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DownUndaCanuck

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Everything posted by DownUndaCanuck

  1. Wonder if Sutter was a bit banged up too or just shortened bench - I'd have expected him out defending much more than he was in the 3rd period late. Obviously hope Myers isn't out too long but regardless - this is why we got defensive depth. Benn would be perfect for this series. Yes, he might make some mistakes, but he can really throw his body around and knock those big forwards off their feet below the red line. If Sutter's injured as well our bottom-6 looks a lot worse, maybe promote Beagle and Motte to our 3rd line and bring in Gaudette?
  2. Absolutely crazy game for a few reasons but credit to these Canucks and how they came out to play in OT. Lots to dissect, it was a real back-and-forth game but Bo is putting this team on his back right now. 1) Firstly credit to the Blues, they came out and played their best game. When they're on top of their game they hit hard and they won just about every puck battle, they forechecked and hit hard and came out on top most of the time 5-on-5. Hell of a team, you can see why they won the Cup and we can learn a lot from them - hit hard, play through the opponent and net front presence which is something we don't always have. We've always been more of a fast-skating, precision-passing team and it's interesting to see how it matches up against a decent Cup team. I think the longer the post-season goes, the more we need to play like the Blues. They played a hell of a game tonight to be fair to them. 2) Our top line was pretty average 5-on-5 but boy did the stars shine on the PP. Pettersson with a nifty game, quietly racking up some points with some big star-player plays and Miller was surprisingly average tonight. We need to see more from J.T, more physicality would be nice from him. I thought Boeser had quite a lazy game to be honest, his first one of the post-season, where he was just gliding to loose pucks and seemed to lose a lot of puck battles. I think this series is really where someone like Toffoli would shine - a big fast body with playoff experience - he'd really help our top-line 5-on-5. 3) Pearson was brilliant again tonight, could have easily had a couple of goals. He's proving his worth and his playoff experience is really shining through. Obviously a monster goal for us but he's got some nice link-up play with Bo going at the moment. I thought Eriksson had another shocker of a game, couldn't do the simple things like clear the zone and had an open-net tap in that just about anyone else would have converted. As far as I'm concerned I'd swap Eriksson and Motte if I were Green. 4) Can't say enough about Horvat. I had a feeling this player would come, and he's just deciding now that he'll do it all on his own. He's got a plug of a linemate in Eriksson and to be fair Pearson isn't much of a playmaker so isn't really setting Horvat up. I've seen during the regular season Horvat just try and do it all his own and it rarely works, but now he's making it work and pulling off marvelous plays. Yes the first goal was flashy and nice but that was against 2 forwards playing rubbish defence. I think the OT winner is much more impressive - he's getting closed down by two defenders, has no angle on Binnington and just snaps it 5-hole with speed in a clutch moment right after the Blues had sustained pressure. This guy is carrying this Canucks team at the moment and he's basically doing it by himself - imagine how good he'd be with a scoring or playmaking winger. We haven't seen someone take over a series in a long time - have to think back to Linden and Kesler (against Nashville) really. Clutch OT goals is what he was made for and, as we've seen before in his OHL career, he's a post-season performer. 5) Our 3rd line were basically invisible tonight. Virtanen had one nice pass, one nice hit and one bad penalty. Sutter really didn't do very much which is a shame because he was solid earlier on. Roussel as well was barely to be seen. These are the guys who need to clap back with physicality when the Blues are playing such a heavy game. 6) Fair play to our fourth line, especially Beagle and Motte, who were IMO two of our best players. They absolutely stoned the Blues PP and I think Motte's our 2nd or 3rd best player at the moment. Not just great PKer, but he's winning just about every puck battle he's in. I honestly think we should exchange him for Eriksson but that would upset the apple-cart too much and Green would never make a gutsy swap like that. His ice-time tells the tale though, Motte's another playoff performed it seems and he just couldn't lose a puck battle against a team that was dominating every battle along the boards. 