We've come to the end Hockey Day in Canada, and what a hockey day it was for Canada. Three Canadians clubs picked up wins this Saturday, a rare occasion this season indeed. Granted, they did it by playing three other Canadians clubs, the quickest way to get points these days. But still. Three wins. Pretty good day for the country.
Less so for the Canucks, who were among the trio of Canadian losers -- the Eddy to Edmonton and Toronto's Ed and Edd. They actually played a pretty strong game, outpossessing the Flames 63-43, but they failed to outscore the Flames, and until the stats guys make their move, goals will continue to decide the winner. (Not that the Canucks would fare much better in the Corsi Hockey League. But they would have won this game, and I watched this game.)
- Remember all the columns talking about the importance of this homestand if the Canucks want to make the playoffs? They biffed it, losing all three games in regulation and pushing their winless streak to four games. This really is a terrible time for the Canucks to lose four in a row. But there are worse times. When you're in charge of a busload of summer campers at the Aquarium, for instance.
- The worst part is that the Canucks are falling apart while completely healthy. Dan Hamhuis returned to the lineup for this one, playing his first game since taking a puck to the face on Decemner 9th. He looked good, and I mean that literally. Considering the damage done to his face, I thought he might look like he was wearing one of those creepily lifelike presidential masks or something. But Hamhuis's new face is seamless. Literally seamless. I thought there'd be seams, like Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. No seams.
- Hamhuis looked good on the ice too, skating to a plus-10 even-strength corsi. And that's with a new face behind a visor, and Luca Sbisa as a defence partner. (Yes, Sbisa, who is apparently still a top-four defenceman on this team when everyone is healthy. Le sigh.) But that may have just been the Canucks' way of throwing Hamhuis into the fire in his first game back. If you can play with Sbisa, you can dodge a wrench, or something like that.
- Speaking of questionable personnel decisions from coach Willie Desjardins, he does know you're allowed to mix up your lines, right? Like, say, if your team has only managed one goal a game for the last three, you could try a different combination of players to see if that changes? Just a thought. I think the current lines are just fine and all, but one wonders what might have happened if Jake Virtanen had replaced the somnambulistic Radim Vrbata on Bo Horvat's line for the last period? Hansen with the Vey line? Burrows with the twins? Anything. Desjardins told the media after the game that he was "writing down different combinations," but that's what Twitter does, Willie. You're supposed to actually implement different combinations.
- I really don't know what to make of Vrbata's game right now. He's still shooting a lot, but they're not good shots. They're just shots with no purpose that do nobody any good, like tequila at 2am.
- One more coaching gripe: Willie and co. opted for Matt Bartkowski over Alex Biega tonight, and that's to be expected. Bartkowski was signed primarily in response to the Calgary forecheck killing the Vancouver defence in last year's playoffs. If you're scratching him versus the Flames, what did you even sign him for? So I'm fine with that decision. But scratching Biega for Bartkowski? That's where you lose me. Biega gets shots through, at the very least, and considering the rebounds Jonas Hiller was giving up all night, a high-volume shooter might have been just the thing. There was another option. I think you know who I'm talking about. But for some reason, Sbisa is unscratchable. I'm beginning to suspect his cologne is Comfort Zone Cat Deterrent Spray.
- Rough night for Bo Horvat, who was on the ice for three Flames goals. He also won just 2 of 9 faceoffs, and had only one shot on goal. But one wonders if he's nursing an injury or an ailment of some kind. Horvat skated just 13:28 tonight, a good four minutes below his season average. No other centre saw less icetime, which seems weird, since Horvat's been good lately, and everyone else hasn't. So why would you turn down the Horvat and crank the everyone else? Linden Vey, meanwhile, got second-line centre minutes today. So maybe Horvat just said something bad about Medicine Hat. Can't do that.
- I was kind of hoping someone would take a penalty before the projection screen panels retracted, so I could say Rogers Arena was screening its calls. Sadly, this Dad joke has been lost to history.
- If there's a silver lining in this loss, it's that Emerson Etem beat Jonas Hiller late to put the Canucks on the board, snatching valuable shutout points from fantasy hockists the world over. (If you got Etem'd, let us know in the comments.) The goal was set up by Linden Vey, with whom Etem appears to have rediscovered some of the chemistry the pair had in Medicine Hat. Although you don't need much chemistry for a textbook goal like this, as Etem slid into the slot, and Vey found him for the one-timer. Etem placed the shot perfectly, too, going over the shoulder like a spaghetti strap.
- Unfortunately, shortly after Etem cut the lead to 3-1, the Flames scored on another empty-netter. I kind of wish Richard Mulligan had been in goal, though, so I could say they scored on an empty-nester. But life goes on, and so do we.
