The Stanchies: Di Giuseppe’s new dad strength, the all new EP40, and the Canucks’ big game five win
2 months ago
If ever there was a game inspired by Matthew Wilder, it would be the Canucks’ 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in game five, as Vancouver refused to break their stride.
If the Canucks were a UFC fighter, they would have been Georges St. Pierre, mercilessly grinding down their opponent, ground and pounding them for the entire contest. If tapping out was an option, you feel like Edmonton might have seriously considered it as the third period wore on.
Which may be an odd thing to say. After all, it was tied 2-2, and if Dan Cloutier has taught us anything, it’s that any shot can find its way to the back of the net. Even a well-timed dump-in was something to fear back in those days, to the point that I still flinch on occasion when someone tosses me a water bottle from across the room.
But the Canucks were relentless on the night. There isn’t a question of whether it was their best game of the playoffs because it quite clearly was. Sure, the Edmonton media might argue otherwise, but they just recently discovered motor vehicles, so you have to excuse them for being a bit spooked by everything right now.
Somewhere during the first period something clicked for this Vancouver team. They went on to out-shoot the Oilers 35 to 23 on the night, finally breaking the 20 shot barrier with ease. High danger chances were 10 to 9 in favor of Vancouver, but Edmonton got six of theirs in the first period. They only managed three high danger chances the rest of the way.
You want more stats? Edmonton went 0 for 5 on the powerplay, something unheard of around these parts. Normally the Oilers scoring on the powerplay is as consistent as hearing that there’s been a collision on the Alex Fraser bridge in the morning. You just sort of resign yourself to the fact that Leon Draisaitl will score from a one-timer behind the net somehow, and Evander Kane will celebrate like he did something.
After being called out by their coach after game four, it’s clear this team responded. From the bottom six, to Elias Pettersson, to JT Miller, everyone found a way to give just a little bit more on Thursday night.
We’ve talked about it all season though, about how this team manages to bounce back from losses. How it learns from mistakes and will find ways to adjust. Even the coaches put in the work, as Tocchet explained some tweaks they made in their game that paid off on the night. This is just what they do.
The question now, is, can they keep that momentum going into game six to finish off the series in Edmonton?
Or do they want to stress everyone the bleep out and play the first game seven on Rogers Arena ice since 2011?
The Canucks fan in you will say game seven, clearly. That’s just how things work around these parts. Then it’s a coin toss of what’s going to happen.
But the Rick Tocchet era has done something not many have done before.
The Rick Tocchet era actually makes you think “you know what, this team takes it in six.”
Something about this era feels different from the past. We just have to see how far that can take this team.
Best change up
I feel like Rick Tocchet chose the lines everyone on the internet wanted. Like if this was an EA Sports video game, that’s what happens when you hit “auto-fill”.
Best buckle up
I made a promise to my dog Sherlock that I wouldn’t make the officials a big part of my post-game article because I can only take so much from Edmonton fans struggling to type a sentence to angrily tweet at me that “it clear Gary want Canuck in final and no want Edmonton to win cup”, but here we find ourselves once again, wondering just what a penalty is:
Pius Suter took the first penalty of the game for goaltender interference on Calvin Pickard, and that feels a bit aggressive? Like if this was a sandwich and that penalty was horse radish, I would wonder why they put three cups of it on my order?
Suter is chasing down a shot and then makes brief contact at the top of the blue paint, so it didn’t feel like Suter was thinking, “hell yeah, time to kick the shit out of this dumb goalie.” If you’re going to try and sneak in some goalie contact, I feel like Corey Perry would have endless tips about how to make real contact that could actually cause pain and/or injury.
Maybe it was the spin from Calvin Pickard that sold it? I must applaud Calvin for his choice of reaction. If he no sells that contact, the official might ignore it, but if he goes full Mike Smith and pops off his helmet as he goes flying through the air screaming “MY EYES”, then maybe the official waves it off as embellishment.
Pulling off a 360 and then getting promptly back into position? That’s an honourable way to sell a penalty.
I think the thing people forget when they see arguments about officiating is that it’s not so much the calls themselves, it’s more about consistency. If you want this to be the bar for goalie interference then sure, sounds good, just make sure you call it that way everytime.
Either way, this set up Edmonton with their first powerplay, and as I alluded to earlier, for once, I don’t have a goal to show you.
