CrashingTheGoalie

By Bill Heintz

The injured guys are trickling back in. Ryan Johnson is once again blocking shots. Captain Lou will be on the bench tonight with the expectation of playing Thursday. Daniel Sedin is rumored to be just a few days away from playing. And for some reason that is causing me a slight twinge.

The Dallas game notwithstanding, I think the Canucks have played some pretty good team hockey the last couple of weeks. Yeah, it hasn’t been balls to the wall offense but it has been winning hockey and that’s really all that interests me.

I think the two games this year against the Colorado Avalanche perfectly illustrate what I am trying to say. In the first game we were all full of ourselves and constantly on the attack. We were in the October hunt for the Stanley Cup. Craig Anderson looked good (not great) and an inspired Colorado squad checked us to a standstill. But we seemed only interested in attacking and left the back checking game to the Avs.

The second contest against the Avs we were a seriously depleted squad taking on one of the hottest teams in the league. And we checked them…all over the ice.

Yep, all over them like vampire fleas on a Transylvanian dog.

A proud win and yet one that causes me worry. Because as much as I like the guys who are returning, there is a tendency to relax when your gunslingers are patrolling the neighbourhood.

This is the pros, man, and no one can afford to relax. Mental attitude means so much…translates so quickly to physical response in the world of elite athletics.

It’s the difference between enacting and reacting. We’ve all seen the game a lot, and you all know one true thing, when you are reacting you are behind the play. The guys enacting are setting the table and they get to say what goes down who sits where.

Hopefully the leadership of the Canucks takes note. And it’s not just the Mitchells, the Keslers and the Luongos. We need other guys to step up, much like Mason Raymond (a nod to my daughter Shaheen here) has during the past couple of weeks. That speed and commitment is paying off now and if Mason continues to aspire to that level he will be an all-star.

courtesy of ciskie.blogspot.com

But there’s a few guys that just seem to be coasting right now. If we don’t get more out of Bieksa, Wellwood and Bernier we could be in for a long season…or any one of them might find themselves in a different dressing room before the season ends.

This ain’t Amtrak and we don’t cater to passengers.