EDMONTON – The Vancouver Canucks are nervous, and coach Travis Green says that’s a good thing.
The team faces playoff elimination tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights, two nights after the Canucks extended their season by winning 2-1 in Game 5.
If needed, Game 7 will be Friday night which means by Saturday morning the Canucks could be in their first conference final since 2011, playing for the right to go to the Stanley Cup.
“When you get down to this point with eight teams left and Game 6 of a series to move on to four (teams), are they a little bit nervous?” Green said today. “Sure. They should be. I think every team gets a little more nervous as the series goes on.
“At the beginning of the series, you know it’s a best-of-seven. You start getting to Games 5, 6 and 7, you know that the pressure is getting higher, so nervousness is alright. That means you care. There’s opportunity there and excitement within our group.”
A rookie coach leading an emerging team in the playoffs, Green wants to win more than most. In 14 years and over 1,000 games as a player, he never made it to a Stanley Cup Final.
Earlier this summer, he told Sportsnet: “I hate losing so much that winning is almost a relief. Winning is more relief and you get ready to do it again. But losing is something that burns inside of me even more. We want players like that where losing really affects them, and winning is almost like: ‘OK, I can breathe now.’”
THATCHER DEMKO: THE RETURN
Green stuck to form by refusing to reveal his starting goalie, but backup Thatcher Demko will play his second straight game after stopping 42 of 43 shots in his remarkable playoff debut on Tuesday.
Starting goalie Jacob Markstrom played Vancouver’s first 14 playoff games before an undisclosed injury suffered or exacerbated in Game 4 on Sunday forced him out of the lineup. He did not even back up on Tuesday, and there is no way Green can put the Canucks’ season in his hands if there are any concerns about Markstrom’s health and ability to play – especially after Demko’s masterpiece in Game 5.
DEEP SIX
Five games through the second-round series, the Canucks have not received even a single point from any of their bottom-six forwards.
Fourth-line winger Tyer Motte had a pair of two-goal games last round against the St. Louis Blues. Brandon Sutter scored in the game that eliminated the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round, and had three assists in the elimination-win against the Blues. Jake Virtanen and Jay Beagle contributed goals in the St. Louis series.
But it has been zeroes across the board against Vegas.
“Obviously, we want to score,” depth forward Adam Gaudette said. “Everybody wants to score and produce that way. We can’t have the same guys scoring every single game, so we’ve got to chip in a little bit. It’s right there. We’ve just got to bang one or two home and it will be a huge help.”
Motte, Sutter, Beagle, Virtanen, Gaudette and Antoine Roussel have combined for 31 shots in the series – 11 of them by the speedy Motte – without scoring.
“I’ve seen it the last few games where media is talking about that,” Green said. “We don’t need to put any pressure on our bottom-six guys. We just need them to play well and to play strong. Good things happen when you play well. You don’t need to sit and concentrate on scoring goals and making plays. The end result will be there if you just play solid.”
The Golden Knights’ third and fourth lines have contributed four goals, three of them by Alex Tuch. Their bottom-six forwards have generated 42 shots.
LONG, HARD ROAD
Example 128 of how difficult the Stanley Cup is to win: The Canucks have been in the playoff bubble for 39 days and have won nine playoff games to get to Game 6 tonight – not quite half of the 19 wins required of them to win the Cup.
“I think every team would say you come here to win,” Vancouver defenceman Troy Stecher said. “Your expectations are to stay here for however long it is, two months, two-and-a-half months. We’re over a month now, so we’ve still got some work to do.
“We’re excited for the challenge. I know a lot of us haven’t played in the NHL playoffs, but we’ve had experience playing at different levels and we’ve faced elimination. We’re going to try to take some of those experiences and incorporate them tonight, and we’ll hope for the best.”
