Post-Game Talk: GM 16 | Canucks def. Blackhawks | 4-1 (Pettersson, Brannstrom, Miller, Blueger) | Arty Party!

[VanJack]

Connor Bedard on with Scott Oake and After Hours.......he's just so young and fresh-faced. But locked into one of the longest goal droughts of his career, and probably in line for the usual sophomore jinx.

But the NHL isn't fair. He's expected to carry this Hawk team on his back night after night. And he just looks frustrated right now. Obviously not the return to Vancouver he was hoping for......but going forward, he's a local North Shore kid that you're really pulling for.

 

[TruGr1t]

After Hughes and Hronek, every defenseman on the roster is prone to turnovers and stupid gaffs. Brannstrom has been the best of the bunch, but he's good for 1-2 adventures in his own zone per night. Then you have to pick three of Soucy, Myers, Juulsen, Desharnais and Forbort, who basically all handle the puck like a grenade at this point. Just bad scouting work on the blue line.

 

[calnuck]

Connor Bedard on with Scott Oake and After Hours.......he's just so young and fresh-faced. But locked into one of the longest goal droughts of his career, and probably in line for the usual sophomore jinx.

But the NHL isn't fair. He's expected to carry this Hawk team on his back night after night. And he just looks frustrated right now. Obviously not the return to Vancouver he was hoping for......but going forward, he's a local North Shore kid that you're really pulling for.

Nah f*** him this is what he gets for actually signing with the Blackhawks and not forcing a trade here. I hope he busts.

/s for anyone who might be silly enough to take that seriously

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Boy, I don't understand a word you just said.

There’s gas in a bag, Donkey Kong is wearing socks while hanging with Daniel Day Kim.

 

[orcatown]

Guess the team got the message. Lots of positives in this one.

Good

Branstrom - increasing the range of his play. You wonder how good he'd be pushing the puck up ice if the team loosened his leash and gave him someone who could mind the shop defensively, instead of him being saddled with Desharnais and Juulsen. Would say, however, that Juulsen was better in this one, after his shaky start on the first goal.

Pettersson - lot more spring in his step. Not converting all the plays he should, but better at packing the puck and breaking up plays

Sherwood - just keeps on trucking. Helped create space for Pettersson and others and helped hem up Blackhawks in their end

Garland - assisted that recreated third line to a good effort. Is getting better on the PP and should be left there

Silovs - one of the real positives. Early on was giving up a lot of net but settled in and showed his quickness on several occasions. He really needed this win.

Hughes - best player, again - goes without saying

Others

Raty - another positive - best game at this level. Went to the body all game and showed enough speed to stay in the play and actually created some chances. Skating was not as much of a factor. Game helped give you some belief.

Myers - gave away the puck way too often. Seemed hurried, and yes chaotic, in much of his puck movement. Him and Soucy again played too much of the game back in their crease.

Joshua - still playing off some of the rust. However, skated better and more involved in the play. He should help this team.

Hoglander - worked hard all game. Was more effective on the forecheck.

Miller - don't think he is right. Plays in spurts and gets standing around at times. Often makes a dangerous pass rather than skating to where he can give a better one - might indicate some injury problems hurting his agility.

Team was better but given the situation, they should have been. Chicago in the middle of a road trip should be an automatic win. Have to say Bedard didn't impress and you wonder if he is going to the mega star everyone predicted. 3 goals to date isn't going to cut it.

Worst part of the game was seeing Miheyev score when he's partly paid by us.

 

[drax0s]

Connor Bedard on with Scott Oake and After Hours.......he's just so young and fresh-faced. But locked into one of the longest goal droughts of his career, and probably in line for the usual sophomore jinx.

But the NHL isn't fair. He's expected to carry this Hawk team on his back night after night. And he just looks frustrated right now. Obviously not the return to Vancouver he was hoping for......but going forward, he's a local North Shore kid that you're really pulling for.

