Post-Game Talk: GAME 38: Canucks def. Blues - 5-1 (Horvat, Gaudette, Leivo, Virtanen, Eriksson)

[M2Beezy]

We should play the Blues more often. A poster recently made fun of me for always predicting the scores so badly esp with goal scorers but before the 1st game against them i predicted 6-1 with 4 goals from Boeser (he got 3), then predicted 5-2 last night and got 3 of the goal scorers right.

Man i predict a lot of things wrong but not when we face the Blues

 

[THE Green Man]

First period might have been one of the Canucks' worst all season. Outshot 15-5, and without Markstrom they're down by at least a couple. Quiet night for Petey and Brock, but the foot-soldiers at the bottom of the roster stepped up.

Have to say that Eriksson might be in one of his best stretches of games as a Canuck--consistency the only issue. But those d-pairings of Gudbranson-Hutton; and Biega-Pouliot...Yikes!....your heart is in your mouth every time they handle the puck in the d-zone.

Not understanding this mild dissing of Gaudette. This kid's week over week improvement since arriving in the NHL is kind of stunning. Scored last night with a drive to the net; but getting at least three for four glorious opportunities every game now. Just can't see how they can send him to Utica unless he falls off the cliff in the last half of the season.

Have to agree with Gaudette- his play the past two weeks has been a substantial improvement. Send down Biega and Schaller when everyone is healthy.

 

[LuckyDay]

Does anyone still remember Berube's cross check on Rich Sutter? Everytime Shorthouse called him their "friend" I just wanted to beat him over the head with the tape of the incident. They played it over and over and over on every tv station for the next week, and I even saw one American sports caster show it as an example of "this is why some people don't like hockey".

Pretty glad to watch St Louis lose right now if only for this reason.


Not sure if this was prompted by that but Richie missed some time over the ensuing back injury before, later, Messier would shove the inside of the blade of his stick into his mouth.

 

[VanJack]

Blues are a cautionary tale about what can happen when, in the words of Torts, the core goes stale. Seems like just a couple of seasons ago that this Blues team was among the top-three Cup contenders in every pre-season poll. And you look at the current roster and you have to just scratch your head about why they've been so bad.

Goaltending? Were some of their top-six overrated? I don't think so. You look at their blueline, and they've got at least three top guys who'd look good on any other them in the league. But for whatever reason, they're worse than sum of their parts and probably need a fire sale.

In the NHL's salary cap world, the bottom can drop out of the bag very quickly.

 

[VancouverJagger]

The reason why I’m optimistic is because I think those times where Gudbranson looks good coincides with him being healthy and the times where hasn’t played as well we have often later learned after the fact that he was playing through an injury. The guy has had terrible injury luck with us, wonder why (thanks Geography and thanks NHL schedule makers for making it worse) defensemen who never had injury problems come here and start to miss more time than they ever have. Look at Dan Hamhuis. Before he became a Canuck missed what 2 games per season average. Then he comes to Van and has serious injuries where he misses significant time. I know Guddy has had injuries before us but still Erik Gudbranson is another guy on that list because it just went from bad to worse here with the travel etc. His true game when uninjured is encouraging when you look at it with more context.

I tend to agree to a certain extent however his shoulder or wrist injury has nothing to do with the fact that A) he just doesn't skate incredibly well and B) his vision and ability to make a solid outlet pass is generally poor as well. I think you are being overly optimistic if you expect him to be a top 4 guy - injuries or not........

 

[Fatass]

I tend to agree to a certain extent however his shoulder or wrist injury has nothing to do with the fact that A) he just doesn't skate incredibly well and B) his vision and ability to make a solid outlet pass is generally poor as well. I think you are being overly optimistic if you expect him to be a top 4 guy - injuries or not........

Guddy is a top four guy, isn’t he? I mean isn’t he currently playing second pair with Hutton? Plus, Guddy plays PK, and is heavy on the other team.

 

[Motte and Bailey]

Guddy is a top four guy, isn’t he? I mean isn’t he currently playing second pair with Hutton? Plus, Guddy plays PK, and is heavy on the other team.

If we're going by ice time he was the #1 defenseman last night

 

[Motte and Bailey]

I tend to agree to a certain extent however his shoulder or wrist injury has nothing to do with the fact that A) he just doesn't skate incredibly well and B) his vision and ability to make a solid outlet pass is generally poor as well. I think you are being overly optimistic if you expect him to be a top 4 guy - injuries or not........

He's not going to be Quinn Hughes and that's fine. His skating is good and so are his outlet passes when he's healthy, on his game and he keeps it simple. I think his floor is a top 4 defenseman and his ceiling is a #2 defenseman who can complement an offensive dynamo like Quinn Hughes.

 

[VancouverJagger]

Guddy is a top four guy, isn’t he? I mean isn’t he currently playing second pair with Hutton? Plus, Guddy plays PK, and is heavy on the other team.

Sure - but let's be real here - who here actually wants him playing in the top 4? Just because he's playing in the top 4 on our team (which probably has one of if not the weakest D corps in the NHL) doesn't mean he should actually be a top 4 guy.

 

[VancouverJagger]

He's not going to be Quinn Hughes and that's fine. His skating is good and so are his outlet passes when he's healthy, on his game and he keeps it simple. I think his floor is a top 4 defenseman and his ceiling is a #2 defenseman who can complement an offensive dynamo like Quinn Hughes.

Well that's very optimistic of you............