One of the things that stood out about last night’s loss to the Bruins was just how much Boston was playing like the Canucks did two years ago when they had that memorable second half of the season when they could do no wrong, and it seemed like every game was a one-goal victory.

All I could keep saying to myself was, “There’s no way that they’re going to come back and tie it up.”  Not that they didn’t put in the effort, because they definitely did.  But a comeback just wasn’t in the cards last night.  It wasn’t even like the Columbus game last week where they just ran up against a goalie who stood on his head all night.

Tim Thomas had a good, but not spectacular game to record his second straight shutout, and the Canucks dropped below the .500 mark again.  They had their chances, but they just didn’t have what Tom Larschied calls “puck luck”.  Even with good opportunities, like Daniel Sedin’s breakaway, they just couldn’t seem to solve Thomas.

And the goal-scoring issue continues to be a mystery.  Some games you think that the Canucks don’t have any problems putting the puck in the net, and sometimes you wonder if they’re going to score any in the next two or three games.  But the fact that they have had a number of high scoring games does point to the fact that they are able to score, and that they don’t have the problems that every other pundit seems to think that they suffer from.  Scoring goals isn’t the problem, but rather doing it consistently.

I don’t think that anyone put in a horrible effort, although I would question why, on Michael Ryder’s goal, were there two defensemen standing in front of Roberto Luongo, looking at him, rather than where the puck was after Luongo poked it back into the slot.

One thing that I did notice was that most of the shots that the Canucks were able to get on Thomas, he had a clear view of the shot.  When are they going to start parking people in front of the net and effectively screening opposing goaltenders?  This was something that Todd Bertuzzi used to be excellent at, before he started playing like he did in his last couple of years in Vancouver.

Ah well, time to regroup, because the Kings and Ducks are up on Thursday and Friday.

From behind the bench:

• Game 9: Mama Said… – Crashing the Goalie
• Canucks/Bruins – The Humming Giraffe
• Bruins 1 – Canucks 0 : Trapper’s Paradise – Waiting for Stanley