In fact, all I have to show you is how Edmonton kept looking for their Leon one time and it was never an option for them, leading to a mere three shots TOTAL on the night on the powerplay:
You just witnessed 33% of the shots the Oilers took on five powerplays. And it was like this all night long. The Oilers would try and cycle to find that one timer from either side, and it just wasn’t there. Leon Draisaitl’s body language when he has to take a wrister from the point is on par with Starbucks getting your name perfectly correct, which means you can’t make a funny post on social media about it. “I guess I’ll take it, but I was hoping for something more.”
There are several reasons the Vancouver Canucks won game five, but the Canucks’ penalty killing might have been one of the biggest. The Canucks essentially made the Oilers best weapon as impotent as Grandpa on a lazy Tuesday afternoon. And when you take away the Oilers’ best weapon, they suddenly become a much simpler opponent to try and defeat.
Best hot hot hot
The legend of Nikita Zadorov continues to grow in this city, to the point that I can smell Dan Milstein’s musky scent in the air anytime the big Russian does something else to put him over:
You know a guy is feeling it when he does the slow rise from the knees that Leon does on this play.
I thought at first that Zadorov was in his Goldberg phase, but that’s a crude analogy. It’s clear he’s in his People’s Champion The Rock phase of his career.
Highly fashionable? Check.
Great on the mic? Check.
Physically imposing? Check.
Involved in a great feud? Check.
Has the crowd behind him like no other? Check, check, check.
The guy is a beast. No matter how these playoffs end, people will talk about 2024 and go “Man, remember Zadorov during that run?” He has become a part of Canucks history and we’re not even done with this run yet. I cannot imagine how many people run up to him on the streets of Vancouver to ask if they can give him a hug.
And his feud with Evander Kane, oh my god, this is the good stuff right here. Two big personalities, both getting their big moments, both taunting each other, if this doesn’t end in a cage at Nation Extreme Wrestling then we’ve done something very wrong here.
And while we can never know the exact physical toll takes on each player, you have to imagine that playing 23+ minutes a night and taking big hits from big boys like Zadorov and others adds up. Tyler Myers could have a section of his own on big hits he’s dished out.
But hey, maybe the Canucks played their best game, and Edmonton comes out flying in game six. Maybe we overstate the risk of overplaying your top players in the post-season.
But it sure felt like Edmonton was slowing down as the game wore on in this one, especially as you saw McDavid and Draisaitl playing with no answers as time went on.
Best it has to get better one day
Ian Cole’s game is built around being a Milford Man. You should watch a game and then be surprised to see his name on the box score.
“Wait, Ian Cole didn’t play tonight, did he?” is the best possible thing you can say about Ian Cole after a game.
Because offense? Not really his thing. Skating with speed? Not his bag. Making moves? Not for him.
So when all you have during a series is own goals, giveaways, and clips where you’re not sure if he’s tired or just slow, it adds up to a lot of bad PR.
And part of you honestly wonders, hey, maybe sit him for a game. Maybe rest him and see if he bounces back the next game. Playing every other day is a tall task for a veteran defenceman.
But the Canucks don’t have a ton of options, and on a night in which the team killed off five Oilers powerplays, there’s no way he’s leaving the lineup.
Which means all we can do is watch these clips and wonder if he will find a way to bounce back from all of this:
That clip is a whole lot of Ian Cole skating around and just trying to be a part of something. He’s not sure what, but he wants to be involved. He’s clearly behind the play, and he was most likely tired due to the fact he couldn’t get the puck out of the zone to save his life just before this.
The end result was Evander Kane eventually scoring on a pass from Leon Draisaitl in one of the rare times the Oilers cycled and ground the Canucks down on the night.
And hey, maybe Artūrs Šilovs wishes he had that shot back. That’s the kind of shot that you date once and then realize you’re highly incompatible, leading you to heavily debate just how bad it is really to ghost someone you barely know. Surely your emotional footprint can’t be that big.
But the end result is another Ian Cole shift that ended in a goal. I don’t know if it’s a run of bad luck, or if it’s just fatigue catching up, but for better or for worse, the Canucks don’t appear to have many options they are willing to use over Ian.
Again, first round? Ian was fantastic.
Second round? It’s been ugly.
Best response
Was this Elias Pettersson’s best game of the post-season? Yes.
Is the bar really low for that? Sure is.
