The St. Louis Blues scored four times in a 7:36 span to open the game en route to shelling the Vancouver Canucks6-1. David Perron with his first career hat-trick, Brad Boyes with 1+3, Andy McDonald with 1+2 and Erik Johnson with his first of the year scored for the Blues. Henrik Sedin potted the Canucks lone goal.
Chris Mason was strong when he needed to be, but unfortunately (for Canuck fans) that was not very often as Vancouver came out flat and remained that way for much of the game. Roberto Luongo was supposed to get the night off but was called upon after 20 minutes when Alain Vigneault decided he had seen enough of Raycroft's poor play. In Raycroft's defence however, the team was plain and simply not good enough in front of him and the goaltender didn't have a chance on a couple of the goals.
The Blues snapped a 3 game losing streak with the win and improved to .500 while the Canucks fell to 10-9 on the year. Vancouver is back in action on Thursday night in Detroit, where Luongo will get the start and Daniel Sedin and Jannik Hansen are expected to dress for their 1st game back from injury.
Our take: Is it just me or do a lot of teams and players break their slumps (and players with their 1st ever NHL goal, while we're at it) against the Canucks? Both David Perron and Brad Boyes snapped their slumps while the Blues also snapped their 3 game losing streak.
Injuries or not, a performance like that against a struggling young team is just not acceptable. Vancouver was rested and should have been the fresher team and they came out sloppy allowing a goal in the first 16 seconds, and then a bunch more at quick intervals for a few minutes after. The Canucks will have to come out strong and play a solid overall game to get a win against a smart, experienced Red Wings squad, and a trip back to .500 would be tough to swallow.
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