I might be completely off-base with this because admittedly I haven't been watching the team very closely this season nor have I been following these boards until just recently. But I figure any discussion other than "blow up the team" is good. Still, apologies for what is likely going to be an all over the place, incoherent ramble of a post.
The real change I see in the team between 2011 and now is that they're no longer looking to kill teams by scoring. They're too passive. Or should I say, passive-aggressive. The whole mantra they had about "burning teams on the scoreboard"? It's gone. TSN counted 37 hits as of the 5 minute mark of the third period, at which point the Canucks were still winning. Great. Passion. Heart. Grit. All things that the Canucks need in order to win. Or so we've been told ever since the Boston series. What they weren't providing however, were offensive chances. Scoring chances.
Sure playoff hockey is about guys like Torres making massive game changing hits. We saw Hansen do that with his hit on Galiardi. But the Canucks with the Sedins and the ever-so-frail Ryan Kesler are never going to get anywhere playing that style of hockey. Zach Kassian took a penalty that cost the Canucks the game playing that style of hockey.
This sounds preposterous to even type, but I think the reason the Sedins disappear in the playoffs is not because the other team starts hitting more, it's because the Canucks start hitting more. Look at that play by JVR in the Toronto game that led directly to the Horton goal from the shot by Redden. He literally avoided the puck to make the hit. While I'm not saying the Canucks shouldn't be physical, at this point the offensive numbers are so bad, I think they're collectively sacrificing offensively play in order to provide something they aren't capable of; physicality.
The makeup of the Canucks from the coaching staff to the player personnel calls for a finesse game with strong play along the boards and a great transition game starting from the backend. They do not have the players to have a terrific north-south game scoring goals off the rush. They don't have the players to crash the net and bang pucks in. But it's not like they're crashing the net; pretty much every chance on Niemi was a weak wrister from the perimeter. Or a over-passed play from a bad angle.
Really, the only conclusion I can come to is that the team needs to start playing to it's strengths again. Stop trying to be the 2011 Boston Bruins or 2012 LA Kings. Whether this can be accomplished on it's own, or through a coaching change, or even if it can be done at all, I don't know.
I will say for all the Vigneault detractors - he got the most out of that 2007 team by running an air-tight defensive system, then was able to make the transition to running an absolute offensive juggernaut in 2011. The guy knows how to deal with the players he's been given. At the same time, he's never had a hypothetical 1-2-3 offensive trio of centers like Sedin-Kesler-Roy and them not producing anywhere near what they should be does suggest something may have changed.
I really don't think the player personnel is the problem though. Even if the Sedins are "70 point guys" now, this teams roster is much too talented to be playing as weak as they have been. The defense collectively should be the best in the league despite not having a true two-way number one like Keith or Suter, or a gamebreaker like Subban or Karlsson. Especially with the emergence of Tanev last year and now Corrado. Dump Ballard, keep Alberts as the 7th guy, and along with Schneider that's as solid as a backend as you'll get in the league as far as personnel.
At the beginning of the series, I said SJ in 6. I stand by that, but only because of how bad the Canucks looked tonight. Mainly the Sedins. However, Thornton did not explode like I thought he would. SJ was simply less bad than Vancouver.
