Post-Game Talk: GM 2 | Oilers def. Canucks - 5-2 (Schmidt, Motte)

[Ozone]

Cream bubbles to the top.

Or is that rancid oil? I can never remember which

As they both do.. let's hope for the prior..

 

[I am toxic]

The obsession with faceoffs in hockey is incredibly annoying.

Like, is Green going to say "Bo, you have to win every single faceoff or it's on you" ? Or "Nates, you have to tie up the best hockey player in the world and not leave his stick open for even a split second" ?

No, but what he should be saying is " Beagle(?), you need to get on your check as fast as possible to take away time and space for the shot". But what does Beagle (?) do? He hesitates, let's himself get partly delayed by McDavid, and then way too late does some sliding skate block attempt. Brutal.

 

[VanJack]

I'm not criticizing Hoglander at all. He wasn't 'bad' tonight per se and has done exceptionally well to get to this point. And was terrific yesterday.

But in the longer term and the bigger picture ... having a 20 y/o rookie on what should be a high-leverage matchup line is not going to work out well. And things like what happened in the 3rd period tonight are bound to happen. The kid was getting sheltered minutes in Sweden because he wasn't trusted defensively at that level and is now getting thrown out against the McDavids of the world.

The fact that we don't have a proper 3rd/defensive line means Horvat has to carry that mantle and it just really isn't the place to break in a one-dimensional skilled rookie winger.

McDavid had a field day tonight because there was no line nor any defensive pairing that could be competently expected to match up against him. Every line had a weak link, every defensive pairing had a weak link. If the team can't sort this out, it will be a long season.

The problem with your theory is that Hoglander led the forwards in ice-time in this game with more than 21 minutes. Green rotated him between the top two lines to try and generate something in the way of offense and zone time.

And despite a couple of glitches in his game because he was basically trying to do too much, he was still one of the Canucks most effective forwards on the night. So it doesn't much matter that he's only 20. Clearly Green sees him as the potential straw that stirs the drink on whatever line he's on. And if he was 'one dimensional' as you claim, Green would have had him stapled to the pine.

And McDavid sifting through the Canuck team like a knife through butter has nothing to do with Hoglander. On a couple of his goals some of the veteran Canuck blueliners looked like pylons in a construction zone.

So Hoglander did absolutely nothing in this game that would get him demoted from the top-two lines for the next game.

 

[canuckking1]

Still can't get over that Hughes penalty. If you're gonna take a retaliatory penalty make it worth it.

 

[PM]

The trouble with the current situation on the blueline, is that if Rafferty and Rathbone languish on the taxi squad all season long, it will be year of basically lost development. I suppose they could send them to Utica in a couple of weeks, but right now the Comets have twice as many players as they need. And then you'd basically be losing them for the entire season, what with border quarantines etc.

The time to experiment with lineup changes is early on in the schedule.....it's not like Hamonic and Juolevi are knocking your socks off with their play right now.

Then there's the issue of next season. The contracts for Edler, Hamonic and Benn all expire at the end of the season. I could see a scenario where none of them are back. So Green and the Canucks really have to find out about the guys who are coming up.

I’m sure Rafferty and Rathbone will get a chance purely because we won’t have any other choice when our dmen start getting injured as is custom.

 

[Ozone]

wooooo

 

[604]

He’s a heck of a player, but we made it way too easy for him tonight.

Jake is big and fast.

Should just shadow McDavid the whole game.

 

[Ozone]

Saturday

 

[Index]

When is Miller expected back ?

 

[Chimpradamus]

Clear example why mcdavid is a generational talent. He can just decide to take over a game on his own.

Yes, that was pretty filthy. He was a man on a mission today, clearly pissed off about the game yesterday.

Ice was tilted from the start and was very reminiscent of last years play down the stretch and in the Vegas series. Team gets badly outshot in the first 30 min of the game and the goals eventually come.

TG deserves his fair share of criticisms. Seems to have no ability to adjust during the course of the game.

The other issue is our D flat out sucks. Edler is just so many steps behind and is about to fall off a cliff. Myers has fallen off the cliff. Hamonic is at the bottom of the cliff. Juolevi is a major project so we will have to see how it plays out but nights like these are really tough to watch.

Other issue. The likes of Roussel, Virtanen, Sutter and Beagle just taking up roster spots and seemingly doing f*** all.

We really need a better defensive system and a replacement shot blocker that we lost in Tanev. Teams like the Leafs and Oilers are going to rack up the points playing the Canucks D.

On a positive note, this is not the time when this team is supposed to shine. In a couple of years when all the dead weight is off their contracts and the Luongo buyout is completed, with the stars getting more into their prime age, that's when the Canucks are supposed to become a contender. Every chance they get to have some playoff experience is just a nice bonus.

It really sucks the team cannot be more competitive than this with a supposed core of veterans though. The young players are supposed to get great support from a core of veterans. On the Canucks, it has not been a smooth transition. The advantage of having so much talent on such cheap contracts is wasted and that is indeed a great waste in a salary cap world. That's the other side of the coin.

