WCQF: St Louis Blues (4) vs Vancouver Canucks (5) (Canucks lead 3-2)

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by alnigi

Series tied,
Go Flames !
Go Canucks !

No.

[Inferno]

And another third of the officials only watching the team who is winning. Having a two goal lead helps as far as keeping calm though.

[FireGilbert]

I thought the Canucks had blown past the Flames in their rebuild? How is it possible both teams are in a 2-2 series?

[Jore]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

I thought the Canucks had blown past the Flames in their rebuild? How is it possible both teams are in a 2-2 series?

Pettersson and Hughes are far above any top end the Flames have, but GMJB has no idea how to manage assets or build a team, so the two teams are much closer than they should be.

I'm just thinking about what the Flames would look like if they focused on C as much as they do on D and paid the equivalent of Berglund, Sobotka, Thompson, and 2 draft picks for ROR

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Inferno

And another third of the officials only watching the team who is winning. Having a two goal lead helps as far as keeping calm though.

The call against Gunnerson was weak, the Dunn slash was similar to the Virtanen one and the high stick against Schenn was an obvious high stick that should be called.

The Blues are playing like the better team, I think that the Canucks lost their chance last game to put them away and the Blues will win in 6 or 7 games. Markstrom can't win every game on his own.

The more I watch this the more I realize how much the qualification round took out of teams, especially in a condensed tournament. With the exception of the Islanders/Capitals, the teams in the round robin just look more rested, less beat up and frankly a bit faster. That could be because they are the better teams, but usually in the first round you have a few upsets, but this year it doesn't look like that will be the case at all.

[bc-chris]

IMG_2686 by bc-chris, on Flickr

[djsFlames]

I didn't want to see the blues go down that easy but I'd be cool with seeing both western Canadian teams advance.

Issue is I think they're both in tough now, and both will need to find an extra gear to take a best of three.

[direwolf]

Full marks to the Blues for coming back in this series. Canucks might be in trouble, as it looks like the Blues are hitting their stride and are getting better goaltending from Allen.

[Ashasx]

Nm

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

The call against Gunnerson was weak, the Dunn slash was similar to the Virtanen one and the high stick against Schenn was an obvious high stick that should be called.

The Blues are playing like the better team, I think that the Canucks lost their chance last game to put them away and the Blues will win in 6 or 7 games. Markstrom can't win every game on his own.

The more I watch this the more I realize how much the qualification round took out of teams, especially in a condensed tournament. With the exception of the Islanders/Capitals, the teams in the round robin just look more rested, less beat up and frankly a bit faster. That could be because they are the better teams, but usually in the first round you have a few upsets, but this year it doesn't look like that will be the case at all.

Yep, since game 2 the Blues have been the better team. You're right about Markstrom, he can't do it all by himself. The Canucks also lost their chance this game, going 0/7 on the PP was the glaring problem. This comes from the Jim Mora rant. "It doesn't matter who you play whether it's just any playoff team or the defending SC champs. When you go 0/7 on the PP, you ain't gonna beat anybody. That was a disgraceful performance. The Canucks gave it away by doing that. Unbelievable. It was pitiful, absolutely pitiful to perform like that." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oSFYxDGKy8

About the round robin teams, you're right on most of them. We'll see about the Flyers-Habs, I'm undecided on that one. Same goes for the Stars-Flames.

[Erick Estrada]

What's with the officiating in some of these games? That phantom slashing penalty at the end of the 3rd was embarrassing. I hate it when officials call penalties under assumption rather than seeing visual confirmation with their own two eyes.

[Strange Brew]

There's no way all 4 favorites win in the West. At least one of Calgary or Vancouver are advancing IMO.

[troutman]

Sportsnet will be in trouble if there are no Canadian teams left after round 1.

[Nufy]

Originally Posted by troutman

Sportsnet will be in trouble if there are no Canadian teams left after round 1.

I'll still watch...

Maybe not 3 game a day but I will still watch...

[Flamenspiel]

^^Not me, I am having a hard time watching this as it is.

I hope more players drop out, certainly if the Flames go out, the less credibility this tournament has the better. The NHL is obviously letting things go more then usual in order to generate interest, it’s not realistic. That two timing attack on Chucky reminded me of the old movie “The Longest Yard”.

[Canada 02]

Tarasenko has left the bubble to return to St. Louis to have his shoulder checked out. There will be no status update until next Monday, so he is out for the remainder of the 1st round. If he returns to the bubble, he will need to be quarantined for at least 4 days, and 4 consecutive negative covid tests.

https://www.nhl.com/news/st-louis-bl...?tid=277548856

[Ducay]

Even without Tarasenko, St Louis is just such a far stronger and mature team. They better not blow it!

[getbak]

Originally Posted by troutman

Sportsnet will be in trouble if there are no Canadian teams left after round 1.

Not any more than any other year.

At least once this round is over, they won't need to schedule any more afternoon games because there will only be 2 series in each hub city, so they can just alternate nights.

That also means they don't need to do the awkward start times anymore either. They can schedule a game every night from Toronto at 7:00pm ET and one from Edmonton at 8:00pm MT.

[Takumi3000]

Flames and Canucks are like the opposite. Flames have amazing scoring depth (too bad for Tkachuk's injury) but their top line play like hamsters. Meanwhile, Canucks top guns are finding ways to score almost every game but their bottom 6 is garbage. They have like one point between the 6 pylons the entire series. Both teams have great goaltending. I think all 3 Canadian teams will be bounced after round 1 unfortunately.

[Dragomir]

I think the Canucks will win in 7 but then get dumpstered by the Avs in 5, Flames and Habs are knocked out by Thursday.