WCQF: (4) St. Louis Blues vs. (5) Vancouver Canucks

[WHL rocks]

6 hours ago, xereau said:

Dubas should be canned for that hilarious travesty in Toronto.

 

At least fifteen million in overpayments, just in the last 2 years.

 

Has screwed parity in the league too. Can and blacklist his useless arse.

Can't blame Dubas for Marner contract.  Leafs ownership got involved told Dubas to agree to Marners salary demands.

 

And everything runs thru Shanahan.  Huge mistake with Nylander signing when he held out. Should have let him sit the season.. 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by WHL rocks

[Hairy Kneel]

Okay boys we're in tough boys.

But that's never stopped us before. 

Canucks avg  6'2"  199 lbs

St Louis  avg  6'2"    204 lbs

 

Blues Defenseman- Parayko, who’s 6-6 and can skate like the wind, He’s a horse. And Bouwmeester with  Pietrangelo, Faulk, Dunn (avg size)— all those guys can move and are tough to play against.” Then add the rest —Bortuzzo,  Gunnarsson, and even rookie Mikkola, the Blues clone blueliners that are 6-4 or 6-5 and weigh 210.

 

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Hairy Kneel

[Nave]

Will be a good test for us.
Pettersson vs Binnington.
I think it will go to 7 games.

[Odjick the Warrior]

[Rick_theRyper]

8 hours ago, TNucks1 said:

must be a typo

Saw a different schedule yesterday posted and games 5-7 times were “TBD” that’s making more sense

[canuck2288]

6 hours ago, zimmy said:

Interesting indeed. Interesting that the Blues decided to play Vlady Tarasenko today after sitting him against Vegas 

the other night. Interesting tanking strategy I’d say, not that I’m drawing any conclusions.

Weird thing is Dallas had Seguin out so who knows? 
 

[canuck2288]

6 hours ago, CaptKirk888 said:

Binnington sucked for 3 games, .897 ga average. Jake Allen played great in the last game, 1 goal on 39 shots in reg. lost in ot.

With that logic Allen is the guaranteed starter in game 1 right?

 

wont happen 

[Kootenay Gold]

7 hours ago, CaptKirk888 said:

I'm pretty sure most people in Missouri would have no friggin clue what that flag means.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[logic]

7 hours ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

While I did really want to face off against Dallas, got to remember that for whatever reason they slammed us in the season series and had a lower GA than St Louis remarkably. I think despite their lack of a star defenceman, they play a very solid team defence (like Minnesota but much better) which will be hard to crack and will frustrate the Flames. On the other-hand, without Seguin they've showed that they really can't score goals in the round-robin.

 

Meanwhile, the Blues limp into the series win-less and Binnington got shelled. They were one of the best home teams so without home-ice advantage things might be a bit different. Obviously they're the Champs and can turn it on at any point but holefully the Canucks can catch them before they get a chance and get a few wins in and break their spirits. We won the season series and I think we've won the last 3 playoff series against the Blues. Of course they were completely different teams but for whatever reason, we matchup well against them. Let's hope that continues. They took loads of penalties in the round-robin so hopefully our PP gets some good looks as well. Their powerplay is solid as well (I think top 5) so I think the PP and goaltending will decide this series. Let's just hope Marky + Hughes > Peitrangelo + Binnington.

 

To be honest, we were never going to beat the Avs or Vegas and go through to the Finals so we might as well play the best in St. Louis and win or lose, will be great experience for the kids. However, if there's ever a chance for the 7th seed to beat the 1st seed it's now.

Heiskenen and Klingberg are pretty elite 

[BoKnows]

The more I think of it the more I'm convinced this series is going at least 6 games.  This series can easily go either way.  At the end of the day this will be an incredibly valuable experience for our young guys.  

 

Building a winning tradition for Petey, Boeser, Hughes, Demko, Juolevi, etc.  

[yes we can nucks]

5 hours ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Okay boys we're in tough boys.

But that's never stopped us before. 

Canucks avg  6'2"  199 lbs

St Louis  avg  6'2"    204 lbs

 

Blues Defenseman- Parayko, who’s 6-6 and can skate like the wind, He’s a horse. And Bouwmeester with  Pietrangelo, Faulk, Dunn (avg size)— all those guys can move and are tough to play against.” Then add the rest —Bortuzzo,  Gunnarsson, and even rookie Mikkola, the Blues clone blueliners that are 6-4 or 6-5 and weigh 210.

 

 

 

And yet we were 2-0-1 against them in the regular season. Size doesn't matter. Bring'em on! We're not intimidated.

[Silent Man]

7 hours ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

While I did really want to face off against Dallas, got to remember that for whatever reason they slammed us in the season series and had a lower GA than St Louis remarkably. I think despite their lack of a star defenceman, they play a very solid team defence (like Minnesota but much better) which will be hard to crack and will frustrate the Flames. On the other-hand, without Seguin they've showed that they really can't score goals in the round-robin.

 

Meanwhile, the Blues limp into the series win-less and Binnington got shelled. They were one of the best home teams so without home-ice advantage things might be a bit different. Obviously they're the Champs and can turn it on at any point but holefully the Canucks can catch them before they get a chance and get a few wins in and break their spirits. We won the season series and I think we've won the last 3 playoff series against the Blues. Of course they were completely different teams but for whatever reason, we matchup well against them. Let's hope that continues. They took loads of penalties in the round-robin so hopefully our PP gets some good looks as well. Their powerplay is solid as well (I think top 5) so I think the PP and goaltending will decide this series. Let's just hope Marky + Hughes > Peitrangelo + Binnington.