Man, Hawks fans on Twitter are already carving him. I feel for the kid - hard to be the savoir for a f***ing franchise.

 

[VanJack]

Berdard's ELC is up at the end of next season. If he continues to struggle a bit and you were the Canucks would you sign him to an offer sheet?

Listening to him on After Hours, growing up in North Van he lived and died with the Canucks....a kid who bled the green and white, long before becoming a junior hockey phenom.

If ever there was a player who belongs in a Vancouver uniform it's him. He'd be a true 'home-town hero'.

 

[valkynax]

Man, Hawks fans on Twitter are already carving him. I feel for the kid - hard to be the savoir for a f***ing franchise.

From the fans of that team, I am not the least bit surprised.

Yeah just keeping force feeding Kyle Beach with bundles of cash and pretends that the organization is not a despicable shit stain.

 

[DFAC]

 

[Jyrki]

Game could've gone south with the rough start, but the inferior competition showed. At least it was more businesslike towards the end.

Wish Bedard had scored a beauty instead of Mik cashing in. He fanned on the puck that led to Miller's ENG not just in front of a hometown crowd but in front of many family and friends. Hope having this stinker doesn't derail his career progression.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Berdard's ELC is up at the end of next season. If he continues to struggle a bit and you were the Canucks would you sign him to an offer sheet?

Listening to him on After Hours, growing up in North Van he lived and died with the Canucks....a kid who bled the green and white, long before becoming a junior hockey phenom.

If ever there was a player who belongs in a Vancouver uniform it's him. He'd be a true 'home-town hero'.

Uh, yeah. But let's be real - if Lafreniere didn't get traded, Bedard is not getting traded.

Laf was about as close as a team has come to giving up on a top 2 pick prematurely. Other than Tyler Seguin (because Chiarelli and Benning eat Play-Do in their spare time), it just doesn't happen unless that player is clearly a bust.

I would do nasty things to get Bedard on this team, but until he's a UFA I don't see it happening. By then, this core will be long done and we might be looking to retool/rebuild. Maybe at 26 he gets the keys to the kingdom

 

[Vector]

Tonight’s Game

• Thought they started a little nervous but got through
• After scoring the powerplay goal he kind of liked their game
• Obviously have to work on some stuff
• Heinen had a really strong game; 4th line gave them some juice

Silovs

• Really solid; especially in the third period

Brannstrom

• Thought he was feisty; jumped into the play; walked the line a couple of times
• Likes that he’s shooting the puck a lot; changing the angle
• Getting his shot around the defenders

4th Line

• Played connected; lots of possession time
• Raty was 6-0 on face-offs to begin the game
• Heinen was good on the walls
• Hoglander had some good possession time
• Thought they did the right thing and were connected

Thursday’s Effort vs Tonight’s Effort

• Were better in the neutral zone tonight but still not there yet
• Teams are scouting that the Canucks are going to the strong side too much
• Need to be more patient
• Two teams in a row where the strategy to have 1 guy forechecking and 4 guys hanging back
• As the game went on, were more patient and beat it
• Pettersson attacked with speed
• Teams are backing off from the Canucks and, for whatever reason, they are having a tough time with it
• Have to execute the strategy in-game
• If you attack with speed you can get through either by chipping it in or by a pass
• Stresses forechecking; should always have the first touch on the forecheck but are skating backwards and are too slow entering the offensive zone
• Were a lot better in the 2nd and 3rd
• Hopes they can apply the speed against Nashville

Bad Defence in 1st Period

• Were getting beat 1-on-1 with speed wide
• Canucks are a reload team in the offensive zone; if you reload then your defence can go forward; however playing flat hockey then going passed the reload guy; which leads to an odd-man rush against

Response to Challenges

• Does think this was a response performance for the Canucks
• Is not a one-off
• Since he’s been coaching this team, has felt they responded after bad efforts
• Adam Foote lead a video session yesterday and spoke to the team; felt what he said helped
• Still need to clean things up; a work in progress

