Post-Game Talk: GM 27 | Blues def. Canucks | 4-3 (OT) (Joshua, Pettersson, DeBrusk) | Extra time is not our friend.

[Ernie]

He was 100% not joking, tried to save it at the end.

He’s finally getting annoyed at the media

Hope he doesn't stop speaking his mind because the media are hounding him to get a sound bite.

 

[kanucks25]

We were the better team for sure. I thought it was very encouraging that we started playing with some "piss in our cornflakes" attitude after that fat dive from Parayko. We really controlled things after that. The big difference, to me, was that Demko was not up to game speed. His reads were very slow all night and it cost him on every single goal. Most times when you play how we did tonight, 4 goals do not end up in the back of the net. No matter. Some rust is expected; I'm sure he'll get himself righted with enough game action

Didn't we give up like at least 3 breakaways and a partial 2-on-0? Plus some uncontested shots from dead in the slot.

Not saying Demko shouldn't have had at least one back but I wouldn't say goaltending was the only reason we lost this game.

 

[B-rock]

Some not so fun facts from the Rink Wide guys:

1) Canucks have only had one 2-0 lead so far this year at home and that was game 1 against Calgary where they lost. They were actually up 3-0

2) Canucks have allowed the 2nd most goals at home in the NHL (only behind the Avs who don't have a goalie until recently)

Yikes. 4 wins in 14 games at home. On pace to win 12 games all year LOL

I don't know if it's the system or the personnel or what, but they struggle to manufacture chances. THey didn't get a shot in the 3rd until the 10 minute mark. It's a consistent pattern for them - they can't generate enough offence despite their skill. They dump and chase but tend to lose possession more often than gain it when they do. I don't think that's the whole problem, but it's potentially one aspect of it.

 

[kanucks25]

Not saying coaches can't make better decisions - playing both Desharnais and Friedman over Brannstrom is definitely a bad one - but I don't know how you can watch this game and actually think it's the coaches that were the reason they performed like they did.

Ferraro mentioned it multiple times on the broadcast: all night the Canucks couldn't make tape to tape passes consistently. Suter had that short-distance pass at center ice with nobody pressuring neither he nor the receiver and he sent it 5 feet out of the guy's reach. Pretty much every D-man took turns getting caught flat-footed or falling down at our blueline leading to an odd-man rush / grade A chance.

The personnel we have on D makes it impossible to transition the puck cleanly on a regular basis and most nights we only have like 2 forwards going and 1 is usually Garland. Petey picked up 2 big points today but I thought both he and Boeser were pretty quiet again 5-on-5.

2 AHL forwards in the lineup every night, 3 if you count Hoglander outside of his first handful of games to start the season. 3 AHL D-men in the lineup tonight + 2 essentially bottom-pair guys + Hughes. Whenever Hughes isn't on the ice the forwards have no help from the D in the offensive zone, chances are the play is going to die if they pass it up to the point.

Need Miller back but more importantly this team needs help on D immediately. They needed help on D before Hronek went down. It's gone from a need to an emergency.

 

[thecupismine]

Team ran a ~47% CF rate last year with Hughes on the bench. Down to 42% this year. Gap would be even worse if you score adjust given amount of time they spent leading last year compared to this year.

Hard to say that is anything other than the miserable defence the team assembled.

I bet Hughes’ numbers with our fourth line are equal (if not better) than our first lines numbers with the bottom 4 (on aggregate). Should give people some perspective on how bad the d is and just how badly they’re tanking everyone else’s results.

Soucy and Myers aren’t fourth liners, but their results without a semi competent PMD are just brutal this year.

While management deserved credit for the Soucy/Zadorov/Cole deals last year, they deserve equal blame for putting together this tirefire behind Hughes this year.

To put in perspective how bad a 42% ES Corsi is, we’re farther behind Chicago (44.5%) than they are behind Vegas (46.5%). It would be the worst figure in the league in the last 10 years outside the 2014/2015 Sabers, and no one else is below 43%.

It’s why I keep calling the situation untenable - I don’t know how the forwards are supposed to do anything other than defend when the defense can’t pass, or how Tocchet is supposed to coach any sort of offensive gameplan.