 

To be honest, we were never going to beat the Avs or Vegas and go through to the Finals so we might as well play the best in St. Louis and win or lose, will be great experience for the kids. However, if there's ever a chance for the 7th seed to beat the 1st seed it's now.

I feel the same way. Hopefully, we'll win!

[EP Phone Home]

We have had the blues number in the regular season the past few years and are 3-0 all time when playing them in the playoffs. I’m not expecting a 2009 sweep more like a 2003 back and forth battle that sets up a heaven or hell game 7 decider. Love the fact that I am back into town Wednesday from my BC coastal voyage. Binnington is not as hot as he was last year, our boys are hungry and blues are content and full. Let’s do what we did in 2011 and dethrone the champs! 

Edited August 10, 2020 by EP Phone Home

[skategal]

Win or lose it's going to be a fun ride!  Great experience for our team!  Chance for the brass to evaluate who stays and who might be tradable.  If OJ plays in and does well gives us some options on D.  If Mack outplays Virtanen...trade chip?  

 

Go Canucks Go!  

[CanucksJay]

I think canucks are going to surprise this series. 

We match up quite well with them. 

Markstrom is going to rebound and play great this series. 

I am hoping we get to binnington's head early in the series. 

I think Hughes will keep playing great hockey and open up some seams in their defence and our top guys will capitalize. 

We're slightly less gritty but more skilled and I think we'll see a fast paced great round of hockey. 

 

[Bang Bang Boogie]

5 hours ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Okay boys we're in tough boys.

But that's never stopped us before. 

Canucks avg  6'2"  199 lbs

St Louis  avg  6'2"    204 lbs

 

Blues Defenseman- Parayko, who’s 6-6 and can skate like the wind, He’s a horse. And Bouwmeester with  Pietrangelo, Faulk, Dunn (avg size)— all those guys can move and are tough to play against.” Then add the rest —Bortuzzo,  Gunnarsson, and even rookie Mikkola, the Blues clone blueliners that are 6-4 or 6-5 and weigh 210.

 

 

 

Petey's going to be in for a tough time. If we thought Minnesota was bad, St Louis will be at a whole other level. I hope he he'll be up for it.

[stawns]

23 minutes ago, Bang Bang Boogie said:

Petey's going to be in for a tough time. If we thought Minnesota was bad, St Louis will be at a whole other level. I hope he he'll be up for it.

The good news is, St Louis will focus on shutting Petey down....... fortunately he's not the player they should be most worried about.  The advantage to having a dman as your best player is that he's hard to matchup against..........especially when the cman is your shutdown guy

[skategal]

25 minutes ago, Bang Bang Boogie said:

Petey's going to be in for a tough time. If we thought Minnesota was bad, St Louis will be at a whole other level. I hope he he'll be up for it.

Part of the learning process, I expect he'll adapt.  Never gets easier, that's why it's the hardest trophy to win in pro sports.  He and others will have zero time and space so it's on the rest of the team to help out, earn the Blue's respect, chip in goals to take the pressure off our stars.  

[oldnews]

2 hours ago, stawns said:

The good news is, St Louis will focus on shutting Petey down....... fortunately he's not the player they should be most worried about.  The advantage to having a dman as your best player is that he's hard to matchup against..........especially when the cman is your shutdown guy

I think that's part of the reason it's so crucial to roll with a shutdown oriented bottom six.  When a team has the likes of Pietrangelo, O'Reilly, et al, they can match up exceptionally well against any team's top unit.    Getting secondary scoring, particularly from Horvat's unit, will probably be critical.  And while it may seem counterintuitive to suggest that a talented offensive guy like Gaudette might not be the best option (when a team will probably need secondary scoring), I think it will be crucial to have no centers/ lines that need to be 'sheltered' (particularly with a young top line - I think Gaudette as a winger probably makes more sense right now) - and with the offensive depth that the Blues have, it'll take three lines that can matchup (Sutter, Beagle and Horvat) to try to limit them.  I also think that Sutter is an under-rated offensive player - a sneaky counterpuncher - that both enables Horvat to play less hard minutes, and can frustrate opponents (I think of the impact that Sutter and Dorsett had on the McMe1st line for example).  Side note - but imagine if they could add DD to this group - what a difficult bottom six that would be to deal with.  In any event, I really like the Roussel Sutter Virtanen combination on the 3rd line - they're hard to play against and stand a decent chance of equalling an opponent five on five - if they can do that to one of St Louis' top 6 lines,  and Beagle/Motte manage the other, the team has a chance imo.

 

I also think that this is an exceptional opportunity for teams with young cores.  Usually 20, 21, 22 year old are flagging down the stretch of a gruelling 82 game season - but this year, they've had 4 months to recover, and most teams have a relatively healthy complement of players.  Of course, that's not necessarily the case with the Canucks - who've lost Toffoli, Ferland, Leivo, (possibly Gaudette?) - but that's usual for this team - and fortunately they have an unusual amount of forward depth.  It'd be nice to get Toffoli back, but regardless, overall it's hard to complain about the context heading into this series - the team probably has about as good a chance as could reasonably be hoped for at this point.  They may also have a slight advantage of a more extended 'warm up' for the playoffs - do the teams that won qualifiers have a bit of a step on the ones that have had slightly less intense round robins to this point?

Edited August 10, 2020 by oldnews

[Kragar]

10 hours ago, King Heffy said:

Motte is like Burrows before he developed the offense.  Just absolutely no quit in that motor.  I would argue our 4th line is better than the 2011 team.

Motte... do we really need him?