Canucks need to limit the mistakes

VANCOUVER -- After reviewing the tape of Saturday night's 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators, Canucks coach Alain Vigneault came to the conclusion his team needs to cut down on their mistakes.

David Legwand's first goal of the night came on a turnover at the Predators' blue line as Mikael Samuelsson was manning the point on Vancouver's power play.

Joel Ward's first goal came off of a Canucks' turnover at their own blue line. His second of the night, and seventh of the playoffs, came as a result of an Alexander Edler turnover deep in the Vancouver zone.

"Obviously it would've been better for us to get it done (Saturday) night, but that being said, hockey is a game of mistakes. We made some and they made us pay for it," Vigneault said Sunday. "We're not going to be perfect tomorrow; we're going to make mistakes also. We just got to find a way to win a game."

Ryan Kesler, who picked up a pair of goals in the loss, agreed the Presidents' Trophy winners need to cut down on mistakes moving forward.

"We just got to make sure that one mistake doesn't turn into two … it's a game of mistakes out there. You're going to make mistakes, we're human, no one's perfect," Kesler said. "For us, we got to try to limit the mistakes."

While addressing the media Sunday afternoon at Vancouver International Airport, Vigneault also took the time to give the Sedin twins a vote of confidence. The pair was a minus-7 in the Game 5 loss.

"First of all, that's an unfair stat. They were on the ice for all of the four goals, but none of them they could do anything," the Jack Adams finalist said. "They couldn't do anything with Eddy (Alexander Edler) putting the puck in our net, they couldn't do anything on the Samuelsson turnover and they couldn't do anything on the other two turnovers.

"Right now they're working extremely well and extremely hard. Obviously at the end of the day, they're our guys that are supposed to put up points and contribute in that fashion, but I'm supporting them 100 percent. They're working every shift. Every time they're on the ice, they're trying to do the right things and trying to play the right way."

Daniel Sedin, who has just two assists in the series and is a minus-5, was sporting a new haircut as the team boarded their charter bound for Nashville. The younger of the two twins believes the pair is lacking the bounces at the moment.

"I think both me and Henrik look after games at what happened and analyze the game," he said. "You earn your bounces and it's all about hard work. If you work hard enough, you'll get your bounces."

There will be at least one roster change for the Canucks in Game 6 as Samuelsson did not travel with the team to Tennessee. The 34-year-old Swede got tangled up with Nick Spaling in the first period of Game 5 and was favoring his left leg. The Canucks say he is day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Vigneault was non-committal on who would replace Samuelsson, but Victor Oreskovich, who played in the first two games of the series, along with Jeff Tambellini, who is yet to play in these playoffs, were both with the team as they departed for Nashville.

Back to top