Jump to content

[PGT] San Jose Sharks at Vancouver Canucks // December 23, 2023

Rubik

By Rubik
in Canucks Talk

 Share

Recommended Posts

Rypien-Punch AHL Star

Rypien-Punch

Posted
Posted

Hughes was the right choice for captain. He plays and leads the right way. It looks like this team respects that and is behind him. 

 

When Soucy comes back I would like to see just for the fun of it, Myers play a game as a 4th line winger. 

 

 

Mikheyev Pettersson Kuzmenko

Hoglander Miller Boeser

Joshua Blueger Garland  

Lafferty Sutter Myers 

 

Hughes Hronek 

Zedorov Cole

Soucy Juulsen 

 

  • Cheers 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
hockeyfan-observer AHL Star

hockeyfan-observer

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted (edited)

Happy with the result tonight even though it was not their greatest defensive performance - will give them a pass though as there are lots of distractions this time of year - and you manage your wins whichever way possible.  SJ is also not the same team they faced 2 months ago - watched their post game comments -  they may knock off a few stronger teams.

 

A very satisfying first half of the season for the Canucks - what I am looking for in the second half?  tighter defensive coverage, consistency and also the ability to handle the different styles of teams they will be facing - many of them will be contenders like Boston, LA, Vegas, WPG.  The points they have banked now certainly helps them toward possibly reaching the playoff bar without having to go 0.700+  like last year - think RT will be looking for more consistency in the 2nd half

 

This all can be for another day though -  for now, hope the all players + coaches + management enjoy a well deserved time off with family and friends.  Not too much of the Christmas pudding though. 🙂

 

Happy Holidays everyone!

 

xmas.jpg

Edited by hockeyfan-observer
  • Cheers 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites
I.AM.THE.WALRUS All-Star

I.AM.THE.WALRUS

Posted
Posted (edited)

That third line… Garland is the straw that stirs the drink… What a little buzz saw… We need to trade Kuzmenko for another dude who can play defense… Petey needs to gain 20 pounds of muscle he’s way too tentative out there

Edited by I.AM.THE.WALRUS
Link to comment
Share on other sites
PeteyBOI All-Star

PeteyBOI

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Rypien-Punch said:

Hughes was the right choice for captain. He plays and leads the right way. It looks like this team respects that and is behind him. 

 

When Soucy comes back I would like to see just for the fun of it, Myers play a game as a 4th line winger. 

 

 

Mikheyev Pettersson Kuzmenko

Hoglander Miller Boeser

Joshua Blueger Garland  

Lafferty Sutter Myers 

 

Hughes Hronek 

Zedorov Cole

Soucy Juulsen 

 

id rather run 7 d than have him play a forward...

FYI cole zadorov has been a good pairing before... they were a 3rd pairing for colorado 3 years ago... they averaged about 17 minutes...

Zads has played top 4 minutes Before... with chicago when there best defenceman was a very old Duncan keith...

Cole Played top 4 minutes a few times most recently last year with Tampa Playing along side a very good defenceman always... much better defenceman than zadorov

 

Myers is better than both of them, we really shouldnt be running him out of town...

  • Confused 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
PistolPete13 All-Star

PistolPete13

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
42 minutes ago, Sharpshooter said:


 

Happy Festivus! 
 

What are we going to complain about?? 

Er um Tocchet stripped Kuzmenko of his confidence and then the bum only potted two goals tonight. Was the trip to the dog house really worth it???

 

IMG_9167.jpeg

  • Haha 5
  • Cheers 1
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
JamesB Top 6

JamesB

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted (edited)

Lots of things happening tonight.

 

1. First, great to get the win and go into the Christmas break in first place alone on top of the NHL standings.

 

2. The continuing headline is the Garland-Joshua-Blueger line. They were great again and, for the second night in a row, were the top 3 Canucks in the "statcards" advanced stats. They also looked good in the advanced stats in Natural Stat Trick. And they were each +2 and picked up 5 points between them. And Joshua led the team in hits again with 4. Blueger and Joshua are also important on the PK.

