[PGT] Vancouver Canucks at St. Louis Blues | Aug. 12, 2020 | Canucks lead series 1-0

[apollo]

It's amazing what removing a toxic fan base from the arena can do.

 

No pessimistic toxic drunk fans in the arena to crap on our own team... Guys like Loui and Sutter end up playing their best hockey in years... 

 

Our time is now. 

 

If you have something negative to say, maybe meditate 10 minutes every morning until those thoughts are gone. God bless. 

[oldnews]

4 minutes ago, Darius said:

So if Toffoli is ready to go later in this series, who do you take out? 

I think it's Eriksson.  

Boeser and Toffoli would  re-make up the top 6 RW - Eriksson is the odd man out imo.

 

To think that the team has the likes of Ferland, Toffoli, Gaudette, Leivo out - and can still win tough playoff games against solid opponents = serious depth.

[oldnews]

1 minute ago, PhillipBlunt said:

I think that’s most fans of professional sports teams. 

 

True - I'm just looking at "us".  Here. 

 

If the Leafs fans want to troll Marner et al..... not sure you'll catch me intervening lol.

[Darius]

Just now, oldnews said:

I think it's Eriksson.  

Boeser and Toffoli would  re-make up the top 6 RW - Eriksson is the odd man out imo.

 

To think that the team has the likes of Ferland, Toffoli, Gaudette, Leivo out - and can still win tough playoff games against solid opponents = serious depth.

i cant believe i forgot about Leivo.  Another big body that can stack up well against a team like St Louis.

[IBatch]

23 minutes ago, N7Nucks said:

He's getting sub 10 minutes. Hard to do anything with no ice time. Big Mac has borderline looked invisible, but I know it's not cause he's bad or anything but because he's not being utilized. Greener has shortened his bench to the stud top 6, and the safe vet bottom 6ers (Sutter, Beagle, and Motter). People say, "Jake is invisible, haven't seen him." Well it's not hard to tell why, he's not even playing.

Really thought McEwen was engaged and even dangerous every shift - his roughing call was also total BS barely finished his check and so much other garbage was happening it was the stupidest call of the game.   He had their best line hemmed down to the point they drew a penalty... McEwen was more noticeable then JV, and that’s ok - he definitely knows which side his bread is buttered on and is an absolute must as a deterrent against a team like St Louis and MIN for that matter.   McEwen definitely made the most of his minutes.

 

Agree that JV didn’t play much - and he also agree (if that’s what your saying) that JV was “invisible “ in a good way. 
 

Don’t see any purpose in criticizing a win like that.   We allowed one breakaway to one of the fastest players in the game - and they capatilzed.    No complaints here at all. 

[sassbs]

Any word on Leivo and his possible return?

 

[Nucker 67]

That was the Bo we needed. Kind of hate Perron, after watching him take liberties with Hughes. He mugged Pettersson as well. What a punk. Hoping Roussel gets in his face, or maybe goes after Schwartz. Canucks were frustrating the Blues. I hope they start Binnington again. Pettersson scoring that beauty crushed his soul lol   

[KyGuy123]

Very happy that our PP setup was back and looking great for game 1. Found that we couldn’t setup properly in the Minnesota series. 

[Rindiculous]

5 minutes ago, apollo said:

It's amazing what removing a toxic fan base from the arena can do.

 

No pessimistic toxic drunk fans in the arena to crap on our own team... Guys like Loui and Sutter end up playing their best hockey in years... 

 

Our time is now. 

 

If you have something negative to say, maybe meditate 10 minutes every morning until those thoughts are gone. God bless. 

Apollo our favourite homer is back!  The Stanley Cup is ours now 

[RUPERTKBD]

1 hour ago, Rush17 said:

That would destroy any confidence the team has in him if the coach pulls him after 1 game lol. They have to give the guy at least the start of the next game. 

Happens all the time. NHL goaltenders have played their entire lives knowing that a bad game will have you on the bench for the next one, especially in a playoff game. Coaches don't have the luxury of trying to protect their keepers' confidence. They have to do what they believe will win them the next one. IMO, that's starting Jake Allen tomorrow.

 

When Curtis Joseph was on the Blues, Keenan used to give him the hook after one bad goal, or period. Because he's a pro, he didn't let it stop him from becoming an all-star and Vezina finalist later in his career....

[cuporbust]

3 minutes ago, sassbs said:

Any word on Leivo and his possible return?

 

I actually forgot about him. I seriously doubt he comes back this year even if he is healthy.  

[IBatch]

4 minutes ago, oldnews said:

I think it's Eriksson.  

Boeser and Toffoli would  re-make up the top 6 RW - Eriksson is the odd man out imo.

 

To think that the team has the likes of Ferland, Toffoli, Gaudette, Leivo out - and can still win tough playoff games against solid opponents = serious depth.

Said this before the series started and will say it again.   Adding TT IF we are already winning still could back-fire.   If it were up to me I’d let him sit even if healthy until we do lose a game and then put him in.   Especially considering how great our second line has been playing - don’t mess with that one bit - if TT is ready to go put him on the third line so it has a little more teeth.  McEwen should probably also stay.   Against St Louis we need a 6’5” guy that can throw his fists fast and hard. 

