Post-Game Talk: GM 64 | Canadiens def. Canucks | 4-2 (Hronek, EP40) | Merde.

[VanJack]

It's kind of ironic when you look at the season. They went into it with a completely sub-standard blueline, but with some dangerous forwards up front who were coming off 100-point seasons and productive on the PP.

Almost in-season, they managed to fix the blueline. With Hronek, Hughes, Myers, Marcus and Elias Pettersson (D-Petey), Mancini and Forbort--with Wilnander coming, the defense looks decent. Big, mobile and with some serious puck skills.

But their forward group has fallen off a cliff---lowest scoring team in the NHL since the new year broke. So the priority this off-season is adding size, skill and speed up front. And fortunately they do have some major cap-room to try and address it.

So as bad as this year has been--it's far from a 'lost cause'.

 

[Grub]

This forward core needs work.

 

[Dirtyclapper]

We have a chance to make it up today vs Calgary. Still in it

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

Had the score spoiled so I watched the extended highlights of the 1st two periods and then the full 3rd.

I can't believe how many of you are such quitters. Like, we went so many years without playoffs and I see people lamenting how close to the playoffs we are because we can't quit.

I don't know if we're going to make it, but this is a fun time of year and a time of year that matters to the players.

The reason some of us keep calling out video game hockey fans is because they entirely neglect the human element of every part and act like it's a simulation of NHL 25.

We are currently going through a PDO slump, and are missing a top 5 player in the league who happens to be our leader and captain.

We literally have never played full strength with this incarnation of the team. We're missing our #1 goalie as well.

And some of you think there is no psychological advantage for our core to gutting out a playoff appearance and then who knows?

You think our stars and core players will be just as buoyed by absolutely quitting and winning like 5 of our last 18?

I have to wonder if any of you have ever played a team sport or even been a part of a positive social environment in any sort of high performance area.
-

Those who want to trade Hronek or shit on him are being shown up. He's playing like a good number 1 D man. His contract is going to age very very well.

Petey starting to look like the alien again. Had a couple of really neat plays in the third. One of which should have drawn a tripping penalty. His shot was fantastic. And even on the empty netter he lunged and got a good piece of it with one hand while diving. Not many players can do that. It didn't work, but it would have been an absolutely high light reel stop.

Boeser looks slow and hesitant and it's brutal to watch. He needs a break so badly.

Joshua himself hit a post and got robbed. Could have been a two goal game.

It will come.

In fact, our team desperately needs a couple of breaks. To just have a night where we score like 6 non empty net goals.

Tomorrow is going to be massive and it will be really interesting to see how it goes and who shows well for themselves.

Looking forward to it.

 

[B-rock]

Let’s rush Raty in the top 6, force it for 10 games if anything

Might as well. He’s ppg down on the farm. He’s ready to come up for good. If they don’t plan on re-signing Suter, would be good for Raty to get these reps in now so he’s ready for next year.

 

[Isi]

Anybody who thought the team would be better without Miller simply due to "vibes" is living in lala land.

They have been noticeably worse since Miller was traded. I honestly didn't expect it to be this blatant.

They've lost Miller's Ozone creativity and will be hard pressed to replace it.

I know people don't want to hear it, the results are the results, buuuuuuuuut here's a quick look at our 5 on 5 fancy stats before and after the start of Feb, which is when JT got traded.

Up until Feb: [50 odd games]

corsi: 20th in the league
Fenwick: 22nd
shots for: 20th
xG: 22nd

shooting percentage: 5th
PDO: 16th
save percentage: 24th

(JT's individual sh% was 5.77 but his on ice sh% was 11.01)

Since the start of Feb [13 games]

Corsi: 14th
Fenwick: 14th
shots for: 16th
xG: 11th

shooting percentage: 31st
PDO: 28th
save percentage: 16th

and obviously since the start of Feb those numbers include a lot of games sans Quinn Hughes.

So to me, those are not really numbers that suggest we're a lot worse. we've just had a massive change in our shooting percentage, after we were running lucky for so long. Obviously no-one has had as big a change as we have, although Minnesota were 16th in the league up until Feb and are last in the league since the start of Feb. Winnipeg have gone from 8th to 21st as well. [as an aside, the Flames are 30th in shooting percentage since Feb....and were 30th in the league up until the start of Feb!]

for example's sake, Suter and Hronek were running at around an 11% on ice shooting percentage up until the end of Jan. They are at 5.7 and 3.8% since the start of Feb

And for transparency Brock, who obviously is more impacted by JT being gone than Suter, has gone from 10% until the end of Jan to 1% since the start of Feb. He's had 184 5 on 5 minutes since Feb and we have scored 1 goal in that ice time! no-one else, obviously, has had as few goals scored whilst playing 184+ minutes. (Dakota Joshua is at 162 minutes and only 1 goal, though) [also lmao McDavid is in this list. 3.55% on ice shooting percentage since Feb! I would much prefer McDavid's bad luck streak happen in the playoffs, not now......]

 

[David71]

This forward core needs work.

MAJOR OVERHAUL

 

[Kryten]

Not even going to watch the highlights but nice to see Petey with another goal and its not surprising to see Myers winning the green jacket

 

[VanJack]

If you'd told me at the start of this season that Miller would be traded; EP40 wouldn't score even half the points he did a year ago; both Hughes and Hronek would miss a chunk of the season; and Demko would basically miss the entire season--I'd have predicted a disaster.