7) Edler and Tanev were again solid tonight. Obviously Edler makes a brutal giveaway which wasn't called earlier for a high-stick so to be fair I'd let him go with that one. Tanev again was a monster defensively, especially when the Blues were pushing hard. 8) Sad to see Myers go down to injury and you do hope it's not actually his shoulder because he was starting to look quite solid and boy do we need him to use his size against this Blues team. Hughes was brilliant on the PP and obviously benched when we were defending (so much for the "pressing" mentality when leading) but as soon as he comes out in OT he makes a brilliant play behind the net, takes a hit and makes an inch-perfect pass off the boards to evade the defender and thread it through to Horvat for the winner. This kid had all the pressure in the world coming at him from literally all angles and he not only evades it and defends well but instantly goes on offence in the matter of seconds and sets up the winner. This is what star quality can do for you - just like Peitrangelo tying the game late - Hughes just needs one moment and he puts together a beautiful pass. I'd like to see Green trust him more defensively because he did win a lot of stick battles below the red line but of course don't want to the Blues to just bang away at him either. 9) I thought Fantenberg had a hell of a game, we need his physicality desperately, but Stecher had a real stinker with a couple of terrible turnovers just brought on by a hard forecheck. 10) Markstrom was solid tonight, can't fault him on any of the goals. He's doing a hell of a job not only out-duelling Binnington but playing through far more traffic and barely seeing what's going on. Huge save in OT (although I think that was actually Pettersson) but he really kept his team in it tonight. 11) Final shout out goes to our coaching staff. Newell Brown has got this PP arguably the most dangerous I've seen it ever - I'd say it's more potent than in 2011 because then we just relied on the Sedins whereas now we've got 3 QBs (Miller, Petey and Hughes) and so many different looks. It's almost a guaranteed goal now when our PP steps onto the ice and other teams know this. Secondly, brilliant smart PK obviously but most importantly is Green's tactics. Fair play to him - he did try and run-and-gun with the Blues for most of the game which just wasn't working. We were getting out-skated and out-hit easily but we tried to continue the fast-paced play and it lead to loads of good A-grade scoring chances and rushes in particular. I was disappointed to see him revert back to the dump-and-chase mentality with 10-12 minutes left in the 3rd period but understand why he would, and of course it eventually cost us. That being said, whatever he did in that locker-room before OT he did a great job. The Canucks dominated play to start OT, had some chances, defended well and then break out with a brilliant star-player goal. Green should be proud of what he's done - he's sticking to his gameplan. The first game, sure, wasn't great by the Blues, but Green just got his team to overcome adversity and beat the Blues playing possibly their best game (with a 70% Binnington). On the whole, hell of a game, it ends up star players + PP > hard hitting grinding team. That being said, we'll see if the Blues tenacity wears us down over a hopefully-not-7 game series. The next game is basically the clincher...3-0 and it's curtains, 2-1 and the Blues will have some life.
  3. Hell of a game by the Canucks, they look amped for this playoffs. I always said during the regular season that this team was built for playoff success rather than regular season success and now we're seeing it with big bodies up front, big strong experienced defencemen, a hot hoalie and hot PP. This series is going to be decided by the little things like faceoffs, PP and goaltending, and tonight the Canucks won those matchups. We've got to be careful with Binnington and Allen who can come in and steal games but so far so good, and on the powerplay we really made them pay. As long as St. Louis continue their undisciplined play we'll keep winning. Ironically in 2011 this is how we went so deep - calm and composed team who never retaliated and the Sedins would put it away on the powerplay. Now it seems like our PP is much more balanced, we have even more threats than in 2011 and we can also retaliate when required. Of course everyone had a solid game but I'd single out Bo for sure, that dangle and goal sealed the game for us and his confidence is at an all time high now. This guy was built for the playoffs and you can just see him controlling the game. It's going to be hard for teams to defend both our top lines but we're seeing a Nashville-esque Kesler come to play in this series in Horvat so should be fun to watch. If we can take the next game by surprise as well then the Blues will really be reeling. Sure, no home ice advantage but the line matchups would work in our favour for games 3 and 4 in a big way against this team who's bottom 3 defencemen aren't too solid.
  4. 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.
