"It was Turkey Day, but the Vancouver Canucks were served a surprise helping of humble pie Monday at Rogers Arena. On a night when the defending Northwest Division champions took three minor penalties and didn't draw any, they were hemmed in their own zone on too many occasions and pushed to the limit by the feisty Florida Panthers before claiming a 2-1 victory. And in the end, it took an extra effort by Daniel Sedin to ensure the Canucks would improve to 1-0-1 and wouldn't be talking about the one that got away after coughing up 42 shots to a team playing back-to-back games. "We had a tough time getting the puck out of our own end and that's when you take too many penalties," said Henrik Sedin, who took a hooking minor. "We couldn't get the puck to where we wanted and we didn't make the plays we wanted." The one they made to snap a 1-1 deadlock served early notice of what it may take the Sedins to score on a regular basis. On the winning goal, Mikael Samuelsson took a shot and Henrik poked at the loose puck in the crease as goalie Tomas Vokoun dove across. Daniel then pounced on the puck and, while diving around the prone keeper, swept it home at 14:52. "I was lucky because I thought he put it in himself, I think he pushed it in," Daniel said of his shot that seemed to go off Vokoun's glove. Then again, if luck is opportunity meeting preparation, then give Daniel and Henrik credit for storming the crease instead of trying to foil Vokoun from the slot. That's how Daniel opened scoring Monday. He roofed a rebound coughed up by Vokoun after Henrik had won the draw and Samuelsson sent a harmless backhand to the Panthers crease that the goalie bobbled. "As a team we have to play this way, get guys in front of the net and work hard to get goals," stressed Daniel. "Last year, the goals came easy to us. If we need to win games 2-1, that's fine with us as long as we keep the goals against down." What the Canucks couldn't do Monday was keep the Panthers from bearing down on them. Despite having superior foot speed on the back end, the Canucks found themselves without outlets and pinned to the endboards too often." http://www.theprovince.com/sports/h... take bite Panthers gritty/3655308/story.html
