Post-Game Talk: Home Opener: Canucks 5, Flames 2. The Alien has landed.

[Canadian Canuck]

Almost everyone on the roster had a good game tonight. Markstrom had an amazing game. Pettersson is God.

Virtanen looked pretty good, I thought. Had a handful of really hard hits and didn't have any bad giveaways. Obviously, he also scored. That's a great game for Virtanen IMO.

Gudbranson had a good game as well. He instigated a physical matchup early, won it, and didn't have too many bad giveaways. There were a few, and he didn't stand out too much after that, but he's a part of our PK.

Our PK played great tonight. Guys like Motte and Beagle disrupted the Flames constantly and showed good hustle.

Bo and Boeser didn't look great tonight, and Baerstchi rides with those two so he didn't either. I'm not too worried. It does look like something's off with Boeser, but I wonder if it's the weight gain. He doesn't look as fast which isn't the best for a player who's already average speed-wise. I think they'll pick it up, I don't expect that line to be the big problem this year.

A very rosy evening in what I still expect to be a dreadful season.

Completely agree great analysis. That’s my thoughts as well, Boeser looked very slow and looks like he gained some weight. One game in though I’m not too worried.

 

[DL44]

The defence was fantastic thru 40...

 

[Shareefruck]

Good team effort, though Calgary looked pretty terrible early on.

Excellent
1. Tanev - Basically the opposite of Gudbranson-- Had one or two bad plays that some pointed out but carried the entire defense shift in shift out. Hate to imagine the team without this guy.

Great
2. Markstrom - Couple of stretches where Calgary could have blown this defense wide open.
3. Motte - We might have a long term staple role player here. Great performance.
4. Pettersson - He's so smart that the puck follows him on a string, and seems to be able to improvise his way out of any bad situation, though still appears to be feeling his way out.

Good
5. Edler - Effective, though lumbering game with the occasional glaring hiccup. Still a work-horse for the most part
6. Sutter - This is the kind of game (and line) Sutter excels in. Smart, disruptive shutdown game all night playing with two guys who don't generate enough offense that his offensive-momentum-killing tendencies will matter. It's usually when we're not playing with a lead that he looks terrible. Hope he sticks in this type of role.
7. Granlund - Solid defensive game.
8. Beagle - Solid defensive game.

Decent
9. Goldobin - Showed pretty well.
10. Stecher - Made a lot of smart assertive plays to keep the pressure on
11. Horvat - Some frustrating individualistic hoper plays creeping into his game made up for by general Horvat hustle.
12. Boeser - Skating in cement right now (watching him chase Gaudreau made me cringe) and it's clearly hindering him. Really concerning, though his natural hockey IQ is still allowing him to occasionally make smart plays that others don't make as easily. The line really wasn't clicking
13. Eriksson - Coasting and getting by on his smarts, which admittedly is better than what the dumber guys can do even when they're trying hard.

Bad
14. Leipsic - Not much to comment on
15. Baertschi - Trying, but needs to be better.
16. Virtanen - Looked pretty bad before and after the goal.
17. Pouliot - Jekyl and Hyde performance. Occasionally looked okay, but also made a ton of dumb plays.

Terrible
18. Gudbranson - Having a couple of hits, a fight, and the occasional successful clear/pinch doesn't make up for playing fundamentally terrible hockey all over the ice. One of the more consistently clueless hockey players I recall watching in a long time.

Didn't notice Del Zotto enough to comment.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Hard to believe this team is the same one which could only eke out a single preseason shootout victory against about 2/5ths of an LA team.

• PK was great, although Calgary's PP is just phenomenally inept. Not going to win much that way against competent opposition.
• Yeah, Calgary was all over the place. No cohesion at all until the 3rd when the dam threatened to burst.

---------------------------------------------------------------

• Pettersson. He's here, and he's for real. Yet another game (probably the first of many) when he's obviously the best player on the ice. Extremely impressive debut. Star in the making.
• Markstrom. Bent, but did not break. Maintained his composure, stayed big, made the saves he had to. Going to need a lot more like that coming soon.
• PK units. Tour de force performance. All over the Flames. So help me, it's the kind of thing that can actually make you like Markus Granlund. Beagle I thought was great for his role...but I can see a serious beat-down in his future by somebody.
• Virtanen advertised his good and bad tonight: great speedy goal mixed with lots of aimless skating to nowhere and a stupid penalty.

Defense was...yeah. I mean it's a good win and it's nice to come out the gate like that but there's trouble on the horizon. They've come out like this before but it never takes that long for their structure to desert them. Still, great debut for Pettersson. There's that at least.

 

[GetFocht]

It's one game for Boeser, he will turn it up.

