-Buzzsaw-

Not the Panthers... CAROLINA. Pesce and others have already been let go to make room for Guentzel.

Pettersson needs a playmaker/shooter, not just a shooter. Hogs can be the pure shooter, but they need that other winger to be capable of being a setup guy. Right now Hogs cannot or will not pass consistently well.

Very few teams go from not making the playoffs to winning the Cup. I can't think of any... but you might find one if you look through the records. Even the Oilers under Gretzy had a couple years of failure... they were beaten 4-0 in the Final by the Islanders in '83 the year before they first won in '84. In '82 they were eliminated in the first round by LA.

I think it is better to look for less expensive players... and work on developing our own guys in Abby. We spent a lot of draft picks acquiring Z and Lindholm... first thing we should do is try to re-sign them instead of spending a lot for Free Agents.

See you next year.

Bruises and aches are the minimum... you get hit in the wrong spot or you're not braced, you get a serious injury... you can tear a muscle easily with those kinds of impacts... you can tear ligaments, you can even break bones.

He was the best forward last game too... for the first period... then like the rest of the team he disappeared. But still was the best overall forward.

He should be re-signed... I would put him ahead of Hronek.

Injuries not an issue???? Demko didn't play. If he plays, we win.

Exactly... Miller put Mikheyev in alone, Pettersson put another guy in alone and neither could score.

No he didn't.... was the best Canuck forward in the game. Didn't have the greatest playoffs or series, but I suspect we may hear something about that.

Have you ever played hockey??? Sorry buddy, but your facts are completely wrong. You get hit by a 260 lb guy at 25 mph X 2 you feel it... at minimum you have bruises and aches and pains for the next couple days.

Goalscoring has been the problem both in the Nashville and Edmonton series... why bring in proven pluggers to replace Boeser? Not smart. Should have given some creative goalscorer a chance... instead he went with 'defensively reponsible'... and ended up with nothing.

Lafferty had a golden opportunity to be a hero... and opted to be a zero.

Yes. He has to be a priority to re-sign.

Wrong... he had Lekkermaki and Karlsson. Karlsson looked on offensively in the game he played.

Here's my observations on this game: - Tocchet loses Boeser, the team's #1 goalscorer, you'd think he'd replace him with someone who could put the puck in the net... but instead he brings back (hands of stone) Mikheyev, who by my count, missed two golden opportunities in this game. He also brings back Lafferty... who was alone in the slot and whiffed. Why would you bring back two guys who can't score to replace Boeser? Why not take a chance and bring in Linus Karlsson, who I thought showed offensive flashes when he played and who we know is a goalscorer? Or maybe even Jonathan Lekkermaki, who also has offensive skills? I don't know why he replaced Podkolzin, who I thought played well defensively and was generating some offense. - Silovs was outstanding. Two of the goals that beat him were deflections which unless you are a really big goalie, don't get stopped. The 3rd goal was not really preventable... Nugent-Hopkins made a perfect shot... even then Silovs got a piece, but it deflected in. - Pettersson was the best Canuck forward on the ice, he set up multiple chances which in the hands of someone like Boeser or Miller... or even Hoglander, would have been in the back of the net... unfortunately the guys who got those chances were the guys who don't have goalscoring skills. - I thought the D played well for the most part. The first two goals were fortunate tips, hard to prevent. The 3rd goal was a power-play.... you can't stop Edmonton for 11 in a row. I thought the D was physical and did a good job of keeping the Oilers to the outside for the most part. - Key to the game was the complete lack of production on the powerplay. I put this on the coaches. They have been watching Edmonton and their PK for the last 7 games... you would have thought they could have figured out a zone-entry. But I didn't see any difference in the technique for gaining the zone from Game 1 to Game 7. Maybe a few shootin's on the very last PP the team had. That is just not good enough. The Canucks should have at minimum, scored one goal on the two man advantage. They didn't and they lost the game. - Overall, there are certain deficiencies in Tocchet's coaching which work to nullify the advantages of his system. Yes, he has created a good defensive structure for the team and coached them well in how to play within that structure... Its clear Defense is his focus... look at who he hires... Foot and Goncharev... but at the same time he shows a lot of rigidity in how he puts together his forward lines, and seems unable to compensate and adapt when they are not producing. (notice there are no offensive specialist coaches) At the end of the 3rd period of this game he finally started to try some new combinations... Garland with Pettersson and Miller, and it paid off. But he should have been doing that throughout the series. Conclusion: This was a first year playoff team... and it is not unusual for first year teams which did well in the regular season to get eliminated in the first round. This team made it to 7 games in the 2nd round, which is a decent achievement. Personally I think they could have won the series with some more pro-active coaching. I also think they would have won the series if they had Demko... Silovs played well, but didn't have the GAA/Save percentage which Demko is capable of. They were also unlucky in losing Boeser for the critical 7th game for something as strange a blood clots. If Boeser had the puck on his stick in the position Mikheyev was in, the Canucks would have had a goal. So the team has taken a great step forward, but at the same time, in my opinion, they underachieved considering how good their lineup was. It will be a challenge to put together a better team for next year.

As I said, Silovs is lights out. If that isn't enough to spark the Canucks, I don't know what is. He is giving them a chance to win.

That was NOT an error by Silovs... puck was tipped.

Team has got to stop giving the puck to Edmonton everytime there is a line change. If you are changing and you have puck possession, don't shoot it in... drop it back to the D.

Nope... I'm staying till the end.

Well, the only thing you can say about that period which was positive: #1 Silovs is lights out. #2 Score is 0-0 Rest of the team has a bad case of the nerves.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: I got a text from Miller... the reason the Canucks lost this one was that JT wanted to finish the Oil in Vancouver so he could flip Deb the game winning puck.

See you Monday. Go Canucks !

Hughes nearly put the puck in the net... Skinner barely deflected it with the edge of the blocker. But like the rest of the team, he had a low energy game compared to others in the series.