Post-Game Talk: [GM55] Canucks defeat Maple Leafs | 2-1 | Hronek & Boeser | Dead Leafs on the Dirty Ground

[Breakers]

Hopefully demko was good with his money

He ain’t getting that deal he wants from anybody.

 

[geebster]

Am I crazy or did Hughes dominate more without Hronek than with him anyways? The way he plays when he's with Hronek seems more sustainable and less erratic, but it feels like when he's with someone like Myers or Juulsen, he takes it upon himself to try to take over the ice, and he's kind of been pulling it off so far (this recent run of Norris-favorite-level-of-play has been mostly without Hronek).

I still think it's better for the team to split them, personally.

I agree with the observation here, Hughes without Hronek definitely took over more and did more.

Could be for the reason you gave, that he felt he had to do more with a less reliable pairing mate or it could be that Hughes evolved as a player throughout the course of the season. I think its a bit of both personally. I cant believe its still happening, but Hughes absolutely keeps improving as a player and finding more and more ways to manipulate defenses etc. I think Hughes was the only option we had for long enough that he just got better at doing it over that span. I dont know if he actually relied or deferred to Hronek that much.

 

[Phrasing]

On the game:

Hronek: Had a dangerous offensive game. When he plays like this, he's legit #3/#2 Dman. Efficient zone exits and transition passes. Quick decisions on the PP. He got trapped twice holding on too long, but then went right back to passing it well. Very good game.

Demko: Was making saves early. Too bad he left. Shot off the collarbone I think. Hope for the best.

EP40: Great effort early, but tailed off. Still, he had enough smart plays to get his points. It's not effort, it's the intent to make a play. Even without his speed, or hustle, he can make enough high level plays to be a factor.

Boeser: The same as EP40 right now. He was less noticeable, but executed at exactly the time it was needed. This is the value of skill and talent.

Garland: Looked off before, but was back on in this game. Drags this team into the fight. Can't say enough about him.

MPetey: What a wall. They can play him 30 min a game and I wouldn't blink.

EP25: Has ice in his veins. There was a play where he came to his off side to get the puck out for Soucy, and I thought: Who's the veteran here lol? Trying to temper expectations.

Sherwood: Was exactly what DeBrusk-Pettersson needed. Drove that line forward. Got under the opposition's skin.

Lankinen: Steadied the team when Demko left. They still pushed the play well, but he made key saves that brought the temperature down.

Hoglander: I know Tocchet is keeping an energizer on each line, but man, get this guy off the 4th line! There is no reward to what he is doing when the play dies with Blueger-Aman. Given him the skill he needs to create offense.

Solid team win. Someone mentioned that the team looks more structurally sound without Hughes, and I think that's correct. The 5 man unit plays differently when he's on it. Something to look out for when he returns.

I would try Hoglander with Chytil and Boeser. I don’t mind DOC but I’m interested to see if Chytil’s more north-south transition game could help.

 

[kanucks25]

have we ever seen hughes - soucy?

that’s three pairs you can just roll:

hughes soucy
mp3 myers
ep2 hronek

and when you are pressing you just seap soucy and hronek

D.Pettersson is almost for sure coming out when Hughes is back and you’ll probably run Forbort-Soucy as the bottom pair pre-Willander.

I actually never thought about trying Soucy with Hughes, that might be the best way to go because:

1) Avoids the Forbort - Soucy pair which even in a limited role would probably not be good
2) Decreases the amount of time Soucy has the puck on his stick

As good as EP2 has looked, I send him down when Hughes is ready because they are not playing him over Forbort.

 

[Regal]

Nice win. Always good to send the TO fans home unhappy and we seem to have penchant for doing that. A game worth paying for.

Good

Pettersson - most hopeful thing coming out of this game for the Canucks. Played in the trenches all game and made some pretty offensive plays. You wonder if Tocchet coaching has contributed to his conversion to defense first player. In this one, he was contributing both ways. Now he'll likely go and star for team Sweden and we will left still trying to unravel the mystery this player is.

Myers - thought for some of the game he was trying to do too much but in the end you were happy he was. Was again a horse and huge over the last part of the game. All those who want Myers gone yesterday should start recognizing his value. He could have got much more elsewhere but gave the team a break and is playing his heart out for them. However, next mistake he makes you can bet the "let's make fun of Myers because like we are so humerous doing that" group will be out in full force.

Garland - energizer bunny deserves an A. Heart and soul and effective near every shift. Even coming off injury made a great effort and created numerous chances. Others hopefully will start putting away some of those chances.

M. Pettersson - the more you see the more you like. Too bad he didn't score but his use of the stick to break up plays is so high level. Reminds me of Tanev who I sure as well wish we still had. Jump from having someone like Pettersson on your defense instead of having someone like Desharnais is quantum.

