Friday August 21 - Vancouver Canucks 6 - St. Louis Blues 2
Vancouver wins first-round series 4-2
Canada's team, baby!
After Calgary flamed out against the Dallas Stars on Thursday night and the Montreal Canadiens got bounced by the Philadelphia Flyers earlier on Friday, the Vancouver Canucks are the only club from north of the border that's still alive at the conclusion of Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Here are your highlights from their statement win over the Blues on Friday night:
After the Oilers and Leafs were eliminated in the preliminary round, I wondered if the Canucks had managed to avoid some kind of bad karmic juju by declining to be a host team for one of the NHL hubs.
Now, I'm wondering how smart they were in choosing not to change hotels after their qualifying-round win over Minnesota. Calgary and Arizona moved from the Sutton Place to the J.W. Marriott. Where are they now??
With just four teams now left in each hub city, I'm wondering if the Canucks will now be required to move to the J.W.? I would think that the league would be happy to get out of the Sutton Place if possible, and tighten up the bubble a little bit more.
We're just shy of four weeks since 24 teams travelled to their hub cities to get started. Now, just eight teams remain.
It's funny. We usually see so many upsets in playoffs, and there was plenty of concern that the top teams weren't getting a proper tune-up from their round-robin games. But in the end, six of eight teams to advance this year had byes. The Islanders and Canucks are the only qualification-round participants that are still alive.
Certainly, some teams have embraced the opportunity, while others have been a little less enchanted with bubble life.
The Canucks are doing a marvellous job of keeping their eyes on the prize.
"it's pretty easy. We're playing for the Stanley Cup. You know, it's what you dream of as a kid," summed up Troy Stecher on Friday after he his second goal of the playoffs, on Jordan Binnington, to put the Canucks up 3-1 in the second period.
I'm not sure I've ever seen Stecher smile this widely before:
(Also of note in this video: Tyler Myers is fist-bumping with his left hand, after using his right following the Canucks' game-three win. It's believed that his left shoulder is injured, so this could be a positive sign.)
I think Travis Green has also been doing an outstanding job with his messaging ever since the restart. All along, he has brushed off suggestions that this postseason was an opportunity for his young players to simply gain some playoff experience, instead framing it as a chance for them to win.
Having already planted that idea, he was able to lean on it at a key time this week, after the Blues evened the series.
"We are here to win and we have full belief that we can win this series. And that’s what I’m expecting."
Canucks head coach Travis Green has made it clear: his team's confidence and belief in themselves are not wavering. (@imacSportsnet)https://t.co/xrlwvZRIwV
The Golden Knights are doing their best to enjoy life inside the NHL bubble.
“Even on the worst day in here, there’s all the hockey you can watch and all the beer you can drink, so it’s not a bad day,” coach Pete DeBoer said. #VegasBornhttps://t.co/NDrd08RQXs
— David Schoen 📰🗞🏒 (@DavidSchoenLVRJ) August 22, 2020
If you take a look at the story attached to that Tweet, you'll see that the Golden Knights have established a 'fun committee' to try to keep things light — and that after being the first team to advance when they eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, they were able to get a couple of days of quality rest and enjoy a round of golf outside the bubble before officially learning on Friday night that they'd be facing the Canucks in Round 2.
Taking full advantage of the lack of travel and no concerns about building availability, the NHL is diving right into the second round — presumably, also, to deliver those crucial weekend primetime broadcasts on the main network of their U.S. partner, NBC.
So Round 2 is kicking off on Saturday with Game 1 of the other Western Conference semifinal, between Colorado and Dallas. Sunday will bring an evening double header with Bruins and Lightning, followed by the Canucks and Golden Knights at 7:30 p.m. PT.
Even though the Blues were the defending Stanley Cup champions, they had some vulnerabilities that the Canucks could, and did, exploit. Foremost, Vancouver has a strong overall record against the Blues, and Jordan Binnington was not up to the standards he set for himself last season.
That being said, I don't blame Craig Berube for going back to Binnington in Game 6. He went 3-0 in playoff elimination games last year, helping the Blues climb out of a 3-2 hole against the Stars as well as outduelling Tuukka Rask in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Jake Allen didn't play badly in Game 5, so I can understand the thinking of those who said Berube should have stuck with him. But I think the Blues' only chance of mounting a comeback and going on a serious run lay with Binnington getting back to being the goalie he was a year ago. There was no more time to wait around for that to happen.
In the end, I'm not sure it would have mattered. After Game 4, the Blues lost key defenseman Carl Gunnarson — who I think of as Alex Edler lite — so they had to turn to Robert Bortuzzo for their last two games. And they missed Tyler Bozak at centre in Game 6 — he took warmup but was unable to play. I believe he was injured from a shot block in Game 5.
Those injuries came on top of losing Vladimir Tarasenko — which I downplay because (a) they didn't have him for most of the season, when they climbed to first place in the West and (b) he was a shadow of his usual self when he was playing over the past few weeks. Alex Steen was also in and out of the lineup, presumably dealing with something nagging, and of course Jay Bouwmeester has been absent since February after suffering that cardiac incident.
I was so worried about how much the Canucks would miss Myers after he was injured in Game 2 — and so relieved that Edler was able to play in Game 6 with stitches around his ear that didn't look as bad as I'd feared after he suffered that skate cut on Wednesday. Jordie Benn has been steady and Stecher has seized the opportunity to raise his game. He's the Canucks' plus-minus leader heading into Round 2, at plus-5, followed by Elias Pettersson at plus-4 and Jay Beagle and Quinn Hughes tied at plus-3.
If you missed the Sportsnet feature that ran on Friday about Chris Tanev and his father-figure role with the young Canucks, check it out. It's awesome.
Chris Tanev has become something of a father figure to the @Canucks' young nucleus, paying forward what he learned in his younger days and ensuring his new teammates feel welcome from Day 1.
And as for Vegas — yeah, they've looked fantastic so far. It was a lot more fun watching them turn on the juice to beat the Stars, Blues and Avs in the qualifying round than it is when they've put the gears to the Canucks over the past three seasons.
They have had some injury issues. Max Pacioretty didn't play at all in the qualifying round and missed Game 2 against Chicago, but picked up his first two points of the playoffs in Tuesday's elimination game. Paul Stastny missed Games 3 and 4, unfit to play, and was a minus-two in his return in Game 5. He has just two points so far in the playoffs. And depth forward Tomas Nosek played just one game in the Chicago series, Game 2.
Like the Canucks, Vegas has had a pretty balanced scoring attack. Reilly Smith and Mark Stone lead the way with eight points each, and Langley's Shea Theodore is blossoming into a blue-line star, with seven points of his own. Alec Martinez was a nice trade-deadline pickup for the back end, and leads the team with a plus-eight. And of course, Robin Lehner was also a difference-maker as he led his new team to victory over his previous team, the Blackhawks.
We used the saying "To be the best, you've gotta beat the best," for the Canucks against the Blues. It holds true this round as well, with Vegas now as the top seed and with the fits they've given the Canucks over the last three years.
The last time these two teams met was that emotional 5-4 overtime win at Rogers Arena just before Christmas, when the Canucks collapsed emotionally when Josh Leivo was injured, then hung on to force overtime before Chris Tanev scored the eventual winner to kick off that seven-game winning streak that gave the team so much confidence.
Hopefully they can build off that. And maybe aim to exact a little revenge on behalf of Leivo, who is currently in Vancouver and still rehabbing that broken kneecap, more than eight months later.
It's awesome that the Canucks will get a chance to test themselves against such a strong squad. But I hope Travis Green doesn't waver from his messaging: "We're here to win."
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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