[PGT] Minnesota Wild at Vancouver Canucks | Feb. 19, 2020

[Smashian Kassian]

It was a game we should've won & we didn't. Lucky for us the division is trash, but we can't keep resting on that.

 

It's funny how everytime someone comes in we talk about how happy Horvat will be, then he just ends up playing with Eriksson anyways. It's too bad BB & Leivo are out for the year.

[Tre Mac]

Holy doom and gloom here.  I am happy with the point, down 1 to Minny after 2 periods and I thought no way they'll be able to claw back from that trapping team.  The PP had some great looks and a helluva save by Dubnyk on Petey.  Shootouts and breakaways need to be improved upon.  LE can @#$% off.  

[N4ZZY]

9 hours ago, Arrow 1983 said:

yes of course it is possible

 

but odd wise low probabilities 

 

The Canucks have 2 point and a game in hand on the flames

 

The Canucks could lose 2 more games then Calgary and we could still hold the tie breaker cause the Canucks have won more games against Cal then they have losed

I just feel like the team needs an upgrade on defense. But found it quite odd that Benning says that it's not really a priority at this point. I was a little curious about that statement. 

 

[bree2]

1 hour ago, Jimmy McGill said:

I don't mind the idea of Simmonds, as long as its not for something insane like Juolevi, but I'd prefer some defensive help. Benn was pretty bad a some key moments last night, not sure why he's struggling but something needs to change there, so hopefully something on d. 

I think Fantenburg is pretty close to returning, he practised with the team yesterday

[N4ZZY]

Just now, Tre Mac said:

Holy doom and gloom here.  I am happy with the point, down 1 to Minny after 2 periods and I thought no way they'll be able to claw back from that trapping team.  The PP had some great looks and a helluva save by Dubnyk on Petey.  Shootouts and breakaways need to be improved upon.  LE can @#$% off.  

amen about Loui. he's such a terrible player now. Does not deserve a spot on the roster. SHOULD retire at season's end, but we all know that, that probably won't happen. 

 

[N4ZZY]

Just now, bree2 said:

I think Fantenburg is pretty close to returning, he practised with the team yesterday

most likely will replace Benn. 

 

[MikeyD]

Squandered a point against a team that played like Detroit tonight. Passive defense for the win. 

[N4ZZY]

5 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

It was a game we should've won & we didn't. Lucky for us the division is trash, but we can't keep resting on that.

 

It's funny how everytime someone comes in we talk about how happy Horvat will be, then he just ends up playing with Eriksson anyways. It's too bad BB & Leivo are out for the year.

If Brock or Leivo was healthy, they would have taken that spot that currently belongs to Loui besides Bo. 

 

Feel bad for Horvat. You have this really nice and awesome player the organization just acquired in Toffoli, only for him to be playing with Petey and Miller. 

 

I hope Bo's career isn't that like the Sedins in the sense that they've never really had that they never had that winger - but instead a rotating set of wingers all throughout. 

[Pete M]

1 hour ago, Alflives said:

Would Green’s systems and passive philosophy allow Simmonds to play the role he needs to actually help us?  Where was Big Mac last night?  The kid played really well the previous game, and Green sits him.  

so LE was 31 years old when he got here....Simmonds is 31 years old with hard miles...Prust was 31 years old....I know Simmonds is not the answer.

[bree2]

1 hour ago, Darius said:

 

Dont see it happening Jimmy.  Bo is gonna be matched up against the Bergeron line.  No way Green puts Mac on that line, he seems to trust Loui more.

 

What I dont get is why not put Motte on that line.  If Green is so worried about defensive abilities of the player, Motte has shown he can play that role and probably has better offensive upside than Loui at this point.

I don't know but maybe Green is being forced by management  to play Loui.  cause I can't believe a coach would play him game after game especially in the top 6.

[JM_]

1 hour ago, Darius said:

 

Dont see it happening Jimmy.  Bo is gonna be matched up against the Bergeron line.  No way Green puts Mac on that line, he seems to trust Loui more.

 

What I dont get is why not put Motte on that line.  If Green is so worried about defensive abilities of the player, Motte has shown he can play that role and probably has better offensive upside than Loui at this point.

tbh I'd like to see Miller-Petey-Jake, Pearson-Bo-TT as our top 6. Pearson and TT would be a harder matchup than Pearson-Bo-Loui. 

