Player Discussion Jake Virtanen | Jake It Or Break It Edition

[canucks20]

I'v hated the pick from day one but am willing to say I have loved his game lately. He does this consistently next year you can sign me up

 

[Addison Rae]

Good season relative to expectation, looks like he’s on track to be a Chris Kreider like player.

Will be a very exciting player to watch next player if he has a good summer of training, really hoping he works on his shot.

 

[petrishriekandgo]

Good season relative to expectation, looks like he’s on track to be a Chris Kreider like player.

Will be a very exciting player to watch next player if he has a good summer of training, really hoping he works on his shot.

If he can start capitalizing on his chances he's a beefier Glen Anderson with wheels... make it happen Jake!

 

[vanarchy]

He was everywhere last night. If Jake can bring this tenacity every night, this team has a really solid player going forward.

 

[Derp Kassian]

So many tools but still so many brain farts that show he's not gonna be a smart player in the league. Did anyone see him completely skate pass Markstrom when Marky had the puck and failed to provide an outlet with the forecheck coming in? Its little things liek that that will always be a bruise on his game.

 

[F A N]

So many tools but still so many brain farts that show he's not gonna be a smart player in the league. Did anyone see him completely skate pass Markstrom when Marky had the puck and failed to provide an outlet with the forecheck coming in? Its little things liek that that will always be a bruise on his game.

But he doesn't need to be a "smart player" in this league. We've seen it this season. he can be very effective when he's engaged and constantly tries to take the puck to the net. Experience is going to improve his decision making and positioning. Hockey IQ isn't the end all be all.

 

[Blade Paradigm]

He generates chances every single game. I don't see hockey IQ as a concern at all. A player with low hockey IQ should not be able to generate the number of chances he creates with his degree of consistency. He breaks in at least once per game; no longer is he merely firing pucks on goal from the outside.

The biggest flaw is his lack of puck skills. Every time he gets near the net, he has no ability to make a quick move or deke past the goaltender. He may be one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, and credit is frequently given to those who can handle the puck quickly at high speeds. One can not be so critical of Virtanen for not being one of those players. It may limit his ability to produce, so one has to hope that he will overcome this. His game is becoming much more complete, however. His zone entry skills are improving immensely.

In 3-on-3 overtime, he is phenomenal. He can take the puck end-to-end effortlessly. Tonight, he drew the penalty that led to the winning powerplay.

 

[Luck 6]

He generates chances every single game. I don't see hockey IQ as a concern at all. A player with low hockey IQ should not be able to generate the number of chances he creates with his degree of consistency. He breaks in at least once per game; no longer is he merely firing pucks on goal from the outside.

The biggest flaw is his lack of puck skills. Every time he gets near the net, he has no ability to make a quick move or deke past the goaltender. He may be one of the fastest skaters in the NHL, and credit is frequently given to those who can handle the puck quickly at high speeds. One can not be so critical of Virtanen for not being one of those players. It may limit his ability to produce, so one has to hope that he will overcome this. His game is becoming much more complete, however. His zone entry skills are improving immensely.

In 3-on-3 overtime, he is phenomenal. He can take the puck end-to-end effortlessly. Tonight, he drew the penalty that led to the winning powerplay.

Yup, I agree with all of this. He needs to work on his hands in tight and he'll find himself on the score sheet a lot more often. He isn't a cerebral player but he doesn't necessarily have to be, as long as he is smart enough to know what he needs to do to be effective that's really all we need from him. Of course, this type of player typically has a very short peak; it'll take him a few years to figure it out, and he probably won't last far beyond 30.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Has been a force in the past 20s games
He needs to learn how to finish his chances, if he does then he's a 20 goals scorer with amazing speed and strength.
Basically a bigger Hansen

 

[megatron]

Has been a force in the past 20s games
He needs to learn how to finish his chances, if he does then he's a 20 goals scorer with amazing speed and strength.
Basically a bigger Hansen

He has 5 points in his last 20 games, playing in the NBA equivalent of garbage time. I will agree he seems to be creating more opportunities so that is encouraging, but apart from the "eye test" his underlying numbers have only improved marginally. looking forward to what he does next year.

 

[FOurteenS inCisOr]

Has been fantastic the last two games.

Really hope he builds off of this.