[-DLC-]

Not sure if this was posted yet (will check & delete if so).   So good.

 

EDMONTON – The St. Louis Blues aren’t the Minnesota Wild. But then maybe the Vancouver Canucks aren’t the Vancouver Canucks anymore, either.

Validated, educated and emboldened, the Canucks looked Wednesday against the Stanley Cup champion Blues almost nothing like the jittery, uncertain playoff rookies they were just over a week ago against Minnesota.

 

They handled the powerful Blues’ intensity, size and talent and simply pulled the game away from the champions in the third period as the Canucks won 5-2 to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ first round.

Vancouver Canucks on Sportsnet NOW

Livestream the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, plus every game of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sportsnet NOW.

CHOOSE PLAN

 

The Canucks have so many things going for them right now, including the angels on their shoulders. Troy Stecher scored the winning goal Wednesday then looked up to one of them. Stecher’s dad, Peter, died suddenly on Father’s Day in June.

“My darkest nightmare you could ever imagine,” Troy told Sportsnet last month.

The Canucks have brought a lot of light back into Stecher’s world, and it was clear listening to teammates speak after the game — or try to — that the likeable defenceman from Richmond, B.C., has given some light to them.

“It’s been tough, obviously, at certain moments throughout this process but I’m thankful to be surrounded by my teammates,” Stecher told reporters after scoring the biggest goal of his life. “I had a couple of seconds there to reflect on my dad. The biggest thing is everyone showed their support on the bench instantly and kind of gave me a tap and that just kind of motivated me to keep it going.”

Stecher ripped an unscreened slap shot from the right-wing circle that went between St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington’s arm and torso to break a 2-2 tie at 5:37 of the final period. During the next television timeout, as players spilled on to the ice for a quick stretch, Canucks star Elias Pettersson grabbed hold of Stecher and hung on to his teammate for several seconds while speaking to him.

“I saw his celebration right away and I wanted to congratulate and tell him… “ Pettersson explained, then paused. “Just what Troy had to go through in the summer was just devastating, so I just wanted to go and hug him.” 

Canucks captain Bo Horvat said: “I couldn’t be happier for Troy to get that one. I think I can speak for everybody…”

 

And then Horvat couldn’t speak at all as emotions swamped him.

The Canucks are an awfully tight group. They have that going for them, too.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom lost his father, Anders, last November, while winger Zack MacEwen’s dad, Craig, died in May.

“I know what he’s going through,” Markstrom said of Stecher. “It’s not easy… I got emotional as well thinking about it. I gave him a big hug after the game.”

In the final period, the Canucks beat Binnington on three of four shots.

Horvat dismantled Blues defenceman Vince Dunn one-on-one before snapping a shot into the top corner to make it 4-2 at 8:01, and J.T. Miller scored from Brock Boeser’s pass with 39 seconds remaining as the Vancouver power play went 3-for-6.

Miller mysteriously was unable to participate in the warmup, but whatever was bothering him was not apparent on the ice as the power forward logged 22:02 of ice time while scoring one goal and setting up another.

And Markstrom, who had one of his poorest games this season when the Canucks eliminated Minnesota in the qualifying round on Friday, was outstanding while stopping 29 of 31 shots. Vancouver defended well in front of him, limiting St. Louis to just eight third-period shots when the Blues were desperate.

 

“Obviously, they won the Cup for a reason, so we were ready for it,” Horvat said after composing himself. “I thought we showed some good things tonight and some pushback, and obviously scoring those big goals late was a huge clutch for us.

“You need everybody to win, first of all. You need your secondary scoring but you also need your power play to produce in the playoffs. It’s such a key thing in playoffs. We’ve done a great job to spread the scoring around and guys stepping up at key times. Everybody is doing their role and playing the way they have to play to win.”

 

 

The Canucks are suddenly on a four-game winning streak after getting shut out by the Wild in the first game of their Stanley Cup tournament.

But the Canucks have graduated from eliminating a Minnesota team that had won four playoff rounds in 20 years to staring down a St. Louis squad that won four playoff rounds last spring.

Any ideas that the Stanley Cup champions, who drifted through their meaningless playoff round-robin, might not be fully engaged for the Canucks were quickly dispelled.

They looked for two periods like the heavy, deep, talented team that won the Blues’ first championship just 14 months ago.

It was fast, physical, hard hockey, but the Canucks power play forced the Blues to chase much of the game.

Miller teed up a shot that Horvat wristed short-side on Binnington during a power play to make it 1-0 at 4:29 of the first period.

 

St. Louis’ man-advantage unit tied it on a near-identical play at 16:37 as David Perron whipped a quick shot from the slot into the top corner.

The Canucks power play struck again at 8:37 of the middle period when Pettersson picked up a loose puck after Boeser made a strong move to crease, then fired into the top of the net while falling to make it 2-1.

But the Blues pushed back again just 72 seconds later, conjuring a tying goal out of nothing when Jaden Schwartz won a race to the puck against Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev and beat Markstrom on a breakaway with a gorgeous deke. The play started with Miller winning an offensive-zone faceoff, but Schwartz reacted more quickly to the puck and dusted Tanev in the foot race.