But if you’re sitting there hoping it’s all mental for EP40, then this was 100% the kind of game you can build off of:
Hey, he’s making moves and driving to the net.
Was his shot fantastic tonight? No, it still feels like he’s sweeping the puck on net and getting next to no flex on his shot. We still have no idea if he’s injured or not, but if this is all mental, it would be wild that it threw his shot mechanics off like this. It feels like it has to be injury related.
But injury or not, shot or not, he should still be playing better and on Thursday night, you saw a bit of the old Pettersson swagger.
It probably helps that he isn’t passing the puck to Ilya Mikheyev. I can’t imagine the rabbit hole of “does life even matter?” you spiral down when setting up Ilya alone in the slot.
Having the brains of Elias Lindholm and the rejuvenation of Nils H0glander on his line seemed to pay off as Elias was noticeable in a way that he hasn’t been very much in the playoffs.
Again, he can be a much better player. But this was the first time you saw that glimmer of swagger from EP40.
Best fan support
Hey, look, I get it. It borders a weird line of coddling and being supportive, and some people don’t know where they land on it. I think when I was a younger man, back when I didn’t understand the strength it takes to be vulnerable, I would have sneered at the chants. I would have wondered why the highly paid kid needed our help.
But man, life is hard. It’s a big pile of shit sometimes. It’s hard to even get out of bed some days. It’s a lesson you learn later in life, but it’s far too easy to be mean. To be cold and dispassionate. You think you’re “telling it like it is” but in reality you’re just being an immature asshole.
So I say bring on the chants. I absolutely loved them.
Look, this market is a hard one to play in at the best of times. You have to deal with so much scrutiny and then dumb dumbs like myself making stupid jokes about you all day long. Ilya Mikheyev probably wishes I would just go away (I’m sorry).
But having the fans come together to try and rally one of their struggling players? That’s incredible. Don’t short change that moment. That was an amazing display from a fan base that is easily one of the best in the league, despite what 2011 would have you believe.
Best it gets better
Remember those six high danger chances? Well, Connor Brown got one of them right here:
The Canucks were a bit sloppy and cute at times during the first period. You know the look, hoody and Lulus, making weird drop passes, we’ve all been there.
And in a different world, Edmonton gets a couple of goals in the first period. Maybe they put enough distance between themselves and Vancouver the Canucks never find their stride.
But this is a world in which The Boss is the goaltender for your Vancouver Canucks, and he continues to play steady hockey for this club.
You know how good Artūrs Šilovs has been playing? We now kind of take it for granted when he makes a big save.
Best home improvement
EP40 is at his best when he’s cooking shorthanded and on Thursday night, he was showing some signs of Walter White magic:
Again, I do not doubt that Elias could be injured. But it’s clearly been a mental issue for him as well, because his ability to pick off passes and make plays like this has been missing all series long.
Best result
It’s true, when the puck hit Ian Cole and didn’t deflect into the net, I was visibly confused. Ian Cole scoring goals had become my totem to let me know I wasn’t stuck in some inception-like situation.
Second best Hollywood appearance
I fully admit it, I never got over her portrayal of Becky. OG Becky was the superior Becky on Roseanne.
But I didn’t give Sarah the second place vote because of this. She got second place because nobody beats Nathan Fielder:
If you don’t know who he is, all you need to know is he’s a comedic genius. He is on my Mt. Rushmore of comedians and it’s not even close. Go watch Nathan For You right now and thank me later.
The Canucks are now 1-0 when playing in front of Nathan, and I feel like 1-47 in front of Chad Kroeger. That’s all I’m saying.
Best anxiety
The first period was really the only time the Canucks played sloppy hockey. Shots were 5-4 at this point and after watching almost two rounds of hockey, you did wonder if it was going to be another low show game for Vancouver:
Hesitating with the puck, awkward passes back and forth, eventually leading to a rush the other way. And if that’s Ian Cole, that’s a goal, bar down, but Carson Soucy manages to hit The Boss, so no harm no foul.
But that’s sort of the game Vancouver was playing to start things off. Just making some sloppy plays, playing almost passive hockey.
Best signs of life
Quinn Hughes finally hit a cross bar, which kind of let people know that Vancouver remembered that Calvin Pickard was in net so hey maybe they should start shooting the puck more:
The Canucks looked like they were aiming glove side on the majority of their shots, either because they felt that’s a weak spot of Pickard, or because Eddie Lack’s story of being told to practice during the off-season with a baseball glove inspired them about the shortcomings of a backup goaltender.
