen (2G) hasn’t scored since the first couple of games in the Chicago series, and Raffi Torres scored his first goal against Nashville in game six.
Seems to me the Canucks scoring will have to come from its defense jumping into the offensive play. This is fine if the forwards are covering their spot back at the blue-line, otherwise you will see a lot of odd man rushes attacking the Canucks zone.
On the other hand the Sharks have three lines that can score. They have four players in the top 15 in play-off scoring, while the Canucks have Ryan Kesler (first) and Daniel Sedin at 15th. Need I say more?
On defense, the Sedins will not have to deal with the tenacity or mobility of Shea Weber or Ryan Suter. Instead they will most likely see the second Sharks pairing of Niclas Wallin and Ian White. The Sedins may be able to contribute if they’re up to it mentally and physcially.
I can see Sharks coach Todd McLellan matching his number one defense pair of Douglas Murray and Dan Boyle, up against the Kesler line. You have to think that the scouting reports on the Canucks suggest that if you shut down Kesler, you shut down the Canucks scoring.
How can you argue with that, when Kesler was involved in 11 of the Canucks 14 goals in the Nashville series, Daniel Sedin had one goal and his brother Henrik had that one empty net goal? Yikes!
In goal, Robeto Luongo is going to be a whole lot busier than he was in the Nashville series, where for periods of a time, and I do mean periods, he had zero to four shots against. This Sharks team is one that can crowd the front of the net, jostle Luongo and get in his face, like the Hawks did in last season’s play-offs.
Look for Luongo to have to steal a couple of games if the Sharks shut down Kesler because that’s the only way the Canucks will win.
As for Antti Niemi, well you all know that he was Blackhawks goalie from the Stanley Cup team, so he’s won it and Luongo has not. But in saying that, the Sharks do not have a Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook or Brian Campbell. OK, maybe Seabrook is a more mobile Murray while Campbell is a Dan Boyle.
But there is no equivalent on the Sharks defense to a Duncan Keith or a Shea Weber.
If the Canucks are going to be successful, then they will have to attack the weak point of the Sharks team and that would be their defense.
This is going to be an entirely different series than the Nashville one, where the checking was like being in a phone booth. The Sharks series should have a bit more flow to it along with more scoring.
It’s actually good that the Canucks have played a Nashville type of series, since they may have to revert to it, if they can’t get any supplementary scoring from the Sedins or the third line.
I would have to say the Canucks are the underdog in this series. So what if the Canucks were 3-0-1 against the Sharks this season. The Sharks owned the Canucks for three seasons prior to that.
In 2007-08 the Canucks were 0-3, 2008-09 Canucks were 1-2 and in 2009-10 – 1-2. So over those three seasons’s the Canucks won two and lost seven to the Sharks.
I watched all those games and the main reason the Canucks lost all those games was because the Canucks always had trouble handling the more physical Sharks.
In San Jose the Sharks never gave the Sedins a sniff. Complete dominance.
San Jose has the mental advantage knowing that they have beaten the Canucks way more times than they have lost recently. Sharks will be too much for the Canucks with just Kesler going and with their bigger team, will wear down the Canucks physically. Watch for some key injuries to occur to the Canucks defense as a result of that.
No, I’m not a deafest, I’m a realist. I’m calling for San Jose in six.
I sure hope I’m completely wrong.
Footnote: This is a series where I would use Andrew Alberts to counter some of the bigger Sharks forwards. Let’s see if Vigneault realizes that also.
Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images and Yahoo Sports!
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