The play looked like it could bend the game in the Blues’ favour. Instead, it seemed to strengthen the Canucks’ resolve. And stir the hockey gods and those among them.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/canucks-growing-confidence-experience-playoff-game/

[Darius]

6 minutes ago, apollo said:

It's amazing what removing a toxic fan base from the arena can do.

 

No pessimistic toxic drunk fans in the arena to crap on our own team... Guys like Loui and Sutter end up playing their best hockey in years... 

 

Our time is now. 

 

If you have something negative to say, maybe meditate 10 minutes every morning until those thoughts are gone. God bless. 

one thing i like about playing in the same empty arena night after night is that it levels the playing field as far as travel is concerned.  Canucks have gotten the short end of the stick many times by travelling a billion kilometres during the regular season then doing some more serious travel in the post season.  Playing at a neutral site that is empty looks like it levels the variables in certain ways....

[WHL rocks]

8 hours ago, FaninMex said:

Oh, and it looks like the Canucks found a Bennington weak spot. Blockerside just above the pads. I wonder if they will be able to exploit that later in the series

 

Thats a week spot for every goalie. There's a little space there as goalie transitions into butterfly....

 

But takes a perfect shot to score that goal.. hard to make that shot...

[RUPERTKBD]

On Virtanen:

 

The league is full of past and current power forwards, who's teams gave up on them too early. The Canucks lost one in Cam Neely and years later the Islanders gave us a gift, when they decided Bertuzzi was never going to become and elite player.

 

Virt is one of, if not the fastest player on the Canucks and he has a great wrist shot. I think it would be criminal to give up on him now, especially for lousy return.

Edited August 13, 2020 by RUPERTKBD

[IBatch]

1 minute ago, cuporbust said:

I actually forgot about him. I seriously doubt he comes back this year even if he is healthy.  

Leivo won’t play another game as a Canuck.  Wish him well but with cap restrictions we can’t afford that sort of depth anymore ... same with Fatenburg (OJ will slot in) same with sucks to say but probably Stetcher. 

[theo5789]

2 hours ago, Googlie said:

His unpenalized crosscheck on Petey, and subsequent attempt to knock his head on the ice should warrant a suspension, but won't.  Unfortunately, the players on the ice with Petey aren't first responders... Tanev, Hughes, Boeser.  Miller would, but he is nursing his wrist injury, and was almost an "unfit to play"

 

Time for the line blender for game 2

 

Zack on Petey's line, and Miller drops to center a line between Roussel and Gaudette (Zack played center in Utica, and is a decent faceoff man)

Rest Beagle for a game to let his hand heal a bit, and play Sutter between Motte and Jake (or Bailey, if Green thinks Jake needs a 73rd wake up call)

Replace Fanta with Juolevi, if we need better breakouts from that pairing with Myers, or Benn, if we want more truculence.  Myers and Fanta are not a good pairing. 

 

Games 3 and 4 are back to back, so nagging injuries management needs to be factored in.  For Beagle, one on - one off might accelerate the healing process. (With the luxury of a 1-0 lead, maybe give Graovac a taste ... he's played 70 NHL games,  but never post season)

 

But someone has to neutralize Perron

I guess you must've missed Edler wiping him out after that sequence. Hopefully someone has a clip of it somewhere.

 

I don't think Pettersson is minding that he's drawing this attention as it's opening up his teammates, so as long as they're capitalizing, then Petey will be glad to do what it takes to win. But it is amazing that the refs could see a play like MacEwen throwing a hit possibly fractions of a second late and/or have his hands slightly high (surely the refs would ask Green to pick one) and call it a roughing penalty, meanwhile letting that Perron crap go on Petey and Hughes while standing a few feet away.

 

I didn't have a lot of beef on the reffing, but that MacEwen penalty was an absolute joke. It's either you call it strict like that all game or don't if it's "playoff hockey". With that said, not sure if now is the time to mess with a winning formula. No need to shake everything up over Perron. We dealt with Hartman's crap, we will just push through Perron's. Roussel will give it right back to them. First one to blink takes the penalty and punish them on the PP.

[RUPERTKBD]

1 minute ago, WHL rocks said:

Thats a week spot for every goalie. There's a little space there as goalie transitions into butterfly....

 

But takes a perfect shot to score that goal.. hard to make that shot...

Yep. it's weak all seven days.....

 

We used to call it the 7 hole, back in the day.....

[bishopshodan]

7 minutes ago, apollo said:

It's amazing what removing a toxic fan base from the arena can do.

 

No pessimistic toxic drunk fans in the arena to crap on our own team... Guys like Loui and Sutter end up playing their best hockey in years... 

 

Our time is now. 

 

If you have something negative to say, maybe meditate 10 minutes every morning until those thoughts are gone. God bless. 

Did you meditate ten mins and your negative thoughts were still there, so you decided to post?

 

This team is awesome and we are great fans. Most that fill Rogers in Vancouver are also great. Most are not drunk toxic fans, perhaps you don't know the price of booze in the building?