Lankanin - won the game with the late saves. Probably shouldn't have come down to that since the Canucks should have put it away earlier (however Woll was outstanding). Plus the late call, leaving them two men, was absolute crap. Deserved a star for his play - especially given the situation. Also would say Demko continued look excellent up to the injury.

Hronek - has turned into a stud in the last few weeks. Fears about the off-season deal now look groundless. Was best two way d-man for the team.

Sherwood - seems to help out EP1. Like others, he got a quick and hard fore-check on the Leafs. Guy brings it every shift and was a thorn in the side of TO in this game. Like him to put away chances a little better but he was forcing the play and, at least, getting them

Others

Chytil - once again saw his upside but he needs to start converting. Question has always been with him, is he style without substance. Need point production out of him.

O'Connor - another solid game. Certainly skates at an NHL level.

Forbert - Never liked this player elsewhere but he is contributing. Becoming a player who you could easily live with on you bottom pairing.

Aman - a little more in the play tonite. His line produced some chances and got decent o-zone time. Keep wishing for a break through where he becomes a Suter type player. Maybe a little too hopeful here.

EP2 - keep rubbing my rabbit's foot and knocking on wood that what we are seeing isn't some temporary abberation. Time reduced in this game but for the most part competed well with some upper level NHL players. It's not hard imagining as top 4 material.

Team continues to win without Hughes. Thought when Hughes went out we just couldn't survive. Right now you can have some expectation that when he does return, this defense may be pretty set.

Down side is, of course, is Demko. You worry about if it is the same knee as earlier. Also, I wonder if the team gets some more cap space if he is out long term.

This is confusing. He has 3 points in 4 games with the team despite the team scoring only 9 goals in those games

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

How hard is it for people to spell our top prospect's name properly? Not directed at you, really; I just see this constantly and don't get it.

It's a tradition on here.

Alex Elder, Kevin Biexa, Ryan Kessler. Cody Hodgeson.

 

[valkynax]

This was suggested on the radio shows, trade Brock for 1st + stuff and then he’s a 3rd to get Nyquist. Throw 2 1st to get that young C back and then see what happens at UFa

That sounds good on paper but also super risky. Then again I was never a risk taker so what do I know haha.

At least we have some options now that the back end is as close to a stronghold as we can get. Pete's game is showing some encouraging signs, hope that he will continue to find his game, reducing our desperation so we won't get robbed at TDL.

Last time Hughes was out, our defense made vintage Oilers look like cup contenders...what a f***ing difference.

 

[Bobby9]

Enjoying the win w some carrot cake

 

[tantalum]

Nice win for the boys Sans Quinn again. Other than his assist (which was nice) petey did nothing, Hope demko is ok, thankfully he has a couple of weeks now to rest and recouperate

Whaaaaaa? EP1 made several excellent defensive plays in front of his net and he also set up a couple of other great scoring chances and beat the goaltender clean only to hit the pipe. Players can’t seem to hit the net

 

[Bleach Clean]

Fair. Kind of why I added "pretty much." It's not 100%, but again, if he played like this for a game in his prime season, I wouldn't have batted an eye or felt that anything looked off, personally. (I feel like I did notice a couple of instances where he came close to doing what you were referring to as well, though, but I could be wrong)

When he cut across the ice to create a drop pass to EP25, and when he was offside but slipped a lateral pass to DeBrusk, I thought wow, is his skating back? Then, he took a play in the neutral zone and tried to skate up ice and had no skating power.

He flashed it on a few shifts, I saw it as you did, but I noticed a general drop off in the 2nd and 3rd.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

Its crazy that 2 Pettersson's come into the lineup and now our defense looks very good after years of hurting us.

And thats all while missing the best defenseman in the league.

Can't wait till Quinn is back. Maybe just maybe trading JT isn't the end of our contention window after-all.

 

[ChilliBilly]

The leafs are a pretty good team. We outplayed them tonight.

WITHOUT HUGHES!

Yes the were a lot of bounces that could have gone either way for either team.

But we could contend with any team in the league right now. Keep Willander and Lekkerimaki unless the deal is off the charts. Keep our cap space.

We have some issue to deal with. What do we give Lankinan? Right now we owe him gold plated Rolls Royce with cherries on top. Do we keep Boeser? We do not trade our D assets unless a massive overpayment is made. We could use some forward upgrade, but we are doing pretty good with what we have. ...

Edit - and this isn;t dealing with the fact we probably have the best D in the NHL ... Hughes! Norris or MVP.

Hronek and MP. We are set.

EP2 - looking so legit. Beyond even my expectations right now. ...

Myers Soucy Forbort all holding their own .... well as 5 - 6. -7.

