RJCF96

If we chase Pickard out of his net tonight, we will see Skinner for game 6. Skinner was their guy that got them all the way through this season, they just wanted to change things up and give him a chance to rest and reset. The moment Pickard falters, we will see Skinner again.

I know about this guy. He is a general from the Cantonese speaking province leading the defense in the Northern (mostly Mandarin speaking) troops to defend the invading Manchurian. This phrase is a Cantonese phrase that became well-known among the Northern troops because of him.

Fairly good assessment on each player. For Lindholm, if he does re-sign I can see him playing 2C on a line with Pettersson with Pettersson on the wing. Or we see a load up with the Lotto line wiht Pettersson on the wing.

Oh well, Soucy missed the 2nd half of the 2nd period after a shot block, this could just be some extra time for him to heal up the bumps and bruises. I trust Juulsen will be able to hold his own and help us with the PK. Let's focus on beating them on the ice again tomorrow!

I thought he played well pretty much since Game 5 against Nashville. Last night, I thought he was good. Unfotunately, his line-mates aren't quite in-sync with him. There was a play early in the second when it was 2-1, Hoglander has the puck and Petey head straight to the net, Hoglander should've just passed him the puck and he would've went in alone. Instead, Hoglander held onto it a little too long and he went for back-pass to a trailing D instead. Subtle little plays like that tells me that as long as he is given better line-mates, he can produce. I wouldn't mind trying to load up the "lotto line" again: Pettersson-Miller-Boeser Joshua-Lindholm-Garland Mikeyehev-Suter-Hoglander PDG-Blueger-Lafferty I understand Tocchet wants the 1-2-3 punch in centre of Miller, Pettersson, Lindholm, this way he feels more comfortable matching any of the top 3 lines against the opponent's lines.

Ahh... that used to be the most important day for me once the playoffs started.. those days were... not fun

The media rates teams base on reputation and previous performance. Up until this season, for the past 9 seasons, there is really nothing really good about Canucks. Horrible management signing and trading for baffling contracts. Coaches getting fired and jerseys being tossed on the ice. Players wanting out and we had to trade our captain just last season. Unfortunately, we had been a joke of a franchise under Jim Benning for too long. It is hard to change the perception of a team after 1 good season. I am very happy with how things went this season and very proud of what the team has accomplished so far. I am most glad that Benning is gone and we have competent people managing the organization at every level for the first time in a long time. We have a large and vocal fanbase who loves to engage with media online. Unfotunately, historically, negativity sells in this market. Media at the end of the day is a business and they need to generate traffic through clicks/discussions. They know doing this will get the Canucks fanbase engaged. I don't feel like it is necessary that the media hates the Canucks. They are just doing what they do to generate discussion. It is really annoying, but it is also reality. The best way to change the narrative of this is by actually winning the games and be a good team consistently (not a one year wonder), consistently put up 100+ point seasons one after another and be a playoff team year after year. Our reputation will have to been rebuilt. It wasn't that long ago the Hurricanes were seen as a joke. Relocation rumours and the famous line of "Will somebody please come to our game?" They made the playoffs every year since 2018 and now they are seen as a contender pretty much every season. It takes time to peel off the stain from losing year after year.

You are probably right, even if we have everyone healthy, they would still have the Oilers ahead of us in odds. However, what if it is the other way around: Canucks beat Nashville relatively quickly in 5 games, Demko healthy and playing lights out, Miller, Pettersson, Boeser all above a-point-per-game after the series. Oilers barely edge out the Kings in a 7 game nail biter, they had to switch between Skinner and Pickard in net as Skinner was shaky early and was able to hold his own in the end while Jack Campbell was also called up as insurance throughout the process. McDavid appeared to be banged up, and Draisait appear to have sprained his ankle and also isn't 100%. If that's the case, then I can see the Canucks be seen as favourites this series. It is a fine line between winning and losing and teams are so close these days that health of a player, a hot streak or fortunate bounce can decide a series. In this case, then I could see the Canucks be viewed as favourites

