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Vancouver’s undoing in Game 3: Miserable power play and turnovers

Vancouver Canucks v Boston Bruins - Game Three

BOSTON, MA - JUNE 06: Zdeno Chara #33 of the Boston Bruins and Johnny Boychuk #55 celebrate as Roberto Luongo #1 of the Vancouver Canucks looks down after a goal during Game Three of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on June 6, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

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There were more than a few things wrong with what happened with the Vancouver Canucks in last night’s Game 3. When you get beaten 8-1 there’s generally a laundry list of things to check off to correct. A couple of things that went especially wrong for Vancouver reminded us of things that went wrong for Boston in Games 1 and 2.

Vancouver’s woes with the puck in Game 3 started with their power play and special teams in general. After the Canucks killed off Aaron Rome’s major penalty in the first period things went downhill for them. They went 0-8 on the power play and gave up a power play goal to Mark Recchi in the second period and then two shorthanded goals, one to Brad Marchand in the second and another to Dan Paille in the third.

All around it was not a banner night for Vancouver’s special teams but Canucks captain Henrik Sedin says they have to do better.

“If we score early on the power play or when it’s 2-0 and we get a chance, that’s a chance for us to get in the game. Instead we let them score the other way. That’s a killer. It hurts the guys on the ice and if you’re sitting on the bench and you see their PK score a goal... That hurts,” Sedin says.

It wasn’t just the special teams that did the Canucks in, it was their lack of puck control that hurt them as well. The Bruins capitalized on turnovers much in the way the Canucks did in the first two games of the series. The turnover issue is one that wasn’t missed by Henrik.

“They’re a team like us and they feed on turnovers. We turned the puck over on our power play and our five-on-five and that’s why you see the chances they get. We’re going to have to keep this tight. We can’t open it up just to get things going. We have to rely on our system and go from there.”

Seeing the tables turned the way they were in such a lopsided way still has us a bit stunned. After all, you don’t see teams score eight goals in a game often and certainly not in the Stanley Cup finals. For Vancouver, they stressed that they too were also able to get the Bruins to turn the puck over as well and that they just couldn’t capitalize on things thanks to Tim Thomas’ work in goal.

Canucks assistant captain Ryan Kesler described what he saw out there.

“I thought they turned the puck over a lot. We had a couple of grade-A scoring chances and we didn’t bury it,” he said. “We had a couple of turnovers and they had their chances and they buried it and we didn’t. That was the difference in the game.”

Hockey can be a simple game but if it’s as simple as Kesler and Sedin make it out to be, the corrections for Vancouver in Game 4 on Wednesday will be simple to make. If it runs a little deeper than that then we might very well have ourselves a series.