Round 2: Canucks vs. Wild.

[the manager]

skudra has had "the flu" for the last month...thats why I suspect he's been out....and by the looks of it, will be out for good....clouts to follw?

it was quite a remarkable season for the canucks. they managed to reach some significant milestones and impressive streaks. they truly looked like contenders.

however, this last series, and especially game 7, has been a the best example of their numero uno problemo all year. they simply can't hold a lead. ahead 3 gms to 1 in the series and ahead 2-0 in gm 7 only to still lose.

john shorthouse said it best this morning on the inside edge. he said that the nucks were, it seemed, a team of destiny this year. minnesota stripped them of that title and has taken over.

my greatest fears were realized last night. the nucks throughout history served other teams well by beeing the whipping boys of the league for having records broken against them. any slumping player or team loves playing the nucks because they know that their slump will soo be over, or record soon be broken.

now, momentum in these playoffs is in minnesotas favor for sure. to come back from a 3-1 deficit twice in the post season is certainly a most impressive stat and a tremendouds confidence builder.

only against the canucks...

 

[SC]

Originally posted by the manager
skudra has had "the flu" for the last month...thats why I suspect he's been out....and by the looks of it, will be out for good....clouts to follw?...

Man this SARS thing is everywhere

Bronco, were you out of town or did you just log on again to save face of the Toronto fan club?

 

[Dude]

Note from St. Paul

I got a fax just now from a friend at one of the principles I rep, located in St. Paul:

LOOKING FOR WORK:
Shitty goalie looking for work in the EHL, WHL (editor's not: I don't think there is a WHL besides the Western Hockey League...moot point though), or AHL

QUALIFICATIONS:
Can't stack the pads
Puck goes one way, I go the other
Need month Vacation during season to take care of personal problems
Able to single handedly blow 3-1 series lead
Play like shite vs. less talented teams

Great. Now Minnesota is TTP out of me. At least I managed to get myself banned from the Wild message board...

 

[Regs]

One point of discussion that is being overlooked here and elsewhere is the crowd at GM Place up to, well, let's say the end of the second.

Fan-fcuking-tastic! That brief stretch when Ohlund scored and then Big Bert on the breakaway was unreal... I don't think there was a single soul in the city who could fathom the Wild coming back at that point

Regarding Clouts not making the big save when needed... Can you honestly fault him on the first goal? What about the second? What about the big save he made when Nolan Baumgartner (sp?) passed it right up the gut to the wide-open Wild player in the top of the slot?

When you look back at it, I think the winning goal scored is the only one you can fault him with. This 4 goals on 7 shots does not tell the whole tale, not by a long (Lidstrom) shot

Roloson did not stand on his head either as some in the media have suggested. I can't recall one difficult stop he made. I surmise that the media and others say he did so in order to back up their focus on the 4 on 7 shots angle when skewering Cloutier.

The unsung heros in all of this? The sisters. Seriously. They will rack up the points next year and make it that much more easier for Naslund to leave for Sweden and give the C to... Bert

~Regs.

 

[Dude]

Regarding Clouts not making the big save when needed... Can you honestly fault him on the first goal? What about the second? What about the big save he made when Nolan Baumgartner (sp?) passed it right up the gut to the wide-open Wild player in the top of the slot?

Typical excuses made when goalies fail to make big saves. That's what they are there to do- bail the team out. They don't play because they score goals, they play because they should stop them.

Think of the great goaltenders of our era...Pat Roy, Grant Fuhr, Bill Randford, Mike Richter, Mike Vernon...these guys all bailed their teams out time and time again when they were giving up great scoring chances to the opposition. Who in Vancouver isn't still hurting from the performance Vernon gave the Flames in '89?

Sorry Regs...doesn't wash.

As for Bert...he's not the right make-up for Captain. Too dumb. Seriously. Out of that group, I'd say good potential Captains Linden now...but for the future, Ed Jovonosky will develop into one. He’s dumb too, but far more likeable than Bert, and clearly a big game player. He's already proven he has the balls to play big in big games. Olympics, Florida, and leading the 'Nucks this year. Yes, he had one really bad game, but he brings it. Hell, I'd even say Matti Ohlund (despite his Swedishness) ahead of Bert. Bert’s a force, but he's still not a big game guy like Jovo, Matti, and Linden. Added to that, he's a cnut to the media, and not that great in the community.