So I guess fact that they're technically still in the playoff race has to be considered something of a miracle. And I think a lot of discouraged Canuck fans can take solace from looking at the big picture.

As of Game 64, they've become the seventh youngest team in the league. And a lot of their younger guys are gaining valuable experience playing meaningful games in March--even if it's likely they fall short.

But this team has gone as far as it can go with the likes of Blueger, Suter, Sherwood, Hoglander and even Garland up front. They're all 'gamers'. But they're either too small; too slow or too unskilled to be difference-makers. And none of them really belongs in the top-six on a really good team.

And we're learning just how bad things can get when Hughes goes down--and it isn't pretty. Lots of work to do in the off-season. But I think this management group understands the problems, and what they have to do to address them.

 

[Coffee]

Not even going to watch the highlights but nice to see Petey with another goal and its not surprising to see Myers winning the green jacket

Watch the Petey goal at least bro



Skip to 8:20

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Just leaving this here

 

[BoHorvat 53]

We have a chance to make it up today vs Calgary. Still in it

That's going to be a very tough game tomorrow - home teams with a rest advantage on the season are winning 60.1% of their games, the Flames are playing with 3 days rest while we blew our load tonight chasing a game that we still ultimately lost in regulation.

 

[geebster]

Just leaving this here

Yeah Tocchet clearly thinks the best way to motivate is to punish Petey for every mistake even if he's having a good game. Basically the opposite of the Miller philosophy of even if he bails on a play entirely he can start OT and bail on another play. It's not working at all but it's how he is as a coach.

 

[me2]

That's going to be a very tough game tomorrow - home teams with a rest advantage on the season are winning 60.1% of their games, the Flames are playing with 3 days rest while we blew our load tonight chasing a game that we still ultimately lost in regulation.

Looking to see how ep40 backs up. Calgary will be a good test. Chi-utah-rest day-wpeg will be another.

 

[Big zZz]

There’s a non-zero chance we see Lankinen tomorrow. In fact I think they seriously consider it.

I'm surprised he started tonight tbh.

 

[JT Milker]

Those who want to trade Hronek or shit on him are being shown up. He's playing like a good number 1 D man. His contract is going to age very very well.

“Hronek can’t carry a 2nd pair”

More like I can’t evaluate dmen.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Exactly. Made me laugh when I saw people celebrating dumping a top 10 centre.

He wanted out. He quit trying.

Lets not get all nostalgic for him just quite yet.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Awesome to see all the love Hronek's getting. He's a f***in beast.

 

[the big nobody]

I have faith that someday this team will score more than two goals in a game.

Someday...

 

[ManVanFan]

Just leaving this here

Lol I posted that twitter account yesterday. Person just hates Tocchet with a passion and honestly if Tocchet is extended, it's a mistake. He's just too basic.

Media claimed that Travis Green was doing more with his roster as well.

 

[Canucks LB]

Lol I posted that twitter account yesterday. Person just hates Tocchet with a passion and honestly if Tocchet is extended, it's a mistake. He's just too basic.

Media claimed that Travis Green was doing more with his roster as well.

He bounces, first it was jt miller, now its rick, after rick is gone it will be somebody else.

 

[ManVanFan]

He bounces, first it was jt miller, now its rick, after rick is gone it will be somebody else.

Some people always have a scape goat. I had some questions about RT when he arrived but I had hoped that his time in Pitt he would have learned something. It doesn't seem so, it looks like his time in Arizona.

Too many including Tocchet won't take the good with the bad about players.

I think the players are tired of Tocchet's voice. Things aren't improving.

 

[Baby Pettersson]

He wanted out. He quit trying.

Lets not get all nostalgic for him just quite yet.

Dude the entire team has quit. We just used Miller as a scapegoat and thought all the problems would go away. Amateur hour is a better way to describe what happened.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Should’ve just traded our own first rounder for MP and that’s it.

Whatever locker room conflict there was it needed to be resolved by the men involved. They get paid millions to do so, amongst many other things.

Instead the management allowed the media to snowball the whatever conflict there was into the franchise killing trade.

Yep. A 1st and Hoglander for MP in the off-season probably gets it done, stabilizes the D, let's us pull back on Soucy's minutes and not waste a second on VIncent Desharnais.

 

[Hodgy]

I am not a big fan of Tochett, and didn’t like when they hired him, but the forwards clearly suck currently, and he showed he could get a lot out of the team last year with a better forward group. With that said, I felt the offense declined as season progressed, and that concerned me.

As I have mentioned before, to Tochett’s credit, he identified offensive chance creation as an issue during training camp, and wanted to give more rope to the forwards. That never happened but I can excuse him that given how poorly the defense was constructed.

But, now that the defense is solid, it d like to see Tochett loosen up the ropes for the forwards so we can see more chance generation. I have my doubts that this will actually occur, but there isn’t really the same excuse now. The reality is though, our forwards do currently suck, so even if he does loosen up the ropes, the results are likely to not follow to the extent you may expect.

Yep. A 1st and Hoglander for MP in the off-season probably gets it done, stabilizes the D, let's us pull back on Soucy's minutes and not waste a second on VIncent Desharnais.

It also allows them, if they have to, to make trades from a position of power.

Like, once they realized that they needed to trade Miller, imagine if they traded 40 goal scorer Boeser at that time? I have to imagine he’d return a first plus then? You flip those assets as well for immediate help.