And this is with Willander stepping in as almost for sure top 3 ... and KK Mynio etc in the wing. Holy crap.

 

[December5th]

I love

this

 

[Shareefruck]

I agree with the observation here, Hughes without Hronek definitely took over more and did more.

Could be for the reason you gave, that he felt he had to do more with a less reliable pairing mate or it could be that Hughes evolved as a player throughout the course of the season. I think its a bit of both personally. I cant believe its still happening, but Hughes absolutely keeps improving as a player and finding more and more ways to manipulate defenses etc. I think Hughes was the only option we had for long enough that he just got better at doing it over that span. I dont know if he actually relied or deferred to Hronek that much.

What especially shocked me about that is that unlike the past few years where he took a major step, this year, he showed no signs of taking another step coming into the season (Hronek was actually the guy who looked like he took a step, and was outplaying Hughes, IMO). I actually distinctly recall thinking "oh well, guess you can't expect him to keep doing that every year" at the time, but here we are.

 

[arttk]

That sounds good on paper but also super risky. Then again I was never a risk taker so what do I know haha.

At least we have some options now that the back end is as close to a stronghold as we can get. Pete's game is showing some encouraging signs, hope that he will continue to find his game, reducing our desperation so we won't get robbed at TDL.

Last time Hughes was out, our defense made vintage Oilers look like cup contenders...what a f***ing difference.

I mean you would multi task and not be like Benning. Good example would be the miller and MP trade. You know what the Pens want and then you line things up.

They should be working the phones to see who they can get for 2 1st and whatever and at the same time scope out who wants Brock and see what the packages look like and also call to figure out who are cheap placeholders.
Once you have agreement with the C then you pull the trigger on Brock and then on the placeholder.

 

[beachcomber]

Nice win for the boys Sans Quinn again. Other than his assist (which was nice) petey did nothing, Hope demko is ok, thankfully he has a couple of weeks now to rest and recouperate

Doesn't look like you watched the game. I'm not a huge fan of him but he was excellent tonight.

 

[Leif Rohlin]

Myers or Hronek will play with Hughes. Soucy may even be traded, though I think that’s a stupid move now he’s proven he can play the RS.

Watch it be Hughes-Juulsen

 

[tantalum]

EP25 with around 11 minutes of ice time, which was the least among D men by about 2 minutes. I get the feeling that after the break, Pettersson will be the odd man, unless Soucy gets traded. I hope that happens so Pettersson can continue getting NHL experience.

Canucks had 14 high danger chances vs 6 for Toronto, so it really was a closer game than it should have been.

Yep. All situations the xGF for the Canucks was nearly 5.5 and the leafs 2. It was pretty dominant performance.

 

[valkynax]

Watch it be Hughes-Juulsen

Say that pair again and I'm gonna paddle you until the cows come home I swear to God.

 

[kanucks25]

Tocchet seems to have had a mid season coaching revelation, too. No longer being a super hardass on certain things, and has seemed to relax the dump and chase. Seems to have realized something and pivoted his focus from pure defensive staples to keeping our foot to the pedal and getting to the inside.

Also interesting he has practiced less and is letting the vibes flow. Definitely feels like he’s taking a bit of a new approach.

Now fix the PP!

Nothing has changed in terms of the system.

We've simply added two forwards that are fast and willing to carry the puck and added two competent D-men in the Petterssons that can make a good or at least safe play with the puck in all 3 zones without panicking.

Everything looks a lot worse than it is when you have 2-3 D-men in the lineup every night that handle the puck like a grenade. Ideally Forbort is the only guy out of the 6 that is that type of player, which means they ought to find an upgrade on Soucy.

 

[arttk]

which means they ought to find an upgrade on Soucy.

is that DPetey music

 

[ChilliBilly]

oh and about 8 games ago I said ... we really need to go 8 - 1 -1. in the next ten. Well after tonight we are 6. - 1 - 1. we sill be fighting for 3rd and solidly in a wild card spot if we win our next 2. Which are Vegas and Utah ... with the Kings and duckies ... to follow. we can do this ... f*** it lets do this.

 

[kanucks25]

is that DPetey music

Need a right-hander, unfortunately.

Perhaps Willander is that guy but I don't know if Forbort - Willander is the sauce either, it would depend on how good Willander with the puck at the NHL level.

Or perhaps they can run:

Hughes - Myers
Forbort - Hronek
Metey - Willander

 

[MS]

Yep. All situations the xGF for the Canucks was nearly 5.5 and the leafs 2. It was pretty dominant performance.

I think we hit 5 posts tonight. Lots of quality looks and chances.

 

[tantalum]

EP2 needs games so I assume he will be sent back down tonight and stay down when Hughes returns. This has been a great audition for him though.

I dont want to see Juulsen in the lineup ever again.