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

[David71]

whatever happens tommorow win/lose im proud of the team for making it this far. took out two physical teams in st louis and minnesota. the kids got experience. half of the guys on the current team will probably not be on it this year. including ufas. tanev/toffoli/markstrom. vegas is too strong from top to bottom. fast skilled big. benning has alot of work cut out for him this off-season. fix the defensive corps. get rid of a few deadweight players. Vancouver will still be in contention for the playoffs for a very long time.

 

[ugghhh]

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.

I agree that our bottom 6 has issues, but I would guess that if you surrounded Virtanen with a couple of other young players who were fast and could forecheck/played hard on the boards, he'd be a totally different player.

His speed and size gives other teams trouble. He makes the easy pass and is willing to defer to better players. He's still worth working on, IMO. Torres was 30 years old in 2011.

Virtanen at 1.75M is not the problem with this roster, and trading him would likely be a mistake (of course, it depends on the return).

I think Virtanen has been pretty good all things considered -- he just needs to be a bit tougher on the boards and to be a bit quicker to support his linemates. Those are fixable problems, imo.

 

[Disappointed EP40]

My biggest knock on Virtanen is, if you're not scoring, at very least be hustling. For his age, size, etc, I expect a lot more of this from him.

This is also why I don't knock Boeser's play. He's hustled this play-offs.

 

[Bettman Returnz]

Sutter hasn’t been good (arguably) this whole series. The guy is lacking some punch. Seems to be out there for a causal Sunday stroll most shifts. At least one of the goals last night was his fault. Roussel’s antics to start the series was a smoke screen. He hasn’t done much since to prove any points. I honestly don’t even noticed him out there. Fantenberg/Benn is proving our D depth still needs some work to be taken serious.

 

[Fatass]

Heard on 1040 Marky’s save % in the Vegas series is .894
He’s got to be better.

 

[VanillaCoke]

Better than 30+ saves in like 8 of 10 games...

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Heard on 1040 Marky’s save % in the Vegas series is .894
He’s got to be better.

I think it’s hard to hang too much on him. I think the 1st and 3rd goals last night are ones he’d like back, but by and large he’s been one of our best players all summer long. We’ve been shut out twice and aren’t exactly limiting the Golden Knights’ chances, either.

That said - we will likely need Markstrom to stand on his head to get back in this.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

If we can get to a game 6, at least Markstrom gets a day off in between...

Vegas could rotate their goalies an a b2b..Another indication of the Vegas depth...

 

[AzNightmare]

Markstrom's burnt out. Canucks have been getting out shot literally every single game in the playoffs (except maybe 2 games vs Minnesota?) And these are 30-40 shots per game.

Even if he's going to play every game, it makes a huge difference if Canucks can secure a win where they shut down the other team and make it easy for Markstrom so he can just chill between the pipes.

As good as Lehner has been, I don't really think he's been tested all that much tbh. The games where he shut us out, how many dangerous scoring chances did we really get? The forwards were completely neutralized in those games. And those are the type of games where goalies don't get burnt out even if they're playing.

But even on that note, the rest of the team is tired, not just Markstrom. Vancouver is heavy underdogs and just expending way too much energy trying to keep up with a team that's clearly much deeper, and playing at a much more conservative level, and still winning.

 

[mossey3535]

I mean I guess it's a complement that we now expect Marky to just absolutely steal games, but a lot of this is on our D or lack thereof. For whatever reason we can't maintain steady pressure (IMO it's bottom-6 and bottom-3 eventually needing to be on the ice and killing our momentum), which leads to a lot of in-zone time.

Then whether it's Vegas' speed and passing or STL's heavy cycle, we get stuck in there and eventually lose coverage. Our bottom-4 is a joke right now. But these are all the same old issues coming up again.

 

[BB06]

 

[Hit the post]

To continue the "three" line of thought, the best Canuck to don that number?

Pat Quinn 1971-1972
Larry Bolonchuk 1973
Bob Dailey 1974-1977
Lars Lindgren 1979-1981
Garth Butcher 1982
Joe McDonnell 1982
Anders Eldebrink 1983
Michel Petit 1983-1984
Doug Lidster 1985-1993
Bret Hedican 1994-1999
Brent Sopel 1999-2004
Doug Bodger 2000
Keith Carney 2006
Kevin Bieksa 2007-2015
Brogan Rafferty 2019-2020

 

[Breakers]

Just read that Cap friendly tweet

Pettersson and Hughes Bonuses applying another $1.7 million against the cap next season

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

To continue the "three" line of thought, the best Canuck to don that number?

