18.2

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And the second edition of the Bernier Recap...:D

 

Colorado Avalanche @ Vancouver Canucks

Another good game on Sunday, playing the lowly Colorado Avalanche. Not exactly a team that seems dangerous, considering their last place position in the Western Conference standings, but the Canucks had not beaten them in the last eight meetings. That's right. EIGHT. Steve Bernier, seeing as this is his first season with the Canucks (and hopefully not his last!) was only around for two of those games. The Canucks are riding on an eight-home-game-winning streak into this game...so what will the mighty third liner Bernier do to help us continue that streak, and break the other?

FIRST PERIOD

This period seemed almost too easy for the Canucks. The period ended with a three-goal-lead. Granted, they did have Raycroft in net...and why would they do that if Budaj had been doing well for the last few games? Well, first Colorado is last. I'm sure they'd want to win, but they don't necessarily need to unless they have a legitimate shot at the playoffs, so riding the hot goalie constantly and tiring him out is pointless, and this being the second of back-to-back games, I suppose it works to throw Raycroft in. His subpar goaltending made this period one of the easiest I've seen of the season. I don't like easy games because most of the time without competition the game is boring, and it inflates the players' judgment of how they play. They might start thinking that trying with their most effort is not necessary, which would be bad.

Bernier didn't get a goal in this game at all, but I'm pretty sure he could've gotten a chance if he wanted to. He's not someone who would score just to run up the score (unless opportunity gives him such, like a big fat rebound) instead scoring at the strangest yet most needed of times. Not as frequently as Burrows obviously, but he does have that kind of unpredictability in him. Why would I say that? He has four game-winning goals! That's actually tied with the Sedins (or at least one of them) and possibly Burrows for first! He may not score much but he has the highest percentage of GWG in his amount of goals, so good for Bernier!

Getting back to this period, Bernier drew the first penalty. (At least that's what the play-by-play announcer and replay indicated...the PBP log on NHL.com says differently for some reason...it also said the second line was on the ice, so I'll go with what I saw on TV) He got on his regular shift and jumped out, just doing his thing and the offending player decided, what the hey, I'm gonna stick my stick into him just because he's this big lug here who I can't move off the puck. Fortunately he was caught. That's two minutes in the sin bin. Bernier never got out onto the PP with the Sedins because the first unit scored, a tip-in by Wellwood. That Wellwood is finally getting goals in after such a long goal drought! I wonder when Raymond will end his.

He then made a big hit. Not a hit that would be worth the highlight reel on Sportsnet or TSN, but a hit that did get notice from fans and commentator alike, which I consider is enough to be a big hit. I dream of the day he makes a HUGE hit that gets on the highlight reel and ends up on stuff like "Top Ten Hardest Hits" or something, but until then these not-as-big hits will have to do. (A Milan Lucic kind of hit through the glass would be AWESOME.) He did break the glass once with a hit but it wasn't as dramatic because the glass in GM Place is different and doesn't shatter. It's safer yes, but isn't it just so much more badass when it shatters into millions of pieces?

Amusingly enough so did Wellwood...who doesn't really hit much. The second period ended VERY MUCH in the Canucks' favour.

SECOND PERIOD

The second period was very dull, aside from a goal by the Avalanche. The Canucks decided to stop dominating and just let the game going like this ---------- and that wasn't a good idea since it gave Colorado the goal. Regardless, Bernier did manage to do something that earned a replay, and that was a defensive play! The Avalanche were coming towards the net with the puck and Bernier managed to tip the puck away from the player in front of Luongo, ending their chance. (Forgive me for not remembering WHO he stopped D: )

THIRD PERIOD

I was watching stuff during the intermission and changed back to the game just in time to see the Avalanche get a goal, just fourteen seconds in. I was like "wha...what happened" and apparently it was Luongo puck-handling again. Luongo is notorious for his poor puck-handling skills, which may have led to Darcy Tucker's chance at scoring, but bad luck combined with it caused the weak goal to bleed into the net. For some reason the media such as the news and even Sportsnet reported that Tucker just banked the puck in, but it was obviously stuck in his equipment and when he moved trying to look for the puck, it unfortunately ended up into the goal. I would say it's 50-50 between bad and unlucky, but if Luongo had played the puck better it wouldn't have happened in the first place.

That certainly put more pressure on the Canucks to put them away, but the game still felt kind of boring despite Edler taking his third penalty of the game or the desperation save Luongo made afterwards. However, from the Bernier-eye glasses perspective, Bernier did do some good things this period. They were getting out of the defensive zone and Bernier took a pass from either Raymond or Wellwood, and tipped the puck in. He was unfortunately on his side of the red line when he did that, so that made it icing, but Bernier put on the jets and zoomed towards the puck, touching it before the defensemen despite the fact that he had the better angle on it than Bernier did. He is not known for his speed probably because Bernier isn't that fast, but I wouldn't pin him as a slow skater either. That's the first time I've seen in recent games that ANY player on the Canucks managed to nullify an icing call, so that seems impressive to me. He and his line managed to kill some time late in the period.

Then Edler managed a goal for insurance and thankfully Sundin did not touch the puck otherwise Ohlund wouldn't have gotten that second assist! Ohlund, with that point, became the all-time-leader in points as a defensement of the Vancouver Canucks. Quite a milestone I must say~! I wish Ohlund will re-sign next season even if it seems unlikely...My favourite Canucks, do not leave! D:

We ended up winning the game and all was happy. When they were celebrating at Luongo's net someone went to either jump/hug/something at Ohlund but the camera panned away and for some reason focused on Pyatt instead (even though the commentator was talking about Ohlund's milestone so it would make sense to focus on Ohlund) It may just be my biased eyes but I think the person doing that was Bernier, either way congratulations Ohlund!