 

[the manager]

Seriously. Out of that group, I'd say good potential Captains Linden now...but for the future, Ed Jovonosky will develop into one. He’s dumb too,

seriously...JOvo for captain? Special Ed? he has consistently been one of the worst players on the team all year. granted, he does contribute offensively to some degree, but at the expense of defense. he makes terrible plays on a regular basis...they overshadow his contributions. i get a kick out of his 'all-star' title anytime he's in the paper, talk about calling a cat a dog!


Jovo for captain? nooooo way hose!

 

[Regs]

So you are saying that "great" goalies of the past would have saved that first goal? Give me a break...

There were at least two times in the first period where Cloutier came up with big saves. Lot's of people are over looking that right now, as people in this city tend to do

No goalie could have "bailed out" the Nucks from the amount of defensive blunders they committed. Naslund and Morrison were the two biggest liabilities out there... Crow should be applauded for his work in putting Big Bert with the sisters for the 7th game, but of course, noone in this city will talk about that... he got out-coached by that classless cnut Lemaire

Give me a fcuking break...

~Regs.

 

[Dude]

Regs: 3-1 series lead. 7-2. 5-1. 4-2. 5.33 GAA over three games. Even Red Light Rasico could better those numbers. Takes HOS's glasses off.

The Captaincy issue can be argued all summer, and it may just be fine the way it is now (look at Yserman and how he developed), but the goaltending situation leaves no doubt.

 

[Bronco]

Regs,

Why can't you see what everyone else sees. I'm not saying Cloutier was the sole reason they got beat by the Wild, but for fcuk's sake let's be honest, he looked as shaky as HOS before his first martini of the day.

Let's have a look at this team. The Canucks squeeked into the playoffs last year, and lost in the first round. They made little or no changes to the team and had a very good regular season. One that put such a high expectation on them come playoff time. If someone told you last year this team would be within 10 minutes of going to the conference final, all you guttons for punishment ( see Canuck fans) would have jumped all over it. They over achieved Regs!!!

Will they be a force in the future? Only time will tell.

PS. Cloutier is the shits!!!!

 

[Six of One]

Corrections

There were at least two times in the first period where Cloutier came up with big saves.

No, these weren't big saves. They were saves. The type that most teams expect but the kind that Canucks fans take a deep breath over because of how our goalie has played the past 3 games.

They over achieved

No they didn't. They got to exactly where they should have. Winning the first round was crucial. Losing there again would have been no progress. They did make progress, by beating a good St. Louis team. The only reason we expected them to go far was because they were now playing a Minnesota which we all perceive as inferior. But they are the better TEAM right now. We have better players who did not perform. But this Naslund talk is crap. He'll get it figured out for next year's playoffs. Everyone's expectations changed when Det, Col, Dal went out. But the Canucks performed to what they were capable. They just didn't know what to do with a Wild team that didn't let them play the way they wanted. The showed their playoff immaturity and in typical Canuck fashion, they'll blossom just when the lockout hits...

 

[Regs]

Dude: 3-1 series deficit.

5-3 (29 saves). 4-3 (29 saves). 4-1 (33 saves)... 0.929 saves percentage over three games.

The glasses are off, now you can remove the blinders

~Regs.

 

[Dude]

Looks like you're referring to the St. Louis series.

That was 7, 8, and 9 games earlier. Let's not forget he had two awful games in that series, too. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt yesterday afternoon, saying he clutched up when it counted vs. St. Louis, but in this case he BLEW it! He wasn't even working from behind, he had a lead to work with!

I fail to understand how you can see this as anything other than a complete and utter choke job!

I've been open minded about this whole thing...

I would disagree...the guy was very good in Game 7, game 4 thins time around, and in the OTs. He deserves a chance to show he's got it.

Too bad the timing of his choke was bad...you can't very well yank him 3/4 of the way through the 3rd.

No blinders...laser vision man...I can see clearly now...

 

[striker14]

ENOUGH BULLSHTI ABOUT CLOUT'S

Man...whatever happened to yanking defenceman for not playing the game they should be playing. You have to remember...Jovo was (-4) in game 5 and I am sure the other D-men weren't that hot either!! Malik is a pylon...what the HELL were they thinking to replace Salo with Baumgartner????????????? That one will stump me forever!!

