Canucks Army THE PLAYOFF GAME DAY: Canucks Vs. Blues G1
By Always90four
3 years agoTHE INTRO
Well now, isn’t this a surprise? The Canucks are in the real NHL playoffs for the first time in five long years. There isn’t a single player from the 2015 Flames team on the current Blues roster so this series has a chance to be less disappointing than that one did. Quinn Hughes will hopefully continue his utter dominance on the sport of hockey and we can only ask that Jacob Markstrom has gotten the yips out of his game.
Beating the defending Stanley Cup Champions will not be easy but they did it twice this season, so how hard could it be?
Let’s Do This!™
WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
The odds for tonight’s game are: VAN +130/ STL -150 courtesy of OddsShark.com
TV / RADIO / PUCK DROP
SN / SN 650 / 7:30 PM
LINEUPS
Don’t expect Olli Juolevi to start this game and same probably goes for Jordie Benn who is completing his quarantine in the Bubble™. That most likely means Oscar Fantenberg is back and doesn’t that just warm your heart? A Brogan Rafferty start wouldn’t be the worst, would it?
Upfront, everything should remain the same.
Jacob Markstrom will be in net to start the series.
CANUCKS lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 J.T. MILLER Rating: 78.5#7 LW |  ELIAS PETTERSSON Rating: 77.7#14 C |  BROCK BOESER Rating: 74.1#41 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 76.78#14 FL1 |
 TANNER PEARSON Rating: 73.7#38 LW |  BO HORVAT Rating: 74.8#34 C |  LOUI ERIKSSON Rating: 69.7#123 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 72.73#23 FL2 |
 ANTOINE ROUSSEL Rating: 71.0#97 LW |  BRANDON SUTTER Rating: 70.1#131 C |  JAKE VIRTANEN Rating: 72.0#78 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 71.07#20 FL3 |
 TYLER MOTTE Rating: 68.8#144 LW |  JAY BEAGLE Rating: 68.4#163 C |  ZACK MACEWEN | FL4 Rating Rating: 68.57#30 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 ALEXANDER EDLER Rating: 74.3#26 LD |  TROY STECHER Rating: 71.9#63 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 73.11#22 DL1 |
 QUINN HUGHES Rating: 75.2#15 LD |  CHRIS TANEV Rating: 71.0#90 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 73.12#17 DL2 |
 OLLI JUOLEVI |  TYLER MYERS Rating: 72.6#50 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 72.56#10 DL3 |
Ivan Barbashev left the playoffs to be with his wife who was expecting their first child. No word if he’ll be available this evening. The Blues have a pretty big team and the Canucks will be in tough against them. If the Canucks had fits with Minnesota, they may want to up the ante in this one.
Jordan Binnington will be the man between the pipes for the Blues.
BLUES lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:
| LW | C | RW | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
 JADEN SCHWARTZ Rating: 77.0#12 LW |  BRAYDEN SCHENN Rating: 76.6#22 C |  VLADIMIR TARASENKO Rating: 80.4#3 RW | FL1 Rating Rating: 78.03#7 FL1 |
 ZACH SANFORD Rating: 73.3#43 LW |  RYAN O’REILLY Rating: 75.8#28 C |  DAVID PERRON Rating: 75.3#27 RW | FL2 Rating Rating: 74.79#8 FL2 |
 SAMMY BLAIS Rating: 70.6#105 LW |  ROBERT THOMAS Rating: 72.7#66 C |  TYLER BOZAK Rating: 73.0#59 RW | FL3 Rating Rating: 72.14#13 FL3 |
 ALEX STEEN Rating: 70.7#104 LW |  OSKAR SUNDQVIST Rating: 72.2#76 C |  TROY BROUWER Rating: 69.6#122 RW | FL4 Rating Rating: 70.80#11 FL4 |
| DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS | Defense | |
|---|---|---|
 CARL GUNNARSSON Rating: 72.6#60 LD |  ALEX PIETRANGELO Rating: 78.5#4 RD | DL1 Rating Rating: 75.55#9 DL1 |
 MARCO SCANDELLA Rating: 72.3#66 LD |  COLTON PARAYKO Rating: 76.9#11 RD | DL2 Rating Rating: 74.63#5 DL2 |
 VINCE DUNN Rating: 76.0#10 LD |  JUSTIN FAULK Rating: 74.1#30 RD | DL3 Rating Rating: 75.07#1 DL3 |
NOTES TO START THE SERIES
- Tyler Myers has played six career playoff games against the St. Louis Blues. He has 14 shots and 4 PIM. This is the Tyler Myers we can all support. Looking at his career regular-season stats vs. the Blues, he has a goal and seven assists along with 23 PIM in 25 games. Trying to decide if this is good or not.
- Quinn Hughes leads all defensemen in points in the playoffs thus far. What? What else should be added to this? Was that not enough of a wow-factor for you? THE ENTIRE LEAGUE! There, now we’re satisfied.
- Vancouver holds the lifetime record against St. Louis in the playoffs with a 12-6 record, averaging 3.1 goals-per-game and allowing only 2.9. They stopped counting decimal points after the first lockout so the Canucks will need to win this one outright by at least a full goal.
- Not like you needed another thing to love about Quinn Hughes but he is also the league-leader in powerplay points with four. Connor McDavid technically has five but he’s not in the playoffs anymore.
- Jordan Binnington finished second to Elias Pettersson in Calder voting a season ago. It can’t be denied that a Stanley Cup is a much better prize but it took seven games to win it for the Blues. If Binnington deserved the trophy don’t you think he would have locked it up in five or so games?
THE TWITTER TAKE
MY 94 CENTS
The Canucks beat a Minnesota Wild team that was good, not great. All the feels were had but let’s be honest with ourselves: the Canucks are going to have to be so much better to hang in this series with the Blues. St. Louis is big, bad, and unrelenting so the Canucks need to be bigger, badder, and more unrelenting-er.
That being said, the Blues didn’t really want to be playing in the Bubble™, to begin with. I’ll make my final judgments after Game 1.
AND ONE MORE THING…
Very unlikely Canucks give up a 3 on 0 breakaway tonight.
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