Penalty Night in St. Louis

The St. Louis Blues got a powerplay goal from Erik Johnson and a 4-on-4 marker from Paul Kariya as they held off the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 Friday night at the Scottrade Center. In a game that featured the star power of a resurgent Markus Naslund and a snake-bitten Doug Weight, it was referees Dean Morton and Justin St. Pierre who oddly stole the show. In the first two periods, 14 minor penalties were called by Morton and St. Pierre. As the penalty killers wore out their blades, the game inevitably dragged on with all the flow of a clogged sink. But in the third period, it was anything goes. Both referees tucked their whistles away, leading to the best stretch of hockey fans saw all night. Canucks radio play-by-play man John Shorthouse, who called the officiating “over the top,” was baffled by the inconsistency. “Did the game change that much? You had [14] powerplays through the first 40 minutes and not one call in the third? I mean, set a standard, this is why players get confused. The standard was very tight in the first two periods, it was nonexistent in the third.” Commentator Blake Price echoed Shorthouse’s sentiments and described the game as being “really tough to watch.” The 14 powerplays were the second-most in any Canucks games so far this season. During a 4-1 win over Columbus on October 21st, Vancouver was involved in a 16-powerplay affair. But in that game, four of the powerplays came in the third period and the penalties, in general, were distributed more evenly throughout the night. That was certainly not the case on Friday. Twelve of the minors were called in the game’s opening 30 minutes. The longest stretch without a penalty during that span was five minutes and fifty-one seconds. While neither club had a decided advantage, with St. Louis ending up with eight powerplays and Vancouver six, the end result was a special teams showdown. The Blues came out on top. “Our penalty kill and goaltending have been stellar this year, to say the least,” said Weight. “It’s been great. It’s carried our team and, you know, you feed from that.” St. Louis got on the board late in the first when Kariya casually floated a wrist-shot at the Vancouver net. The puck found its way through traffic and beat Luongo clean to give the Blues the 1-0 lead. Johnson tallied early in the second, after Matt Cooke had been sent off for tripping. The young St. Louis defenseman took a pretty saucer pass from Weight and blasted it over Luongo’s blocker to give St. Louis all the scoring it would need. After former Canuck Martin Rucinsky made it 3-0 four minutes into the third, Ryan Kesler answered for Vancouver 45 seconds later, firing a one-timer of his own past Blues goaltender Hannu Toivonen

Curtis Sanford will start his second game of the season on the second game of back-to-back games this Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild.Mike Brown begins his NHL career with his first game against the Wild to add some grit and toughness to matchup against a Wild team looking to avenge a 6-2 loss against the Canucks last week."We’ve got four games in six nights," said Coach Alain Vigneault. "We got a lot of hockey coming up and we sent Jannik Hansen down because he’s more of an offensive player and I think our lines have changed a little bit, so we needed him to play and get confidence. Brown, he’s an energy guy that we might be able to use him in the next couple of games. We’ll see how tonight goes and take it from there."

Sami Salo is expected to play this week with a full mask to protect his healing nose but his return date is still unknown. "Getting closer to being ready to play, there are still some areas that I have to get better at, but overall I’m looking forward to this week and hopefully be playing at some point this week," said Salo. "I’m just taking it day by day, trying different things on the ice and see how it feels and go from there." Although Salo is eager to get back on the ice, it's not his nose that's setting him back."It’s more like headaches, getting dizzy out there, you know, the head rush on the ice. But overall it’s getting closer, and hopefully it’ll be going away soon." Minnesota Wild Derek Boogaard's comment on Captain Markus Naslund or the Sedin twins -- who Boogaard named after a couple Warner Brother characters, "Pinkie and the Brain" -- is not going to distract the Canucks."You know those things are going to be said after a heated game like that and it’s part of the game. We’re focused on winning the hockey game and that should be enough for us," said Naslund. With a 5-0-1 record in the past six games and 8-0-1 against divisional rivals, the Canucks have definitely gained some confidence that's getting them back into the team that won the Northwest title last year. A big part of that is due to the improved play of defenseman, Willie Mitchell, who scored the game-winner Sunday night and is a +3 in the last five games. "My game right now is good," said Mitchell. "You know, you want to ride it as much as you can, right? I’m in a groove, things are going my way...I’m also seeing the ice well and got a good stick, creating a little bit offensively too. So, now I’m happy with it, I need to be like that." Head coach Alain Vigneault is quick to call out Mitchell, who's stepping up in light of the injuries to the blueline."[Willie’s] game is right where we wanted it to be and right where we expected it to be." said Vigneault. "He’s such a hard player to play against when he’s playing with an edge...He's very frustrating for other teams' top fours. The player that we all saw last year has come around and come around at the right time," "He’s one of the best examples we have as far as on-ice work and off-ice work...and we need that contribution from him and that’s why I’m probably talking about him and not other players because I know what he can bring to the table." Mitchell and the entire team are heading on the right track scoring ten goals in two games.

Trevor Linden is back in centering a line with Byron Ritchie and Jeff Cowan. Mike Brown, who played in his first NHL game Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild, will sit. "It was an unbelievable experience; I had a great time, the team won, so I couldn’t ask for any better. I was a little nervous before, but I fell through it and played a good game," said Brown. "I had a pretty good first fight there, so it was the second shift of the game. So, it was a pretty good experience, you know, it was a great building to play in, and created a loud atmosphere." Coach Alain Vigneault, who is infamous for mixing up his lines, hasn't split up his top three lines since November 1 when Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa sustained injuries against the Nashville Predators. The Canucks are 6-1-2 through 9 games this month, surpassing their total number of wins in the month of November last season, where they went 5-8-0.
EXTRA Lineups remain the same for Vancouver:Naslund - Sedin - SedinPyatt - Kesler - IsbisterCooke - Morrison - BurrowsLukas Krajicek may return to the injured list after taking a shot off the same foot in Minnesota. He didn't have any X-rays, but it is swollen."Lukas took another shot off the foot in Minnesota, tried [the skate] this morning, he’s not feeling well this right now," said Vigneault. "So he will try warm up tonight, and we’ll make a decision on that, but it looks like Sami’s going to go, and it looks like Lukas is questionable."Salo is adjusting to the hardware in his face, which may take some ice time to get settled back into the lineup."It’s just a matter of him getting used to the plates," said Vigneault of Salo's nose. "And it’s felt alright for the last couple of days on his own, and we don’t really have any practice time to give him with all these games we got coming up. So, we’re going to do like what we did with Lukas and 12-13 minutes a game and get him into shape that way."