After Pettersson and Hughes get their new RFA contracts, the money from the dead weight is immediately swallowed up again, but hopefully they will be even more deadly on the ice as well. The 22/23 season should be the starting point of a real try for a cup run.

 

[David71]

When is Miller expected back ?

next week against montreal hopefully.

 

[Lil rat]

Reading you guys IT looked like Schmidt is good ans Myers, edler ans hamonic not so much..the why did Schmidt only played 17 min??

 

[elitepete]

Juolevi's ability to defend in transition and from the outside is something to keep an eye on, but not something to cause alarm for me yet. Hard to judge any defender's ability in that regard against the Oilers of all teams, let alone a rookie D. It was only yesterday, even, that he defended a move from the outside from Draisaitl of all people as well as any D I've ever seen.

He has always been a pylon in terms of getting beat wide.
Reminds me of Olli Maatta in the regard.

 

[Diversification]

Schmidt's ice time makes absolutely zero sense to me, what the hell lmao

I think he's on PP2 with no PK time. That accounts for it, I think.

 

[tantalum]

Two games in and we are seeing some of the same things that have plagued the team the last few seasons:

Horrendous team defense

Multiple blue liners you can’t trust

Virtanen pissing yet another golden opportunity away

Poor bench/ice time management

Goaltenders hung out to dry

A bottom six that is easily among the worst in the league

Politics governing lineup decisions

etc...

I really hope that these are things that will get corrected as they get some games under their belts. However, it gets hard to believe that will be the case when it’s all the exact same things as the last 250 games.

No not every team has a McDavid in the division. However, those that don’t might have better blueline depth or a better bottom 6 or a better team game or Matthews and Marner or etc... I don’t think this is an easy division as there are legitimately 6 playoff teams looking for 4 spots.

 

[tantalum]

The obsession with faceoffs in hockey is incredibly annoying.

It is. Over the course of a season it doesn’t mean anything really. Situationally, you are going to try to exploit a match up and hope for the best but GMs seem to plan team builds around the face off. That’s what gets you saddled with guys like Sutter and Beagle.

 

[StreetHawk]

With the season setup similar to playoffs of consecutive games in one building we are going to see teams that lost bounce back a good number of times.

would highly doubt that you see anything more than 4/5 game winning streak this season.

 

[Fatass]

Jake is big and fast.

Should just shadow McDavid the whole game.

Excellent idea! And lean on him too. Make Connor play through Jake’s heavy body for every inch of ice. PP Connor is still going to be deadly, but at least he will be tired from fighting with Jake the rest of the game.
Green can definitely improve his systems and specific tactics.

 

[EXTRAS]

Canucks should swap in rafferty for juolevi. See if he can do better.

 

[I am toxic]

Yes, that was pretty filthy. He was a man on a mission today, clearly pissed off about the game yesterday.

On a positive note, this is not the time when this team is supposed to shine. In a couple of years when all the dead weight is off their contracts and the Luongo buyout is completed, with the stars getting more into their prime age, that's when the Canucks are supposed to become a contender. Every chance they get to have some playoff experience is just a nice bonus.

It really sucks the team cannot be more competitive than this with a supposed core of veterans though. The young players are supposed to get great support from a core of veterans. On the Canucks, it has not been a smooth transition. The advantage of having so much talent on such cheap contracts is wasted and that is indeed a great waste in a salary cap world. That's the other side of the coin.

After Pettersson and Hughes get their new RFA contracts, the money from the dead weight is immediately swallowed up again, but hopefully they will be even more deadly on the ice as well. The 22/23 season should be the starting point of a real try for a cup run.

You mean just as Miller's contract ends, Myers is even slower (is that even possible?) but still taking up $6m in cap, Edler is done, and Schmidt is well past his prime and also taking up nearly $6m in cap? And nothing in the pipeline other than Podz?


Yikes.

 

[Chimpradamus]

You mean just as Miller's contract ends, Myers is even slower (is that even possible?) but still taking up $6m in cap, Edler is done, and Schmidt is well past his prime and also taking up nearly $6m in cap? And nothing in the pipeline other than Podz?


Yikes.

Yes. That time.

 

[I am toxic]

Yes. That time.

So, you are saying we won't be a contender for the next half dozen seasons or so, but too good to get lottery picks to become a contender? Another decade of mediocrity? Set my sights on 2035 to become a threat to win the Cup?

 

[Chimpradamus]

So, you are saying we won't be a contender for the next half dozen seasons or so, but too good to get lottery picks to become a contender? Another decade of mediocrity? Set my sights on 2035 to become a threat to win the Cup?

Time for a rebuild or hope for some miracle UFA signings? Or that alot of players suddenly improve drastically?

 

[Fatass]

Canucks should swap in rafferty for juolevi. See if he can do better.

Wrong handed for that swap. Benn is able to play both sides, so he’s likely to come in when over his Covid quarantine. For now though, maybe Bone? He’s a greater skater.

 

[canuckking1]

This game was within reach in all honesty. That brutal last-second goal and a few brutal penalties by Motte and Huges were the difference.