It’s next man up mentality for the Vancouver Canucks. After the league came down and handed Soucy a one game suspension for his cross check on MacDavid, the team is comfortable relying on their depth as they’ve had to do throughout the season.
“We’ve been doing it all year,” Tocchet said.
Juulsen will draw into the lineup tonight – though Tocc isn’t sure who exactly he’l pair him with. Juulsen has gotten one playoff game in this year in Nashville where he played 11 minutes but took two penalties, so he’ll have to be cleaner in Edmonton. Juulsen is a big boy that can throw weight around, so it should come in handy in what could be a spicy game.
“We’re really confident in ‘Juuls’,” Tocc said. “I just think we’re lucky to have him as our seventh defenseman. He’s been a big contributor all year and played in some tough spots.”
The Canucks will miss Soucy for the game (he’s been played a lot against McDavid), but it’s something the Canucks have dealt with at points this year, and even in the playoffs as their top two goalies went down. The DOPS deemed Soucy’s check to warrant a one game suspension, and as always I think most fans want consistency more than anything in their calls. In the same scrum Hyman came in and cross checked Zadorov in the head causing him to get stitches, and he didn’t even face a fine. To hit someone that tall in the head, there’s an intention, but I suppose the league deemed that fine enough. Soucy’s hit had no intention, but such are the breaks at times.
“If you can see after,” Soucy said before the verdict came out, “(I am) kind of just almost apologizing, like I said, that I didn't mean to get him up that high. He obviously was pretty fired up because it looks bad, obviously, probably felt bad. But ultimately, I was just like, ‘Hey, there was no intent to get you up that high.’ Just emotions run high in those scrums at the end of the game.
“Like I said, there was just no intent to get him up that high. Whatever happened that split-second was just kind of unfortunate.
“Yeah, it would suck (to be suspended) at this time, in a tight series like this, in a physical series. I know guys will step up if that is the case. But, yeah, it sucks having to watch your team.”
The Canucks will have to be well prepared from the pack drop tonight as the Oilers should be coming out hot. I’m sure they’ve listened to the media whining about the Soucy incident, so they’ll try to match physicality with physicality from the get go. It’s going to be another tough night defending McDavid, as he was held scoreless last game and usually tries to respond after those kinds of outings. The Canucks can’t sit back against that, and Tocc knows they have to take the lead in controlling the game with him on the ice.
“You’ve got to make them play defense,” Tocc said. “You’ve got to get in front of them, and you’ve got to make them turn the other way and check you. Muck it up.
“If you let McDavid play 30 minutes just freewheeling, he can do that in his sleep. If you can make him turn a little bit, make him defend, it’s a hard game.
“That’s the way your team should play all the time. Make people defend.”
The games aren’t going to get any easier for the boys, and if Edmonton comes out trying to exact revenge it will be a testy night. We’ll see how much the refs let go versus what they call once the heat gets turned up. Either way, the team has really come together through the playoffs.
“To be on the winning side of things, it brings you closer,” Joshua said. “It brings that band-of-brothers mentality. Everybody's got each other's back. That's the way we're rolling.”
“It's going to get harder,” Tocchet said of the series. “It never gets easy. It's always harder. You may as well think every game is going to be even harder and harder and harder, and embrace that part. Because it's never easier. Ever.”
Keys to the game today:
1. Take it to them: the Canucks can’t let the Oilers dictate the game, and can’t let the crowd get into it. They’ve been a great road team this run, and they have to keep it up by playing in the Oilers end and taking charge of the momentum. Sitting back in game four is not going to be a winning strategy.
2. Limit McDavid: ya, same thing, different day. McDavid will come out flying now that he’s had his head reattached. The Canucks did a great job of containing him last game, and they’re going to need to continue playing him and Draisaitl fast and tough in the corners. It will be interesting to see if Knoblauch continues to try to get him matched with Miller, or if they’ll try and steer clear of that matchup.
3. Stay out of the box: things should get feisty tonight, but the Canucks need to stay out of the penalty box to keep the Oilers power play from doing more damage. The Oilers only have 5 goals at 5-on-5 this series out of their 11 total, so keeping them at evens as much as possible is going to be essential to build a 3-1 series lead.
Puck drop today is at 6:30 PST.
And comments:
(Quotes from NHL.com, MacIntyre)
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