Post-Game Talk: GM 1 | Vancouver Canucks lost to Calgary Flames | 5-6 (OT) | Sprong, Boeser(2), Garland, & Miller | Not Good Enough

[Mr. Canucklehead]

The frustrating thing is that in the preseason game in Edmonton they played Wolanin-Desharnais as the top pairing and they had a fantastic game against a loaded Oiler squad. That pairing worked with Desharnais able to defer to Wolanin to move the puck.

Then we go back to Forbort there and Forbort is so awful with the puck on his stick that Desharnais has to be the guy trying to transition it ... and it doesn't work at all.

I’ve seen a lot of suggestions of getting Friedman in, but I wonder if having one of Wolanin or Brannstrom up to pair with Desharnais so one of them can move the puck might not be a better idea.

 

[Bgav]

2010-2011 Canucks lost in a SO to the kings in the first game. This is a sign

 

[iceburg]

Well, that was fun...

On Silovs, clearly he's not ready for prime time. He's still very young as goalies go and has a lot of development and time ahead of him. He has some great tools and some areas of his game that he needs to work on. Right now he should be playing big minutes in the AHL. I'm not even sure he should be the first call up. Once Demko is back I would rotate in Tolopilo and, depending on the waivers situation, even Patera. The one thing I would not do is have Silovs as the third goaltender in Vancouver. That would be a poor development choice by the org.

On EP, he played like the EP of the 2nd half. I will say that it's only one game and we should reserve strong opinions until after game 10. That said, he did nothing to help his case last night. He was the "mostly disinterested with flashes of skill" guy we saw last year.

The rest of the team seemed to just suffer from a lack of intensity and structure in the second and third. Tocchet will clean that up.

 

[arttk]

The frustrating thing is that in the preseason game in Edmonton they played Wolanin-Desharnais as the top pairing and they had a fantastic game against a loaded Oiler squad. That pairing worked with Desharnais able to defer to Wolanin to move the puck.

Then we go back to Forbort there and Forbort is so awful with the puck on his stick that Desharnais has to be the guy trying to transition it ... and it doesn't work at all.

Assumption is Forbort is a placeholder and will be a 7th D for PK purposes once we get that top4 guy at TDL.
Problem is what to do until then. I am guessing he is going to be sheltered like crazy but even in the ozone he was pretty shit coughing pucks at the blue line.

 

[calnuck]

My usual mantra is to give things 20 games before we start really talking about patterns for the season.

I felt that shit coming. I said that you couldn’t evaluate anything from the first period, and then said the same halfway through the second. It was a weird game and that we’d benefit to just get out of it - even when it was 4-1 and tilted.

Probably will end up being one of the top 3-5 weird games of the season. They happen.

That’s a fair and level headed take. However I am concerned that this game won’t be one of those “weird” ones because it continued the trend of lazy 2nd period and Pettersson playing the same way as last year. Had the team not gone through the 2nd half of last season the way they did I don’t think the alarm bells would be ringing so loud but it’s not a good look to start the season

 

[Orca Smash]

Can't say I agree with Rick honing in on the play away from the puck as the reason they lost (I mean it was poor). I get he's a defensive coach but the play with the puck was brutal after the first, they didn't generate anything and kept screwing up whenever they got a chance. They would either bobble it or screw up the play instead of putting the flames away.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

A+: Miller, Boeser
B+: Hoglander, Hughes, Garland
B-: DeBrusk, Heinen, Hronek
C+: Blueger, Myers, Soucy, Sherwood
D: Pettersson, Desharnais, Sprong
D-: Silovs, Aman, Raty, Forbort

 

[MS]

Honestly, with the anger levels receding now, I think we mostly did the same things we did last year when we had a multi-goal lead (when we were one of the best teams in the NHL protecting leads) but our goaltending was shit and our 3rd pairing couldn't get the puck out of our zone.

If we have Demko playing or Cole-Zadorov playing this is ho-hum a 4-2 win.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

Can't say I agree with Rick honing in on the play away from the puck as the reason they lost (I mean it was poor). I get he's a defensive coach but the play with the puck was brutal after the first, they didn't generate anything and kept screwing up whenever they got a chance. They would either bobble it or screw up the play instead of putting the flames away.

Agree they didn’t generate much and didn’t have a lot of controlled possession, Canucks were excellent in the neutral zone but poor in the offensive and defensive zones.

 

[nuxnux1]

Quite a bit of turnover in the lineup, no reason to panic.

 

[tantalum]

Canucks the fastest average skating team according to NHL edge last night lol, but agree they didn’t generate much and didn’t have a lot of controlled possession, Canucks were excellent in the neutral zone but poor in the offensive and defensive zones.

Offensive zone issues I was expecting. So many new combinations out there that it would be strange if they were fluid.
Defensive zone issues are the concern. That shouldn't be happening to the degree it was.

 

[Luongos Knob]

At least we didn't lose 6-0. peas and rice...

 

[ManVanFan]

Offensive zone issues I was expecting. So many new combinations out there that it would be strange if they were fluid.
Defensive zone issues are the concern. That shouldn't be happening to the degree it was.

Tocchett did say they did not practice much D zone coverage, focusing more on the transition game. Last year everybody talking about Foote turning water into wine with many of the defenders and after 1 game this year, there's no hope.

 

[Vector]

Honestly, with the anger levels receding now, I think we mostly did the same things we did last year when we had a multi-goal lead (when we were one of the best teams in the NHL protecting leads) but our goaltending was shit and our 3rd pairing couldn't get the puck out of our zone.

If we have Demko playing or Cole-Zadorov playing this is ho-hum a 4-2 win.