Pettersson

• Fans chanting your name inspires you
• When Pettersson hears the chants, it should make him want to push himself even harder

Sherwood

• Last couple of games had too many guys circling around and Sherwood is a straight-line guy
• Joshua plays a similar style and will be that when he gets his legs
• When you have a couple of guys on a line that are circling too much, Sherwood makes them move forward
• Hits guys on the forecheck

 

[Wry n Ginger]

That was definitely Brannstrom's best game maybe ever? Played with confidence and a bit pissed off. For a slightly undersized Dman that is exactly how he should play.

Petey was really good tonight. A ton of finished checks and reverse hits. He wasn't perfect but good signs if him turning his season around.

I would be interested to see if Hronek worked with Brannstrom as a "Hughes light" experiment. Frees up Hughes to try to get Soucy or Myers back on track.

Nice game by ArtyParty. Looked in control when facing shots. He reeally needs to stop handling the puck so much. Keep practicing big guy and you will get it...but you don't got it now.

 

[quat]

I get the feeling the Canucks brass are going to be relatively patient with this group of players and see if they aren't able to coach them into being a viable threat in the playoffs. Continue to work with the players they have and see if they'll turn into a team.

Clearly they need another top four defender, but they have all season to find him.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

 

[B-rock]

My god is Myers atrocious. And Soucy isn’t helping him. It’s almost a guarantee that if they don’t completely turn it over in their zone, then for Myers its going to be a bank off the wall to no one, good for a neutral zone turnover or an icing. Brannstrom though not perfect, has proven to be more reliable than these two and should be getting those minutes.

As others have mentioned, once Juulsen settled down he was pretty decent. He actually showed some good poise in his own zone to get a few clean breakouts-something they’ve been lacking. If he could ever wipe out his bad play a game, I think he could be a serviceable 3rd pairing d.

 

[HelloCookie]

There is the village idiot, the village asshole, and the village pariah.

Somehow Gazpuke is all three. Fascinating.

Takes a village to raise a child because it takes only one idiot to represent the village

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

missed the game but from the highlights…

looked like silovs had himself a good first period before we took over later in the game, good for him

in only a month brannstrom has gone from always hitting shin pads or sticks from the point to getting his shot through. the miracle of coach gonchar?

it sure looked from the replay like petey got his stick on that second goal

did garland get taken off petey’s line? couldn’t tell for sure from the highlights

brannstrom was such a stroke of luck. we still need a guy, preferably a RHD who can play with hughes because we should/can absolutely not play myers or desharnais there but here are scenarios that branny opens up:

hughes hronek
soucy brannstrom
[someone] myers/desharnais rotating

hughes [someone]
brannstrom hronek
soucy myers/desharnais rotating

i think the ideal configuration is:

hughes [someone]
soucy hronek
brannstrom [someone who isn’t myers or des]

but there is a crazy part of me that thinks if des can figure some things out and soucy gets his shit together and gets back to last year’s form this could actually work:

hughes hronek
soucy des
brannstrom myers

with brannstrom’s puck moving letting myers really concentrating on playing safe and within his abilities

 

[David71]

After Hughes and Hronek, every defenseman on the roster is prone to turnovers and stupid gaffs. Brannstrom has been the best of the bunch, but he's good for 1-2 adventures in his own zone per night. Then you have to pick three of Soucy, Myers, Juulsen, Desharnais and Forbort, who basically all handle the puck like a grenade at this point. Just bad scouting work on the blue line.

time to cut their losses on the D. forbort gets a pass because of his dad passing and injury to hard to judge.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

IDK where everyone's at but like, I agree we look disjointed. We're 2nd in the division. I agree our defense outside of Hughes should be studied by a team a'disaster specialists, we're 2nd in the division.

