A week ago, the Canucks were winning games they had no business winning. Now they're losing games they probably should have won. It's as though they're trying to confuse. Are the Canucks gaslighting us? Are they intentionally driving us mad, and if so, to what end?
I have a theory: they want us to think it's 1994. Consider: everybody loves 1994. No one has an unkind word for that group. If that team was this team, the Canucks would sell out every night. And wouldn't you know it, the Canucks plan to bring back their 1994 duds next month. Admittedly, no rational person would be fooled into believing this roster is the 1994 Canucks, but maybe that's why the Canucks need to destroy our perception of reality first, by playing poorly and winning, then playing well and losing. Up is down. Then is now. It's all very clever. And it's probably too late, even for those of us that figure it out. Chances are I became far more suggestible when I watched this game.
- The Canucks deserved better. They outshot the Predators 29 to 19. They looked fast. They looked relentless. But neither of those adjectives are as important as "consistent", and that's one this suddenly young team appears to struggle with right now. I'm not feeling it. They really need to knock it off with these late backbreakers. Game-ending collapses are for Jenga.
- It was also a complete waste of Brandon Sutter's otherwise pleasing return to the lineup. The Canucks wasted no time easing him in -- Sutter cannonballed into this hot tub, stepping right into first-line duties between Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen, and he looked good there. He even scored a goal, tying the game up after the Predators scored on the game's first shot. Skating in Henrik Sedin's role, Sutter got into character, working a pretty little give-and-go with Daniel Sedin that ended with Sutter redirecting Daniel's perfect saucer pass behind Pekka Rinne. What a saucer it was. The only thing it was missing was a caption that reads "I want to believe".
- Speaking of Daniel, the younger Sedin was honoured at the first TV timeout for taking over the franchise goal-scoring record. He got a nice standing ovation, but it would have been a whole lot nicer if everybody stood up. People complain the Sedins get no respect outside of this market. If that's true, they really don't get much more respect here. Between Daniel's half-assed ovation and his hatless hat trick earlier in the year, you'd think the verdict was still out on him. Although I guess it's fair to some extent. As John Garrett noted, with a conspicuous employment of the singular, “What a great player he and his brother have been.” No wonder we're not sure how hard to clap for this man. We're not even sure how many people he is.
- Back to Brandon Sutter, whose goal also served to remind us of his personalized goal song: Tim McGraw's I Like It, I Love It. Now, I neither like nor love this song, but I liked it on this night, since it's also the Predators' goal song. That's just too good. Mind you, this is the only time I approve. The rest of the time, I think it should be Return of the Mack.
- By now, you probably know that I don't care much for fighting. But I got really excited about Derek Dorsett's first period scrap with Cody Bass. Not that I enjoyed the fight itself, but Dorsett had an opportunity to drop the Bass like it was 1am at Celebrities. When there's dumb wordplay on the line, nothing else matters for me.
- Willie Desjardins has a tendency to overutilize the Derek Dorsett line, presumably because that's the only way to overutilize Derek Dorsett, but he didn't do that tonight. The Canucks' fourth line, consisting of Dorsett, Adam Cracknell, and Jake Virtanen, saw just shy of 10 minutes this evening, which seems about right for a fourth line. Granted, that may be because Jake Virtanen was on it. Willie doesn't like overplaying anybody who was born after the first Toy Story. I can get behind that. I don't know that I'm ready to trust anybody who was born post-Pixar.
- Speaking of young rookies, I thought Ben Hutton had a rough night tonight, with a couple of bad penalties, and a few bobbles that were nearly very costly, like when he overskated the puck exiting his own zone midway through the third, leading to a pretty great chance for Nashville. Hutton finished a game-worst minus-11 in even-strength corsi for the Canucks. At times it was almost as painful to watch as the new X-Files premiere. Almost.
- Of course, no one will be ripping Ben Hutton after that game -- not when Alex Edler was singled out as the biggest culprit on the bad line change that led to the game-winner. But I don't want to blame Edler. Not when these poor line changes happen so often under Willie Desjardins. I think the players see it too. Jannik Hansen, from tonight: “It’s the same mistakes/ A line change in Pittsburgh (on Saturday) cost us a goal, too. A line change in overtime a couple of games cost us... last year I think we took 20 too many men penalties. That’s line changes, too. It’s obviously not something that is a rare occurrence. It happens to us fairly often and that is why we are in this situation more often than not.” Last year and this year makes it a Willie Desjardins-era problem, like too many former Medicine Hat Tigers, or Luca Sbisa.
- Bo Horvat led all forwards in icetime tonight, I think because he's the Canucks' best player right now. (Of course, when Henrik returns, the twins are the Canucks' best player.) Horvat looked great this evening, winning 7 of 13 faceoffs, testing Pekka Rinne thrice, and creating several good scoring chances. Plus his chemistry with Sven Baertschi continues to develop. The pair looked especially good on the Canucks' second-period powerplay. They're nearing Mulder and Scully chemistry. Well, the old show. I'm pretty sure they're never actually onscreen together in the new show. I know they have several scenes together. I just have a hard time believing the actors are actually in the same room.
- Finally, Radim Vrbata knows he's in the shop window right now, right? For a guy on the block, he's not exactly playing a very saleable game these days. Dude needs to start working it like a cat trying to get adopted. Rub up on some legs. Bat a ball around. Sit on somebody's lap. Get your motor running, guy.
