*Tatonka Trample Nucks 5-2

Back up goaltending is now a question mark with the Vancouver Canucks. Playing their second road game in two nights, the Canucks decided to give Curtis Sanford the start, and rest Captain Roberto Luongo.



Poor penalties, even worse goaltending, gave the Sabres a 3-0 lead from which the Canucks never recovered.



1:10 into the 1st, Willie Mitchell starts of the game by shooting the puck over the glass, in his own end. 6 second into the Mitchell delay of game penalty, Jaroslav Spacek one times a cross point feed from young Slovakian d-man Andrej Sekera, and blasts it by a screened Curtis Sanford. Ohlund thought he had a chance to block the shot, stuck out his knee, but missed. Mitchell makes a bad mistake in shooting the puck over the glass, Sanford is in a poor position, Ohlund tries to play goalie, 1-0 Sabres.



I called it in my last blog, Hordicuk went after Peters the first chance he had. Just over 2 minutes in, Canucks down 1-0, Hordichuk knew it was time to send a message.


http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=dzyPLxjacss



You have to love Hordichuk. This guys is taking on the league's monsters, and is not only showing up but getting his licks in as well. A long fight, both exhausted at the end. When a team has a guy that will battle anybody in the league, everybody on the bench is immediately accountable to each other. Sure, they are all professionals, get paid extremely well, but Hordichuk inspires his teammates with his willingness to do battle on their behalf. He knows when, and how, to drop the mitts.


Unfortunately, Canuck d-man Shane O'Brien does not. With the Canucks down 1-0 and just after finishing off a Taylor Pyatt hooking penalty, O'Brien took exception to the Sabres rough play and went after a Sabre after he ran at Pavol Demitra. O'Brien's challenge to a fight went unaccepted, but O'Brien decided to throw punches anyhow. 4 minute penalty for roughing.

On the ensuing power play, Sanford fails to control a Vanek one timer from the left point, MacArthur capitalizes on the rebound, 2-0.

Then the killer. Sanford let a harmless wrist shot from Ales Kotalik, squeak through his pads. As the puck laid motionless behind Sanford's right skate, not knowing where the puck was, he closed his legs, pushing the puck in himself.

Despite being down 3-0, the Canucks kept working. You never got the feeling that they were throwing in the towel. They battled hard to make it 3-1 on a nice Ryan Kesler wrist shot, only to fall 4-2 on Tomas Vanek's league leading 6th goal.

Vanek is starting to earn his huge salary, courtesy of former Oiler GM's Kevin Lowe's huge offer sheet last year. Vanek ended the night with a goal and 2 assists.

Bernier converted a beautiful Henrik Sedin spin around backhand pass from behind the Sabre net to make it 4-2 against his former team. Giving up a 3rd round pick to acquire Bernier is looking like a very good move.

Unfortunately, in the Sabre Zone with the Cancuks pressing, a lazy pass from Pavol Demitra back to O'Brien was deflected out of the zone by the curling Tomas Vanek. While Vanek doesn't need a step to get by O'Brien, he had one on him and raced past him to get a breakway on Sanford. O'Brien hooked Vanek's arm, causing him to lose the puck to the corner. The ref had his arm up to call a penalty,or a penalty shot, on O'Brien but Vanek didn't give up on the play and found a streaking Ales Kotalik in the slot, and he made it 5-2 to seal the deal, and keep the Sabres undefeated with a 4-0 record .

The overall effort of the Canucks was commendable. One never felt that they stopped working. Sanford and O'Brien had noticeable poor outings, but I like the fact the O'Brien was willing to defend his teammates. He will learn from Hordichuk about making sure that he isn't the only one dropping the gloves, it takes two to dance. Sanford, on the other had, was guilty of a terrible first period. While he played respectably in the 2nd and 3rd, if this inconsistent play continues, look for the Canucks to either bring up Cory Schneider, or look for another back up.

The Canucks are 3-2, and 2-2 on their current 6 game road trip. Up next is a Sunday afternoon (4pm pst) tilt against the young Chicago Blackhawks. The Black Hawks will be play their first game under new head coach Joel Quenville in St. Louis tonight. The Hawks will be playing their 2nd game in 2 nights when they take on the Canucks tomorrow.

Notes:
- Look for the Canucks to make a deal soon. They are over the roster limit and keeping Mike Brown in the IR because they will lose him if the put him on waivers. If nobody gets hurt, Pyatt could be the odd man out.

- Fabian Brunstrom, the Swedish player that was so close to signing with the Canucks when Dave Nonis was GM, made his debut with the Dallas Stars against the Nashville Predators Wednesday night. After sitting out Dallas' first two games, he was the NHL's third player to score a hat trick in his debut. This kid would have looked good in a Canuck uniform. Too bad Gillis could not sway the talented Brunstrom to sign with the Canucks.


* Tatonka: Sioux word meaning buffalo