[GDT] Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues | August 12th, 2020 | 7:30pm PT, SNP | R1G1

[Toni Zamboni]

5-2 Nux win!

[Wayne Jetski]

55 minutes ago, John.Tallhouse said:

Damn, still no Tofu 

We are a meat and potatoes team!!!

[theo5789]

 

Let's make them feel their namesake.

[HKSR]

Man, this is invaluable experience for our young core.  Its clearly a win-win situation.  Lose the series and they gain a ton of playoff experience.  Win the series and their confidence will be through the roof.  Could carry them really deep into the playoffs.

 

Let the games begin! Go Canucks Go!!

[xereau]

This is a real team, guys who would step in front of a speeding train for each other.

 

 

[Nuck1991]

Mark Schiefele picks vancouver as dark horse.

 

[CanucksJay]

I know they are the defending champs but I dont see why we can't beat them. 

 

I look at both rosters and think we are fairly evenly matched. 

I think we have a deeper team and think some heroics from our bottom 6 will win the series. 

 

Looking forward to a great series. 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by CanucksJay

[yes we can nucks]

3-0 Nucks. Eriksson with a hattrick. He gets rewarded with a new 6 yr deal @ 10 mil per.

[aznmonk]

1 hour ago, John.Tallhouse said:

Damn, still no Tofu 

LOL we won without him.  we can win it all.....

[Beary Sweet]

Our Calder finalist among the assists leaders in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Way to go, Huggy Bear!

[Bell]

Blais is a head hunter.  Keep ur heads up boys go canucks go.

[Jester13]

I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and say we stomp them 6-2. Our speed and tenacity will force lots of PPs and we'll capitalize over their garbage person in net they call their goalie. 

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Just win.

[PhillipBlunt]

O’Reilly, Dunn and Berube have all shown respect in a recent article.
 

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/266065755/defending-champion-blues-brace-for-canucks

 

I like the Blues. Perron annoys the hell out of me, but overall St. Louis is a solid team that’ll be a great opponent. 
 

Go Canucks Go. 

[Darius]

50 minutes ago, Nuck1991 said:

Mark Schiefele picks vancouver as dark horse.

 

ESPN is picking Canucks in this series too. 

 

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29628270/2020-nhl-playoffs-preview-first-round-matchups-bracket-series-picks

 

No. 4 St. Louis Blues vs. No. 7 Vancouver Canucks

What we learned in the qualification round: The Canucks' young core of stars -- many playing their first playoff games -- had its Bar Mitzvah in the qualification round, as Vancouver eliminated the defensively stingy Minnesota Wild in four games. The defending Stanley Cup champions, meanwhile, sleepwalked through the round-robin with a 0-2-1 record; uncharacteristically poor possession numbers; and an alarming trend of getting outplayed in the third period, having been outscored 6-0. Can the Blues flip the switch for the games that matter?

 

First line: The Blues have a couple of choices here, but we'll go with the trio that saw the most time together this season: Ryan O'Reilly, centering David Perron and Zach Sanford. You know what you're getting out of O'Reilly, who had 61 points in 71 games to lead the Blues. Perron is a streaky goal scorer, while Sanford is a big body in the offensive zone. The Canucks' top line became a dominant one when Vancouver acquired J.T. Miller last summer and paired him with Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson. The Canucks had a 57.4% expected goals rate in the series against the Wild after posting a 57.89% expected goals rate at 5-on-5 in the regular season. They're a force. Advantage: Canucks

 

Forward depth: Vancouver's second line is anchored by another member of the young core in Bo Horvat. He's skating with Tanner Pearson and Loui Eriksson, who in the span of a decade has gone from underrated to overrated back to underrated and is now somehow both an object of ridicule and someone for whom fans root. Down the lineup are Antoine Roussel, Brandon Sutter, Jake Virtanen, Jay Beagle and Tyler Motte. Micheal Ferland, who returned after a long layoff to start last series, is "unfit to play" to start this one. The Blues, meanwhile, roll four lines with many familiar names from their Cup run. Brayden Schenn centers a second line with Jaden Schwartz and a returning Vladimir Tarasenko, who is still getting the rust off from his months-long shoulder injury rehab. Robert Thomas, Tyler Bozak, Alexander Steen, Troy Brouwer and Oskar Sundqvist fill out the lineup. Ivan Barbashev is away on paternity leave, while Sammy Blais might be injured to start this round. Advantage: Blues

 

Defense: Alex Pietrangelo, the Blues' captain, could have easily have been a Norris Trophy finalist this season. He skates with Carl Gunnarsson, while Colton Parayko has seen time with trade deadline pickup Marco Scandella. Justin Faulk and Vince Dunn were an effective duo during the round-robin. For the Canucks, the most fascinating name is Quinn Hughes, who skated 24:11 per game and played with both Chris Tanev and Tyler Myers at times. But he's been protected: a whopping 90.5% of Hughes' shifts have started in the offensive zone. Alexander Edler has seen time with Tanev and Troy Stecher, while Oscar Fantenberg is also in the mix. Advantage: Blues

 

Goaltending: Jordan Binnington was a star last postseason, providing the backbone for the Blues as an unflappable rookie all the way through their Game 7 win on the road for the Stanley Cup. But while he was good in the regular season, he wasn't dominating, with just 3.25 goals saved above average. Jacob Markstrom had 11.56 goals saved above average, and the Canucks were reliant on him as the last line of defense for a team that didn't always play a lot of it. He was stellar in their qualification-round series win, with a .926 save percentage. Jake Allen of the Blues and Thatcher Demko of the Canucks are capable backups. Advantage: Tie

Coaching: Blues fans better hope Craig Berube continues to have his finger on the pulse of this team and can get St. Louis into another gear as the "real" playoffs begin. Travis Green has been one of the NHL's most underrated coaches for a while and did a masterful job in getting his team to break through against a very good Minnesota defense for his first series win in the NHL. Advantage: Tie

 

Special teams: The Canucks won the special-teams battle with Minnesota and will have to do the same against a Blues team that might be better than them at 5-on-5. Vancouver's power play was right behind St. Louis', in fourth place in the regular season, while the Canucks' penalty kill (16th) ranked right above the Blues'. Advantage: Tie

 

Prediction: Canucks in 6. It's entirely possible the Blues don't carry a single difficulty they had in the round-robin into this round against Vancouver. But it's absolutely certain Vancouver will carry its confidence from its qualification round win into this series. It was a crucial, "proof of concept" series victory for a team learning how to win. With their speed and goaltending, we think the Canucks pull the upset here over the defending champions.

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by Darius

[PhillipBlunt]

4 minutes ago, Jester13 said:

I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and say we stomp them 6-2. Our speed and tenacity will force lots of PPs and we'll capitalize over their garbage person in net they call their goalie. 

Trash Binington?

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

Edited August 12, 2020 by AlwaysACanuckFan

[Rush17]

Quote

 For the Canucks, the most fascinating name is Quinn Hughes, who skated 24:11 per game and played with both Chris Tanev and Tyler Myers at times. But he's been protected: a whopping 90.5% of Hughes' shifts have started in the offensive zone.

Yes.. Yes.. underrate Quinn Hughes muahahahahhahahaha  Little do they know.

 

[billabong]

Season is already a success win or lose this series but let’s goooooo create some more “moments” 

 

tanev goal brought the most joy to this fan base and franchise in a long, long time

[buddhahoodlum]

You don't need a psychic to tell you this is going to be a tough series. Canucks may have fared well against the Blues in the regular season but a best of 7 series is a different animal altogether. That said I'm confident in our boys. I'll say they win 5-4 in OT tomorrow and take the series in 6.