Wednesday August 12 - Vancouver Canucks vs. St. Louis Blues - 7:30 p.m. - CBC, Sportsnet, Sportsnet 650
A last-minute goal by Joe Pavelski on Sunday changed the trajectory of the first-round playoff matchups in the Western Conference, and the Vancouver Canucks' opponents.
The Canucks were set to get the loser of the final round-robin game, between the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues.
St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the game on a goal at 3:43 of the first period by Robert Thomas. Later in the first, they looked to have gone up 2-0 before a successful Stars challenge for offside. With both clubs playing their backup goaltenders — Jake Allen and Anton Khubodin, respectively — that one-goal lead held up until the 19:29 mark of the third, when Pavelski beat Allen with Khudobin on the bench and an extra attacker on the ice.
Five minutes of three-on-three overtime solved nothing. In the shootout, the only goal came off the stick of Dallas forward Denis Gurianov. Khudobin stopped David Perron, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly to earn his team the win, and a date with the Calgary Flames as they held steady in the third seed in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Blues finished with an 0-3 record in the round robin and dropped from the first seed to the fourth in the Western Conference — just like the Boston Bruins did in the East. The Bruins are also navigating some injury issues, so they're in even tougher against the Carolina Hurricanes. But the Blues weren't able to maintain their leads in any of their three round-robin games, and have been short on intensity as they prepare to head into their first-round matchup against a Vancouver team that's riding high.
The Blues are mostly healthy. Tarasenko is back after undergoing shoulder surgery in October, but was pointless in the two round-robin games that he played. Bottom-six forward Ivan Barbashev is currently in St. Louis with his wife, who's due to give birth, and word is that agitating winger Sammy Blais could be be out of action for a bit after he got tangled up awkwardly while attempting to throw a hit on Andrej Sekera midway through Sunday's game.
Blais looked to be in significant pain when he picked himself up off the ice, climbed over the boards and headed straight for the dressing room after this play.
As for the Canucks, there are quite a few question marks.
Perhaps the biggest is Jay Beagle, who didn't play the last nine minutes of the third period or overtime in Game 4 against Minnesota and is said to possibly be dealing with a hand injury.
Tyler Toffoli's status also remains uncertain, but Travis Green said on Sunday that Adam Gaudette should be available for Game 1 if needed.
Jordie Benn is also working his way through his quarantine after landing in Edmonton following the birth of his baby daughter, Billie. He could be available later in the week — but he might have to supplant Olli Juolevi to get into the lineup. What a world!
When it looked like the Canucks were going to play Dallas, I was thinking about how that would have potentially set up a Benn-vs-Benn battle against brother Jamie. Jordie's physicality might come in handy against the big, tough Blues, so we'll see how that all plays out.
Travis Green did shout out Jake Virtanen for his first-period fight against Ryan Hartman in Game 4. Given that the Canucks were playing from behind for most of the game, I'm not sure we can assert that the fight set the tone in Vancouver's favour. But the Canucks and Wild were the two most penalized teams in the first 10 days of the return to play by a long shot — Vancouver led with 78 minutes and Minnesota had 62. Third place went to the New York Rangers, with 49. The Blues were 18th out of 24 teams with just 34 minutes.
The Wild also ranked sixth in total hits through the first 10 days of hockey, with 125. Vancouver landed in 17th spot with 96 and St. Louis ended up in 23rd, with just 76. Again, that probably speaks to a lower-than-usual intensity level from the Blues. Also, the Blues played one fewer game, so their hits-per-game is actually about the same as Vancouver's. But if the going does get tough in Round 1, the Canucks should be able to take confidence from the idea that they were able to hold their own against the Wild.
I'm certainly not discounting the idea that the Blues might be able to up their intensity level. After all, this is the group that flipped the switch in the 2018-19 season and went from last in the league all the way to a championship. That run was also built in part by fantastic goaltending from Jordan Binnington, who I expect to be strong against Vancouver. Jake Allen also looked very sharp in Sunday's game.
That being said, I'm still taking the Canucks.
I believe I went 4-for-8 in the qualifying round in terms of picking winning teams — which seems to be considered quite reasonable in the topsy-turvy world of today's NHL. I'm proud that I picked Chicago and Columbus for the upsets; I also took Vancouver and the Islanders. But I took Nashville to beat Arizona, Winnipeg to beat Calgary, Pittsburgh over Montreal and the Rangers over Carolina. Oops.
Click here for my full Western Conference predictions for Round 1, where I'm taking Vancouver, Calgary, Vegas and Colorado to prevail. You'll also find a link there to my Eastern Conference picks: Philly, Carolina, Columbus and Washington.
Round 1 kicks off on Tuesday with Dallas/Calgary and Vegas/Chicago in Edmonton along with Blue Jackets/Lightning and Hurricanes/Bruins in the East.
The Canucks and Blues will be the last teams to get started in Round 1, with Game 1 scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday night.
They'll get the afternoon slot for Game 2 on Friday, at 3:30 p.m. PT, then play evening back-to-backs on Sunday and Monday at 7:30 p.m.
I'll close with a link to this story from Iain MacIntyre, who went deep into J.T. Miller's glorious read of the starting lineup before Game 4.
Travis Green doesn't change his routine when the team is winning, so Miller has actually been on lineup detail since Game 2 of the series against Minnesota.
And MacIntyre makes another fascinating point. With the insertion of Olli Juolevi into the Game 4 lineup, the Canucks were actually icing their own first-rounders from six consecutive seasons — from Bo Horvat in 2013 all the way to Quinn Hughes in 2018. I have no idea how to look this up, but I'm guessing it's the first time in franchise history that has ever happened — and I'd bet it's a pretty rare situation all across the league.
Of course, having high picks is a big help, and a couple of the Canucks' later first-rounders ended up being misses. Horvat was drafted ninth overall with the pick that the Canucks got from New Jersey in exchange for Cory Schneider. Their own first-rounder, No. 24 Hunter Shinkaruk, is long gone. So is No. 24 from 2014, Jared McCann, chosen with the pick the Canucks acquired as part of the Ryan Kesler trade to Anaheim. McCann, by the way, was healthy-scratched by Pittsburgh in Game 3 of their series against Montreal, but did get back into the lineup in Game 4.
So Brock Boeser is the Canucks' only first-rounder picked outside the top 10 who is currently with the team — he was taken 23rd in 2015. The group is rounded out by Juolevi and Elias Pettersson, both chosen fifth, along with Quinn Hughes at seven.
Hopefully, Vasily Podkolzin can keep the trend going when he arrives from Russia next season. But barring some sort of miraculous trade, the trend will end with the 2020 draft, since the Canucks' first-rounder has now been assigned to New Jersey as the return for the J.T. Miller trade.
And that's OK. Miller has proven to be the right guy in the right place at the right time for Vancouver. His lineup read is a perfect symbol of what he means to the Canucks in the dressing room, as well as on the ice.
Looking forward to seeing your first-round matchup predictions!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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