EDMONTON – If his players are as strong Wednesday night as coach Travis Green was on Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks should regain the lead in their playoff series against the St. Louis Blues.
After losing twice in 24 hours to see their surprising 2-0 head start in the best-of-seven series evaporate, and with many young players who have never experienced playoffs or playoff adversity, the Canucks appeared to be wobbling against the defending Stanley Cup champion Blues.
Yes, playoffs are hard physically. Hard hardly begins to describe it, actually. But mental toughness is equally important, and Green made it clear to reporters that the Canucks’ confidence and belief in themselves are not wavering.
Easy to say, difficult to back up. But Green’s message to his players would have been at least as strong as it was to the media as many Canucks learn about playoff hockey in the franchise’s first trip to the NHL post-season since 2015.
“I love what we’ve done so far,” Green said. “We’ve talked about getting to this part of the season and how it’s going to help our team. But I can tell you one thing: this is not about a learning process. We are here to win and we have full belief that we can win this series. And that’s what I’m expecting.”
It wasn’t quite a guarantee, but Green was boldly out there. He is all-in. His players need to be, too.
ALLEN WRENCH
The series turned when St. Louis coach Craig Berube played the biggest card he could after Game 2 and changed goalies, dropping last season’s Cinderella, Jordan Binnington, in favour of the starter he deposed, Jake Allen.
In back-to-back starts, the 30-year-old Allen has stopped 61 of 64 shots for a smooth .953 save percentage and the Blues have won twice. With an experienced, deep, veteran team in front of him, Allen doesn’t need to be spectacular, just solid. And he has been more than that, so far.
But in the Blues’ 3-1 win in Game 4, the Canucks tested Allen only 12 times in the final two periods while they were chasing the game. That’s not nearly enough pressure on a goalie whose play last season allowed Binnington to steal the No. 1 job.
Allen has had a bounce-back season, posting a .927 save percentage while going 12-6-3 in 21 starts as a backup. But Wednesday night will be his third start in four days. That’s as much as Allen played in all of February, one start less than his full workload from January.
The Canucks need to make it far more difficult on him in Game 5 than they did Monday, and it’s obvious where that starts.
Incredibly, Canucks winger Brock Boeser has only four shots on goal in the series, just two of them at even-strength – both in overtime of Game 3. Elias Pettersson has only four even-strength shots, and they were all spent on Game 3, which means the Canucks’ best player has failed to register a shot on goal at five-on-five in three out of four games.
On Monday, both were guilty of passing up shooting opportunities when they had the puck in prime positions. If the Canucks’ best offensive players aren’t going to beat Allen, it’s unreasonable to think players in the bottom half of the lineup should.
Boeser has not scored in the series.
“Brock, he’s been great for us all playoffs,” captain Bo Horvat said. “Obviously, as we go on, it’s going to get harder. Especially five-on-five, you’re not going to get the looks that you usually get in the regular season. Teams defend well. You play the same team every game in the series and they’re going to key in on you and learn your tendencies. It’s just working through it. I think hard work is what’s going to get you the most success, and I think Brock knows that.”
POWER UP
The Canucks built their series lead on two things: goalie Jacob Markstrom’s superiority to Binnington, and the Vancouver power play. OK, three things: Horvat scored four times in two games.
Shockingly, Horvat has been unable to maintain his two-goals-per-game pace, while Vancouver’s advantage in goal has been nullified, for now, by Allen. But the power play remains a potential difference-maker in the series.
It went 0-for-7 on Monday, but was 6-for-11 over the first three games. As quiet as the top line of J.T. Miller, Pettersson and Boeser have been at even strength, they’re been outstanding with the man-advantage.
But the Blues have adjusted their penalty killing, overplaying the puck carrier on the Canucks’ predictable neutral-zone drop and crowding the blue line to take away the lateral pass that occurs on the zone entry.
Seven games is a chess match, and it’s up to assistant coach Newell Brown, the Canucks’ power-play guru, to counter.
BO OK?
Vital because he’s either playing against series monster Ryan O’Reilly or trying to exploit his matchup if O’Reilly is deployed against Pettersson, Horvat looked to be labouring at times through Game 3 after crashing awkwardly into the end boards on an early hit by Marco Scandella that appeared to be a borderline slew foot.
“As for the hit, I’m good,” Horvat insisted. “It was just an awkward way to fall into the boards, but I’m ready to go for Game 5 here.”
