Post-Game Talk: GM 1 | Vancouver Canucks @ Edmonton Oilers | Oilers Win 3-2

[krutovsdonut]

well we lost a lot of faceoffs and outshot the oilers on a night when they were looking to run and gun and make a statement.

so that is a switch. i have not seen the possession stats but we did not seem as caved in as usual and we actually had some visible defensive adjustments, particularly much better forward support and stepping up on oiler players carrying the puck. did not see that in preseason. demko had to be good, but smith did as well, and he was also fortunate everyone was shooting it at his crest.

i think the chiasson / dowling pp thing was a stunt or statement by green. i guess he reads twitter. whatever it was, it cost us some scoring opportunities in the first two periods. we were very lucky to come back and get a point after missing so many chances early on.

i thought chiasson was like a seatfiller at the oscars or some guy who won a contest to play with pettersson for one night in an nhl game. i really did not mind dowling. i even liked his half boards work on the pp in the third.

i guess miller had the opening night yips. pretty much a disaster.

i thought hughes looked off his game. slower and not as crisp and was messing up the pp before he got taken off. the goal was a big redemption for a rough game. pettersson got better as the game went on but was also tentative. neither was as ready to carry the puck as i would like.

garland i am fine with, but he needs to find a home where his talents are used. i think maybe bo and pearson are not crafty enough to benefit. at the very least they will need to learn his schtick. they were ok. skating hard and getting pucks in deep and such, as was dickinson, who i really liked.

pods looked ok to me when he got out there and same for the finnish dude. pods lost possession but also did some stuff i liked. he looks great when he is on. more time needed.

hoglander looked all world in the first and decent throughout. it looks like he has taken another step. impressive.

oel looked like a 1d. poolman looked like a steady eddie. burroughs showed more than i expected, and rathbone found some ice after getting smothered in the preseason. that leaves myers, who i thought had an above average for him game even without the hit on keith. i would love to see what keith did to deserve it though, because it looked like myers went looking for him. my guess was it was on a younger player.

and demko was awesome. i think he made tougher saves than smith.

bottom line, that was a much better team than last year or the year before. they probably deserved to lose for not burying their chances with smith early, but on the other hand they played better defence than i have seen in a while and had zero problem skating with an amped up oiler team on opening night and even took it to them the first ten minutes.

so that was encouraging regardless of the point

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I'm already sick of losing to the Oilers and it's only game one. D'oh.

Overall, vastly better pace and effort than the last couple of listless, lethargic affairs would have suggested. I thought the play was quite even through the first half of the first period, then all Oilers until the 2nd. Back and forth, you could see the wonder twins barely breaking a sweat for most of the game until the 3rd...not good omens moving forward. Mind you, we're not stuck entirely in the north this year.

Lines and PP sets are complete ass. Podkolzin, Hoglander buried most of the night while Dowling and Chiasson lap up special teams time. I swear, Green must be trying to get fired. He reminds me of when you've got a really bitchy girlfriend who knows she's unhappy and knows she wants out...but she doesn't want to be the "bad guy" and end it herself, so she's just incredibly annoying, passive-aggressive and bitchy until you finally lose patience and throw all her shit on the front lawn after you find her at the bar with the mailman after she said she was getting her nails done with her sister. Or something similar.

It's honestly hard to evaluate the players when they're deployed like that. Still...

Myers: watching him destroy Keith is definitely the happiest I've ever been with him in a Canucks uniform.

Hoglander/Podkolzin/Garland: need to play with actual good players. Sticking them in the bottom six in a joke. In the pre-game thread, I thought it must be a typo or something when I saw the lines.

Lemmiwinks: someone said his name reminded him of that, and now it's all I can think of. Good for what he does. Fine with him where he is, decent start.

Dickinson: unspectacular, but you want that in a defensive guy. Still not a vast upgrade on what has come before.

Hughes/Poolman is the shutdown pair? Yeah, okay. That'll last a whole three or four games. Nowhere near as high on Poolman as many ITT.

Miller's already looking pouty and pissed off. Another foul omen...

Chiasson, Dowling, Highmore, Burroughs, yawn. None of these are on a decent team.

Rathbone was quiet most of the time.

This team's as deep as a parking lot puddle and as tough as gauze. Showed well tonight in a lot of areas, but not enough for me to get my hopes up.

*Edit* Oh yeah, Pearson sucks. I'm starting to suspect this team just sucks at evaluating talent.

