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Canucks Army THE PLAY-IN GAME DAY: Canucks Vs. Wild G3

Photo credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

By Always90four

Aug 6, 2020, 10:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 6, 2020, 03:55 EDT

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It’s a series now!

The Vancouver Canucks came back in triumphant fashion and powered past the Minnesota Wild in Game 2. Today is a new day and Vancouver will need to do it all over again if they want a chance to close it out on Friday night.

The Canucks’ stars showed up on Tuesday and now it’s time for their middle-six to show up and for Tyler Myers to STOP TAKING EVERY FRICKIN PENALTY!!!

Quinn Hughes has definitely arrived on the scene and Elias Pettersson is taking things quite seriously and won’t be a pushover against Minnesota.

OK, back to the task at hand. No Danny Tanner references today, just a full house of Canucks info. Aside from the start time, this game is going to deliver.

Let’s Do This!™

TV / RADIO / PUCK DROP

SN / SN 650 / 11:30 AM (You read this correctly, FML)

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

The odds for today’s game are: VAN -105/ MIN -115 courtesy of OddsShark.com.

LINEUPS

Micheal Ferland has been deemed “unfit to play” and has gone back to Vancouver. Everyone fears the worst but with a tight-lipped NHL, don’t expect to know the full story anytime soon. Multiple sources have indicated that it is indeed a head-related injury, however.

Jake Virtanen made his debut in the series last game and it would be fair to say he’ll be in until the end. Along with Loui Eriksson, both players will need to do all the little things to give the Canucks a chance to win today.

Jacob Markstrom will once again start. Let’s calm the final minutes of play down a bit, though.

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#12 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	MICHEAL FERLAND Rating: 71.7#83 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 70.95#23 FL3
TYLER MOTTE Rating: 68.8#144 LW	JAY BEAGLE Rating: 68.4#163 C	JAKE VIRTANEN Rating: 72.0#78 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 69.73#22 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS	Defense
QUINN HUGHES Rating: 75.2#15 LD	CHRIS TANEV Rating: 71.0#90 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 73.12#22 DL1
ALEXANDER EDLER Rating: 74.3#26 LD	TROY STECHER Rating: 71.9#63 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 73.11#16 DL2
OSCAR FANTENBERG Rating: 70.9#100 LD	TYLER MYERS Rating: 72.6#50 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 71.74#16 DL3

Kevin Fiala continues to shine but he isn’t the only player having a series. There aren’t any updates to the Wild lineup but they haven’t played poorly enough to warrant a switch.

Alex Stalock should start again. He wasn’t bad, the Canucks just didn’t stop.

WILD lines courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com:

LW	C	RW	Forwards
JORDAN GREENWAY Rating: 71.2#94 LW	ERIC STAAL Rating: 74.2#45 C	KEVIN FIALA Rating: 78.3#8 RW	FL1 Rating Rating: 74.58#24 FL1
ZACH PARISE Rating: 76.3#17 LW	JOEL ERIKSSON EK Rating: 71.6#100 C	LUKE KUNIN Rating: 72.5#70 RW	FL2 Rating Rating: 73.45#17 FL2
MARCUS FOLIGNO Rating: 71.7#80 LW	ALEX GALCHENYUK Rating: 70.8#115 C	MATS ZUCCARELLO Rating: 71.8#84 RW	FL3 Rating Rating: 71.44#15 FL3
RYAN DONATO Rating: 72.1#73 LW	MIKKO KOIVU Rating: 71.8#93 C	RYAN HARTMAN Rating: 71.2#96 RW	FL4 Rating Rating: 71.68#3 FL4

DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS	Defense
RYAN SUTER Rating: 76.3#7 LD	JARED SPURGEON Rating: 76.1#16 RD	DL1 Rating Rating: 76.21#4 DL1
JONAS BRODIN Rating: 73.7#41 LD	MATHEW DUMBA Rating: 74.5#27 RD	DL2 Rating Rating: 74.07#7 DL2
CARSON SOUCY Rating: 71.8#79 LD	BRAD HUNT Rating: 72.1#71 RD	DL3 Rating Rating: 71.97#13 DL3

GAME NOTES, BUBBLE STATS, AND OTHER THINGS YOU MAY BE CURIOUS ABOUT

Vancouver went a whopping 1-7 on the power play last game. That is simply not good enough. The drop pass is dragging it down, the predictability on the setup is nauseating, and it flat out just stinks. One goal will not win a series but if they get those kinds of chances again, three goals or more will send a message. The 2011 Canucks did that and teams were afraid to take a penalty.
Quinn Hughes had his first playoff point which turned out to be an assist on a Bo Horvat tip. Hughes is creating time and space for himself but Minnesota has to have him figured out a bit by now. He is still the player to beat in this series thus far.
The 50/50’s in Edmonton have been off the hook since the bubble started but there have only been a few teams more charitable than the Canucks, three in fact. Vancouver is operating with 13.00 giveaways/60. Only Dallas, Winnipeg, and Calgary have more. Again, the power play will solve a lot of this problem.
Minnesota has the second-highest xGF% in the bubble with 59.25, just 0.79 away from Colorado who is involved in the round-robin. On the flip side, Vancouver is dead-last with 40.75 %
The advanced stats haven’t been kind to the Canucks and the playoffs are no different. The only stat in their favour at this moment is PDO with a clever 1.07. It’s a helluva drug, so imagine what happens if things get back to normal? Yikes.

MY 94 CENTS

The start time sucks. People work at 11:30 am, this is unacceptable. Enough about me, though. Elias Pettersson is dangerously close to finishing that clapper on the power play and it feels like he’s a second late in shooting it. We can’t see it in real-time but it’s like tweaking a fastball. Once you have it, no one can touch it.

Quinn Hughes will score his first today.

THE TWITTER TAKE

But that Lafrenierre kid, right?