[MikeyD]

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

He tries less then 73% of the time.   Doesn't cut it.  Keep this up and we will need to win 73% of the time the rest of the year.   I like your handle - it's just good enough, same with your posts - wish we could say the some  with half the roster right now...

 

That said I re-call two other times this year the sky was falling.   Hope that the team digs deep and finishes more on their chances...just need to have one more hot streak - or at least a barely a B level effort from everyone ha ha 

I find that hilarious considering Louie is the most physical player on that line. Neither of those players put in enough of an effort on that second line. Constantly playing in the defensive end every single game. Nobody wants to throw a body check. 

[MikeyD]

3 minutes ago, bree2 said:

I don't know but maybe Green is being forced by management  to play Loui.  cause I can't believe a coach would play him game after game especially in the top 6.

For over half a season, bree? 

[73 Percent]

Just now, MikeyD said:

For over half a season, bree? 

Yeah I've defended green since his Utica days but his excuses are running out.

[N4ZZY]

7 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

For over half a season, bree? 

A part of me actually thinks that maybe Green actually likes Loui 

[IBatch]

2 minutes ago, 73 Percent said:

Yeah I've defended green since his Utica days but his excuses are running out.

I'm not there yet,  hard to always patient...that said he's turned things around with this team twice already this season - he's one guy who needs to be giving his 100% right now.   How things go the rest of the season will determine his future for sure.   The league is fickle and not everyone gets a second chance. Most don't get a chance at all. 

[IBatch]

12 minutes ago, bree2 said:

I don't know but maybe Green is being forced by management  to play Loui.  cause I can't believe a coach would play him game after game especially in the top 6.

Ask Alf - he seems to have the inside track on this - play me in the top six all year and then I will retire ha ha. 

[Tracksuit]

15 minutes ago, bree2 said:

so Marky loses a game in a shootout and you think he has lost it, hmm mind boggling. the team played good enough to win,  

He wasn’t a sharp as this team needed the entire game.
he was good but good isn’t going to get it done for a team that’s  defensively incompetent. And that’s nothing new. 
But yeah, Mind boggling...lol. 
I’m not even putting this loss or many this season on him but if he doesn’t play lights out the odds of this team winning go down drastically. 

 

[EdgarM]

8 hours ago, JamesB said:

 

 

 

I was at the game tonight. Here are some late comments.

 

1. One of the highlights was the "top dog" race. Loved it. But I think Gus Horvat dog should have been given a head start. 

 

2. Like a lot of other people, I made a point of watching Toffoli. He had a good first shift, playing with energy. Obviously he wanted to make a good impression. But for the rest of the first period and in the second it did not look like he had much chemistry with Miller and EP. At the beginning of the third I was thinking that this is where Green might shake things up and move Virtanen to play with EP and move Toffoli to play with Pearson and Horvat, dropping Eriksson down to the third line. But Green kept the lines stable. In his first shift in the 3rd period, Toffoli made a nice play to pick up the puck in his own end and made a great pass to Miller who rang a shot off the post. Later that shift, Miller deflected a slap pass from Toffoli for a goal, and that line played well from then on, including Miller's second goal. I was also pleased to see Toffoli get in the face of a Minnesota player who made a high hit on EP. Overall, Toffoli played a good game, including 4 shots and being credited with 2 hits. Whether people like the trade or not (and I don't) we can't complain about his performance in his first game. And he should only improve as he gets used to playing with EP and Miller.

 

3. Motte is back. I was interested to see the Beagle line (with Motte) start the game -- getting the shutdown job to start. I have commented that since late November, the Horvat line has had the lion's share of shutdown duty. Some people has said that the Beagle line "shared" the shutdown role. That is not true. At least the "sharing" is far from equal. I have checked the numbers on Natural Stat Trick after almost every game. In some games the Horvat line would get maybe 6 or 7 minutes of shutdown time and EP and Beagle would each get maybe 3 to 4. But sometimes, Horvat would get 9 or 10 minutes and Beagle would get 1 or 2. That was the range. Tonight Horvat had 7 minutes, EP had 4 minutes, and Beagle had 3 minutes against Staal.  But, the point I want to make is that Motte was good. The line did better with Motte than it has recently without him.  Also, Motte played with Beagle on the 1st PK unit. Tonight Motte made an excellent play on the PK to get the puck to Hughes coming out of the box. Hughes made a great play to get the puck to Beagle for a tap-in for the first Canuck goal. Motte also had 5 hits to lead the team. Glad to have him back. 