IMO we are underdogs for multiple reasons: 1). Demko's injury. With Helly out in round 1, a healthy Demko is arguably the best remaining goalie in the playoffs (though Swayman is playing out of his mind in Boston, and gives me bad Tim Thomas flashbacks). Demko is the type of goalie that can straight up steal games in a playoff series, and against a top offensive team like the Oilers, having Demko is like having an Ace in net and could give teams an edge. In a playoff series, a hot goalie is more important than having a good goalie. We have seen Vezina calibre goalies get picked apart in the playoffs, just see Helly in Winnipeg this year. We have also seen back-up and third-string goalies got hot at the right time and go on an amazing run. However, odds makers and predictions are based on data, and without Demko, we are not as scary as a team. 2). Lack of production from Pettersson since mid February. To beat a team like the Oilers, you need to be firing at all cylinders. Not sure what really happened with Pettersson since mid-February, but for a while, he isn't playing like himself. He had a disappointing first round production wise, but he seems to have been getting better each game. Until he breaks out of this slump, the Canucks would still be playing atleast at a tier below their potential. Because when Pettersson is on, he is one of the top 10 and arguably top 5 players in the league. 3). The Oilers dominance over the Kings in round 1. The Oilers made beating the Kings in that round look easy. Their forwards are scoring at will and they picked apart a defensively sound Kings team like they were made of wall paper. I am a firm believer that the Oilers at this point has the Kings figured out and the Kings just don't match up well against the Oilers. In fact, I didn't think we played that bad against the Kings in the regular season series. Outside of the first game where we lost 5-1, I thought we outplayed them in the last 3 remaining games. The difference was Talbot. Talbot is an average sometimes a sieve against any team that isn't the Canucks, but he is a breakwall against us. Statistically, we are the one team that he consistently beats (every goalie has one of these teams), we just happened to be that one for him. I believe if we played those 3 games against the Kings with a different goalie of Talbot's calibre in net, we could've won all 3. 4). Experience in the playoffs. This is our team as a core group's first time making the playoffs in a non-covid bubble environment. Oilers have had multiple playoff experience in the past 2 seasons under their belt, and they lost to the eventual cup champion in back-to-back seasons. Pundits believe this is the Oilers turn to take that next step. And that isn't wrong, because if this isn't the Canucks and Oilers and you replace it with 2 different teams of similar situation instead, we would likely be favouring the team with more playoff experience. For the Canucks to beat the Oilers, we would need everyone performing at their best. That means our goaltending has to be at their best; offense clicking and firing all cylinders. The Defense has to continue to be tough to play against and make the job easy on our goalies. Our players have to be stay discipline and not get into penalty troubles. For the Oilers to beat the Canucks, they would have to ensure their star players to continue to be their star players and take advantage of their special teams play. Their goalie also can't be a sieve like they were at the beginning of the season (Skinner has really turned the corner since that horrible start). Right now, looking purely from recent performance, the Oilers are more on their game than we are. However, that could change at the drop of the puck in Game 1. Boston put up a surprised convincing victory over the Panthers last night, and everything thought the winner of Boston/Toronto is going to get whipped by the Panthers. Atleast for 1 game, this isn't the case. All I want to note is, it is understandable and acceptable for outsiders/neutrals to pick the Oilers over the Canucks. That doesn't mean the Canucks are going to lose this series. This is the strongest group of final 8 remaining in the playoffs in a long time. I don't see one easy team to beat among them. Every series this round seems to be must watch TV for hockey fans. For the Canucks, who some predicted aren't even suppose to make the playoffs to join this group of elite 8, it is a huge accomplishment. I have faith in our current group of players and coaches. They will not go down without a fight, and we are definitely not a pushover. There is still another gear that we haven't seen from the Canucks since before the all-star break, I am excited to see if they can turn up another knotch now that the competition is getting tougher. We should just sit back and enjoy some very good hockey we are about to witness. Be loud, be proud of this team and Go Canucks Go!

My Leafs fan colleague this morning in an email exchange with me: "Do you think marner will waive his NTC? I read someone say they should trade marner for nothing, but with the caveat they have to take Tavares too. (Can’t see Tavares giving up his NTC). If they don’t fire Shanahan, I’m switching to be a canucks fan"

Tim Thomas was using illegal size pads during that run. Hockey is a game of inches, if he used regular size pads, maybe some of those saves would have been goals.

I work with a few Leafs fan colleagues. I remember before the start of the playoffs I bought tickets to both Game 1 and Game 7 of the Canucks and Nashville series. They told me: "You better go to game 1 before they choke and lose to Nashville and you might not even get to go to a Game 7." Jokes on them, I get to walk to work Monday feeling proud of what happened this weekend. That being said, it is such a heart break for the Leafs and their fans and how they always gave their fans false hope before their defeat.

If he slots in a top 6 spot here instead of Suter/Mikheyev. Even if he just buries 1/3 of the chances they are getting, the series could've been over by now.

Let's get by the Predators first before we worry about who we face next round.

We win this one and get a few days rest and we play the Oilers next week. Hoping for a big night from our forwards. Pound them 6-1. Goal Scorers: Pettersson (opens the scoring on the PP with an absolute snipe) Miller Boeser Hronek Garland Mikheyev (he scores after the Preds pull a desperate empty net down 5-1 with 7 minutes to go)