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

[IBatch]

8 hours ago, Darius said:

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.

 

 

 

Travis Green is one of the most underrated coach in this league and has been for awhile ... Berube took a floundering team all the way to the cup on one of the biggest coaching improvements all-time : advantage TIE.   Man that must burn a few folks on here’s  cheeks.   Ha ha.   I agree with most of this - think maybe they aren’t looking at goaltending with a current event view but won’t complain - with the tie Binnington < Markstrom,  Allen > Demko.     They have a great back-up who’s capable of playing mid-range number one hockey if Binnington goes down or just plain sucks and they need to switch it up.    Other then that great article...St Louis is one heck of a team - huge litmus test for us,  I for one believe we can beat these guys, they aren’t as good as they were last year although still a very good team .... and they are the champs.  

[rychicken]

12 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Travis Green is one of the most underrated coach in this league and has been for awhile ... Berube took a floundering team all the way to the cup on one of the biggest coaching improvements all-time : advantage TIE.   Man that must burn a few folks on here’s  cheeks.   Ha ha.   I agree with most of this - think maybe they aren’t looking at goaltending with a current event view but won’t complain - with the tie Binnington < Markstrom,  Allen > Demko.     They have a great back-up who’s capable of playing mid-range number one hockey if Binnington goes down or just plain sucks and they need to switch it up.    Other then that great article...St Louis is one heck of a team - huge litmus test for us,  I for one believe we can beat these guys, they aren’t as good as they were last year although still a very good team .... and they are the champs.  

I have been a TG supporter...I feel like he has a good balance between being very confident in what he knows and believes in, but also realizes that it is an "always learning" profession. 

 

I also like that some articles/media refer to him as young....we were both born in 1970, so I appreciate that 

[IBatch]

24 minutes ago, rychicken said:

I have been a TG supporter...I feel like he has a good balance between being very confident in what he knows and believes in, but also realizes that it is an "always learning" profession. 

 

I also like that some articles/media refer to him as young....we were both born in 1970, so I appreciate that 

50 years young!  TG to me isn’t much different then our young stars - he has loads of potential but is learning on the job - he gets top marks for getting the team ready to play each night and overarching the past 2 years or so.   He was given better players to work with this year and didn’t disappoint.   Just look what happens to good teams with good coaches ... they underachieve for only so long and then the axe comes.   Personally I think TG has hit the tipping point and now is not going to be one and done if and when he does lose his job here (it will happen as it always does)....and it might end up being like a Quenville situation by then if everything works out perfectly.   Or a Crawford one who knows.   What I’m saying is he won’t be out of work long when it does happen.    As long as we are playing about where is expected of this roster or above it his job should be safe and it most definitely is right now.   It’s a bit of a double edged sword as after this year expectations will be up too.  Think he’s just fine and glad he’s a BC boy,  and that he’s not Babcock.  
 

Edit:  For someone else who’s watched this team for decades and seen many different coaches come in and go (Neilson, Rick Lee, Quin, Keenan, Crow, AV etc etc) that it’s not an easy job - and that even the best ones get maimed by certain elements of the media and fanbase.   The things I like best about TG is his patience.  He doesn’t windmill the lineup like crazy in games when things aren’t going right (Keenan - wow that was something, or pull the goalie with half a period left for that matter) ... and seems to know how to get the most out of his players - intensity and try wise.   Those are valuable traits.   And the guy was ahead of the curve and talking about things like zone entries and tracking them before the data was tracked for him (a little Nielson in him too).  Quin was my favourite all-time coach because he always had his players backs and they loved him so much they’d play their hearts out for him.   But he wasn’t perfect either.  And did lose the room at least as far as getting the most out of them eventually too.  Not an easy job that’s for sure . 

Edited August 12, 2020 by IBatch

[whcanuck]

8 hours ago, buddhahoodlum said:

Here's the thing too, ALL the pressure is on the Blues. They are Cup champions after all. Canucks are playing with house money at this point.

Can’t remember the last time a Canucks team didn’t have a bunch of pressure to win a playoff series. Probably 2002 against the Wings, one of the greatest teams of all time. Vancouver scared the heck out of Detroit in that one too, until a certain unmentionable red-line goal. I think Vancouver will really push St. Louis and force them to have to play well!

[rychicken]

6 minutes ago, whcanuck said:

Can’t remember the last time a Canucks team didn’t have a bunch of pressure to win a playoff series. Probably 2002 against the Wings, one of the greatest teams of all time. Vancouver scared the heck out of Detroit in that one too, until a certain unmentionable red-line goal. I think Vancouver will really push St. Louis and force them to have to play well!

