CrashingTheGoalie

by desertdawg

I’m sure you’ve heard this expression before, but when we used to have little to report, we’d scour the news services for filler tidbits to pop into the newspaper. The expression was, of course, “a slow news day.”
And I have to figure that it must be a slow news day with all the controversy surrounding the Canucks these days. Shane O’Brien is freaking out about sitting in the press box tonight. Tony Gallagher calls Roberto Luongo arrogant for comments he made on the After Hours Show the other night. Truth is, Roberto is a bit arrogant. His role as one of the best goaltenders in the game comes with a certain arrogance. He wants to win. He is a leader and he’s put the management on notice. Icing a losing team is not an option for Roberto. We need more of that arrogance in this organization.
And Ryan Kesler’s agent tells us that Mr. Kesler will not take a discount to stay in Canuckville…this a couple of days after Ryan said essentially the opposite. Although truth is, what he said was, that this was a good team, this was a team that could win the Stanley Cup and that he hoped money wouldn’t become an issue in keeping the team together.
Of course, we have Damien Cox writing in the Toronto Star that Burkie might sign the Sedins…and Matty Ohlund as well! Somehow, as bizarre as this might seem, if Vancouver refuses to sign the twins for 6.5 million a season, Burkie could then swoop in and sign them…for a million less per. Of course Cox identified that it would be a cap busting issue if he signed them to more than 5.5 million…so somehow, the guys would sign for that…just to play in Toronto…a team surely on the cusp of winning their sixteenth Stanley Cup!!! It boggles the mind.
As for Matty Ohlund, well the truth is, he may be playing his last season for us. Certainly we cannot afford a big raise for him…nor a long term contract. But why would he go to a re-building team like Toronto? And why would Toronto saddle themselves with a high priced, long term contract at this point? Ahh, Damien Cox. You squeeze your mama with those fingers?
As for Shane O’Brien, well after the miserable game the team played the other night, someone was going to walk the plank. And it wasn’t the own goal. That can happen to Nik Lidstrom. But the penalties don’t help, Shane. Mind you, he wasn’t the only one. The too-many-men on the ice call is a killer and we’ve had waaaay too many this year. It is inexcusable for a team to take so many of those.
So, Shane draws out and Ossi draws in. Against a stingy, stingy team that is desperately fighting for a playoff position. Sound familiar? And we have all this controversy…surrounding a team that has gone 15-3 and 2 in the last twenty games!!! Seems a bit contrived to me. It is manufactured controversy…because overall, the team has played pretty well in the last month and a half.
Penalties are more often mental errors, and Roberto shows that with an early one by handling the puck in the no-fly zone. But he then arrogantly robs Brendan Morrison with an eye-popping save on the PK. But the Mo gets his 500^th point a couple of moments after the penalty expires as he buries it off a good bounce off the backboard.
Two missed calls by the refs finally find Fabien Brunstrom fingered for grabbing Wellwood and we get our own PP. The Stars never clear and Marty Turco is so far out of position that he’s carrying a Houston zip code…Kesler capitalizes on the Demitra to Sundin to Kesler feed and Kes buries it. Tied up.
And the guys we love to hate tussles with the guy we love to love. Ott and Burrows. It’s more of WWE tilt than a punch up, but no one can say Burrows doesn’t answer the call. He’s my MVP this year.
And seconds later…it’s never a good sign when your leading goal scorer is lying on the ice, bleeding from a high stick. But it’s always a good sign when they are bleeding from the mouth. I don’t care what Don Cherry says, Canadians aren’t the only tough hockey players. Daniel sits at the bench, pushing his tongue through the space where his tooth used to be.
And then…he comes back on the ice for the PP!!!!
So, no big surprise coming up, because when the hockey gods smile, they smile LARGE. Salo banks one in off Daniel Sedin. One less tooth, one more goal. Sounds like a Molson’s Canadien advertisement. In a game where we are out shot by a two to one score, we are up in goals by that same margin. When we were losing on the road our special teams were killing us. At the end of the first, our PP is two for two with a third opportunity yet to be decided.
Well, a PP at the beginning of a period almost never delivers. The offense really does need to warm up and the ice at the beginning of a period is just too fresh. But minutes later, a hot PP sees Bieksa banking one in off Henrik’s stick to beat Turco.
We get an opportunity on the PK to show our stuff and we answer the call when Mason Raymond shows that speed kills and we get an even-up call. But even-up works against us as Matty Ohlund takes a holding the stick call. Makes the head spin. Henrik draws the penalty but a sidebar here is Steve Ott complaining to the refs about his rough treatment…what a baby, It wasn’t much of a PP…but it was worth it to see Ott whining. And then Ott takes a bad penalty. We don’t score but we kill the Stars’ momentum.
And that’s what this period seems to be about. Every time the Stars seem to mount a threat…we bury them in snow. It’s a great old timer hockey trick. Darcy Hordichuk makes a terrific play by smashing a wandering Marty Turco into the boards. I LOVE IT. The period ends with Steve Ott once again taking out a vulnerable player, this time Taylor Pyatt… I love this kind of hockey…and then Bieksa proves that smoking is hazardous to your health…by smoking a vulnerable Louie Erikson into the boards as the period ends. Really time to keep your heads up, boys.
Burrows opens the third period with a close in chance and Marty makes a big save. But we seem to be in a counter punch mode…until Kesler catches up with his friend Alexander the Great. Both Sydor and Turco are caught looking down and Kes just dances in and wires one home. Looks like the wounded are getting the goals tonight…with four goals evenly split between the top two lines speaks. Its speaks volumes about this team. And man, does that Dallas crowd go quiet?
And we look to be in control until uber-rookie James Neal scores a very pretty goal. First, he beats big Willie and then Roberto’s poke check to put it in on the backhand. Rare air for Willie to get beat like the red-headed step child and then he complicates it by taking a retaliation penalty seconds later…against the same James Neal!
But a great PK shift by Matty Ohlund sees us hold our two goal lead. And it just goes back and forth. We don’t trap, but we play responsible, attention-to-detail hockey as the game winds down.
The Stars pull Marty with a minute and a half to play. A brief flurry by the Stars is foiled when Henrik calmly takes control of the puck and scores the empty netter for his 17^th of the year. When our top two lines score a total of five goals we will win more often than not.
And in a game where Dallas is desperately playing for a post-season spot and we were simply playing for pride…pride won out. We are full value for the win with every part of the team playing well…defense, offence and goaltending arrive at the same time for a 5-2 win.
The sky is not falling.