(1) Vancouver Canucks vs (5) Nashville Predators - Series Thread

[Winged_Wheel88]

Quote of the day, when Farjan asks Burrows how much sleep he got last night (with the birth of his first child):

More than O'B

Obechkin?

 

[puckhead]

Obechkin?

Shane O'Brien.
he's the dude pictured (presumably at the Roxy) earlier in the thread

 

[johnnytata]

good start canucks.

rinne is gonna be one tough motherfucker though.

 

[BlueandWhiteForever]

Well I just got home, but did manage to catch most of the game at work.

First off about tonight's game, I was really surprised at how passive the Preds where at the start of this game. They had a team playing on short rest, and they allowed the Canucks to settle in and feel comfortable instead of attacking right off the hop.

Secondly, they way the Canucks dominated tonight and how great Pekke Rinne played tonight both were not a surprise to me at all. The first two periods showed me what I expected, which is that Nashville simply doesn't have the talent level to compete with Vancouver when they play at top form. But with a stud netminder like Rinne, the Preds have a legit chance to win every night even if they can't.

If there was a game Nashville needed to win to put the pressure on the Canucks, it was tonight and they just didn't play well. Like Jstew said, the Preds really don't have that Toews or Kane or Hossa presence up front that really scares Vancouver, and I really never got the impression Nash was going to tie it up at all in the 3rd.

All that said, it was one game and I'm certain we will see a stronger Preds team as the series goes on. But from what I saw tonight, Vancouver will just be too much for Nashville to overcome.

 

[BlueandWhiteForever]

The one Preds player I was really impressed with tonight was Tootoo. He used to be such an unchained ball of nitro when he was on the ice, but he is much more controlled now.

 

[Comeds]

Nice win. I am happy to see Higgins get the goal. Hes a good guy and a class act.

 

[SouthPride]

Nashville is now 3-14 in road playoff games all-time.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

weird timing ... right after the game the Rogers arena ice crew installed the curved glass at the stanchion points again

yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/h446337494j Shared by ctv_kelcey

#NHL expected to test new glass tomorrow at off-day. No idea if it's implemented at all in this series

 

[beantownmaniac]

Totally worth staying up till 5.30 am watching the game. Canucks needs to solve Rinne or they could be in trouble, but it's so nice to get the win tonight! Good that I have Luongo in my playoff fantasy team as well

Staying up until 5:30am in Sweden? WOW!! I guess the Swedish Elite League is done playing for the Svenson Cup?

I keed, I keed.

 

[mattola]

i look at that game as us beating them at their own game. all the reporters kept asking the canucks was it frustrating. I think the same question should go to the Preds. was it frustrating to play against that team. Im sure it was way more frustrating.

RInne was very good last night. Luongo was also good (not as good but didnt need to be, just had to be there at teh time and he was)

this was the perfect style win for the canucks in game 1 of this series. every game will probably be 2 or 3 goals MAX with probably one over 5 or 6 to mess things up .

not sure what everyone else thought but it felt like a regular season game last night from both teams. like the canucks wanted to keep NAshville bored.


Trotz will have a very different looking team next game and they will come hard but the Canucks I believe will be just as ready.

settle in its going to be a long one

 

[dash]

Great to see xalbox over here at the SportsHoopla...You'll be happy to hear that we are Rocker free (and hope to stay that way)

 

[jstewismybastardson]

i look at that game as us beating them at their own game. all the reporters kept asking the canucks was it frustrating. I think the same question should go to the Preds. was it frustrating to play against that team. Im sure it was way more frustrating.

RInne was very good last night. Luongo was also good (not as good but didnt need to be, just had to be there at teh time and he was)

this was the perfect style win for the canucks in game 1 of this series. every game will probably be 2 or 3 goals MAX with probably one over 5 or 6 to mess things up .

not sure what everyone else thought but it felt like a regular season game last night from both teams. like the canucks wanted to keep NAshville bored.


Trotz will have a very different looking team next game and they will come hard but the Canucks I believe will be just as ready.

settle in its going to be a long one

yah I saw Sedin asked and he admitted playing the Hawks was way more frustrating ... Luongo too

Im waiting to hear what the Preds say today about the playoff atmosphere at Rogers. It looked nothing like the Hawks series ... more subdued because there is no hate ... but the Preds seemed to wilt ... heard more than one pundit say they had the deer in the headlights look to their game

also caught the interview with Luongo where it ended with Murph making the statement that Rinne was "tall and lanky ... alot like you" and Luongo responded "yah ... thats why he'll be tough to beat" ... nice to hear him talk like that (with confidence) for a change

 

[mattola]

yah I saw Sedin asked and he admitted playing the Hawks was way more frustrating ... Luongo too

Im waiting to hear what the Preds say today about the playoff atmosphere at Rogers. It looked nothing like the Hawks series ... more subdued because there is no hate ... but the Preds seemed to wilt ... heard more than one pundit say they had the deer in the headlights look to their game

also caught the interview with Luongo where it ended with Murph making the statement that Rinne was "tall and lanky ... alot like you" and Luongo responded "yah ... thats why he'll be tough to beat" ... nice to hear him talk like that (with confidence) for a change

Luongo slayed a pretty big demon last series with alot of help from his friends and that is the way it should have been. Not on him by himself. Now he can just play his game and the Preds gave them the chance in game one to help find it.

