Sean and Kayla are optimistic that the Canucks will still make this a competitive series, and they pulled out every sports cliche possible in expressing their optimism.

Meanwhile, Jacob took a more cynical approach as he worked in a few cliches and a bunch of thought-provoking questions regarding the Canucks’ future.

Photo credit: Christian Petersen via NHL.com

So the Vancouver Canucks have lost the pivotal game two and the must-win game three.  Looking ahead to a pivotal must-win game four, there are a few Things That Make Me Go Hmmm.

The Goalie Conundrum

Well, wouldn’t you know it?  We’re possibly one game away from the end of the season and the story that became a story at this time last year is still a story.  Whether you agree with management’s (GM and coach) handling of the situation or not, you can’t deny that it’s been the number one story with the team this year.  So much so that people are talking more about the goaltending then they are about the team’s primary reason for being pushed to the brink of elimination: their inability to create enough good scoring chances.

Facing elimination, the Canucks need to start the goaltender that gives the skaters the most confidence that they can win the game.  And without a shadow of a doubt, that goaltender is Roberto Luongo.  He was solid in the first two games of the season before Schneider’s shaky return to the line-up.  Go back to Luongo and hope that the team plays lights-out in front of them.  And who knows, a strong playoff showing (even in defeat) wouldn’t hurt his trade value.  That is, if the Canucks are still trying to trade him.

Flipping the Switch

Many people have asked me over the last week, “What’s wrong with the Canucks?”  After lamenting the team’s scoring woes and my desire to see Keith Ballard in the line-up, I always say that it’s not as simple as just looking at the Vancouver Canucks.  You need to look at the San Jose Sharks as well.

It was ludicrous to think that the Canucks would simply “flip a switch” in the three days between the end of the regular season and the first playoff game and be back to a dominating team that would steamroll the competition.  This logic is mostly flawed because it doesn’t account for the team lining up across from the Canucks.

San Jose is a good team.  They have strong depth at forward, a solid (if non-descript) defense, and a strong goalie.  Also, they are well-coached and have strong special teams.  So Canucks fans can talk about flipping a switch all they want.  Just remember that San Jose has a switch too – and it seems to be working very well.

Staving Off Elimination

Get ready to hear the word “stave” dozens of times over the next couple of days.  While the Canucks look to stave off elimination, I wonder why more people don’t use the word more in every day conversation.  I think it’s a cool word…and it shouldn’t be reserved just for sports playoffs.  After all, there are so many other ways you might use it:

• I wonder how many ladies I will have to stave off this week.  After all, I’m happily married
• Will Christy Clark be able to stave off Adrian Dix in this month’s election?
• How does Keith Ballard manage to stave off thinking of ways to hurt Alain Vigneault?

Looking ahead to game four on Tuesday night in San Jose, I simply wasn’t interested in any of the post-game quotes from AV and the players – especially the clichéd ones.  All I care about is the Canucks laying it all out on the ice as they try to stave off elimination.  Then perhaps they’ll have a chance to play in another pivotal must-win game on Thursday night.

Photo credit: Jeff Vinnick via NHL.com

After an abbreviated season, the Vancouver Canucks opened up the postseason with a 3-1 loss to the visiting San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. Looking back at the game and looking ahead to the next one, there are a few Things That Make Me Go Hmmm:

Searching for the Right Line Combinations

The Canucks forwards simply did not create enough shots or scoring opportunities. This continues a trend of low-scoring games as the Canucks have not scored more than 3 goals in a game since their 4-2 win over Nashville on April 15. I must admit that I was a tad befuddled when I learned the line combinations on Monday for last night’s game.

We know that Burrows with the Sedins is pretty much a given (for now) and that the fourth line will consist of any combo of Ebbett, Weise, Sestito, Pinizzotto, and sometimes Lapierre. The Canucks started game one with a second line of Kesler between Higgins and Kassian, and a third line of Roy between Raymond and Hansen. While Roy and Kesler were likely separated to spread the Canucks’ centres over three lines to counter Thornton, Couture, and Pavelski, I was surprised that Higgins was placed on Kesler’s wing and not Roy’s. In the few games that they played together, Higgins and Roy looked like a dangerous combo. Instead, they found themselves on different lines to start the series.

We all know that coach Alain Vigneault has no problem with juggling his lines. I’d like to see Roy between Hansen and Higgins leaving Kesler to centre Raymond and Kassian. Who knows – if AV is confident in Lapierre, we might see Kesler and Roy reunited on a second line to give the Canucks more scoring potential. Moving Lapierre up would likely mean Kassian moving down to the fourth line… a position he found himself in by the end of game one.

Home Ice Disadvantage

With the Canucks loss, they have now lost 5 straight playoff games at home – a stretch dating back to game 7 on June 15, 2011 against the Boston Bruins. Obviously, a lot has to do with the quality of opposition, but for whatever reason Rogers Arena is not a difficult place for opposing teams to win in during the playoffs.