Best beast mode
You know how Tyler Myers has been good? Edmonton fans cannot STAND this guy:
Dylan Holloway found out the hard way what happens when a Chaos Giraffe has his shit together.
And it’s not just this game, it’s been all playoffs long. Tyler Myers has been a physical beast on the ice, and Tyler Minors is nowhere to be seen.
I find myself being relieved when I see Myers on the ice, which is something I thought I’d never say before.
The best part? Myers ate shit in this market for a lot of years (and for good reason), and every time he had to face the firing squad, he would do it. Scrum after scrum, he would sit there for as long as it took, answering every question that came his way. Not just answer, but he would give you honest ones as well. He’s from the JT Miller school of being open and accountable.
It’s a tough market to play in, and man alive, Chaos Giraffe is made of Teflon because he did it all with a smile. Hard not to cheer for a guy like that.
Best spicy shot
Carson Spicy as my phone likes to call him got the Canucks on the board when a bouncing puck found its way to his stick near the end of the first period:
If Pickard practiced with a baseball glove in the off-season, that doesn’t go in, but alas.
After the game Soucy said he was almost thankful the puck was a bit out of reach, because that forces you to draw the puck back in to get your shot off. And those little adjustments on shots, that’s that the good players do in the slot, you create a lot of misdirection when you add a little drag to it.
You’ll also notice Pickard kind of lost his net a bit on the shot and that also felt like a theme on the night. Pickard never felt like he was locked in, as there was a lot of panicked movements in his crease throughout the game.
Best giveth and taketh away
Edmonton got their second goal of the night mere moments later, however. And it was the kind of goal that would have deflated many Vancouver teams in the past:
Soucy jumps up, maybe feeling it a bit on the last goal, and ends up falling to the ice. Edmonton then turns that into an odd-man rush the other way and they quickly restore their lead.
That’s the kind of goal that can kill teams. You see that go in and you wonder if the high prices on homes and giving up goals like that are worth it in Vancouver.
But to Vancouver’s credit, this goal seemed to inspire them to come out stronger in the second period. This goal didn’t upset them, it inspired them.
So thank you Carson Soucy for knowing just what this team needed to get going.
Best cowards option
The period ended on a bit of an odd note in which Tyler Myers and Mattis Janmark got into a scuffle to end the period:
So Tyler Myers looks like he cross checks the legs of Janmark, and then Janmark holds onto Myers stick, which then leads to the Chaos Giraffe throwing a punch at Janmark, which then leads to Janmark acting like he was punched out by Mike Tyson in his prime. Even Glass Joe thinks Mattias went down too easy on that shot.
The officials ended up giving Tyler two minutes for roughing and two minutes to Janmark for embellishment, which always annoys me. It’s either one or the other. Either the other guy faked it, or CG57 was rough housing, you have to pick one.
But the coward’s way out is to put them both in the box and move on with your night.
I had a Seven joke I was working on for this but I couldn’t quite make it work.
Best what’s in the box
We have gone from “Elias Lindholm is ok I guess” very rapidly to “how does the team free up money to keep this guy” because he’s turning into The Fixer during these playoffs.
Have someone who is struggling to find their groove? Send in The Fixer. He’s the Slap Chop of the NHL except you’re probably not going to love his nuts as much.
What you do love? His ability to play smart hockey.
I’ve said it before, but Elias is honestly at his best when he has a smart player on his line. He excels when another player knows where to go. So it’s not shocking that playing with better players has led to some of the old Elias peeking out from behind the curtains:
Mechanically that shot still looks like it doesn’t have any flex on it whatsoever, but at least he’s shooting. Having a hard shot is dope, don’t get me wrong, but you can still score with a well placed light shot.
Getting EP40 in a better place mentally will lead to him scoring goals, even if they aren’t bar down clank bangers and piss missiles.
Best teasing the ending
JT Miller’s revenge game was bubbling under the surface the entire night. You saw it on the first shift when he threw two hits, you knew he wanted this one badly to make up for game four.
And I was honestly worried he might try and chase the game a little bit too much. Sometimes when you want dinner you order two burgers when you know one would be good enough, but you’re hungry damn it. So I was curious to see if JT would try and do too much to make something happen, maybe he’d put himself out of position chasing the game down.
