43isprime

It's been a great season, no matter what. Absolutely true. Some amazing and clutch performances that we'll all remember for a long time. The thing that makes me so nervous for tomorrow is that I get the sense this could be our best shot at making a long run. Several of the players that have stepped up big time in the playoffs are UFAs, and I doubt we'll be able to keep this team together. The player that we did give a huge raise to...well...we all know. So, as much as I think this has been a tremendous success no matter what happens tomorrow, I can't get over the feeling of this being the best opportunity for this generation of the team.

Not sure what it looks like from his vantage point obviously, but from TV I find he often passes the puck instead of skating with the puck into the open lane.

That's the frustrating part - which Canucks skaters can we count on to show up, and which Oilers? I'm pretty confident McDavid and Draisaitl will at least create chances and tip the ice in their favor more often than not when they're on the ice. I suspect the fact that we don't have such players we can reliably count on while Edmonton does is part of why this series is so much more anxiety-inducing than the Nashville series.

I think the score very accurately reflected the way the game itself went.

Today's game just looked like we had no jump. I really hope I'm wrong, but is anyone else getting 2011 Boston series vibes? Fight super hard to win 3 close games, then run out of gas for a fourth?

We looked off right from the opening faceoff. Hughes looked really bad. Edmonton played well but we didn't help our cause.

So did Pettersson

The best we could do on the 5 on 3 is 2 point shots by Hughes, only one of which hit the net. Ridiculous.

Boeser made a bit of a weak play on Hyman there.

My goodness that was not a good play on that goal...he's got to get it together.

Boy Hughes looks a bit nervous today or something.

Pettersson jumped and Foegele ran into him. This is different from Pettersson jumping INTO Foegle. I think that was a BS call.

He's absorbing a hit... players leave their when absorbing a hit all the time. I don't understand that call. For what it's worth, Eddie Olczyk thought it was a good call because Pettersson left his feet, and he's said the refs missed a couple of penalties on the Oilers in the first.

Eddie Olczyk on TNT has pointed out 2 missed Oilers penalties.

Kane frankly should have been penalized twice already this game. Cole...I don't know what to say.

I do like Pettersson on the wing more than at center. I wonder why they didn't try this in the regular season, when they had Lindholm on Pettersson's wing. I hope this works... Which two lines will be matching up against the McDavid and Draisaitl lines? I'm assuming Miller's and Blueger's?

The injury logic is a massive stretch: Tocchet, knowing Pettersson is injured, puts him in Game 82, and then in the playoffs puts him on PK and faceoffs, then calls him out in the media saying he needs to get going. And this injury would have to go back to the All Star break, where he competed in the hardest shot competition, and after which he might have taken one maintenance day in total. Not saying it's impossible, but hard to see.

For all this talk about linemates, has anyone asked who he's playing against? Is he being asked matchup against McDavid or Draisaitl? Is Edmonton putting their top defensive pair out against him?

You realize this is the form he's been in for a while now, right? It's weird how some people are treating this poor form as something that just arose out of nowhere once the playoffs started. Since March, he has something like 18 pts in 32 games, including just 6 goals. Either people just assumed he'd flip the switch once playoffs started, or they're only starting to take more notice now because of the higher stakes, and because the usual fallback of "he's still above point per game this season!!" is no longer relevant (not that it was ever relevant in the first place).

Pettersson's practice habits must have changed because Tocchet just earlier this year said that Pettersson had to practice harder, mentioning he was trying to rest in practice so he'd be fresher for the games.

That's not an accusation of blackmail.

What blackmail?

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/report-canucks-pettersson-wants-play-team-thats-winning/