The Canucks’ regular season home record was decent at 15-6-3 while San Jose’s road record was a pathetic 8-14-2. By contrast, San Jose’s regular season home record was a sparkling 17-2-5. Thus, you can see just how important it will be for the Canucks to triumph in game two and tie the series up. If they lose, they won’t be able to beat this strong San Jose team 4 times out of 5 (with 3 of the games in San Jose).

Canucks fans need to get a lot louder and a little more rowdy (much to the chagrin of Rogers Arena employees). After all, isn’t this what we live for?

Every Game is a Pivotal Game

Get ready to hear about how much game two is a “pivotal” game. Captain Obvious here would like to point out that going to San Jose tied one game apiece is a lot better than going in down two games.

Then, game three will become pivotal as it will either create an almost insurmountable deficit at 3 games to 0, or one team will at least take a stronghold in the series. Game one was intuitively pivotal as both teams wanted to get off to a good start.

The point being that every single game in the playoffs is a pivotal game. Now the Canucks need to start playing like it.

I was half-amused and half-horrified.  Then, I took to Twitter and asked you to provide some creative captions.  Here’s a sampling of your replies, unmodified, unedited, and unabridged:

@canuckclay no – you can’t make me watch another bc election commercial.

— Steve May (@Steve_May) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay @canuckshockey #CHBcaptions “I’m going to have the taste of that Toews fart in my mouth all game long “

— Chris O’Connor (@ch1oconn) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay dammit Keith! You gotIt in my eye….. Again.

— Embrace the hate (@MattL3m0n) April 23, 2013

RT @canuckclay Caption this picture (it’s Brent Seabrook)! Best replies make #CHB tomorrow. twitter.com/CanuckClay/sta… #CHBCaptions MATT DAMON

— 中 Darryl Beger 中 (@dbeger14) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay Whaaa…Why is their Cory (Schneider) better than our Corey (Crawford).

— Amanda (@acheung14) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay I just,shipped my pants. #KMart

— Big_Mak (@CP_CNC) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay “Need more fibre!” #CHB #CHBCaptions

— Chris Golden (@lyteforce) April 23, 2013

@lyteforce @canuckclay DADDY HE HIT ME WITH THE PUCK REALLY HARD!

— CJ S. (@shutupcj) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay “Now I know how Luongo felt”

— Chris Dion (@Chris_Dion) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay Shouldn’t have had that 3rd burrito!

— Chris Pysanczyn (@Pysanczyn) April 23, 2013

Dumbledore’s dead?!?!? Dude I TOLD you I wasn’t finished yet! RT @canuckclay Caption this picture! twitter.com/CanuckClay/sta…

— Jason Kurylo (@PuckedInTheHead) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay NOT FRANK CORRADO, ANYBODY BUT HIM

— 中 Darryl Beger 中 (@dbeger14) April 23, 2013

@canuckclay I DON’T WANNA SKATE MA

— ギオム (@Chefinairdrie) April 23, 2013

Photo by Jeff Vinnick

In an effort to create more offense (or in an effort to maintain his reputation as a chronic line juggler), Canucks’ coach Alain Vigneault made news by putting Ryan Kesler on the wing alongside recently-acquired centreman Derek Roy in practice. While I was looking forward to seeing them play together, many Canucks fans were up in arms at the move, citing Kesler’s preference to play in the middle and the potential of unbalanced forward lines (from a scoring perspective).

By game time, all was right with the world as Kesler took his centre position back while Roy was the one shifting over to the wing.  Kesler supporters were happy and so was I – the two of them were still going to play together.

The result against Nashville was good: both Kesler and Roy had two points apiece in the Canucks 5-2 win.  The duo was tamed in the subsequent game – a 2-1 shootout loss to St. Louis.

So why is playing centre so much better?  Along with the help of some loyal CHB readers, I present to you The Top 10 Reasons Why Playing Centre is Better Than Playing on the Wing:

10.  One word: faceoffs.  Or is that two words: face offs?

9.  The centre is the one who makes the line what it is.  (Submitted by @RyanGuevs)

8.  Centre of attention makes sense.  Wing of attention doesn’t.

7.  Because he won the friggen Selke.  (Submitted by @BrowntoBure)

I think my Twitter-buddy Dave mistook the topic to be “Top 10 Reasons Why Kesler Should Stay at Centre” but I’ll accept it nonetheless.  Then, as a reply to my reply, Dave added:

I actually prefer wing…it’s less work.

6.  The wingman never gets the girl.  (Pat on Facebook)

I hope he’s not speaking from experience.

5.  Centres can be smooth like the centre of a Caramilk.  Wings can be good too…with hot sauce.  (Submitted by @Rozzy80)

I think my buddy Jay mistook the topic to be “Top 10 Ways to Relate This Hockey Blog to Food”.

4.  Who would you rather be?  Ricky Bobby or Cal Naughton Jr.? If you ain’t first, you’re last.  (Submitted by @lyteforce and @mattlee61)

Yes, it takes 2 CHB contributors to come up with one entry:  one of them to suggest it, the other to correct it.

