Alain Vigneault directs his troops in practice
Grabner In, Pettinger Out
A few interesting things to note as the Canucks had a day off in preparation for game two against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night. The first being that Matt Pettinger is out of the line-up and Michael Grabner is back in, but will play on the fourth line. Considering how little the fourth line played on Thursday this is essentially still a slap in the face to Grabner who had a very strong end of the season. While I respect the decisions that have to be make by Alain Vigneault, there is no reason to put such a dangerous weapon on the fourth line because he’s not likely to get much support from Rypien and Bernier is perhaps the slowest guy on the team. Not exactly putting a guy in a position to succeed. While I love the way Jannik Hansen plays, Grabner provides much more upside for a team that doesn’t use its third line in the traditional shut-down roll. Of course with Vigneault you never know how long hes going to stick with his original lines and we could see Grabner on the scoring line by the time the first period is over. Ideally, my top three lines would be:
Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Samuelsson-Kesler-Grabner
Raymond-Wellwood-Demitra
On the topic of Matt Pettinger: It was surprising enough that he was slotted into the lineup for game one. Vigneault put him in strictly because he liked the way Pettinger killed penalties. Considering he was on the ice for both of LA’s goals on Thursday, I think it’s safe to say hes seen his last shift for a while.
Vigneault on Andrew Alberts
Some interesting comments also came from Vigneault today regarding Andrew Alberts:
“Alberts has done exactly what we expected when we got him. He’s a depth defenseman who is physical and can move the puck”
You certainly can’t fault Albert’s physical play, but playing with raw emotion isn’t going to work all the time. There needs to be a moment where he thinks about the situation and asks himself “is this a good time to hit this guy?” Especially when you’re a depth defenseman, taking bad penalties is a sure-fire way to get yourself put back in the press box. I’m not sure if Vigneault is just defending his player here but I can’t say I believe the idea that Alberts was exactly what they thought he would be when they gave up a third round pick for the guy and he’s only playing because of an injury to Aaron Rome.
Keys to Game Two
Matt Pettinger fights for positon with Jonathon Quick.
Looking ahead to game two, the question is what do both teams need to do to win? For Vancouver, just doing what they did on Thursday will be important with the addition of cleaning up their penalty kill. Roberto Luongo will be looking to continue building on his last two games where he’s looked much better than the slump he had played himself into coming off the Olympic gold. Look for guys like Alex Edler to keep up the physical play and look to see how Alain Vigneault tries to match lines to keep the Sedins away from Wayne Simmonds.
For Los Angeles, the biggest thing may be trying to slow down the pace of the game to a level that they are more confortable playing. It’s no mystery that the Canucks are much more skilled than them from top to bottom. The Kings will need to find a way to slow down guys like Kyle Wellwood and Mason Raymond on the lower lines as well as keeping the puck away from the Sedins. Easier said than done obviously but its something they will try to aim for. Anze Kopitar will need to be more of a factor. Kopitar had a chance to give the Kings the lead in the dying moments with Luongo swimming around on the ice but couldn’t pull the trigger. It was all we really saw of the Kings star and more will be needed. Jonathon Quick will also need another huge game.
Other Playoff Thoughts
The playoff games tonight got off to a smashing start as Andy Sutton laid out Jordan Leopold with an open ice hit late in the first period. Just to add some Canucks flavour to this, it was Rick Rypien who fought and beat the 6’6 defenseman during the Hockeyville pre-season game in Terrace. After the game Sutton was confronted by an “expert” reporter for a Pittsburgh newspaper about the apartant elbow that connected with Leopold. It probably goes without saying that Sutton saw no elbow on the play. While Sutton’s rant was fairly childish and bizarre because I don’t think you have to be an expert at something to make an observation, the hit was a clean one in my opinion. Especially when you consider how tall Sutton is and that Leopold had his head down, the hit was well within the rules and I don’t feel as if he led with the elbow. The NHL apparently agrees and Sutton, who received no penalty on the play itself, will not face discipline from the league.
In the other Western Conference series’ we were treated to high scoring shootout in Glendale and San Jose. In fact, the Sharks were less than one minute away from going on the road down two games to none before Pavelski tied it 5-5 and Setoguchi scored his second of the game in overtime. Detroit saved themselves a similar feat by holding off the Phoenix Coyotes 7-4. The game itself was much closer than the score would indicate.
The Blackhawks and Predators finally got their series going on Friday and once again another road team stole away home ice advantage. The Predators scored four times in the third for a 4-1 win. The important thing to take from this is that of the top three seeds in the West, only Vancouver was able to win their first round opener and San Jose was so close to losing both games. If the Canucks have been paying attention, these games should be motivation enough for them to stay focused because there is so much parity in the West specifically.
Great post! I am really exited for game 2 hope it’s even better than the first! I think Kopitar will have a quiet playoff’s and won’t be a real threat. Quick could prove to be a bigger problem in net than most people expected.
I never thought that Quick would be a weakness for the Kings or anything like that. I expected him to be solid but not necessarily be outstanding. But like in any series, it looks like a hot goaltender might be able to keep the Kings in it for as long as possible so they can steal a few games. Thanks for reading.