Pat Quinn 1971-1972
Larry Bolonchuk 1973
Bob Dailey 1974-1977
Lars Lindgren 1979-1981
Garth Butcher 1982
Joe McDonnell 1982
Anders Eldebrink 1983
Michel Petit 1983-1984
Doug Lidster 1985-1993
Bret Hedican 1994-1999
Brent Sopel 1999-2004
Doug Bodger 2000
Keith Carney 2006
Kevin Bieksa 2007-2015
Brogan Rafferty 2019-2020

It's Bieksa, IMO. Argument to be made for Lidster, but he was a good player on some pretty lousy teams. Bieksa was one of the best players on one of the best teams we ever had, and few Canucks ever have had his combination of skill, grit and personality.

 

[Hit the post]

On another Canucks board (heh, not CDC), a person from Sweden told me that Anders Elderbrink was a VERY solid player (international hockey). He just couldn't adjust to the North American style (ALOT rougher back then).

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

And for the players...the consolation prize is leaving Edmonton

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

 

[valkynax]

What was the condition for the pick we trade Miller for?

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Just read that Cap friendly tweet

Pettersson and Hughes Bonuses applying another $1.7 million against the cap next season

Christ. This is going to be horrible.

For everyone that was quick to pat Jimbo on the back for drafting these two, the plethora of useless bottom 6 players he's signed over the last 3-4 years is handicapping this team in a bad way.

 

[BB06]

What was the condition for the pick we trade Miller for?

It's already been traded. Will be either 20th OA if we lose Tmrw/28th OA if we lose in the Conference Finals/31st OA if we win the cup

 

[bossram]

Heard on 1040 Marky’s save % in the Vegas series is .894
He’s got to be better.

His GSAA is still positive though. His xSV% must be like .880, because we give away scoring chances like candy on Halloween.

 

[BB06]

Tanev has been flying under the radar but he's been fairly bad. Taking to long to make decision and taking punishment for it. Play dying on his stick and his inability to send good breakout passes. Stecher has easily been the better of the 2 and the one I keep.

 

[VanJack]

Markstrom's burnt out. Canucks have been getting out shot literally every single game in the playoffs (except maybe 2 games vs Minnesota?) And these are 30-40 shots per game.

Even if he's going to play every game, it makes a huge difference if Canucks can secure a win where they shut down the other team and make it easy for Markstrom so he can just chill between the pipes.

As good as Lehner has been, I don't really think he's been tested all that much tbh. The games where he shut us out, how many dangerous scoring chances did we really get? The forwards were completely neutralized in those games. And those are the type of games where goalies don't get burnt out even if they're playing.

But even on that note, the rest of the team is tired, not just Markstrom. Vancouver is heavy underdogs and just expending way too much energy trying to keep up with a team that's clearly much deeper, and playing at a much more conservative level, and still winning.

The Canucks have been coughing up glorious scoring chances all season long, and this series is no exception. Lost track of the number of times the Knights broke down the Canuck defense and were allowed to skate to within 15 feet of Markstrom before wiring a shot.

I agree Markstrom must be approaching burnout by now. You can only go to the well so often. And how many 10-bell saves does this team really expect him to make?

Despite all the spin-doctoring from Green and Benning, the Canucks aren't a very good defensive team. And without Markstrom, I doubt they'd have even made the playoffs.

 

[supercanuck]

Can any of our analytics experts analyze the 5v5 shot differential posted by Travis Yost? Can they tell anything significant (i.e. in terms of game plan for G5)?

Vancouver Canucks look out of their depth against Vegas Golden Knights - TSN.ca

EP and Jake are the only 2 with any success against Stone/Pac/Karlsson but I guess it's hard to say how much time they have played head to head. Horvat, Miller, and Boeser getting eaten alive by them though.

Jake with some surprising positive shot differentials across the board while Edler is by far our best defender based on what the numbers tell.

 

[PG Canuck]

I would sacrifice 1 inch off my penis for a Canucks win.... and I don't have much to give

Holy shit LMAO

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Tanev has been flying under the radar but he's been fairly bad. Taking to long to make decision and taking punishment for it. Play dying on his stick and his inability to send good breakout passes. Stecher has easily been the better of the 2 and the one I keep.

1st pairing is getting hammered in this series, Tanev’s getting bounced around a lot, agree Stecher’s been excellent.