3.  Playing centre, it doesn’t matter if you’re a right-handed shot on the right side, a right-handed shot on the left side, a left-handed shot on the left side, or a left-handed shot on the right side.  Either side will be your strong side because you’re in the middle of the ice.

2.  Both of these guys won the Art Ross.  But only one of them won the Hart.

Photo by Jeff Vinnick

1.  No guy dreams of becoming Goose. You dream of becoming Maverick.  (Submitted by Jason on Facebook)

No doubt this will make fellow CHBer @lyteforce proud.  Very proud.

Kesler returned to the line-up after missing 19 games and he made an immediate impact by scoring the game-winning goal just 7 minutes in.

Kesler’s return, coupled with the acquisition of Derek Roy at the trade deadline, bolsters the Canucks down the middle and gives some much needed strength and firepower to the forward group overall.

Sean Imoo is 11 years old and in grade 6.  He enjoys listening to the latest music, playing guitar and piano, playing hockey and other sports, and whipping his Dad in NHL 13.  Sean is passionate about his favourite team – the Vancouver Canucks.  He is likely the biggest Canuck fan in his school and he is always learning more and more about the Canucks every day.  Here are his insights as to what it’s like being related to a certain CHB writer.

As you may know, my dad (@CanuckClay) is a season ticket holder with his good friend Mike.  This is my dad’s 3^rd season as a season ticket holder while Mike has been lucky to have them for over 10 years.  I am very lucky that Dad is a season ticket holder because I can go to games with him for some good “father and son” bonding.  Sadly, I can’t get to all of the games as much as I want to.  This gets very interesting sometimes so here is the good, the bad, and the interesting of having a dad as a season ticket holder.

The Good

First, the good.  Like I mentioned before, my dad and I love to go to games together.  We cheer, we boo, we eat, we drink, and we just talk Canucks.  I am very lucky to have been to a couple very memorable moments.  I was able to see Markus Naslund’s jersey retired, and I saw the Canucks clinch the President’s Trophy 2 years ago.

Being able to go to games forces me to plan and do homework earlier.  However, it wasn’t always this way.  When I first started going to games, I found myself doing homework during intermissions.  I remember bringing my math textbook to study for a math test the next day.  Doing homework at a game is still better than doing homework looking at a TV – or worse yet – in my bedroom.

The Bad

The downside to this is that the games are mostly on school nights, so by the time the game is over, we usually get home after 11pm (we like to enjoy a delicious post-game meal of Japanese food).  Oh well, going to games is worth losing 60 minutes of sleep.

Also, my dad’s tickets are in the upper bowl.  So, for a lot of the games I go to, there are people that get extremely drunk and swear like crazy.  Not the best environment for an 11-year old kid that goes to a Catholic school.  I’ve even seen many people kicked out of the arena.  It’s kinda funny, actually.

The Interesting

I’m not the only person in the house that wants to go to games though.  I’m okay when my dad goes to games with Mike or other friends, but when it comes to family, it’s not pretty.  The most common fight is between me and my mother.  When my dad asks who wants to go to a game, we both say that it’s our turn (sometimes I lie).  Then…we start to argue.

I say, “I bet you can’t even name 5 players!” or “Explain to me a delayed offside!”

And she replies with, “Whose house do you live in?” or “Who pays for the tickets?”

She’s stopped short of kicking me out or telling me to get a job.

After these friendly discussions, no one knows who is going to get to go.  That’s when I go into suck up mode.

PS. Would someone please volunteer to film my dad’s Clay’s Canucks Commentaries?  It’s getting to me…look at the format of this blog!  You must be able to work late nights and handle verbal heckling.  I can’t take it anymore.

Perhaps the Canucks need some Divine Intervention as they battle the Minnesota Wild for the division lead and fight to stay in the top 8 in the Western Conference.

In this CCC, I quickly touch on the opportunity that exists for both Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo to seize the job of “number one goaltender”.  They’ve been playing it down publicly (while joking around about it with James Duthis on TSN) and they’ve both been good in spurts, but not great.  The team is going to need one of them to make the team his own as they head down the stretch.

I doubt that anyone predicted 11 total goals in this contest between two teams that have had difficulty scoring this season.  The fans were treated to a highly entertaining contest that had a bit of everything: nice goals, fights, defensive breakdowns, and even a penalty shot.

I touch on Jannik Hansen, Andrew Ebbett, Mason Raymond, Henrik’s penalty shot, David Booth, Kevin Bieksa’s tough game, our crowded blueline, and a little trip I’m taking.

Thus, I’ll be taking a one-week break from creating these postgame commentaries.

This time, highlights included the strong goaltending of Roberto Luongo and Mason Raymond’s spin-o-rama goal in the shootout.

In this video, I touch on Roberto Luongo’s strong game, David Booth’s aggressive play, Alex Burrows sliding into Luongo, boarding penalties, the goaltending situation, Cam Barker’s offensive prowess, and Tom Sestito’s decreasing playing time.