  5. A cold Stars against a hot Canucks team is probably the best we can ask for. They haven't scored in 5 periods now...
  6. So we're one top-6 forward (Toffoli), 3 bottom-6 forwards out (Leivo, Ferland, Gaudette) and two bottom-6 defencemen down (Benn, Fantenberg). Hopefully we can inject some of these guys into the first round series at some point to give our team a boost. Not sure about how other teams injuries are looking so far to be honest but I'm sure they'll rack up after this re-start.
  7. I think this season is certainly a success but wouldn't stop at that. Like Green said, it looks like this team has gotten better and better every one of the 4 games. Let's just say I won't be surprised if we win the 1st round. St. Louis and Dallas have looked shaky (albeit up against a red hot Avs and Vegas team who look like they're peaking) and the Canucks have looked better than them so far so will be quite an evenly matched first round. Would be nice to win a proper round, and this is a fairly even matchup (especially if it's Dallas). After that I don't expect much but you never know in the playoffs...
  8. For some reason we won the season series against St. Louis with 3 tight games and us winning two of them. Against Dallas we got blown out in both games. That being said, the Blues are hungry, and they've got high expectations. A Canucks - Blues series has had history before and could be interesting - if pressures are too high for St. Louis we could sneak in as the underdogs and cause an upset if they choke (ala SJS). So far they haven't played GREAT hockey against the Avs and Vegas to be fair, but I bet they'll turn it right on in Game 1. On the other-hand, Dallas were only slightly a plus-team and only a few points ahead of us. They've been shutout already and haven't quite got their game together yet in the first two round robin losses. My worry with Dallas is that their top-6 will rip through our relatively-weak defence. Those big forwards will eat up our defence, with Myers the only big presence but he's not really that tough and guys like Benn will just barge through lil Hughes. It'd be a wide-open series and hopefully our firepower can keep up, but as long as Marky is hot we've got a decent chance. On the whole, you'd have to think the percentages would favour a Dallas match up because I really don't see us beating a St. Louis team that deep over a long series - we might get a couple of wins but they'll eventually show their worth. For that reason, I think depth-wise we're probably even a better team than Dallas despite the shocking matchup in the season series. One thing is that there's no more home-ice advantage so the season series may not even really matter that much.
  9. Watching not only all the pre and post game stuff, but during the game you could see the Canucks reactions to goals compared to the Wild. The Canucks have been amped up to be in this playoffs, they're hungry and surprisingly so for a team that's relatively young. A lot of it is fuelled by the veterans of course - look at the reactions from Miller, Pearson and even guys like Roussel and Beagle who's won it already. These guys are setting the tone in the locker room for guys like Bo, Pettersson, Hughes and Brock to take on their shoulders in the future. Right now as far as I'm concerned, as great a Captain as Bo is, I'd have to say J.T Miller is the driving force of this team not only on the ice but emotionally too. Very similar to Kesler's impact in 2011, probably more of an emotional guy whereas Henrik was the quiet captain. Of course they're not going to strip Bo of the captaincy but for me right now Miller seems to be a stand-out leader on this team.
  10. This is true, and Dallas were only +3 on the season. They haven't looked too sharp so far so actually yeah I agree would be lovely to take Dallas on. Especially where home-ice isn't much of a difference, doesn't really matter who we face, all the previous stats go out the window really. I like our odds against a team like Dallas, especially after they've just been shut-out. The key to either series would be our top-4 D stopping their elite scorers and of course our scorers trying to break their goalie. We went up against a hard, hot goalie in Stalock to be fair and eventually broke him but St. Louis' defence is much stronger, whereas I think we can tear Dallas' D up.
  11. Even on the Canucks website, we're listed as higher than the flames despite having 78 points and the Flames just below us on 79. So I suppose if we re-ranked the qualifying teams, it would go Canucks > Flames > Coyotes > Chicago, so does the worst team of the round robin play us and the best play Chicago?
  12. That's what I thought but on the NHL website they've got us pegged as 7th and Flames as 8th so maybe took into account win% or something else?
