Pre-Game Talk: WCSF | Game 5 | Vancouver Canucks @ Vegas Golden Knights | Sep 1 | 6:45PM PST - SPAC

[racerjoe]

Agreed on all of this. I am questionable about Gaudette; he's largely been ineffective (reaching Eriksson level of no points) but honestly what options do we have?

I also want Juolevi to be thrown in just so we get a taste of his puck movement.

Edler Myers <-- Man after that showing, Myers is still injured and i'm not sure if this is a good idea
Juolevi Tanev
Hughes Benn

Too wild?

I wouldn’t take Stetcher out not a chance. He has been very good for us. I understand wanting to see Joulevi, but I personally think he would get torched. Stay with Tanev hughes and Edler Stetcher. Franterberg Myers... limit their ice time.

Most disappointing in virtanen and Gaudette. They were needed for secondary scoring. That’s the difference in the series.. Canucks get absolutely nothing from their 3rd and 4th line.. 0 points is unacceptable. Virtanen had so many chances but he just miss the net,

tough for them to score when so often they are saddled with absolute dead weight...

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Markstrom has to bring his A game after two poor performances.

Bottom 6 cannot get hemmed in, keep shifts short.

Myers looks out of shape and isn’t completely in sync, should receive similar ice time as Benn.

No more too many men penalties.

Limit odd man rushes and be aware of the Tuck play.

Green needs to keep calm and not chirp players.

Every player not named Pettersson has to be better (from Miller not giving up possession trying to force passes to Sutter being able to get the puck out). Has to be a complete team effort; play hard, but play smart.

Go Canucks Go!!

 

[Fatass]

Markstrom has to bring his A game after two poor performances.

Bottom 6 cannot get hemmed in, keep shifts short.

Myers looks out of shape and isn’t completely in sync, should receive similar ice time as Benn.

No more too many men penalties.

Limit odd man rushes and be aware of the Tuck play.

Green needs to keep calm and not chirp players.

Every player not named Pettersson has to be better (from Miller not giving up possession trying to force passes to Sutter being able to get the puck out). Has to be a complete team effort; play hard, but play smart.

Go Canucks Go!!

If Marky outplays the Vegas goalie we will win. He can do it, so I’m predicting we win three in a row.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

I predicted Vegas in 6..so that still could happen..Going out in 5 though, is no disgrace...

I dont really have any gameplan, or solution to beat Vegas..as DeBoer said, they are just a deeper team, and the more the series goes on, the more apparent it is....The goal of the Canucks before the season started , was to make the post season, and they took it a step farther than that.

Predictably, posters here start crapping on individual players..If you look back to the Wild,Blues and Vegas series..every player on the team has stepped up at one point or another, to get the the Canucks to this point.

 

[BB06]

I've had too much fun for the season to end Tmrw

 

[deadinthewater]

I think the end is near. It's been a lot of fun, though.

 

[Angry Little Elf]

I am proud of everything that our team accomplished. Our future is bright. This wasn’t our year but there will be many more opportunities with Pettersson, Horvat and Hughes leading the way. They’ll look back on this year as an experience. Nobody can take that away from them.

 

[ugghhh]

I predicted Vegas in 6..so that still could happen..Going out in 5 though, is no disgrace...

I dont really have any gameplan, or solution to beat Vegas..as DeBoer said, they are just a deeper team, and the more the series goes on, the more apparent it is....The goal of the Canucks before the season started , was to make the post season, and they took it a step farther than that.

Predictably, posters here start crapping on individual players..If you look back to the Wild,Blues and Vegas series..every player on the team has stepped up at one point or another, to get the the Canucks to this point.

Sutter and Eriksson are two players I would single out as being subpar relative to their contracts. Beagle I think is a valuable player, but redundant with Sutter.

Being outplayed by Motte makes all of them look much worse.

Pearson and Boeser have been ok in the top 6, but a clear step down from the rest of the top 6.

