Replying to @JameyBaskow<\/a><\/p>\n This is Tocchets fault. The mucker\/grinder guys feel emboldened to act like this because is acceptable to Tocchet<\/p>\n I feel safer knowing that the NHL still has some of the same storylines from Vancouver continuing around the league. JT Miller\u2019s team struggling offensively while he\u2019s out here breaking sticks on the net, and fans are drawing lines in the sand to attack and defend his leadership? Rick Tocchet running a low scoring team, running into issues with his Russian player, while his locker room looks to handle things themselves?<\/p>\n It says something when other teams respect traditions like this.<\/p>\n ELIAS PETTERSSON SHOOTS INSTEAD OF DROP PASSING? WHAT???? #CANUCKS<\/a><\/p>\n As stated in the opener, Elias and Quinn looked engaged in this contest. Skating with purpose? Shooting with intent? I don\u2019t know what phrase you want me to use, but they had it on this night. Playing with mustard in their back pocket? Does that work?<\/p>\n Either way, here is a glorious clip of Elias Pettersson getting a long bomb of a pass from Quinn Hughes and actually shooting the puck on net:<\/p>\n Not once did Elias Pettersson look to do a drop pass. Not once did EP40 pull up and look for a trailer. Not once did he try to circle the net while muttering \u201coh dear god please let a teammate get open so I don\u2019t have to shoot this thing, please help me, I\u2019m so excited, I\u2019m so excited I\u2019m so\u2026.scared\u201d before collapsing in the arms of Zack Morris.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve said since day one of this season, if Elias goes out there and has banger after banger after banger by way of shooting endless pucks, this city will relax. It\u2019s just easier to accept someone not scoring if they\u2019re shooting a lot. For whatever reason, our brains tell us to relax. The guy is shooting the puck; what else do you want from him?<\/p>\n But if all he does is pass? Clearly, he doesn\u2019t want to win and is scared to shoot, and it\u2019s very possible that he is purposely doing this to hurt you. Yes, you, Justin. You\u2019re reading this right now, and I am talking about you. Elias Pettersson wants you to be sad when all he does is pass.<\/p>\n But on this night, Elias was playing with mustard in his back pocket, as not only was he shooting, but he was once again putting his body on the line to make some big shot blocks:<\/p>\n Dude literally pancake flattened himself diving backwards to make a pad save. Someone get Randy Marsh\u2019s wheelbarrow out here because Petey is going to need it.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait to cheer for MacKinnon at the Olympics. Can they start in the second period please?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve talked about it before, but 2011 was a season in which Vancouver would try for like the first half of the first period, then the last half of the third period, and they\u2019d still win games. They were just too skilled to be stopped, so they knew when to turn on the gas. Go up early, coast for a bit, then turn it back on again if the other team is still hanging.<\/p>\n And on this night, the Avalanche got started pretty quickly, mostly in the form of Nate MacKinnon being stupidly fast:<\/p>\n Nate walks around Tyler Myers pretty easily and gets the shot off, but Kevin Lankinen is there to make the glove save.<\/p>\n But that was merely a slight delay in the Nate-bomb assault, as MacKinnon would make it 1-0 shortly thereafter:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll notice Evander Kane using skills he learned at Planet Ice at the start of the clip, as he just sort of skates in the general direction of the puck before slowly turning around to watch the destruction unfold behind him. Perhaps inspired by this approach to life, Elias Pettersson is the next one to wheel up at the puck carrier before slowly cycling off to think about life. Unfortunately, by this point, two Avalanche players have jumped on the ice from the bench and made a beeline to the Canucks zone, one of whom was MacKinnon.<\/p>\n This leaves Filip Hronek with the choice of defending the two guys in front of his goalie or Nate Mack off to the side, so Hronek does what any new driver at a four-way stop would do: freeze on the spot and pray someone else moves first. But as Hronek drops to a knee to pledge allegiance to Stannis Baratheon and\/or possibly block Valeri Nichushkin\u2019s shot, the hefty Russian makes a brilliant pass right over to a wide-open MacKinnon.