Bravs Hockey Blog

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Following last night’s game Roberto Luongo flew to Florida to be with his wife who is expecting the couple’s first child within the next week. The star-netminder is expected to return to the team tomorrow before Vancouver’s crucial match-up with the Minnesota Wild.

All of us here at Bravs Hockey Blog would like to send out our best wishes to Roberto Luongo and his wife. We hope everything goes well and that he comes back to the team as a father of a healthy baby. As a fan I hope he takes as much time as he needs with his family and only comes back when he is ready and everything is stable with the new addition to the family.

On a side note, I think it could be good for the Canucks as a team to have the star goaltender absent for a game or more. The Canucks seem to be relying on Bobby Lu too much to win them games, maybe playing in front of a more average goalie might force the team to focus and deal with the obvious problems that have been causing these serious defensive breakdowns the last few games. It could also force the team to play with a little more heart and determination, knowing they cant rely on any single player to steal the game for them.

The way I see it is, if they can’t pull together enough wins with Sandford in net to stay in playoff contention then they have no reason to be in the playoffs anyway, and would not make it past the first round. Let Roberto Luongo have a week with his family, and lets see what we have as a team without him in net. The worst that happens is we really see what problems need to be focused on for next season, as Im sure any fan that has a sane outlook of this team knows that this wont be the year to win a cup, unless the players find the passion and commitment that has been missing for the majority of this season.

Seriously

Dan Cloutier played his first game against the Canucks since being moved to Los Angeles, and played outstanding if you don’t take into account the multiple rebounds he left after each initial save. Lucky for him the Canucks couldnt seem to capitalize on any of them untill late in the third period when Kesler put the puck past Cloutier off of a rebound from a Burrows shot.

Vancouver dominated the Kings the entire game, but could not put a puck past the LA netminder. Only one ‘Nuck was able to beat Cloutier, and that was Ryan Kesler… twice, he scored the OT winner with a deflection off Willie Mitchells point shot. The final score was 2-1 for the Canucks.

Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows have been outstanding for the Canucks in this season, proving that even the checking line can contribute in more ways then just shutting down the opositions scoring line(s). Some of the doubters might need to reconsider their opinions about the Vancouver Canucks decision to match the offer sheet that the Flyers made to acquire Kesler. He has proven to be an important part of this team, both as a checker/shutdown man and a goal scorer. I look forward to seeing what kind of player he develops into longterm.