 

[AzNightmare]

When players have low confidence they may bobble the puck, hesitate, not read the play... etc.. but when JT Miller is low confidence he is toxic and self-destructive.
Its really ugly to watch. Having played hockey myself, some players when frustrated just ooze negativity..to a point where they really do become self destructive. He purposely missed a pass because it was 1 foot off target but still well within his grasp. Thats something the average viewer may not notice. He also "off-looked" a pass to Chaisson, meaning he signalled it was going to him (and it was the right play as he was the only open forward) and instead fired it to Petey in double coverage. This was 1 shift after Chaisson didnt see Jt Miller dart open (chaisson missed it by accident, not intentional). He also fired a way too hard pass at poolman out of frustration for bobbling the puck earlier that shift.
I would legit bench him for a game... he's supposed to be a leader.... cmon... ugh. When he's off his game, he's just so toxic

I've noticed he has some kind of attitude issues. I don't know if it's from being privileged playing for relatively good teams for most of his career. He was running high in the first year here in Vancouver. But when shit hits the fan, he's the first one to continue throwing shit at it. Considering he's one of the better players capable of turning the ship around, he sure doesn't seem to do anything until the stars align first.

 

[Bubbles]

Not with that contract on his back.
Golden opportunity to trade him was last year

Totally reminds me of the Baertschi situation. When we should have traded him at his peak, Benning signs him to a 3-year extension. And it's looking like Pearson is headed down the same path.

When better, younger players emerge, they were going to push Pearson out of the top 6. Happened to Sven and it will happen to Pearson.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Well at least Myers laid Keith the f*** out.

 

[CpatainCanuck]

Those TD ads on the helmets, just a shade different from the green on the Uniform, look like shite.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Not worried about Miller...Expect a lot of swearing, and grumpy looks...but he's going to be fine..

 

[logan5]

I don't know if this is so great a stat. By eye test he wasn't finding his teammates very well and was looking to stick handle through traffic to the net, often ending up in losing possession. He played well defensively and had a fair amount of takeaways, but his line lacked chemistry and was having a lot of trouble generating chances without solo efforts through traffic. Although as you pointed out, matching up against McDavid you want to keep the puck off his stick, so that's positive for sure.

Pettersson also got 6 shots on goal, which led the team. Chaisson got 5 shots on goal, and Miller 3, so that line generated lots of shots (some on power play of course), so they were kind of making things happen. I guess not in spectacular fashion. Only 3rd game for Pettersson, so maybe he will break out in the next few games.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

we’ve seen this from Miller before… then he wakes up and we all love him. That’s just the player he is.

Agreed, Miller checks in and out while bringing a good mix of physicality and skill to the top line, but Pettersson needs a winger with high hockey IQ to maximize his contribution to the team, someone like Hoglander would be ideal not a plug like Chaisson.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

So he’s just a kick starter?

This isn’t getting enough attention. This is stupid stupid coaching tbh.

100%. Classic galaxy brain thinking. Just put the good player on a line with other good players and forget it.

 

[canuckking1]

Pros
-Hoglander is look like a legitimate top line winger
-OEL looks like he might actually live up to 80-90% of his cap hit
-Demko still looks like a rock
-bottom 6 was much better and wasn’t caved in
-Bottom pair looked like it could push play

Cons
Hughes was poor
Horvat was poor
Miller was trash
Garland was mediocre
Pettersson timing was off

 

[Cupless44]

Friedman and Campbell pointed out that the Vancouver coaches really need to get their act together on the bench penalties for too many men.

10 last year
2 in pre season
and 1 already this year

Throw in the roster decisions, line decisions, ice time, favoritism...and Green is looking more and more in over his head as an NHL coach

 

[geebster]

Had a ton of chances that were either wasted or saved by Smith and a ton of powerplays they made simple mistakes on. Also Chiasson and Dowling...chosen over Hoglander and Garland consistently.

Happy with the outcome since that was definitely a game that felt like it was going to be a 2 or 3 nothing shutout until the OEL goal.

 

[DFAC]

OEL looked great, wow.

 

[orcatown]

Oilers were there for the taking but Canucks showed little finish. Lots of effort but often without much coordination

Good

Dickinson - can see where he will help the team. Good skater with good range in his play. Was by far our best player in transition and mostly good on the PK . Does need to be better at face offs

OEL - solid and did a good job on McDavid. Moved the puck out of the back efficiently and was good on the PP

Hoglander - real good job of picking up the trailing man for chances. Strong along the boards deep in the Oiler end.