 

[Melvin]

It's one game for Boeser, he will turn it up.

If he didn't look like he was labouring all pre season I would agree.

 

[Breakers]

Troy Stecher & MDZ got obliterated in the shot differential department.
So did Horvat's line
Obviously some of it is from the PK

 

[GetFocht]

Still cant see the puck on Peterson's goal until it leaves the net, what a rocket.

 

[pgj98m3]

As a proud member of Team Tank this was still one hell of a game......we should keep Pettersson around.

 

[M2Beezy]

That was fun AF!

Goals:
Pettersson 19
Godly 22
Lepisic 24
Virtanen 22
Motte 23
Benning’s hair

Youth served.

Avg age is practically less than 20 thats nuts!

 

[me2]

Gudbranson and Pouliot's game tonight is an example of why +/- is such a **** stat in small quantities.

the whole defense was bad. markstrom saved their ass

They were sheltered with OZone starts at 5 on 5. It makes sense to use Pouliot that way, but not Gudbranson.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Keep both. Get rid of Granlund. Honestly though, Sutter played awful and I’d be happy to see him traded and Gaudette called up.

Keep both. Get rid of Granlund. Honestly though, Sutter played awful and I’d be happy to see him traded and Gaudette called up.

Yeah Granlund has to be odd man out. Contributes nothing that we can't get from anyone else

 

[1440]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Brandon Sutter has been our best player since about game 60 last season.

20+ solid minutes once again, and that pass to put Virtanen on a breakaway was a thing of beauty.

He isn't the most exciting player to watch, but he just makes the simple, correct play every time.

 

[me2]

Troy Stecher & MDZ got obliterated in the shot differential department.
So did Horvat's line
Obviously some of it is from the PK

That is 5 on 5. Flames ripped us up in the 2nd half of the game. It got worse with score effects and the canucks sitting on the lead.

 

[MS]

Much better effort level and overall team speed than in the preseason. Still were comprehensively outshot and outchanced and this win is mostly on the goalie.

- Markstrom was absolutely outstanding. Rock solid all night, great start to the season for him.

- PK was also outstanding (or Calgary PP terrible, or both). Sutter/Motte and Beagle/Granlund units both did a great job and worked their tails off. Should be noted that not having Horvat kill penalties is addition by subtraction.

- other than Markstrom, Chris Tanev was the best player on the ice. Ate the Gaudreau line for dinner all night despite hauling the slow, shambling corpse of Edler around. Just a masterclass in shutdown defense.

- Horvat line was awful. Putrid. One decent scoring chance all night, no intensity, soft on the puck, poor defensive effort. Boeser looks slow and looks like his confidence is broken. Horvat refuses to engage physically. Baertschi could not possibly have been more invisible.

- Pettersson makes plays that only a handful of guys in the league can make. Exceptional talent, will be a gamebreaking player at this level.

- Tyler Motte was good, but playing Motte 14 minutes at ES and Pettersson 8 will not be a formula for success.

- Goldobin was decent and it's good for him to start the season with a goal.

- Virtanen was miles better tonight even without the goal. Much better effort level and kept his feet moving away from the puck. Did well on the Sutter checking line which played well.

- Stecher had lots of try but that pairing was really scrambly tonight.

- Gudbranson was better in the 3rd but trash thorough the first 40 minutes. Hilarious that he ended up a +3. We survived the play of our bottom 2 pairings tonight but we won't most nights.

5-0 in season openers under Jim Benning. This is starting to be a weird tradition.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Good team effort, though Calgary looked pretty terrible early on.

Great
1. Tanev - Basically the opposite of Gudbranson-- Had one or two bad plays that some pointed out but carried the entire defense shift in shift out. Hate to imagine the team without this guy.
2. Motte - We might have a long term staple role player here. Great performance.
3. Pettersson - He's so smart that the puck follows him on a string, and seems to be able to improvise his way out of any bad situation, though still appears to be feeling his way out.

Good
4. Edler - Effective, though lumbering game with the occasional glaring hiccup. Still a work-horse for the most part
5. Sutter - This is the kind of game (and line) Sutter excels in. Smart, disruptive shutdown game all night playing with two guys who don't generate enough offense that his offensive-momentum-killing tendencies will matter. It's usually when we're not playing with a lead that he looks terrible. Hope he sticks in this type of role.
6. Markstrom - Goals weren't great, but was really good the rest of the game.
7. Granlund - Solid defensive game.
8. Beagle - Solid defensive game.
9. Goldobin - Showed pretty well.
10. Stecher - Made a lot of smart assertive plays to keep the pressure on

Decent
11. Horvat - Some frustrating individualistic hoper plays creeping into his game made up for by general Horvat hustle.
12. Boeser - Skating in cement right now (watching him chase Gaudreau made me cringe) and it's clearly hindering him. Really concerning, though his natural hockey IQ is still allowing him to occasionally make smart plays that others don't make as easily. The line really wasn't clicking
13. Eriksson - Coasting and getting by on his smarts, which admittedly is better than what the dumber guys can do even when they're trying hard.