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a clinical finish on a very slick goal, and this is very much one of those situations where you have to give credit to both teams. Credit to the Avalanche for such a skilled play, and credit to the Canucks for making poor defensive decisions in life that you simply do not agree with.<\/p>\n A couple of minutes later on the power play, the Canucks found themselves once again staring down the barrel at a MacKinnon goal:<\/p>\n The Avalanche just use a lot of puck movement and eventually finds enough room for Nate to walk in and unleash a shot on net, which results in a goal. Like, if you\u2019re asked what the Canucks should have done better on this goal, you\u2019re just like, \u201cstop MacKinnon from shooting?\u201d And you\u2019re not wrong, but clearly that\u2019s not an easy task.<\/p>\n I have just come to realize that Derek Forbort is apparently the foundation of a good Canucks penalty kill, and without him, you simply wait to see if the other team will score. It\u2019s not an exciting system, but it\u2019s an honest one.<\/p>\n Despite being down 2-0, the Canucks didn\u2019t fold up shop, however, which is where the majority of praise for this game will be pointed. It truly was one of, if not the, best efforts on the season from a Vancouver Canucks club that has struggled to showcase consistency game to game.<\/p>\n And it wasn\u2019t just an Elias or Quinn game; it was also someone like Jake DeBrusk stepping up and stealing the puck and getting a couple of shots out of a nice offensive zone rush:<\/p>\n There weren\u2019t a ton of passengers on the night as this felt like a full team effort from the club.<\/p>\n Look, I’ll settle for a powerplay goal, can we do just that? #canucks<\/a><\/p>\n Best I can do is Elias Pettersson hitting the post:<\/p>\n The important thing is once again, Elias is shooting the puck. He\u2019s not looking to pass. He\u2019s not thinking how can he make it look like he accidentally shot the puck into the stands so he can go for a line change. No, he\u2019s out here playing with mustard in his back pocket, and taking good shots when he has a shooting lane.<\/p>\n I will say if there is one thing you can criticize Elias for in this game, it\u2019s why he didn\u2019t just shoot between his legs like Linus Karlsson did?<\/p>\n What\u2019s so hard about that? What\u2019s with all this passing and puck movement when all you have to do is throw it in the general area of Linus and he\u2019s gonna smash the deke button and bust out a shot between his legs??<\/p>\n You never know how long an NHL player\u2019s career will be, so I always get unnaturally excited about a slick goal like this. A lot of players can end up only playing under 100 games in the NHL and be forgotten to the sands of time, but a goal like this automatically helps solidify your spot in Canucks lore.<\/p>\n \u201cLinus Karlsson? Oh sh!t, that was the dude who scored between his legs!\u201d<\/p>\n Hey, we still talk about Lee Goren for a reason, that\u2019s all I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n Now, Linus has a long way to go before he hits high-end lore status on par with, say, a Jeff Cowan. But it\u2019s still a solid start.<\/p>\n After that goal, the first period sort of settled into a back-and-forth affair, as both teams traded chances.<\/p>\n First, you had Gabe Landeskog testing Lankinen with a shot from the slot after a Marcus Pettersson \u201cThis is gonna look so cool when I dive to make this pass \u201coh sh!t that\u2019s right to the other team\u201d turnover:<\/p>\n And then you had Quinn Hughes skating all over the offensive zone, running a give and go with Fil Hronek:<\/p>\n We try not to get too deep into body language around these parts, as a player looking sad isn\u2019t the most scientific approach to coming to a conclusion in the NHL. But in a season in which we haven\u2019t seen Quinn Hughes skate his ass off as if he wants to beat the entire world by himself, this night felt more like the Quinn Hughes we\u2019ve become accustomed to seeing in Vancouver.<\/p>\n He skated like he felt he could score. Or at the very least, wanted to score. He skated like he was almost insulted you didn\u2019t think he COULD score. That\u2019s the Quinn Hughes energy we\u2019re used to.<\/p>\n Other games this season you just watch him on the ice and it\u2019s like he has this Charlie Brown energy hanging over him and he\u2019s just waiting for someone to yank that football away from him.<\/p>\n How can Adam Foote break through if all Quinn hears is an assortment of weird trombone noises?