  13. Correct in saying we will play the loser of the Dallas-St.Louis game later? Then Green can start prepping...
  14. So as we're the highest-seeded team from the qualifying rounds, we play the worst team of the round robin? Looks like we'll avoid Vegas and Colorado thankfully. St. Louis and Dallas haven't looked great so far (obviously up against it) so hope for St. Louis really. We got belted twice by Dallas whereas we won the season Series against St. Louis quite nicely. Either way I'd expect some pretty close games.
  15. Probably one of the closest, tightest-checking series of the playoffs so far. Minnesota played a gritty, tough game but at the end of the day our star power and clutch players really shined. 1) Our top line was decent tonight, not fantastic, and they've been checked to death this series. No Sutter opened up play a bit more for them tonight but all 3 of the guys had a decent game. Was nice to see Pettersson and Boeser develop some nice chances and of course Miller's little things wins us the game (the screen). 2) Pearson was a monster tonight, I knew this would come as soon as we signed him but he's a playoff warrior, knows what it takes to win, scores us some big clutch goals and a huge play to tie the game that was all him. Obviously Bo didn't look that flashy but ends the night with a solid 3 points and couldn't be more clutch to tie it. As for Eriksson he was surprisingly useful tonight, had a lot of jump in his step and might fly under the radar here in the playoffs where experience will certainly help. 3) Our tertiary players have been outstanding this series. I think Sutter's been one of if not our best forward this series. Everyone was hating on him during the regular season but JB knows what he's doing, this guy is a tried-and-tested playoff performer and he really performed tonight. Huge goal to get us back in the game when the game was on a turning point and he's had about 7 A-grade scoring chances in the last 2 games just born out of hustle. He's a true warrior playing with 4th liners and he's getting the job done in all respects. This is what you want from your "foundational player" - such a solid 3rd line center. Motte had another strong game, Virtanen was good at times then quiet in others, hope Beagle's alright but had a hell of a strong game as well and I thought Zac was really generating some good offensive pressure and zone time, not only with his big body but nice quick hands in tight really help. We've got a really solid 4th line out there (as long as Beagle's alright). Roussel wasn't too noticeable tonight. 4) Edler, Stecher, Tanev and Juolevi all had a very solid game. Any time you don't notice the defencemen, that's a good game for them. Shame that Green basically shortened our bench to 4 defencemen, we can't keep that up in the future but at least there's a bit of a break now. 2 games in a row and we played our top-4 hard. 5) Myers obviously was atrocious going to the penalty box so many times but I agree in that it's not his fault, the refs were just calling everything, hardly playoff-worthy. Next round will be interesting and of course he should have learned after the first 2 penalties of the series to keep his hands down, but he made a hell of a play when Hughes made a huge mistake in a pivotal point in the game. Solid defenceman, just needs to clean up the penalties but in all honesty I think that was just specific to this round for some reason. 6) Obviously Hughes was a monster again tonight for us, plays around 27 minutes and scores a huge goal and an assist for us to get us back in a game that could have gone away from us when momentum was really swinging against us. This is when you need these stone-cold guys, and in the past in the playoffs this is where our team has been blown out. Hughes is by far our MVP so far this post-season and hopefully it continues. 7) Markstrom really had a rough night, he almost cost us the game on several occasions, including the time he went out to play the puck and should have been scored on to be fair. Poor guy will beat himself up but he and the goalie coaching staff have to address that short-side because you know the next team will pray on that. He's been so good for us so far so it's only fair his team bail him out for a night. On the whole I'm very impressed with what Green has managed to do against an extremely stingy defensive team. If the Canucks can blow a solid-Stalock and Minnesota defence open the way they did today, they can score on just about anyone. This special teams has been huge for us, the PP is clearly a weapon and if we keep having 5+ PP nights, we'll beat any team. We have all the components to go far this playoffs, if our PP is clicking, bottom-6 stay solid and goalie stays hot then we're in with a good chance!
  16. I'd watch out for teams like Minny, NYR and Chicago who have been granted a second life, they could come to play with nothing to lose. Minnesota have blown us out in seasons past, let's just hope the guys come ready to play because whoever wins the first game in these mini-series may just win the set. Minnesota's faceoffs and PK have been brutal, thats our opening in this series. If we win some powerplays and control off the draw we can really put this series away.