Poolman - maybe not so good on the PK but he was good at getting people off the puck and moving the puck up to the forwards. Has shown more speed than expected and, ATM, looks like a good pick up

Bad

Myers - came on in the third and hopefully a sign of better things to come. However, in the early going was fighting the puck and making passes and plays that prevented the team from gaining any continuity. Also was again clumsy in his down low coverage. Do have to give him credit for wiping out Keith and actually seemed to play better after that.

Pettersson - was all over the map in his play. Trying to do too much on his own and that hurt team play. Most worrisome thing was lack of accuracy on his shots and you wonder about the wrist. Defensively was a liability.

Hughes - fluke goal doesn't make up for his overall shaky play. Like last year was getting bumped out of the play deep in his zone and often wasn't quick enough moving the puck up and ended up getting trapped along his boards and pushed off the puck. Looked bad on the PP and was mercifully replaced by OEL. With Hughes on the ice there were always gaps left open and these led to defensive break downs and odd man rushes. Lastly he was back to slowing down the play and standing back in his end with the puck. Might be sometimes he can search out the right play but generally just taking the team out of any rhythm.

Chaisson - every shot was squarely into Oiler logo on Smith's shirt. Excitable announcer kept making them sound like outstanding saves but they were easily smothered. Harder shots into the pads might have created some rebounds. Other than that Chaisson wasn't in the play.

Others

Podkolzin - barely played. Hard to say much

Highmore - lot of chasing. Did, at least, bring energy

Rathbone - sheltered but in limited time showed fairly well. Has excellent range in his play and did a good job of providing his partner an outlet. I'd say he is progressing well.

Burroughs - worked away and for the most part stayed out of trouble. Showing more speed than you usually get out of journeyman AHL player.

Garland - feisty but didn't end up getting much done. Can see he has talent but IMO still figuring out where he fits in

Lammikko - as suggested by some the guy can play a lot and still be invisible. Even when you try to watch him closely he is kind of just not there. However, line mostly kept the puck out their end and limited chances and when you did catch sight of Lammikko he seemed to be positionally good. Does have the kind of speed that let's him get around the rink quickly.

Miller - definitely out of sync with Pettersson but Pettersson was so random its hard to put all the blame on Miller. Otherwise Miller vacillated between looking dangerous and then looking like he couldn't handle the puck. Team needs to settle on a position for Miller and then just leave him there.

Might say the team was lucky to get a point out of this game but really on the play deserving of something. Team will be hit and miss as long as there are so many plugs and younger players in the line up. Hopefully they can get people like Hamonic, Boeser and Motte back sooner than later.

 

[sting101]

Entertaining game....team looks like it has so much more talent
Standouts
OEL - pure class looks like a #1 so far
Hoglander - creating all night. 2 assists and so slippery and dangerous in the half court. Best forward
Garland - started a little weak and was out of sync here and there but can create something out of nothing and made some dangerous plays. A demon on the forecheck and had a couple excellent backchecks as well. Needs to get some cohesion with Horvat and Pearson but that line looks like it can do some damage if so as he's the playmaker those 2 shooters need.
Hughes - nice goal and he can sure move the puck but he has some serious gaffs and needs to get his legs going to his peak level. Back to looking poor defensively
Miller - same as Hughes. Obviously a super skilled and important player but he needs to get his pace and intensity to his peaks
Pettersson - Too static on the PP and lost the handle when it came time to score. Was responsible for leaving poolparty uncovered for the first goal Looks dangerous which is a good sign but cant start like last year
Poolman - rock steady. Looked poised and a wall with a good stick and moved the puck well

oh and Tyler Myers tonight you are a god.

 

[vanarchy]

The Myers hit should earn him at least 1 pitchfork free game imo.

 

[Three On Zero]

Switching back and forth between here and Oilers board, usual suspect troll was arguing with a mod who ended up posting said posters infraction list… shit was as weird as this game

 

[PatrikBerglund]

Hoglander-Pettersson-Boeser

Garland-Horvat-Miller


the rest

 

[Javaman]

One point in one game. Suck it, Kraken!

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Hoglander-Pettersson-Boeser

Garland-Horvat-Miller


the rest

Miller creates scoring chances by creating havoc and Garland’s the sneaky type to capitalize in chaos, should work well together alongside Bo.

Hoglander is incredibly skilled but also tenacious on the forecheck and strong on his skates, should work well with EP & Brock.

 

[tradervik]

It's only one game. Anyone remember how the Canucks started last season?

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

It's only one game. Anyone remember how the Canucks started last season?

.....with a win against the Oilers.

 

[mathonwy]

Keith getting buried was all I needed out of this game.

 

[canuckking1]

Lol what a loser coach what about last year?