<\/p>\n Best GOTI hockey reference<\/p>\n Need more from the guts of the ice #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n You want some guts? I\u2019ll give you some damn guts.<\/p>\n Near the end of the first we have Conor Garland, the land shark that he is, drawing a penalty by simply being Conor Garland:<\/p>\n His entire energy is making other people annoyed at how hard he works and thus making themselves feel bad about their own efforts, which is what I think leads to a lot of moments like these. He makes people feel bad about themselves by outworking them, which brings up a lot of childhood baggage, which leads to them lashing out.<\/p>\n And while the Canucks didn\u2019t score on the power play, they got the puck to Brock Boeser in a spot that I assumed was going to be a goal but life doesn\u2019t always work that way, does it:<\/p>\n The good news is that as you can see, Elias had the hunger for the puck on the net. He\u2019s jamming his stick right into the guts of that ice and trying to score as dirty as possible.<\/p>\n The Avalanche would get the best scoring chance on the power play, however, as Jack Drury snuck behind the Canucks defence and got himself a breakaway:<\/p>\n OK perhaps \u201csnuck\u201d is too kind of a word. No, what happened was Evander Kane was last man back and he saw the puck leaving the Canucks\u2019 zone and he just sort of stops. Planet Ice skates back for a bit but then coasts the rest of the way in, but luckily for Vancouver, Lankinen was able to make the stop.<\/p>\n The second period then started a lot like the first period did, with Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson looking dangerous in the offensive zone:<\/p>\n There were a lot of plays like this during the game from Vancouver, where a skater would wheel up the boards toward the point, shield the puck and then dish it off to a teammate coming into the zone with speed. In this case, it resulted with Hughes getting another shot on net, one of his seven on the night, but it was a play that let the Canucks generate speed to create some room to shoot.<\/p>\n Tyler Myers, he of the chaotic desires, used his energy to jump up along the boards, causing a turnover from Martin Necas. The end result? Kiefer Sherwood continued his hunt for the Rocket Richard with his 10th goal of the season:<\/p>\n As the season continues, we will keep you updated on who gets more goals this season, Sherwood or Steven Stamkos.<\/p>\n Best working hard or hardly working<\/p>\n Love the #Canucks<\/a> game after falling down 2-0 early. This one could have gotten ugly. 2-2 almost half way through the game<\/p>\n The Canucks played hard, they really did. Even with the game tied, they kept pushing the pace, which is an essential part of making an opponent hate their lives when they\u2019re playing their second of back to back games. That long change is draining, so credit Vancouver for continuing to hunt for blood in this one.<\/p>\n It led to this high danger scoring chance for Planet Ice in the second period, and I think we can all agree we have never seen him skate faster than when he saw a chance for a breakaway:<\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, Evander Kane is a very skilled player. But we all know beer league strats when we seem them, albeit at the highest level of hockey. In a way, I\u2019m impressed by the fact we get to watch this in the NHL, it makes everything feel so much more relatable.<\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t just Planet Ice skating hard, as Quinn Hughes also created a scoring chance based purely on angrily skating into the offensive zone as if it owed him money:<\/p>\n And it\u2019s efforts like that which will draw penalties, as Jake DeBrusk found out when he was held up on a breakaway attempt:<\/p>\n Which led us to, guess what? More Elias Pettersson shots on the power play!<\/p>\n That\u2019s right, you just saw Elias Pettersson attempt a one-timer with no hesitation, as well as walking in and unleashing a wrist shot. Mother Nature is truly healing.<\/p>\n And speaking of drawing penalties out of pure hustle, here is perhaps my favourite drawn penalty of the season:<\/p>\n Corolla out here trying to drive his way past Victor Olofsson, kicking his feet back like a mule, literally bucking like a horse at times, in an attempt to get at the puck. At one point Victor looks up as if to say, \u201cwhat the **** is going on, is anyone going to help me out over here?\u201d as Garland tries to kick his way past him.<\/p>\n This visuals alone on this put it up for penalty of the year.<\/p>\n I can only imagine how annoying it must be to play against Conor Garland. How many times has an opponent probably told him to relax?