I don't recall that  lol

[Bo fan]

What can be better then this - Canucks playoff hockey in Aug - I love it

 

[IBatch]

6 minutes ago, whcanuck said:

Can’t remember the last time a Canucks team didn’t have a bunch of pressure to win a playoff series. Probably 2002 against the Wings, one of the greatest teams of all time. Vancouver scared the heck out of Detroit in that one too, until a certain unmentionable red-line goal. I think Vancouver will really push St. Louis and force them to have to play well!

Good comparable.   We had that team on the ropes the first 2.5 games until that infamous pivotal moment.   Why Burke didn’t go out and find a different number one goalie still bugs me.   I get we had spent years looking for McLeans replacement...and Cloutier was fine in the regular season....yeah I’d say this is definitely a similar situation...the biggest difference is St Louis isn’t considered a top ten (8) all-time team like those Detroit teams were - and 2002 is considered the best of the bunch.

[JustRich]

I'll have to blast "Where the streets have no name" at 7:30 or so.

 

 

For old times sake.

[theo5789]

22 minutes ago, rychicken said:

I don't recall that  lol

Then you are one of the lucky few.

[Shift-4]

Going to be a long day!

 

Go Canucks Go!!!

[Silent Man]

36 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Good comparable.   We had that team on the ropes the first 2.5 games until that infamous pivotal moment.   Why Burke didn’t go out and find a different number one goalie still bugs me.   I get we had spent years looking for McLeans replacement...and Cloutier was fine in the regular season....yeah I’d say this is definitely a similar situation...the biggest difference is St Louis isn’t considered a top ten (8) all-time team like those Detroit teams were - and 2002 is considered the best of the bunch.

Me too. Cloutier was a great teammate, but could not play under the pressure. In the first two games of that series , when there was no pressure, he was great, especially in game 2, then, with pressure on, at home, he was awful in games 3 and 4. I mean, Canucks managed to limit the best team in NHL to 14 shots in game 4 and Dan let in 3 of them.

Then he was pulled in game 5 and allowed 2 goals on 3 shots in game 6. 

Anyway, I think this Canucks team is different from 2002 team. We have a better goaltender and younger team, and St. Louis is not as good as Detroit was back there.

We have a good chance. GCG!

[ruilin96]

First official playoff game day in 5 freakin' years! WHO AIN'T PUMP FOR THIS?!?!?! GO CANUCKS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bishopshodan]

1 hour ago, rychicken said:

we were both born in 1970, so I appreciate that 

[Tre Mac]

Game day and today is my Friday, Go Nucks!

[wloutet]

2 hours ago, rychicken said:

we were both born in 1970, so I appreciate that 

Sheesh, that's when I started teaching!

[Gnarcore]

2 hours ago, FilthyRich said:

I'll have to blast "Where the streets have no name" at 7:30 or so.

 

 

For old times sake.

Gross. 

[-DLC-]

I feel so grateful to have this game we love so much back.

 

AND TO HAVE OUR BOYS IN THE PLAYOFFS!

 

August day, sunshine and hockey.  Covid can't suck all the joy out of life because it's in these moments that we find it.  Stop and smell the roses what the Canucks are cookin'!

 

Enjoy everybody...cheers!

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Silent Man said:

Me too. Cloutier was a great teammate, but could not play under the pressure. In the first two games of that series , when there was no pressure, he was great, especially in game 2, then, with pressure on, at home, he was awful in games 3 and 4. I mean, Canucks managed to limit the best team in NHL to 14 shots in game 4 and Dan let in 3 of them.

Then he was pulled in game 5 and allowed 2 goals on 3 shots in game 6. 

Anyway, I think this Canucks team is different from 2002 team. We have a better goaltender and younger team, and St. Louis is not as good as Detroit was back there.

We have a good chance. GCG!

Ugh that hurts a little when you put it that way.   Really felt that was our year ... being a Canuck fan has its pitfalls.   As in always waiting for the other shoe to drop stuff.   This team is kind of a blank slate and so far the imprinting has been great.   A new chapter for sure and like our chances both now and in the future. I truly hope they are all aware that we won’t have this sort of depth probably ever again with this core .... and think they do.   Miller - what a champ.   Hope they record and show his starting lineup thing again ... a sneak peek into that locker-room is definitely like a big beer and delicious burger to go with it for the soul of us hard-core fans.   Happy times again.    Either way really.   Think we will smoke these guys in five ... six at the most. 

[-DLC-]

1 minute ago, Gnarcore said:

Gross. 

Never did like the lyrics as a "go to war in the playoffs song" but the intro gives me goosebumps every time I hear it in connection with our team.

[wildwood12]

Somebody please punch Marchand on the nose!