GDT - Mar 19 - St. Louis @ Vancouver - 7:00 PST SNET

[Reefer2]

I think it is time for a "must-win" game or a "please God, can we win one" time.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/preview.htm?id=2012020436

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/scores/gameday/?hubname=nhl-canucks

They finally scored a PP goal but then couldn't do anything after that.

Goaltending is not perfect but not the issue.

Time for leaders to step up and start leading.

Don't know what else to say but it is crunch time and we will see what this team is made out of.

[Diehard1]

Let's just hope for a little bit of puck luck this time, last night was comical how many nets were missed, chances not taken and just overall bad luck. Minny gets two goals tipped in and one on a terrible read by Ballard (what the hell was he doing there?) and all of a sudden it's another loss.

It's the same as the Detroit game, the Nucks control play but just can't get the bounces or the win. This stuff should even out over time, hopefully it does this year too.

With that said, it's damn hard to be a puck possession team if you don't have the damn puck. This team misses Manny and Kes and their faceoff abilities worse than anything - if Gillis knew he was going to shut down Manny he should have had a replacement in place before doing it. He needs to get off his ass, patience is a virtue (that's usually a good thing) but there's nobody in the system or anywhere close that can change it. I don't care if prices are high, he needs to get somebody who can help.

[sagebrush]

......With that said, it's damn hard to be a puck possession team if you don't have the damn puck. ...

Malhotra's face off % is 65.3
Kesler is at 53.8
Lapierre at 49.9
Henrik at 48.7
Ebbette at 38.
Raymond at 35.4

[Diehard1]

......With that said, it's damn hard to be a puck possession team if you don't have the damn puck. ...

Malhotra's face off % is 65.3
Kesler is at 53.8
Lapierre at 49.9
Henrik at 48.7
Ebbette at 38.
Raymond at 35.4

And the team as a whole are 27th in the league. That makes a huge difference, Gillis knows this well as he's the one who placed such a huge emphasis on faceoffs as soon as he arrived in Van.

[sagebrush]

^^^
It also explains why AV used Lapierre on the 3rd line (even though not the best play maker - with Booth & Kassian) for a while.

PS - Schroeder is at 43.4%

[Zamboni Driver]

Let's just hope for a little bit of puck luck this time, last night was comical how many nets were missed, chances not taken and just overall bad luck. Minny gets two goals tipped in and one on a terrible read by Ballard (what the hell was he doing there?) and all of a sudden it's another loss.

Against a team with something to prove to the Canucks and a goalie (Backstrom) who played an outstanding game.

......With that said, it's damn hard to be a puck possession team if you don't have the damn puck. ...

Malhotra's face off % is 65.3
Kesler is at 53.8
Lapierre at 49.9
Henrik at 48.7
Ebbette at 38.
Raymond at 35.4
Schroeder is at 43.4%

So the centers are doing OK, Lappy is about 50/50 and Henrik is a bit below.

The wingers who have been dragooned into trying to be centers suck at faceoffs. Jeez, what a shock...

[Hockey Widow]

One of the keys tonight, according to AV, is he has to be able to say at the end of the game his goaltender was better than theirs. I wonder how that makes Luongo feel?

[Diehard1]

One of the keys tonight, according to AV, is he has to be able to say at the end of the game his goaltender was better than theirs. I wonder how that makes Luongo feel?

Can't blame Lu last night - first shot was a rocket through tons of traffic, second shot was a rocket that was tipped, third was on a clear breakaway off a bonehead play by Ballard. Which of those was Lu supposed to stop?

I'm not an AV hater by any means, but he really needs to learn how to shut his mouth sometimes. He says some truly stupid things.

[sagebrush]

Not the first time AV has used the media to push his players.

Luongo can commiserate with Kesler. Kelser made it clear how much he appreciated it.

[Zamboni Driver]

One of the keys tonight, according to AV, is he has to be able to say at the end of the game his goaltender was better than theirs. I wonder how that makes Luongo feel?

Can't blame Lu last night -

What about 5 goals vs Detroit?

An elite goaltender should be able to hold the opposition to 2 goals or less on most nights.
Yes, I know that some of those shots were tough, but there are Vezina calibre goaltenders that make unbelievable saves to keep their teams in it.

Lu and Schneids have not played crappy (most of the time) but they havn't been giving lights-out Vezina type performances

[Brick Tamland]

It almost seems like AV is trying to deflect the attention away from the other issues. I mean he can't really expect any of us to believe that it's all on his goalies, can he? It seems absurd. Now granted, its hard to really make any sort of judgement without some type of context on his quote, but seriously?!

I'm not going to say that our goal-tending has been stellar, far from it, i just don't see it as the main issue. What others have said over and over re special teams and centre ice are much greater issues IMO. Wouldn't it be refreshing if he actually took some of the blame himself.

Anyway, we'll see. I don't hold out much hope for tonight. Hopefully i'm pleasantly surprised.

[vic]

Hopefully i'm pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully AV is axed at the end of the game, regardless of the outcome.

[herb]

If I were coach of your Vancouver Canucks, my forward group would look like:

Dank-Hank-Kass
Raymond-Schroeder-Burrows
Higgins-Ebbett-Hansen
Tostito-Lapierre-Weise

If this team has any hope in hell of going on a run here, somebody other than a Sedin needs to score, and we need some consistent secondary scoring. Try to get Kassian and the Schroeder/Raymond group going. Kassian was on fire to start the season with the Sedins, and Schroeder and Raymond have shown some chemistry...I'd try to rekindle some of that.

[Zamboni Driver]

If I were coach of your Vancouver Canucks, my forward group would look like:

Dank-Hank-Kass
Raymond-Schroeder-Burrows
Higgins-Ebbett-Hansen
Tostito-Lapierre-Weise

If this team has any hope in hell of going on a run here, somebody other than a Sedin needs to score, and we need some consistent secondary scoring. Try to get Kassian and the Schroeder/Raymond group going. Kassian was on fire to start the season with the Sedins, and Schroeder and Raymond have shown some chemistry...I'd try to rekindle some of that.

Is Kassian in tonight?

[dhabums]

Bums tip for the night:

If Canucks go up 1-0, head to playnow.com for live betting. Better yet, wait a bit until they go on the PK. Pays well.