Playoff time is coming soon. It’s not too early to start contemplating the ideal lineup. Also not every fan in enamoured of the Flying Skate.
Article content
The Vancouver Canucks may officially find themselves back in the playoffs as soon as Monday.
Advertisement 2
Article content
The shortest path is the Canucks win Saturday against the Flames, the Flames then lose Sunday in Seattle, while the St. Louis Blues lose Saturday against Minnesota and again Monday vs. Vegas. If any of those games go a different way, qualification will instead be locked in later in the week.
Article content
Official or not, Canucks fans know their team will be in the playoffs next month.
And so it’s fair and reasonable to think about what the line up might look like.
Let’s start there for this week’s mailbag.
Presuming full health for all of the forwards, how would you set the lines for game 1 of the playoffs? — Clay Imoo via text
Knock on wood, the Canucks are going to be pretty healthy when the playoffs start a month from now.
They’re missing just Dakota Joshua and Thatcher Demko at the moment, while Rick Tocchet has admitted both Ian Cole and Elias Lindholm are a little banged up.
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
But if everything goes to plan, all four will be ready to go when the playoffs begin April 20, 21 or 22.
And that will mean Tocchet will have some dilemmas.
Take the blueline for instance. Noah Juulsen is the seventh defenceman, but he’s emerged as a highly effective penalty killer and physical presence when he’s been in the lineup.
Cole is long on experience and hockey sense.
But the equation could be even more complicated. Is there a scenario where both play and say Tyler Myers gets scratched? Sure seems like it.
“Who knows comes out next. Could be maybe a surprise to you guys, but for us, it’s this is the way we got to go with it,” Tocchet said after Thursday’s 4-1 defeat of the Montreal Canadiens. “You know, then some guys might not like it, but that’s just the way it is. We’re going to have to keep everybody on their toes. And sometimes guys coming out doesn’t mean he’s playing bad. It’s just that we have to do this right now.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
But most likely the defence looks like this:
Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-Cole
Zadorov-Myers
Up front, the return of Dakota Joshua will require a roster move. In the short term it will probably mean Vasily Podkolzin being sent back to the AHL because he’s waivers exempt.
But once the playoffs start, it’s hard to see him not back in the lineup, given the physical presence he’s bringing, plus his offensive potential. He’s simply a more effective player than Phil DiGiuseppe and probably Nils Åman.
It’s important to understand how positive an influence Pius Suter has been for J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser: when those three have been on a line together, they’ve controlled more than 60 per cent of the shot attempts. That’s a very dominant line.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Here’s what the simplest iteration of what a fully healthy forward group would look like:
Suter-Miller-Boeser
Höglander-Pettersson-Mikheyev
Joshua-Lindholm-Garland
Podkolzin-Blueger-Lafferty
The Canucks really wanted Pettersson and Lindholm to work together, but he’s such a strong option to have as your third-line centre. You could put him on Pettersson’s wing and move him down to the fourth line to play with Podkolzin and then slide Sam Lafferty to centre, with Teddy Blueger moving back on to a line with Joshua and Garland. That trio was so effective for the Canucks before Joshua hurt his hand against the Blackhawks last month.
That would mean your lines would look like:
Suter-Miller-Boeser
Höglander-Pettersson-Lindholm
Advertisement 6
Article content
Joshua-Blueger-Garland
Podkolzin-Lafferty-Mikheyev
What a dilemma.
The Canucks colours are blue and green and it was a mistake to have brought that gaudy skate back in 2020. — Roger Hodgins via email
Not everyone is a fan of the Canucks’ third skate jersey. Roger’s email here isn’t the only response like this we received following the column earlier this week calling for the Canucks to wear their black-based uniform in the playoffs, rather than their standard blue and green orca uniform.
Roger is a fan from day one.
“They finally have a good one with the beautiful orca crest and it would be a shame if they changed it out,” he added.
Superfan Steve May pointed out to Postmedia this week that the orca logo has been the primary crest, one way or another, for 27 years now.
Advertisement 7
Article content
That’s far longer than any previous primary logo lasted, longer than the original stick-in-rink, longer than the V, longer than the flying skate.
“I get the record and the luck. But the orca is the logo,” he wrote.
pjohnston@postmedia.com
Recommended from Editorial
-
Canucks prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki looks to be headed to Vancouver
-
Canucks Coffee: Explaining the playoff qualification math
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
Article content