 

[DFAC]

Not saying coaches can't make better decisions - playing both Desharnais and Friedman over Brannstrom is definitely a bad one - but I don't know how you can watch this game and actually think it's the coaches that were the reason they performed like they did.

Ferraro mentioned it multiple times on the broadcast: all night the Canucks couldn't make tape to tape passes consistently. Suter had that short-distance pass at center ice with nobody pressuring neither he nor the receiver and he sent it 5 feet out of the guy's reach. Pretty much every D-man took turns getting caught flat-footed or falling down at our blueline leading to an odd-man rush / grade A chance.

The personnel we have on D makes it impossible to transition the puck cleanly on a regular basis and most nights we only have like 2 forwards going and 1 is usually Garland. Petey picked up 2 big points today but I thought both he and Boeser were pretty quiet again 5-on-5.

2 AHL forwards in the lineup every night, 3 if you count Hoglander outside of his first handful of games to start the season. 3 AHL D-men in the lineup tonight + 2 essentially bottom-pair guys + Hughes. Whenever Hughes isn't on the ice the forwards have no help from the D in the offensive zone, chances are the play is going to die if they pass it up to the point.

Need Miller back but more importantly this team needs help on D immediately. They needed help on D before Hronek went down. It's gone from a need to an emergency.

Like you mentioned, part of the problem is definitely personnel but the lack of any offense + shot generation would suggest it's also a systems issue. No one looks confident to shoot the puck (except for Hughes). There's just way too many times I've seen players pass up a prime shooting opportunity - it's like the players are afraid to shoot and make some sort of mistake and instead want to pass the puck. Nobody wants the puck.

Tocchet's whole idea of wanting to play more free flowing this year has completely fallen flat on it's face. He needs to find the answers and make the adjustments because it's not been working at all.

 

[David71]

what if van had resigned cole and not sign forbort/vd...?

 

[bh53]

what if van had resigned cole and not sign forbort/vd...?

Would still be the same issues with puck movement. Cole is better than those two but doesn't solve any issues.

 

[VanJack]

Allvin and Rutherford were both in the house tonight, and undoubtedly witnessed what everybody else saw.

You can't transition the puck from the defensive to offensive zone, when all your d-men do is gather the puck and shoot it up the wall. Either the guy at the point stops it; and the cycle starts all over again. Or the puck gets into the neutral zone and the opposing forwards come right back at you.

With Hronek out and Brannstrom mysteriously benched, the back-end was pretty hard to watch. And it doesn't get any easier on Thursday with the Cup champs Florida coming to town.

 

[kanucks25]

Like you mentioned, part of the problem is definitely personnel but the lack of any offense + shot generation would suggest it's also a systems issue. No one looks confident to shoot the puck (except for Hughes). There's just way too many times I've seen players pass up a prime shooting opportunity - it's like the players are afraid to shoot and make some sort of mistake and instead want to pass the puck. Nobody wants the puck.

Tocchet's whole idea of wanting to play more free flowing this year has completely fallen flat on it's face. He needs to find the answers and make the adjustments because it's not been working at all.

I think with a healthy lineup + another good D-man you will naturally see more shot generation. The more you can cleanly push the puck up the ice, the more opportunities you will get to play offence. Plus we would have a lot fewer guys dressed that handle the puck on the blue line like it's a grenade.

Another issue is our forwards are having trouble getting to and creating chances in the middle of the ice. Garland and Miller are the two guys who consistently set teammates up in dangerous areas but right now we only have one of them and there's no doubt our best goal scoring winger misses him. Petey should be another one of those guys who can create opportunities out of nothing but he's of course been very hit and miss.

Again I don't think this is necessarily a coaching issue and more that on most nights we have like 10 forwards that aren't dangerous on the cycle at all and produce most of their offense off broken plays. However it might be a good idea for coaches to start preaching that everything needs to be thrown on net, create scrambles and rebounds and go from there because passing around the outside isn't accomplishing much.

 

[Leif Rohlin]

I cannot emphasize enough: 3v3 is garbage and has no place in hockey.

I literally don't bother watching it anymore. I watch a decent number of games around the league and If it's tied at the end of regulation I just consider it a tie game. Zero interest in anything that happens after.