a good post-mortem time
april 10th, 2025 | VAN @ COL: 4-1
well, well, well. we died. and it wasn't even up to us! the wild and the sharks duked it out to decide our fate, and, well... ded. bleh. it's deeply improbable that we were ever making the playoffs, but still. the fact that we hung on for so long is something to hold on to. it has to mean at least something right? especially with all the noise around brock, with what he said. i really, really hope that isn't how things end. especially since the problem is the term. sigh. anyway!!! that's too much of a bummer! this was a good game, okay! let's get into it.
the 1st period is pretty much eventless, but i feel like we were playing pretty well! okay, caveat: mackinnon wasn't playing tonight. he's out with an undisclosed injury until... the 19th. look, this isn't rocket science. now i don't know if he's actually injured, maybe he is, i dunno, i do not keep track of the avs. but i'm just saying, for the avs, it doesn't really matter if he plays tonight or not, because their playoff spot is clinched anyway and he can rest. i won't complain, it definitely makes things a little easier for the canucks to find a little bit of the joie de vivre they desperately need.
joy is what they need and joy is what they get—in the 2nd, jake debrusk opens the scoring, popping the puck up under the crossbar, off of a kiefer sherwood pass that was honestly so satisfying to see. he spun around with it and set it up for jake so quick and it came as a bit of a surprise to me. but like, honestly, almost every goal this night was a bit surprising.
case in point, i was blown away when just a few minutes later, kiefer snaps a quick wrister off of dak's pass to make the score 2-0 for the orca. wow!! god, i love kiefer, truly one of the best signings of all time. i think he's found his place, he is such an amazing fit for this team, i want him to stay forever and ever and ever.
the energy is good, this game. you get a weird little soundbite of what seems to be hoggy screeching in frustration that he couldn't get the puck in (oh, hoggy. just you wait...) while pius is right in the middle of a pile-up in front of the net. (classic!)
like, why does this always happen to him.
anyway, devon toews gets a goal, and it's just like, okay whatever. i'm not losing hope yet, why the hell would i? that's not gonna take the wind out of my sails, no sir. especially not when we get TWO short-handed attempts on the avs' powerplay. so close! pius on the pk, post and out, argh! would've been sick.
colorado definitely outshoots us when the 3rd starts, but lanky's been so so good for us. we're goood, we are all fine! and guess what, dak gets a goal! catching the rebound, now that is what we like to see! beautiful wonderful effort → results from that line of dak-aatu-kief, i like it a lot.
and how could i not mention my sweet large baby boy delias dettersson lil d-petey junior's first ever real fight? he's got that dawg in him, and woah, i think there was some hair-pulling! nasty work. and he WON that. whew! good freaking job, kid.
annnnd that is basically the game! oh? what's that? the avalanche pulled their goalie you say? well well well, looks like Someone's gonna get a goal after all... NILS BIG HOG HÖGLANDER! i imagine he would prefer a "real" goal so to speak but hey. that's one of the nicest empty netters you can pull off, brother. the little tuck in after a bank pass? love it.
so yeah! finito. aatu gets a weird last minute penalty but who even cares, we won!!!!!
extra:
now, i'm going to save the real retrospective for when the regular season is actually finished, so a week from now, but i do think it is worth talking about what it means to keep playing now that we've been eliminated. because yeah, i do see it quite a fair bit, "shouldn't we be tanking so we can boost our draft odds?" well... i don't know if this season is necessarily it. right now, the canucks are sitting in 18th place for the league, which is right in the mid territory. and it's not a case of "played well in one half, badly another" no, we've been painfully mid the whole season. we've never been bad enough to warrant diving down into the depths of the standings... we just needed to get healthy, among other issues within the team and organisation. i mean, we were the pacific division champs last year. this team HAD something there, something that could turn into success, but. things have been uncertain for a while.
and that's why, i think, we need to win as much as we can right now. or, well, at least, try to have fun while playing. sure, maybe it doesn't matter, and maybe it won't help, but if we tore it all down in the hopes of drafting a new star, i don't know how much THAT would help us either. morale is already so low, i don't really want to pretend like the roster we have right now is just completely worthless. and we HAVE good prospects. i just think... everybody needs to remember that hockey is fun. play some meaningless games, have some fights, get weird, get silly.
you'll need that joy for later.