As blue said this was the game to win for the Preds to put the canucks on edge already. This was a HUGE HUGE win. The Canucks fans will get stronger each game. I think we were more exhausted than the Players were if thats possible. I know I felt spent last night from 48 hours earlier. That being said the Canucks winning that game put alot of people in a good mood for the series. There was also ZERO emotional content in that series and it there was it was way overshadowed by what they just came through. The Preds were more mad at themselves than the Canucks not sure if that is good or bad for game 2. We shall see

Ive been to every home game and that was certainly the quietest but not at all terrible. The early start I think confused everyone who had to rush from work to get to the game. That affects the mood.

 

[SouthPride]

I still think Preds can even series and come home tied 1-1. They still need to find a way to put the Canucks on their heels some how but that looked almost impossible with the blue line D yall played.

Luo had a mediocre game he still gave up rebounds, its easy to save 20 shots when you give up 10 as rebounds. I think he's over rated and not sure why you guys signed him on an 11 year contract.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

TG (lol)

Everyone was expecting a drop-off in emotion from the Chicago series but this was a headlong plunge.

Barry Trotz said the Vancouver fans "didn't see the Nashville Predators," and anyone paying the $300-plus tariff for club seats to watch the rest of the games in this series will be grateful to hear that. The CRTC should have kept this game off the airwaves as a public service. Really, are there no obscenity laws in this country?

It was flattering to call it a standard regular season game in mid-November, and the only way we knew it to be a playoff game was the fact the Vancouver Canucks were finishing their chances the same way they've been finishing them the last four games they've played, which is to say not well.

When you outplay teams as much as they have in Games 6 and 7 of the Chicago series and again Thursday night, you're supposed to soar when you're the highest-scoring team in the league. And if this doesn't improve with specific reference to the Sedins and their compete level around the opposition goal, the next series will be the end of the road even if they get past the Preds.

“We've been playing against some pretty good goaltenders,” said Alex Burrows, the one guy who has been finishing with aplomb. “We should be scoring more, we need to, but sometimes you have to give those guys some credit, too.”

Certainly Pekka Rinne was outstanding in the Nashville goal, but the Canucks kept shooting the puck at his glove hand, which is akin to shooting it toward a black hole. Nothing escapes from it. He catches everything. He drags his glove hand across his body to catch pucks. If you shoot along the ice between his legs, he catches them. He could join a circus and glove bullets under the big top if it paid the same.

“There are better places to shoot than where we were,” said Henrik Sedin, who had a rare six at Rinne which he treated with disdain. “Maybe low to the blocker side would be better but a lot of times you don't have to shoot where you want. Anaheim showed us where they should go and that's where we'll have to get more.”

When that will happen is as big a mystery as when the Sedins will begin acting themselves again. And while we're talking about mysteries, why would the Canucks use a clearly injured forward who appears reluctant to shoot on the left point of their first power-play unit rather than Christian Ehrhoff's normal defensive partner, Alex Edler? There's not a soul in the fifth estate who can figure it out so we asked power-play guru Newell Brown.

“Our percentages over the season with Mikael [Samuelsson] back there have been really good, about two points better than with Alex,” said Brown. 'Alex has been good back there too but we've done the research.”

Perhaps if they updated the figures, they might find the 0 for their last 14 might be causing those percentages to slide, recent numbers that are enough to get any team into trouble eventually, even one as good as the Canucks were defensively in this game.

All in all the Canucks were so sound in one area of the game these concerns may seem like nitpicking. But if the goal is to go all the way, as it clearly must be with a team than can be as good as this one, there's still some work to be done.


Read more: Canucks fans shelled out $300 for Rinne

 

[mattola]

I still think Preds can even series and come home tied 1-1. They still need to find a way to put the Canucks on their heels some how but that looked almost impossible with the blue line D yall played.

Luo had a mediocre game he still gave up rebounds, its easy to save 20 shots when you give up 10 as rebounds. I think he's over rated and not sure why you guys signed him on an 11 year contract.

I dont agree Luo had a mediocre game. it was a good game. not a great game. the preds didn't challenge him enough but mediocre is not a fair description.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

I dont agree Luo had a mediocre game. it was a good game. not a great game. the preds didn't challenge him enough but mediocre is not a fair description.

Ive grown used to everyone calling him mediocre ... meh ... he's such an easy target ... no one gets piled on more than Lou

 

[mattola]

Ive grown used to everyone calling him mediocre ... meh ... he's such an easy target ... no one gets piled on more than Lou

yeah I Agree. I think it needs to be ignored now. Ill be on him for his bad games and with him on his great games. this was just a game where he did not have to be fantastic. he just had to be there and he was.

When the puck wasnt going into Rinnes Glove which seemed to be 80% of the shots he also had some juicy rebounds and scrambled plays.

also this series will be decided 5 on 5. I dont think either will give up much on the PK. that will be tight.

 

[SouthPride]

mediocre might have been a strong word but he really gave us the opportunity to tie the game several times, including some time in the first or second period where he went down to glove a puck and whiffed on it while we had a guy standing over him. Luckily one of your elite D men was there to save him (again)

 

[mattola]

mediocre might have been a strong word but he really gave us the opportunity to tie the game several times, including some time in the first or second period where he went down to glove a puck and whiffed on it while we had a guy standing over him. Luckily one of your elite D men was there to save him (again)

same could be said on rinne on a couple plays as well where he was jsut fishing around after a turnover. it will go both ways. its funny you say he really gave your team the opportunity. did you team not earn that opportunity? also if every conversation goes on Luongo like this will get pretty stale. we have been doing it for years with Canucks goalies and I think Canucks fans are really getting tired of it. I know I am. but Ill discuss lots with anyone still.