---

As far as being worse than Vegas -- of course their coach will say they are deeper. I'd take our top 6 over theirs.

Looking at their bottom 6:

Stephenson was just traded for a 5th round pick.
Carrier had a career high 19 points this season. Was a 4th liner on a terrible Buffalo team.
Tuch is coming off a 17 point (42 game) season. Never scored more than 20G in a season.
Roy has 10 NHL career points.
Reaves has 96 points in 650 career games.

They're good players, no doubt. These guys all play their role to a t, but they aren't individually great players.

They play a strong team game and are incredibly tough to play against, because they play with speed and tenacity, and support each other across the entire ice. But this is a beatable team.

 

[VancouverJagger]

I hate to throw in the towel but I can't realistically see us climbing this hill...........the biggest reason being the fact that Markstrom is not gonna be able to carry us. He's clearly fatigued..........hindsight is 20/20 but it would've been nice to have Demko start game 3. Even if we get to game 6 (which is possible yes) Marky is going to be looking at another back to back for 6 & 7 - if he's struggling now due to fatigue how do you think he will be then?

At present I would love to see OJ in there - throw him to the wolves and let him sink or swim. Maybe even Bailey and his speed as well.............would love to see Sutter on the bench but ZERO chance Green will ever sit his vets for someone like this.

 

[supercanuck]

I'll agree that Virtanen and Gaudette aren't 100% deserving of the flak being thrown their way. Away from the puck they've been solid, and Gaudette in particular has really forechecked hard and thrown his weight around.

But given that both guys were on pace for 40+ points in the regular season, it's tough that they've got 1 goal between them in the playoffs so far. That secondary scoring punch is so badly needed. Our top guys have been delivering as required, but without depth contributions, it's tough to win in the playoffs.

Agreed. We need to consider that this is their first playoffs and one of the reasons why we have high-priced bottom 6 veterans is to show our young guys the way. Most players are not going to be like EP and dominate in their first playoffs.

I do blame Newell Brown for the awful PP that the team has been running though. Where I thought Jake and Gaudette would make more of an impact was on the 2nd PP unit, but our coaches cannot even devise a play to get the PP properly set up. The only move they have is the stupid drop pass that has not worked a single time.

 

[LiveeviL]

There is still a game to play. Who knows.
But no one said that this team was a contender before the break of the season.
The experience is a win, the young core got it. Remember when Sundin was brought in at least partly for his play-off experience.
No need for such stunts in the future.

 

[Canuckle1970]

The killer was that trade with Chicago to get Lehner earlier this year. I was so pissed at the time. That was one area that I believed they were vulnerable if we met in the playoffs. I believed at the time that our goalie tandem was better than theirs.

Six months later......Lehner's play in game 3 was stellar, a 2nd shutout, and they had the luxury of sitting him in game 4, and winning. We went with a tired Marky. Take Lehner out of the mix, and it might be a different ballgame.

 

[FreeMcdavid]

We need to activate out defence more to have a chance vs a team like VGK. Unfortunately we dont have the horses to do that aside from Hughes.

Vegas is so active with their dmen, all they do is attack 3 on 3 or 3 on 2 then do a button hook and hit the trailing dman then they make great passes once in the zone. its ultra aggressive and i like it.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Like in 2001 (Colorado), 2007 (Anaheim) and 2010 (Chicago)...This is a team just outclassed and outmanned. Lots of work to be done with a roster until they can become a threat in the west.

Hopefully Benning sees what you need to build a contender. Superstars are great but depth fair outweighs generational talent. You cannot have bottom 6 players not contribute anymore. The days of having designated PK specialist that played 5-7min are long gone.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Sutter and Eriksson are two players I would single out as being subpar relative to their contracts. Beagle I think is a valuable player, but redundant with Sutter.

Being outplayed by Motte makes all of them look much worse.

Pearson and Boeser have been ok in the top 6, but a clear step down from the rest of the top 6.

