Yes...its that time of year again. The playoffs actually started on April 11, 2012. The Vancouver Canucks aka President's Trophy Winners, have been matched up with the LA Kings to play in the first round. The energy in this city was pretty electric at Rogers Arena. The Jersey's are slowing coming out in the city and everyone is getting into the feeling of what it was like last year. The fans have BIG expectations of their team this year after losing Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final a year ago.
The scene outside Rogers Arena on the Plaza taken from Canucks.com
The scene inside Rogers Arena with fans showing support for our Swedish Twins. We love our Nucks.
The birthplace of Towel Power.
The year hasn't been as easy as it was last year for the Canucks having to deal with injuries to star players and finding the right chemistry among the new and old players. It was nothing short of amazing that the Canucks were able to do what only 3 other teams have managed so far and that is to win the Presidents Trophy back to back. The next goal is to get to the Western Conference Final and then on to the Stanley Cup Finals. With two games played so far, it might be a bit of a tougher task for our boys to accomplish than it was last year. Even with having home advantage, the LA Kings are already up 2-0 on the series. Also, this series has not come without some controversy.
Game 1, Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
It looked like the Canucks were going to take game 1 after Alex Burrows came out and scored early in the game. But that didn't last long as LA had come to Vancity with their A game. They dominated the Canucks in every way. It didn't help that the Canucks got into some early penalty trouble that seemed to resonate into the second period. Chris Higgins and Alex Edler shot the puck out of the rink on two separate clearing attempts giving the LA Kings a 5-3 opportunity which they did capitalize on. Ryan Kesler was obviously frustrated with his play and took an unsportsmanlike penalty for a small snow shower to LA goaltender, Jonathan Quick. Then Byron Bitz thought it would be a good idea to lay a nasty hit on Kyle Clifford which resulted in a 5 min major and game misconduct. Bitz was suspended yesterday by League Disciplinary, Brendan Shanahan, two games for his hit on Clifford. As you can tell, the Canucks spent more time and energy on killing penalties than going on the offense, thus resulting in a 4-2 loss in Game 1.
Burrows Goal
Game 2, Friday, April 13th, 2012
The Canucks were saying all the right things before the game and we believed that they would come and play like we know they are able to play. They cut the whining and diving theatrics this game and tried to play whistle to whistle but it still wasn't working. They managed to stay out of the box as little as possible and concentrated more on playing them 5 on 5. It looked like they had the momentum at times...that is until they went on the power play. Its bad enough that the Canucks haven't been able to get their power play going, but its just cruel for the pp to work against them every time. It seemed as though LA was able to get a short-handed goal and burn us at least twice. Obviously our Power Play sucked tonight. Canucks were having a hard time penetrating the blue-line. This is something that the twins would be able to get through with no problem if they were playing with each other. However, with Daniel Sedin still out, it was up to Henrik to find other solutions. Keith Ballard made an appearance in his first game back after missing the last 30 or so games with a concussion. He looked good out there. I hope he starts throwing some of his famous hip checks soon. This game went sour real fast when Edler made a bad decision and made a drop pass in his own zone with Anze Kopitar lurking nearby. He made the Canucks pay for that. Dustin Brown was able to put the puck in the back of the net after a crazy scrammble in front of Lu who was great in net again for Vancouver. You can't blame Lu for any of the goals that happened. The game ended in another 4-2 loss to the LA Kings.
Then Canucks are now down 2-0 in this series to the LA Kings. Although it looks bad, we have to remember that the Canucks are a different team this year. The majority of their wins came on the road. They are proven "road warriors" and we have to believe that they will even up the series in LA. My friend just flew back from LA tonight after attending a conference and mentioned that there were tons of people already in LA wearing their Canucks jerseys and many more at the airport. The Canucks will practice at Rogers Arena tomorrow morning and then head out to LA later in the evening for their game on Sunday night. Hopefully they can figure out whats wrong and get this team back on track. Or the President's Trophy Winners will be golfing on the 19th with the rest of the Northwest Division.
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