 

4. I did not particularly intend to watch Hughes but I could not help it as he was the best player on the ice tonight in my view (although Miller was also very good).Every time he is on the ice I end up saying to myself "that was a good play", "that was a great play", etc. And that includes defensive plays as well as offensive plays. Whether it is skating the puck out of trouble in the D-zone, making a good pass to exit the D-zone with control, outskating an opponent to get to the puck first AND taking the right angle to avoid an effective forecheck, he makes a lot of great D-zone plays. And his O-zone play is obvious. He led all skaters with over 27 minutes tonight, and he and Tanev had the primary shutdown role, logging about 9 minutes at 5-on-5 against the Staal ine. RIght now Hughes is doing a great job at both ends of the ice. He is amazingly good for a rookie and has to be a contender for 1st overall in the redraft from his year and possibly the favorite (as he is for the Calder race). And he might make a run at EP's Canuck rookie scoring record.  

 

5. The above comments are all positive. So how did the Canucks lose? Well, the Canucks were the better team overall, with more shots, more shot attempts, and, more importantly, more high danger chances. The margin was not huge and it was disappointing that the Canucks let the Wild mount a late charge to come back and tie the game in the third, But the Canucks played a solid game.

 

6. Markstrom was not up to his recent standard however. He made some good saves but all three goals were saves he could have made. The first shot of the game for the Wild scored, and it was a good shot, but Markstrom was not perfectly positioned. Normally in that situation the D (Tanev) takes away the pass and the goalie focuses on the shooter, but Marky was back in the net and cheating toward the middle. The other two goals were kind of unlucky and maybe there was not much Marky could do but they looked like the kind of play Marky might make when he is on top of his game, even the puck that bounced off Stecher's face. 

 

7. People are kind of tough of Stecher. He is going through a bit of a tough stretch but his play is not that bad. And the rumours about him being on the trade block probably do not help. Benn is the guy who been really struggling. He made a bad mistake on the first Minnesota goal -- going for a puck in the neutral zone, getting beat,  being out of position, and opening up the 2-on-1 that scored. He gets protected minutes (he was on the ice for only 27 seconds against the Staal line) and still gives up way too much defensively and contributes very little offensively.. His slow skating speed looks like an issue to me. I hope Fantenberg is healthy soon. (And, yes, Eriksson had a poor game and I agree that I would rather see Big Mac in there instead.)

 

8. Like everyone else I am kind of nervous about where the Canucks are right now. They are clinging to a playoff spot but obviously they need some wins soon, and they have a tough game coming up against Boston. 

Very well said as usual JamesB thanks. I concur with Toffoli in that I thought I would see him play with Pearson as they obviously have chemistry together to say the least. I would also like to add that Jake seemed to play way better with Miller and Petey and he is playing less inspired on the 3rd line. LE is obviously not as effective playing in the top 6 as he was initially, that shine has worn off and I am not sure why TG does not see that.

I have been saying that about the 4th line as well as I always thought they were the "shutdown" guys against the oppositions top lines but we have our 2nd line doing that responsibility. They should really find the proper chemistry between players and get them to play their proper roles. Bo needs a defensive responsible legit "top 6" guy and the 4th line needs personnel who can shut down the opponents top line. Also, like you said, Motte improves that 4th line greatly.

I also seen in some of TG's blender of lines, actual flow to the play where all 4 lines seem balanced. Then he mixes up the lines and we go back to being hemmed in our own zone for most of the game. Like others have said, we have the personnel, they just need to be deployed properly.

[Bo fan]

12 minutes ago, bree2 said:

I don't know but maybe Green is being forced by management  to play Loui.  cause I can't believe a coach would play him game after game especially in the top 6.

For a while I thought they were playing LE in gifted positions to showcase him - and for a bit he played better

But I am hoping if this was the case they stop now - cause it isn't making LE look good - imo