  17. Boeser is going to be the wild card of this series. Always comes up big against his home town, I wonder if it's worthwhilr having him on the top line and reuniting Toffoli and Pearson? I think the top line spot is Toffoli's to lose but it's going to be the first swap Green should make if things aren't going well to start. Our bottom 6 is a mixed bag really and depends on who comes to training camp more amped, physically ready and mentally prepared.
  18. Better beat Minny. They've had our number the first few seasons so let's hope Green gets the guys ready. Anyone could come out of this break and win the Cup, it's like a new season.
  19. Reilly, Barrie, Muzzin and now probably Lehtonen in their top 4. This is nice but they need to make that Marner for Pietrangelo swap if they want to be taken seriously.
  20. That team was built around a solid core, which was the trend back then. You had to had your key 7 guys to win in the playoffs. The Kings and Blackhawks did it with a super 7 and loaded up at the TDL, and we had a great core with the Sedins, Kesler, Burrows, Edler, Ehrhoff and Luongo. There's been some strong teams since, namely the Bruins and Capitals, but neither are as dominant as those 2010-2012 Canucks were. You could say the Bruins were better built (and still are) for the playoffs and they've got a fantastic core revolving around Marchand, Bergeron and Chara with pieces moving in and out of the core like Krejci and now Pastrnak. Looking forward, the question is, do we have a similar core developing? Petey, Miller, Horvat, Boeser, Hughes and Marky/Demko are all certainly good, and all have the potential to be as good as 2011, but it's a long way to go for Pettersson and Miller to become 100pt players, Horvat to win a Selke and Demko to be a 47-win Vezina nominee...
  21. He's a bit the same as Hughes really, doesn't kill penalties but racks up points on the PP and is a righty. I think we need a more all-round defenceman in our future top-4, Severson would be nice but I'm a bit cautious about his defensive play. We still might have the guy we want in Rafferty or Juolevi anyway. I would do Virt + Stech + Brisebois for DeAngelo if they'd be interested. Going forward, Hughes-Myers and Tryamkin-DeAngelo would be fun to watch.
  22. He's a good puck mover, decent size and uses it well but for some reason he's always had a shocking +/-. Whether that's because he's on a rubbish team, or his defending is actually that bad, I'm not completely sold on Severson the way I was when he broke out. Jake is having a big season and may be turning a corner, I'd give him a bridge contract and see what he can produce in the next 2 seasons before trading him because he may end up being the 20-30 goal scorer we needed from him.
  23. I'd lose Eriksson for sure and have a big think about Roussel. He might be key for us in the playoffs, but has been really up and down. I'd keep him on and decide in the offseason, lose him if we can keep all our guys for that extra 3M. Certainly keep Sutter and Beagle, their worth down the middle, especially in the deep playoffs, will be invaluable and Gaudette is not quite defensively good enough yet. 6M of LE off the books should be enough to resign Toffoli, even if the cap drops.
  24. Good on them for doing so, the season isn't over and there may well be playoffs and a Cup winner. Leading into 2011, Gillis just got us a couple of 3rd liners. He should have blown the absolute bank and traded away all our 1st and 2nd round picks of the next 2 years to give Kesler and the Sedins two 30 goal scorers to play with. We not only would have won in 2011 but arguably again the next season and could have created a dynasty. Biggest fault of MG tenure was not going all-in and becoming the ultimate buyer. We could have had a couple of cups. Plus, those picks didn't turn out the best anyway...
  25. We've never had strong, physical forwards in our top 6. We've never had depth and 10-goal scorers on our 4th line. We've never had a true top defenceman. We have had an elite goalie in Luongo. We've had two elite forwards in the Sedins. We've had a top defensive 2nd line center in Kesler. Ironically, the things we lacked in 2011, we have now. We've finally got offensive depth, which is always key in long playoff series because your 3rd and 4th liners are the ones who score goals when the top lines are checked to death. We've got a top defenceman in Hughes (debatable, he's not a top defensive defenceman but offensively, absolutely), and we've got some real strong top-6 forwards (Bo, Pearson, Toffoli, Miller). I think JB has created this club perfectly, and if they get into the playoffs they'll really do some damage in long matchups.
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