Yup, this is exactly how the game went. The rest of the team didn’t help but the two biggest culprits were as you say.

 

[TruGr1t]

Honestly, with the anger levels receding now, I think we mostly did the same things we did last year when we had a multi-goal lead (when we were one of the best teams in the NHL protecting leads) but our goaltending was shit and our 3rd pairing couldn't get the puck out of our zone.

If we have Demko playing or Cole-Zadorov playing this is ho-hum a 4-2 win.

Plus I feel like you're missing Suter/Joshua who are minute-eaters in those situations. You replace them with Raty/Hoglander and it's not quite the same thing.

 

[tantalum]

Tocchett did say they did not practice much D zone coverage, focusing more on the transition game. Last year everybody talking about Foote turning water into wine with many of the defenders and after 1 game this year, there's no hope.

Never said there was no hope or I'm panicking or anything like that. A lot of what I saw through 2 periods were errors that regardless of system familiarity shouldn't really be made even in game 1. Doesn't mean that it won't be cleaned up in game 2. I expect much of it will be. I also wouldn't expect many sub 0.800 sv% games from the goaltenders.

 

[Tob]

Nice move by zary and nice to see a kid put it together but ruined such a bad ass en block transition pass one time clapper tying goal. That’s what i imagine golden age 90s hockey was like

 

[ManVanFan]

Never said there was no hope or I'm panicking or anything like that. A lot of what I saw through 2 periods were errors that regardless of system familiarity shouldn't really be made even in game 1. Doesn't mean that it won't be cleaned up in game 2. I expect much of it will be. I also wouldn't expect many sub 0.800 sv% games from the goaltenders.

Better hope Demko comes back soon. Lankinen and his career .905 and Silovs .885 isn't going to have them sitting comfortably. I don't think Van has the offence to cover bad goaltending like Colorado did last year.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1831859862940352789

 

[Nick Lang]

That’s a fair and level headed take. However I am concerned that this game won’t be one of those “weird” ones because it continued the trend of lazy 2nd period and Pettersson playing the same way as last year. Had the team not gone through the 2nd half of last season the way they did I don’t think the alarm bells would be ringing so loud but it’s not a good look to start the season

I don't think you can read too much into the non goalie players. They had a poor game, but it's only game one. They are mostly seasoned players who will be coachable and get things corrected.

I'm worried about our goaltending. Silovs looks to be what we've seen, which is a 23 year old rookie goalie struggling overall and very inexperienced at the NHL level. I don't know how much better Lankinen will be with 4 years of backup duty. Two of those being on the Shithawks.

 

[RobsonStreet]

Never said there was no hope or I'm panicking or anything like that. A lot of what I saw through 2 periods were errors that regardless of system familiarity shouldn't really be made even in game 1. Doesn't mean that it won't be cleaned up in game 2. I expect much of it will be. I also wouldn't expect many sub 0.800 sv% games from the goaltenders.

The defense can be fixed, Silovs still terrifies me. I think after several years of similar play at the AHL level this is who he is*.

* not a .800 goalie, but an incredibly inconsistent one.

 

[timw33]

Honestly, with the anger levels receding now, I think we mostly did the same things we did last year when we had a multi-goal lead (when we were one of the best teams in the NHL protecting leads) but our goaltending was shit and our 3rd pairing couldn't get the puck out of our zone.

If we have Demko playing or Cole-Zadorov playing this is ho-hum a 4-2 win.

The last thought I had before going to sleep last night was how much better I would have felt acquiring Kovacevic for a 4th rounder to be our bottom pair rock for league minimum instead of Desharnais at $2MM.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Well, that was fun...

On Silovs, clearly he's not ready for prime time. He's still very young as goalies go and has a lot of development and time ahead of him. He has some great tools and some areas of his game that he needs to work on. Right now he should be playing big minutes in the AHL. I'm not even sure he should be the first call up. Once Demko is back I would rotate in Tolopilo and, depending on the waivers situation, even Patera. The one thing I would not do is have Silovs as the third goaltender in Vancouver. That would be a poor development choice by the org.

On EP, he played like the EP of the 2nd half. I will say that it's only one game and we should reserve strong opinions until after game 10. That said, he did nothing to help his case last night. He was the "mostly disinterested with flashes of skill" guy we saw last year.

The rest of the team seemed to just suffer from a lack of intensity and structure in the second and third. Tocchet will clean that up.

The thing is EP had a great 1st period.

Then immediately after the stupid decision to pass rather than shoot with a DIRECT shooting lane his 2nd half crap came back. Lazy puck turnovers, miscues with his linemates, skating down the line with the puck and then freezing up just before the faceoff circle, doing these stupid cross ice floater dump ins, and refusing to shoot.

EP in 2023 was driving to the net, letting shots pop off from anywhere on the ice, setting up give and go’s, and was elevating his linemates (Mikheyev was poised for a career year on 1 ACL, and transitionally slow Kuzmenko was 1 short of 40 goals and had 75 points).

I’ve been one of his strongest supporters, but at this point, this type of crap has become tiresome and frustrating to watch.

 

[Vector]

The last thought I had before going to sleep last night was how much better I would have felt acquiring Kovacevic for a 4th rounder to be our bottom pair rock for league minimum instead of Desharnais at $2MM.

I don't think a Forbort-Kovacevic 3rd pairing would be much better. Nor a Forbort-Myers.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Arty party is cancelled ..for now.

 

[Zippgunn]

Petterson suggs.
Silovs is still riding on his WC performance 2 years ago.

Yeah he sucked in last year's playoffs...