<\/p>\n Hate how Hughes lost that net front battle and couldn\u2019t tie up the stick there. Gotta find a way #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n Entering the third period the Canucks were outshooting Colorado 26-16, but good teams know when to turn it on, so it shouldn\u2019t shock you to know The Avalanche ended the third period outshooting Vancouver 14-7, winning the underlying stat battles in scoring chances generated\/attempted, insults thrown, threats made, etc.<\/p>\n And it was on the first shot of the period that Colorado took back the lead, when Brent Burns found Artturi Lehkonen in front of Lankinen for the tip in:<\/p>\n If there is one drawback to Quinn Hughes, it\u2019s that size still matters in some battles, and in this case, the Canucks captain just couldn\u2019t control the stick of Lehkonen. The goal was also helped by the fact that Garland had dropped his stick earlier in the play, so Colorado had a pseudo power play of sorts, which allowed them to move the puck around even easier in the Canucks zone.<\/p>\n No one can kill momentum with a penalty like Evander Kane. #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n But like any good Lost Boy will tell you, Bangerang is a way of life, not simply a motto you utter when trying to intimidate Peter Pan returning to the fold, so Vancouver doubled down and attempted to turn the tide of battle once again.<\/p>\n The Canucks just kept forechecking hard, which caused the Avalanche to run into turnovers. This led to a nice couple of chances from Aatu R\u00e4ty and Jake DeBrusk:<\/p>\n There was nothing very scary about those shots on net, but it just sort of shows the way the ice was tilting in Vancouver\u2019s favour, as they were the ones knocking.<\/p>\n Moments later you had Quinn Hughes doing Quinn Hughes things by walking the blue line and circling the entire offensive zone, before feeding a pass to Hronek from the shot:<\/p>\n All of which, yes, ended in an Evander Kane penalty in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n But with Planet Ice in the penalty box, this led to the hero you don\u2019t deserve, but the one you need: Drew O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n Wow. Drew O\u2019Connor has arrived, apparently.<\/p>\n Drew O\u2019Connor, a man I have made many a \u201cwhat\u2019s the deal with this guy, anyways?\u201d critiques of this season, shoved them forcibly down my throat with this shorthanded goal on the Kane penalty:<\/p>\n The guy missed a hundred breakaways a night but now he\u2019s out here dialling long distance, going top shelf where Mom keeps the DNA tests that could crush your entire family if the results were ever leaked out.<\/p>\n That is just an absolutely filthy finish on that shot, and if I\u2019m Drew O\u2019Connor, I\u2019m sending that annoying Stanchies author an e-mail with the the subject line of \u201copen this if u idiot\u201d. I will open this e-mail, watch the clip of this goal, before replying with a thumbs up emoji.<\/p>\n So, as I was saying we need to tie this one up pretty quick. Alas the fanfare was short lived, as the Canucks didn\u2019t get the memo that taking penalties against Colorado is probably not the greatest tactical move to make in this day and age.<\/p>\n Somehow Lehkonen managed to find himself wide open on a power play right in front of the goalie?<\/p>\n Pettersson stumbles so he slides to the left trying to recover, Tyler Myers for some reason drops to block the shot but slides himself out of frame (bees?), and then Kevin Lankinen also over commits on the save and slides really far to his right, but because he\u2019s a gentleman, damn it, he pops out the rebound right in the middle of his crease. Lehkonen finds himself with the kind of empty net you dream as of a child, and yeah, he\u2019s not missing that.<\/p>\n In conclusion, this was not a great goal? This is very much a Dril situation where you don\u2019t have to hand it to them?<\/p>\n Best never give up, never surrender<\/p>\n elias pettersson goal next<\/p>\n As Starship Troopers taught us, do you really wanna live forever? According to Hughes and EP40, no. Well, maybe. I don\u2019t know how that metaphor applies to this game.<\/p>\n The point is, Elias and Quinn stood out as the top players for Vancouver, as they were constantly generating offence by passing the puck back and forth, playing off of each other, and even ending with Elias Pettersson attempting a one handed deke on this play:<\/p>\n People will want results from Elias before they applaud him, and they are going to want consistency, and I very much agree with that.