---

As far as being worse than Vegas -- of course their coach will say they are deeper. I'd take our top 6 over theirs.

Looking at their bottom 6:

Stephenson was just traded for a 5th round pick.
Carrier had a career high 19 points this season. Was a 4th liner on a terrible Buffalo team.
Tuch is coming off a 17 point (42 game) season. Never scored more than 20G in a season.
Roy has 10 NHL career points.
Reaves has 96 points in 650 career games.

They're good players, no doubt. These guys all play their role to a t, but they aren't individually great players.

They play a strong team game and are incredibly tough to play against, because they play with speed and tenacity, and support each other across the entire ice. But this is a beatable team.

The playoffs showcase which role players can step up their game and which cannot. A big reason for the success in 2011 was the play of Higgins moving up to the 2nd line (after Samuelson’s injury) and the awesome play of the third line of Hansen-Lappiere-Torres, they hit everything that moved and scored some big goals. A lot of Canucks fans thought Virtanen would go into full beast mode in the playoffs but that clearly wasn’t the case, the only player in the bottom 6 that elevated his game is Tyler Motte. These playoffs showed our bottom 6 isn’t big, strong, fast, skilled and hungry enough.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Have the Canucks run out of gas in their series against the Golden Knights?

From Ray Ferraro and the TSN panel.

 

[Love]

Pearson has been awful and gets zero criticism. Meanwhile Virtanen and Boeser can’t tie their skates without being destroyed by fans and media.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Have the Canucks run out of gas in their series against the Golden Knights?

From Ray Ferraro and the TSN panel.

The same Ray Ferraro who said the Canucks had no chance once St. Louis tied the previous series?

Obviously being in a 3-1 hole is significantly worse, but man, the reactionism amongst some of the pundits is enough to give you whiplash. Also decided to unfollow a lot of the TSN 1040 guys for it; Blake Price was bitching about Canucks fans dunking on them when the Canucks beat the Blues.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Pearson has been awful and gets zero criticism. Meanwhile Virtanen and Boeser can’t tie their skates without being destroyed by fans and media.

I thought Boeser was terrific in Game 4, to be honest. Hustled everywhere, checked hard, generated chances - unlucky not to score. He's trying his bag off out there.

Personally don't get the hate for Virtanen - I know he missed a great chance, but shit happens (just look at poor Cale Makar). I think there's some deserved, much broader criticism of the lack of supporting scoring we've received from the bottom six as a whole in this series, but to single out one or two guys as "the problem" is offside, IMO.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Pearson has been awful and gets zero criticism. Meanwhile Virtanen and Boeser can’t tie their skates without being destroyed by fans and media.

Boeser and Pearson have been Solid, while Virtanen has been below average at best.

It’s not the scoring most of us are judging these players on, it’s the compete level, making the correct plays, winning most of the puck battles and making an overall positive difference for the team.

 

[Results]

I loved both of these... mainly cause I hated the Yankees, not sure anymore...

Also didn’t the bruins blow a 3-0 lead as did the Yankees? I don’t fully remember.

Yankees were 2004, Bruins were 2010. They lost to Philly after being up 3-0 (and up 3-0 in game 7) but no one remembers because, you know...the next year...

 

[Pip]

Yeah that Bruins team would have been plagued with a chocking label if we had won in 2011. What a great alternative timeline that would have been

 

[mossey3535]

Ah I see the marky haters are back when this team can't play basic defence.

 

[BB06]

Ah I see the marky haters are back when this team can't play basic defence.

No marky hater but you could tell he was dead tired. I think if we don't have the postponement he probably closes the door and we win that game.

 

[mossey3535]

No marky hater but you could tell he was dead tired. I think if we don't have the postponement he probably closes the door and we win that game.

People are saying he had TWO bad games...even being tired last night he was decent. The issue is that this team can't win if he's simply good, which he is most nights.

Heard this crap in the GDT and PGT of both games.