But he didn’t. He played smart, solid aggressive game, and when chances arose, he took them:
JT Miller said after the game that the Canucks had been giving the Oilers too much respect, and playing maybe a little too passive, and you saw it on Thursday that the Canucks put the pressure on Edmonton for once. Living in Alberta is hard enough to come to terms with but now you’ve got JT Miller and Phil Di Giuseppe running you down in the corners? Forget about it.
Best baby legs
The Professor of pressure Philly Delight made his impact on this game, and he made it in a big way, in the second period:
This was Phil’s best game of the year. It was the fourth lines best game of the year. It feels like it’s been months since the fourth line had any impact above “didn’t get scored on?” as the final tally. We’ve just gotten used to them never scoring goals ever again.
But Thursday night, Phil, Nils Aman, and Vasily Podkolzin gave the Canucks fourth line identity they haven’t had in a long time.
They were aggressive. They forecheck hard. They wont puck battles. They got the puck in the offensive zone. They were a huge part of the team’s performance on the night because they didn’t sag when they had their shifts. You didn’t watch JT Miller’s line have a good shift then watch the fourth line stuck in their own zone. No, it was the Canucks fourth line ramming the puck down Edmonton’s throats instead.
And that goal? That’s J-Lo levels of hustle. PDG gets the play started, but Nils Aman racing in to get on top of Evan Bouchard allows him to get the puck off his stick, right into PDG’s path. And full credit to PDG for busting out a spin-o-rama to score his first playoff goal for the Canucks.
Do you know the swagger I’d have if that was a goal I scored in the second round of the playoffs? It would be monumental. It would be Thomas Drance levels of arrogance on display.
Best keep it going
You want to know swagger? It’s when Connor McDavid breaks in on a partial two on one and you immediately turn the puck back and get a partial breakaway of your own:
There is no hesitation there, the Canucks just flip the puck to Lindholm who just straight up drives to the net, thirsty with the knowledge that he’s about to take a shot on Calvin Pickard.
Best feud by a country mile
I could watch Nikita Zadorov play hockey against Edmonton every day of the week and I’d be happy.
Evander Kane probably wouldn’t agree:
Zadorov sends the puck to Aman who finds PDG for the breakaway attempt, which we have to take a moment to digest. I just wrote about two scoring chances from the Canucks fourth line. This is something that just happened.
This is then followed up by Zadorov getting the rebound only to be taken out on a slash by Evander Kane, who got penalized on the play.
Which then led to this glorious moment:
Nikita Zadorov mocking Kane by making a baby face and crying. It’s like he does what we’re all thinking.
If you asked me what the perfect player for the Vancouver market would be, it would be Nikita Zadorov.
Best what in the hell
The craziest moment of the game was by far when Elias Pettersson got called for charging on this play:
Now, you have to understand, the Canucks had all the momentum. They had tied the game up, they were generating chances left and right. It felt like they had the game in the palm of their hands.
Then the NHL called Elias Pettersson for….charging.
This is why the crowd was throwing things on the ice. This was why the debate for “Worst call of the season?” was suddenly re-ignited.
Now, by the book, you could make a case for charging based on loosely interpreting the “jump” part of a charging call. It feels a bit like an “AHA!” swerve more suited for The Good Wife, where all of a sudden Alicia Florrick points out that technically Elias Pettersson jumped, therefore he charged.
That is a very, er, unique interpretation of the rule, and one that wouldn’t go over well in any market, much less Vancouver. It’s hard to fathom calling a charge on a guy who turns his back and jumps to brace himself against a guy skating in really hard to hit him. I don’t think I have ever seen a charging call in my life where the guy who got called wasn’t moving.
Again, in arena you didn’t even see the small jump, so to the fans in attendance they literally thought they just saw Elias get called for standing his ground. It would be like if Gandalf told the Balrog he could not pass but then an official quietly pulled him aside and informed him he was being accused of charging.
When asked after the game if the official explained the penalty to him, Elias simply said “no”, which just furthers to muddy the water.
Edmonton fans will fall on their sword that the jump meant everything, therefore the penalty was fine. Even if they’ve never seen charging called that way, they stuck to the most literal definition of the rule they possibly could. This was essentially them telling everyone the card said “Moops.”