<\/p>\n But on this night, he at least resembled the 11.6 million dollar player the Canucks signed up for.<\/p>\n Best drawing important conclusions<\/p>\n Elias went 18 for 29 on the night in the faceoff circle, and none was as important as the one late in the third period that lead to the Canucks tying up the game:<\/p>\n Faceoffs always make me laugh because back in the day, around 2013-ish, the advanced stats guys hammered away so hard about faceoffs not being important. Like, it was life or death sh!t with them. They\u2019d scream at you with spittle running down their chins as they told you how little faceoffs meant in hockey and you were an idiot for caring about them. \u201cIt\u2019s about what you do AFTER the faceoff that matters\u201d was where they eventually landed and at that point I knew the semantics of advanced stats would have a limit for me.<\/p>\n That being said, this faceoff and what the Canucks did after it, was important. It got the puck to Brock Boeser, and he knows Jake DeBrusk is set up in Tim Hortons waiting for said puck, so Brock sends in a shot just waiting to be deftly tipped. How deft was the tip? Trick question, all tips are deft.<\/p>\n I enjoyed this game, man. I don\u2019t know what to tell you. I have watched too many games of this team looking like they\u2019d rather be anywhere else but a hockey rink, but this game was not one of those. The team showed up and busted their asses off to get a point, and I fully respect and admire that.<\/p>\n Best remember Kevin like this<\/p>\n Raty hands the Avs the puck and almost the game with 20 seconds left – yikes <\/p>\n #Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n None of these saves Lankinen made would register on the Quinn Hughes Scale of Insanity, but we\u2019re going to need to remember Kevin like we see in these clips, not like we will see him in overtime:<\/p>\n Three shots, three saves, Kevin made sure that single point didn\u2019t slip away, and that is to be admired.<\/p>\n one of the hardest fought points we\u2019ve gotten this year, whether we get the other one or not #canucks<\/a><\/p>\n First, the good of overtime.<\/p>\n Here is Elias Pettersson once again going all out to make a diving defensive play:<\/p>\n Say what you will about his offence, but I rarely think it\u2019s an effort issue from EP40. I think he just gets stuck in his head at times, and it ruins his flow. He needs to put some Enya on and find his happy place while he trails his hand through some wheat fields, then the goals will come.<\/p>\n As for Lankinen, his rebound control ended up costing the Canucks in overtime, as he punted the puck right back into the middle of the ice, then swiped at said rebound, then watched as Gavin Brindley put the puck in five hole:<\/p>\n Kevin ends up looking a heck of a lot more like Fuller, and let me tell you, he did not go easy on the Pepsi on that initial shot. Woof.<\/p>\n And that was the ball game.<\/p>\n Canucks had a heck of an effort, and it\u2019s hard to walk away angry from that one. I think they played as well as they possibly could and gave themselves a chance to win. Can\u2019t ask for much more than that.<\/p>\n Best ending on a down note<\/p>\n If you enjoyed the game, please stop reading! Because I am about to talk about over a decade of misery, which is kind of a downer on a night in which the team played reasonably well.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019re still here, pull up a chair, get comfy, put on your Costco-branded joggers and hoody combo you just bought for a reasonable price, and let\u2019s talk rebuild, shall we?<\/p>\n Because, as it stands right now in Canucks Nation, the dreaded \u201crebuild\u201d word has once again taken centre stage. Now, if you\u2019re new to this scene or haven\u2019t been paying attention, maybe this talk of rebuilding has caught you off guard. After all, this is a team with Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko. A team just a few years removed from pushing the Oilers to their limit in round two, and looking like a team that might have some post-season juice.<\/p>\n But if we\u2019re being honest with each other? This has sort of been the same song and dance routine since 2014.<\/p>\n Back then, we knew that Mike Gillis wanted to rebuild from the 2011 roster, as he saw the writing was already on the wall for the core. The Canucks won the Presidents\u2019 Trophy in 2012, but their early exit in round one was a symptom of the rot, not a random chaotic event.<\/p>\n
\n#Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n