Bottom line...there are 5 guys infront of Clout's who should have stopped the puck before it gets to him, but they were absolutely invisible...the top line was the sh*ts...and the sister's were the only ones that are worth even talking about!!

Burke...loosen that wallet baby and let's make a team that WILL take us all the way in October 2003

striker14isstillhangingoffthetailgatewithahopeandaprayer

 

[the manager]

salo?

i believe the reports had salo in the hospital with hoof and mouth disease....(infection)

 

[Dude]

Bullshit. I think you, Regs, and Hos just like Clouts because he's cute (not that there's anything wrong with that).

2-0 score 3/4 of the way through the game. He was helpless on one of the goals.

Yes, the team showed a glarring lack of finish, but a great tender would save his team's bacon. He didn't. Trade him for a smoothy.

 

[sensei_hanson]

Obviously, from a fan's perspective, this loss is crushing. But looking at it from a neutral standpoint, Vancouver's playoff performance was as lacklustre as Detroit's, Colorado's and Dallas', all three of which finished ahead of us in the regular season. As for blowing a 3-1 series lead, its not like the Canucks were dominating the play or blowing out the Wild. The two overtime wins should have destroyed the Wild mentally, but it almost seemed to rally them and fcuk with Vancouver's - made them overconfident without really having any reason to be.

Nobody really seems to be giving the Wild any credit whatsoever right now. It's either Cloutier's fault for not making enough key saves, Naslund's fault for lack of leadership, Bertuzzi's fault for taking stupid penalties....is it me, or did a few of the Wild players have a little something to do with these two stunning seven-game upsets? It seems fashionable for fans to disregard the efforts of the Zholtoks, Parks, Lakksonens, Mitchells, Dowds and Kubas, but I guarantee you there's about 29 NHL GMs right now who are going to show a lot of interest in these guys when the hit the free-agent market.

Bronco, I wish Croatia was still in the midst of relegation so that you'd continue to lay low and not post your crap. Your theory about Vancouver making a bunch of 3rd and 4th liners look like superstars doesn't wash...you'd have to apply the same theory to Colorado in the first round then, and I don't buy it as a legitimate theory there, either. For it to make sense, you'd have to assume that both the Avs and Nucks were big overachievers during the regular season, and they crashed in the playoffs to a bunch of guys who didn't belong there.

Minnesota play a brand of hockey which maximizes the leeway given with the new rules implemented by the NHL. Take a look at the four teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Ottawa, Jersey, Anaheim and Minny's trademarks - defense first, create turnovers in the neutral zone, use incredible team speed to create odd-man rushes, create few quality scoring chances, capitalize, capitalize, capitalize. They all do it. It is ugly as hell and mind-numbingly boring, but apparently its the thing to do if you want to get your team into the finals.

I know this sounds like a Greg Millen analysis, but you can't ignore the facts. The NHL brass changed the rules to make it a speedier game, and this is how a few really good hockey minds manipulated it.

 

[Argyle]

While I agree with almost everything that you have said Sensei, there is one thing that I don't.

It seems fashionable for fans to disregard the efforts of the Zholtoks, Parks, Lakksonens, Mitchells, Dowds and Kubas, but I guarantee you there's about 29 NHL GMs right now who are going to show a lot of interest in these guys when the hit the free-agent market.

I agree that there will be 29 NHL GM's out there looking, not for players but for a Lemaire style coach. With out him the players are plumbers. With him, they are very good plumbers. It is plain and simple, their system beat our system. The Canucks were out coached, as well as out worked.

 

[BlazeArmy]

Let's never speak of this series again

 

[Dapotayto]

Bronco's right. Cloutier is the fcuking shits. The Canucks will never go anywhere with him as the no. 1. Fernandez and Roloson both outplayed him. So did fcuking Osgood. How many chances does he get?

Manager, what games have you been watching? Jovo was a force out there and as Dude says was one of the only guys with the nuts required for the big game. Give your head a shake.

 

[knvb]

I love it when the bandwagon totally crumbles in this city. It's amazing how the Canuck faithful can be the biggest, most annoying, homer cnuts imaginable one day then completely shite down the throats of their beloved the very next day.

Captain was right about all of you.


Go on you hairy Oilers.