Canucks: Jake Virtanen must be better vs. St. Louis Blues

Pitted against the defending Stanley Cup Champions in round 1 of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Vancouver Canucks need Jake Virtanen to be better.

If you thought that defeating the Minnesota Wild was a difficult task, you’re in for a big surprise. The Vancouver Canucks are now set to battle head-to-head against the defending Stanley Cup champions and it’ll be more than an uphill battle if they wish to advance. To be the best, they’ll have to beat the best.

The St. Louis Blues are a team that’s perfectly built for the playoffs. Take last year’s 16 wins for example: After being the worst team in the league over Christmas, St. Louis charged back with undeniable intensity and seemingly took over the NHL overnight. And how did they do it? Excellent goaltending, impeccable defense, a top-six with a scoring punch, but above all else, what made them winners was sheer size and physicality. Something the Canucks are lacking without their number 1 threat, Micheal Ferland.

Regardless, Vancouver must dig deep and find a way to answer back. Not to take the words right out of Ferland’s mouth about his own game, but when the puck drops on Wednesday night, the Blues will be hitting, and they’ll be hitting hard. In order to get the upper leg on the series, Vancouver needs to match that physical presence, and they need to do it right away.

And that’s where Jake Virtanen comes into play. Widely known as the “next Todd Bertuzzi” in the Vancouver area, through six years of development he’s shown glimpses of the burly Italian, but the beast has never fully awoken. Just underneath the surface, he waits, only to pop out when Jake deems it absolutely necessary. That needs to change. And it needs to change now.

After being a healthy scratch in game 1, Virtanen took to the ice in place of the injured Swan River native but was a disappointment in his playoff debut. Expecting to see him shot out of a cannon, fans got the polar opposite of young Virtanen. Altogether, the series as a whole wasn’t his best work. Known to be a streaky player, he showed those colors even when he had a golden opportunity to prove his worth.

If it wasn’t for the pile of injuries to Vancouver’s forward group, I’m not certain Virtanen gets to play. He’s coasting along inside the bubble and he needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Through three games, Shotgun Jake is yet to light the lamp or get on the scoreboard. And you’d think that in an effort to make up for his lack of point production he’d be sure to make his hard-hitting capabilities a must, but no. Just three hits through three games. And seven penalty minutes to add to that.

He dropped the gloves early on in game 4 against Ryan Hartman in an attempt to fire up his teammates and get some respect from the coaching staff. Probably the best thing he’s done so far. It was a good effort, but other than that he really hasn’t been noticeable. He needs to rise above and prove he’s serious about contributing to this team. Where are the bone-crushing hits? It doesn’t matter if he gets 20 minutes of ice time or five, he needs to make damn sure he’s laying the body to his opponent every chance he gets.

The Blues are one of the biggest team’s this season and they’ll walk all over Elias Pettersson and the rest of the Canucks if nobody is willing to step up and stop them. Virtanen needs to find that extra gear that everybody knows he has, and he needs to put it into overdrive. Otherwise, the Vancouver Canucks will be battered and bruised and bounced right out of the bubble faster than they came into it.