 

3. The next headline is Kuzy, who scored the first two Canucks goals on very nice plays and was named first star. But, he did not actually play very well after those two early goals. On the the first San Jose goal he got trapped in the San Jose end after what looked like a weak forechecking effort, resulting in an odd man rush the other way.  He was on the ice for the second goal but probably was not doing anything wrong. On the third goal he was unable to make a check in the neutral zone then had a slow change. He was on the bench by the time the goal was scored so did not get a "minus". Tocchet cannot be happy with that play. On the 4th goal, Kuzy's assignment was probably to take away the back door play, so that was a mistake. With Suter on that line there is good chance that San Jose does not get the first, third, or fourth goals. Kuzy finished the night at a well-deserved minus 2. But he was trying hard and obviously he has a lot of skill. Also, his mistakes are correctable. He is still a big question mark.

 

4. On the third goal the cross-ice pass that led to the goal went right through Hoglander. In the offensive zone he really focuses and gets his puck on his stick. He needs to focus just as hard in the D-zone. I was not surprised to see Suter replace him on Miller's line late in the game. Hogs has made a lot of progress but he still has a lot of work to do on his defensive game. Overall the top two lines were okay (and Miller and Petey had two points each) but they had ups and downs. 

 

5. The 4th line deserves a separate point as Suter, Aman, and Lafferty all scored tonight (although not while playing together as a line). And Suter and Aman were good on the PK.

 

5. On D, Hughes had another big game. But I was interested in Tocchet's post-game comments on Juulsen. He emphasized how much Juulsen has improved (which he obviously has) and gave a lot of credit to Foote and Gonchar as well as the Juulsen. It seems like Juulsen has benefited a lot from coaching. Anyway, tonight he actually led the Canucks in expected goal differential at 5-on-5, which has to be a first. And he played over 16 minutes again, almost as much as Z. He was very good on the PK. He logged significantly more time on the PK and Hronek and had a lower xGA (expected goals against). He has really helped the PK. Some guys are more coachable than others and the Canucks finally have coaches who can work effectively on development. Myers had some of his usual chaotic moments but I won't add anything. He and Zadorov struggled tonight and were at the bottom of many of the advanced stats categories.

 

6. Four goals on 25 shots is not a good stat line for Demmer and, on a good night, he probably stops at least one of the shots that got by him, but he made some big saves and there were too many defensive breakdowns around him.

 

7. It was a sloppy win against a weak team. Obviously Tocchett would like a much tighter game. But he was not too critical in his post-game comments and emphasized that everyone was tired and could really use a break. And they have had a great first three months. The players have a lot of reasons to feel good about themselves going into the break, including being in first place, which is amazing.

 

 

 

Best wishes for the holidays!

Edited by JamesB
  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
  • Cheers 4
  • Upvote 8
  • Vintage 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rip The Mesh All-Star

Rip The Mesh

Posted
Posted
27 minutes ago, I.AM.THE.WALRUS said:

We blew a lot of defensive coverages tonight

Play really well though otherwise Demco probably wanted a couple of those goal back San Jose had a lot of lucky bounces

There's no doubt both teams were somewhat sloppy, particularly in their own ends. However, I've watched the Canucks for a very long time and this

version has more attributes offensively and defensively. I think it could be as good as the 2011 team with a more well balanced squad. They can use all for lines and 

three defense pairs without too much distress. Still not quite at the half way mark (almost), To be honest; this team reminds me of the 1994 Canucks, where

everyone played on the same page, and they were a heartbeat away from holding up Lord Stanley' Cup; I'm very pleasantly surprised at the job Management 

and the coaching staff has done in a relatively short period of time. They have a "no quit" attitude and that's what it takes.... 

  • Like 1
  • Cheers 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...