But Ray Ferraro wasn’t having any of it:
That’s a very experienced hockey player not buying what the league is selling. It feels like a bad call, because it is a bad call.
But if you don’t believe me, what’s next should close this case once and for all:
When you lose Tim Peel, you’ve lost everything. When you can’t get Tim Peel of all people to back your awful call, then you know you’ve made a huge mistake. This is like OJ Simpson arguing on your behalf, this is when you know you’ve lost the plot.
All I will say is thank god Vancouver didn’t lose due to a goal on this penalty otherwise Twitter would have melted down.
Best sometimes it’s a good call
Dakota Joshua would then get a penalty on Connor McDavid for this:
At this point fans were angry about the Pettersson call, so things kind of spiraled out on this play.
To be honest, the Canucks run a lot of soft picks, and on this one they got caught. McDavid’s natural response to any contact is to enter the Superman pose, but I do think Dakota went too far out of his way on this one, and didn’t hide his soft interference well enough.
At least on this play I can say “hey they’ve called things like that before” unlike the charging call that even Tim Peel was thrown off by.
Best crush them
There was a lot of play after this point of the Canucks just sort of cycling the puck and getting shots on net:
You can see in that clip that Vancouver is getting Edmonton to chase the puck. They’re panicking and two guys end up covering the point, leaving a lot of room for Elias. The Oilers coach said post-game that teams look bad when they’re chasing the play, and he’s right. When you have control of the puck, you look so calculated and in control.
When you chase the game, that’s when things get away from you, and Vancouver was making Edmonton chase the puck all night long.
Best he’s not wrong
Best posting receipts
Early in the third the Canucks had one of those “this better not unlock anything in me” moments when Nearly Nils showed up:
Whenever a post gets hit in a playoff game in the third period, I instinctively assume the team that hit it will lose. There is nothing hockey gods love more than going “ah ah ah, you didn’t say the magic word!” and then mocking you with losing a game that you clanged iron in.
But since the Canucks won, you can look upon this play with the silver lining that Hoglander is starting to resemble the guy from earlier in the season instead of the playoff version you bought off of Wish.
That has to be one of the worst posts, though, right? Like he HAS that goal on his stick. His body even shoots straight up in a rigid post after he hits the post as if he was already about to celebrate the goal but then his brain can’t compute what just happened so he just sort of shuts everything down.
Best rinse and repeat
You just knew Corolla Garland was going to appear when you saw the words “cycle” and “grind”, didn’t you?
Garland’s ability to win puck battles and evade hits, and create space from forecheckers was next level in this game.
Best we were all thinking it
I’m telling you, Dan Cloutier scarred us. Watching this game, watching how good Vancouver was playing, how dominant they were, you couldn’t help but flinch on easy shots from the point.
Best who else but JT
In the end though, all that anxiety was for nothing. After watching the Canucks dominate the play for the third period, after watching them tilt the ice in their favor for the final frame, who else but Jimothy Timothy Miller to score the game winner with half a minute to go:
Yes, the ironing is delicious. The man who helped cause the Canucks to lose with under a minute left in game four ends up being the one to win it for them in game five.
After the game Miller gave a ton of credit to Lindholm. He said Lindholm’s patience paid off, and he waited until the perfect time to try and thread that pass over. Earlier in the play, Miller was open high in the slot, but JT said it would have been a forced pass if Elias had tried it there.
Instead Elias showed that Hank Sedin patience and waited until a better opportunity arose. Once again an early season acquisition from Rutherford is paying off in spades.
And Elias Pettersson? He kicks that puck and deflects it on net. He re-directs the pass which causes it to hit the post, which then bounces the puck right out to JT Miller.
As for JT, he scores the biggest goal of his NHL career, putting his team a game away from the third round.
When the goal was announced, I have never heard a louder “JT MILLER” from the fans in my life. Give full credit to Al Murdoch for making goal announcements take on a life of their own, with the “Bluuuuuuuuuueger” and the “Za za za za zadorov” and of course, the “J,T, MILLER”. Fans now live for those moments, as Al has tapped into what wrestling fans have known for years: People love a catchy phrase they can scream with friends.
Winning game six won’t be easy of course. Nor would a game seven if it comes to it. We very well could still be watching the end of the Canucks playoff run by early next week.
But we could also be watching a team about to enter the third round, which is something nobody thought was possible at the start of the season. Except maybe the players themselves.
Best taking them to the train station
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