Move on from Minny
In the light l’Affaire Burrows-Auger (as it’s now being dubbed), the Canucks faced a few questions going into last night’s game against the Minnesota Wild.
1) Will l’Affaire Burrows-Auger affect the number of penalties called for or against the Canucks?
2) With 9 goals in 5 games, can Burrows move on and continue to play and produce at the same level?
3) Given what’s come out in the previous 24 hours, can Burrows still play like a pest and draw the ire – and penalties – from the opposition?
As it turns out, the short answers are: no, yes and yes.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as they stunk up the Excel Energy Center and lost their 3rd game in a row.
The Canucks played well in the second period – their worst period all season – but were horrible in the first and third.
They played the Wild tough, but only when the game didn’t matter anymore. Darcy Hordichuk and Alex Bolduc fought Derek Booger-d and John Scott, respectively, and lost. (Though you have to give both credit for fighting a couple of weight classes higher.)
Roberto Luongo was horrible, but I suppose he was due for a bad game. He’s started the last 18 games – he’s started every game since December 8 after Andrew Raycroft started against Carolina on December 6 – and Lui’s been pretty darn good in most of them. His stats since then: an 11-5-2 record, 2.17 GAA and 0.923 save percentage. Not bad numbers, and hopefully, he returns to form when he faces Marc-Andre Fleury in the “Battle to be Brodeur’s Backup”.
Yes, this game was a stinker, but hopefully the boys can move on from Minny and bounce back against the Pens.
I think you need to give it a little more than 1 game to assess whether or not the refs will hurt the Canucks down the road.
Everyone knew that the refs were going to be under the microscope last game. Give it a few games and if they’re still in good shape then you’ll have a good idea of how the Burrows/Auger incident panned out. For the time being the refs are going to do their best to call it fair right now because everyone’s watching.
In the words of the ref who was interviewed by Sportsnet, and I paraphrase, but the jist is clear “You get back at them when their team is up 5-1”
I think you need to give it a little more than 1 game to assess whether or not the refs will hurt the Canucks down the road.
Everyone knew that the refs were going to be under the microscope last game. Give it a few games and if they’re still in good shape then you’ll have a good idea of how the Burrows/Auger incident panned out. For the time being the refs are going to do their best to call it fair right now because everyone’s watching.
In the words of the ref who was interviewed by Sportsnet, and I paraphrase, but the jist is clear “You get back at them when their team is up 5-1”
Not his best performance but Luongo won the game against Brodeur earliest this season. So hopefully he does the same against the Fleury.
Not his best performance but Luongo won the game against Brodeur earliest this season. So hopefully he does the same against the Fleury.