Bad
14. Leipsic - Not much to comment on
15. Baertschi - Trying, but needs to be better.
16. Virtanen - Looked pretty bad before and after the goal.

Terrible
17. Pouliot - Jekyl and Hyde performance. Occasionally looked okay, but also made a ton of dumb plays.
18. Gudbranson - Having a couple of hits, a fight, and the occasional successful clear/pinch doesn't make up for playing fundamentally terrible hockey all over the ice. One of the more consistently clueless hockey players I recall watching in a long time.

Didn't notice Del Zotto enough to comment.

I didn't mind Pouliots game tonight...As awful as he was in the pre season..I wouldn't put him in the' terrible' category tonight..He was also a +4.

 

[Fraser28]

Avg age is practically less than 20 thats nuts!

lol except that it's literally 22.

 

[Melvin]

He isn't a good player but to be fair Pouliot never gets credit for the stuff he does do well, like jumping into the play as the decoy on the Pettersson goal.

He gets burned because of the high risk way that he plays but it does pay off at times. Just not often enough overall.

 

[Nomobo]

lol except that it's literally 22.

You guys in the same math class?

 

[krutovsdonut]

lots of fun but a lot of it was adrenaline. that high pressure pk is great but iwould think not sustainable. the physicality was first game of the year home game but stilll awesome.

that said, we are faster and grittier and having beagle and sutter as options gives us a steady rolling defensive depth we have lacked. if all our bubble guys play like motte and granlund we will be hard to play against.

worried about edler and eriksson aging out. hopefully just cobwebs. not worried about boeser.

otherwise that was a hoot.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Although its very tough to maintain....If you have good special teams,and solid goaltending...You're going to win your fair share of games.

 

[Fraser28]

You guys in the same math class?

Haha well the average from that list is 22. Not sure what math class the other poster is in :p

 

[Peen]

Much better effort level and overall team speed than in the preseason. Still were comprehensively outshot and outchanced and this win is mostly on the goalie.

- Markstrom was absolutely outstanding. Rock solid all night, great start to the season for him.

- PK was also outstanding (or Calgary PP terrible, or both). Sutter/Motte and Beagle/Granlund units both did a great job and worked their tails off. Should be noted that not having Horvat kill penalties is addition by subtraction.

- other than Markstrom, Chris Tanev was the best player on the ice. Ate the Gaudreau line for dinner all night despite hauling the slow, shambling corpse of Edler around. Just a masterclass in shutdown defense.

- Horvat line was awful. Putrid. One decent scoring chance all night, no intensity, soft on the puck, poor defensive effort. Boeser looks slow and looks like his confidence is broken. Horvat refuses to engage physically. Baertschi could not possibly have been more invisible.

- Pettersson makes plays that only a handful of guys in the league can make. Exceptional talent, will be a gamebreaking player at this level.

- Tyler Motte was good, but playing Motte 14 minutes at ES and Pettersson 8 will not be a formula for success.

- Goldobin was decent and it's good for him to start the season with a goal.

- Virtanen was miles better tonight even without the goal. Much better effort level and kept his feet moving away from the puck. Did well on the Sutter checking line which played well.

- Stecher had lots of try but that pairing was really scrambly tonight.

- Gudbranson was better in the 3rd but trash thorough the first 40 minutes. Hilarious that he ended up a +3. We survived the play of our bottom 2 pairings tonight but we won't most nights.

5-0 in season openers under Jim Benning. This is starting to be a weird tradition.

I strongly disagree with the Virtanen sentiment. His general awareness is so bad. Like he just does lazy shit and his "effort" never really seems to amount to anything unless it's off the rush on 2 on 1s or something.

 

[krutovsdonut]

He isn't a good player but to be fair Pouliot never gets credit for the stuff he does do well, like jumping into the play as the decoy on the Pettersson goal.

He gets burned because of the high risk way that he plays but it does pay off at times. Just not often enough overall.

he had something going with pettersson on more than one play. i want him on the first ppminstead of edler to see where it goes.

 

[Shareefruck]

I didn't mind Pouliots game tonight...As awful as he was in the pre season..I wouldn't put him in the' terrible' category tonight..He was also a +4.

There were stretches in his play that I liked, jumping up and moving the puck, but Markstrom was bailing him out all night, it seemed. And then there was that careless suicide pass.

You're right, though, terrible might be a bit harsh