I agree with orcatown, Miller is looking off lots of otherwise great looks...lol. However, in doing so, he's still somehow creating while not A chances, are definitely B chances. Just the late guy into the high slot isn't coming in with his stick on the ice where it should be. The other half, ya, Miller is throwing them blind.

Like, these are fundamental things. Things that stupid me figured out by watching Don Cherry and honest to god, anyone coming in late who isn't ready to drop their knee is an idiot and should be dressed down in the locker room not naming names but one of my guys is doing this A LOT.

Here's the entire problem with the defense I think, if Myers doesn't have a consistent partner he's basically a roaming turkey. Soucy is night and day this year to last and Myers is running around way too much doing too much. Last year Souc got 41 and Zad got a sizable chunk.

EdN: I'm still only at defcon-4. I called 98 points for us. I stick to that. Like right about now is when you buy $VCR dough heads. In 6 weeks we'll have a shiny new toy to talk about and will start to come together.

Either that or Tocchet doubles down on his outlook for the team, and Demko doesn't come back by that time. The team's entire team strategy changes with Dem.

 

[Hansen]

I f***in love Brannstrom

Beäst Möde

 

[Dolemite]

The Canucks have a huge, huge, HUGE attitude problem.

This was an extremely shitty and dysfunctional Blackhawks team that they should have mopped the ice with. Instead they played like pansies who lacked aggression and the attitude that they are the better team.

Also, Brännström is cannon.

 

[Lupuls Grit]

My observations:

- Myers is back to being Chaos Giraffe. Some good, some bad, much scary!
- Brannstrom should not play higher in the lineup than 3rd pairing. I like what he brings there but I suspect he would simply be overmatched defensively in higher minutes against top-6 forwards.
- Petey's line looked good last night. Sherwood brings a very useful element.
- The team badly misses Brock. Lekk should go back to Abby upon Brock's return. I expect Lekk to be a permanent fixture in the Top-6 as early as next year but he needs to refine his game and gain more experience.
- Joshua is, understandably, not able to keep up or contribute much right now. Should be better in a few games.
- I really liked Hoglander's energy
- I'm not ready to say Silovs is "back". Looked decent last night while flubbing that long shot off his glove and was facing a very weak offensive team.
- Bedard needs to either move to the wing while he adjusts to the league or at least play with someone who can take face-offs for him. It can't be good for his confidence getting caved in defensively and on draws like this.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Just split Myers and Soucy apart already. JFC- they're like an old couple you know who are constantly bitching and arguing and everybody wishes they'd just get a divorce already. You're bad together- counseling isn't gonna fix this.
I don't care what the new pairings are. As long as Hughes plays a lot, Brannstrom stays in the line-up and those 2 guys don't play together any goddamn more!
Also: some of the satisfaction about this game leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like tasting a half full stale beer to see if it's still drinkable. The Blackhawks really really suck.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

I find that I have a hard time staying interested in games the entire way through this year....

Quick notes:

-EP has been MUCH better lately.

-agree with Toc on the 4th line. Heinen was really noticeable and Raty and Hog played hard too. Nice line.

-Joshua looks Rusty but was so happy to see him back with Garland and Blueger.

-Lekkerimaki belongs up here.

-Soucy and Myers need to be separated. They are awful together this year.

-I am really pulling for Brannstrom. I love his break outs, his willingness to shoot and get his shots on net. He even engages physically and has been feisty. Absolutely our 3rd best d this season.

-it is absolutely ridiculous how Friedman is treated by this coaching staff. Hung around for months without playing last season and STILL re-signed here, had a nice camp, and gets to toil in te AHL while Soucy, Myers, Desharnais, Forbort and Juulsen all shit the bed nightly? We don't need FIVE f***ing big bodies. Friedman is a great passer, nice skater, and is ALWAYS engaged. He is more physical and feisty than any of those big bodies.

f***ing trade the guy. There's no reason he should be treated this way.

Move Brannstrom up with Soucy and drop Myers down to play with Friedman. I guarantee it'd be better.