All Canucks want for Christmas is some power-play goals
Kevin Woodley
For mytelus.com
VANCOUVER ? Brendan Morrison wasn?t pulling any punches when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks? struggling power play.
?It sucks,? he said with a wide smile after spending a good chunk of Sunday's practice trying to fix a man-advantage attack that has clicked just four times in the last 64 chances.
Poetry it wasn?t, but Morrison and the Canucks are running out of other ways to describe their inexplicably anemic play with the extra attacker.
It?s been team protocol until now to point out the team has been winning despite their ineptitude up a man, climbing four points ahead of Colorado in the Northwest Division despite trailing them by a nine percentage points on the power play.
Morrison, however, knows the Canucks can?t expect to have continued success without the re-emergence of their power play. He knows it puts too much pressure on other parts of their game. He knows the five-on-five success of his top line, remarkable as it has been, will be tough to maintain.
?Especially when you get into playoffs,? Morrison said. ?The power play has to be going then because that?s the difference on a lot of nights.?
Too often lately it?s been the kind of difference that allows overmatched teams to hang around. The power play was outscored 1-0 on the three-game road trip thanks to a shorthanded goal by Nashville, and it would have been worse had Edmonton's penalty killers converted any of the three or four prime chances Saturday.
Vancouver is 0-for-19 over the last five games after being bageled on six chances during the 3-0 win in Edmonton, and at 13.9 per cent overall, they?ve slipped into a tie for 21st place. Hardly the kind of numbers expected from a team that finished third in the league last year at 20.8 per cent.
?Overall our power play has been poor this year there?s no doubt about it,? admitted captain Markus Naslund. ?But I think we have the personnel to make it happen."
While it?s true power play numbers tend to ebb and flow over a full season, the Canucks have been stuck at a low tide since day one. Left out on the open sand too long at times, the stench from the top unit has been particularly pungent.
Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi, who finished one-two in NHL power play points over the last two and a half seasons, have combined for just four goals after scoring 49 last year. If not for the early season success of a second unit with the Sedin twins and Jason King, who leads the team with six power play goals, the Canucks would be dragging NHL bottom.
Now it seems like the more the top unit struggles, the longer they stay out on the ice, leaving King and the twins no time to even set up their simplified attack.
"We have enough skill guys and enough guys that have had lots of success on the power play before to finally get it to click," Naslund said. "I?m not worried that we?re not going to come out of the slump.?
Monday?s game against Los Angeles (7 p.m. PT on Sportsnet Pacific and CKNW AM 980) might be the perfect place to start given the Kings come to town with the second worst penalty killing in the NHL at a dismal 78.2 per cent. Then again, Vancouver only managed three shots in the first three chances against an Oilers penalty kill that is dead last with an abysmal 73.9 per cent success rate.
?I can?t pinpoint one thing,? Morrison said. ?At times our power play is getting outworked and we?re just not executing, that?s the bottom line. I know it?s a cliché, but we just have to get back to basics. We have to get point shots and rebounds, that?s how goals are scored these days.?
The Canucks have to forget the pretty passing plays that made their man-up attack such a juggernaut last season. Opposing teams have taken away Naslund?s space halfway up the right wall and, thanks to a questionable mandate from the NHL, eliminated Bertuzzi?s old push off move in front.
?Teams are scouting us real closely and not giving us a whole lot of room, but on the other hand we should have an answer for that and we should be able to adjust and still get the goals,? Naslund said.
The answer seems simple: Establish a consistent point shot, make opposing penalty killers respect your ability up top, and eventually re-open some of that space down low.
The Canucks have talked about it. They?ve practised it. They just don?t seem willing to do it consistently, and instead fall into the old trap of trying to pass it into the net.
?We watch enough tape and analyze enough so hopefully we?re smart enough to realize what we have to do,? Morrison said.
ICE CHIPS
It is perhaps poetic justice that former Canuck winger Trent Klatt?s first return to GM Place as a King comes less than a week after some Vancouver players emerged from a closed-door meeting suggesting the team?s work ethic was waning. Clearly that was one thing no one ever said of Klatt during his five seasons in Vancouver. ?Anytime you see a guy that goes out and works that hard and lays everything on the line it?s contagious, the whole team picks up on it and they feed off it,? Morrison said of his old fishing buddy. ? The Canucks were hoping to get a similar energy boost from the return of feisty winger Matt Cooke, who on Sunday skated with teammates for the first time in close to a month. It looks like that will have to wait until after Christmas though after Cooke developed a blood infection in his elbow while rehabbing his injured shoulder and needed two-a-day intravenous treatments at a local hospital. Both conditions have cleared up, but after being forced to rest more than a week, Cooke said he wants to be sure his shoulder is strong before coming back. ? The Canucks may also be without defenceman Sami Salo against the Kings after he tweaked his back early in the second period Saturday. Salo stayed off the ice Sunday to get treatment and coach Marc Crawford listed him as questionable to play Monday. ?He?d have to be markedly improved to play tomorrow and if not then Jiri Slegr will play,? Crawford said.
Cheers,
Aquaman