 

[Tb0ne]

Already brought this up earlier in the thread, but the gap between his Home and Away production is pretty substantial. Especially in terms in goal scoring. Could be a fluke/bad luck, but if he scored at home like he did away he's nearly be a 20 goal scorer already. His shooting percentage at home was 3.1%..

Home	37	2	5	7	-13	30	64	3.1	0	0	0	0	0	11:36	61:20
Away	37	8	5	13	2	16	63	12.7	0	0	0	0	1	12:17	34:58

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Jake Virtanen

 

[me2]

If he keeps improving he could be a Raffi Torres level guy.

 

[Zippgunn]

If he keeps improving he could be a Raffi Torres level guy.

...you say that like it's a good thing...

Hmmm, Raffi WAS a fifth overall pick though...

 

[VanJack]

Looking more and more like the 'haters' will have to find a new target.....this is the coming out party for Jake.....he's terrifying some pretty decent NHL d-men right now.....can head to the net with impunity, and if he has to stop-up he's consistently finding the guy trailing the play..... could still use some better finish around the net, but on his goal you can see the guy has a quick-release cannon.

In fact when you really look at the pure shooters the Canucks have coming, it's hard not to be bullish on their chances going forward. Boeser, Virtanen, Gaudette, Pettersson, Lind and Dahlen have devastating releases. It's going to be like a shooting gallery in a few years.

 

[Intangibos]

He was everywhere last night. If Jake can bring this tenacity every night, this team has a really solid player going forward.

Not to rag on Green, but I honestly think he may have been a reason some of our kids didn't play great this year. Or maybe it was a directive from management. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, certainly think it's important for the kids to develop a sound defensive game. Ever since the season has been clearly over (for the delusional fans, not October like it was here), the kids have been far more aggressive. I remember all year thinking Virtanen, Hutton and Stetcher were playing boring dull passive hockey. At some point Stetcher was making rushes, Hutton was in deep in the opposing team's zone and occasionally actually throwing a hit and Virtanen was all over the place and throwing hits and skating like an elite skater. Goldobin isn't great defensively but he's clearly got a green light offensively right now, and Leipsic is downright lazy in his own zone but is experimenting with the puck on his stick.

The leash is off and it's been fun to watch.

 

[Intangibos]

Looking more and more like the 'haters' will have to find a new target.....this is the coming out party for Jake.....he's terrifying some pretty decent NHL d-men right now.....can head to the net with impunity, and if he has to stop-up he's consistently finding the guy trailing the play..... could still use some better finish around the net, but on his goal you can see the guy has a quick-release cannon.

In fact when you really look at the pure shooters the Canucks have coming, it's hard not to be bullish on their chances going forward. Boeser, Virtanen, Gaudette, Pettersson, Lind and Dahlen have devastating releases. It's going to be like a shooting gallery in a few years.

They're not "haters" when they're justified. If you think pointing out that a 6th overall pick is an average AHL player who can't be bothered to be within 20 pounds of the weight he should be at for camp, or that he's a 4th liner while the players we all wanted are among the highest scoring players in the league, you're not going to have a good time discussing literally anything on the internet.

I've routinely said Virtanen is playing badly, which he was for a good chunk of the season, and regularly said he was playing well when he was playing well. I've also always said he has the potential to be a 30 goal player because I think his best comparable is David Booth, who was a good player in the NHL before his brains were scrambled and his knee was destroyed. These are common opinions on the board and you're ignoring those posts so you can try to pick on the posts where he was justifiably criticized.

Stop looking for controversy where there isn't any. I understand wanting to beat your chest and say "I was right" but honestly I don't think you're as right as you think you are.

 

[VanJack]

I'd say Green's preaching accountability with Virtanen, along with ice-time and press-box time, as well as subjecting him to some 'tough love' in Utica last year is the reason he's where he's at today.

 

[Intangibos]

I'd say Green's preaching accountability with Virtanen, along with ice-time and press-box time, as well as subjecting him to some 'tough love' in Utica last year is the reason he's where he's at today.

If that's the case it's fine. Much like I didn't like our marginal D getting play time over Hutton, but if it's because Hutton couldn't put down the nachos it's extremely justified. It's hard to know what's going on behind the scenes and we can only make the most educated guesses we can. Either Green handled them fine and just wanted them to develop a good defensive game, or he neutered them and decided to tell them to have some fun with it and experiment since the season was over. I'm leaning towards the first one but I expect the worst from pretty much anyone employed by an NHL franchise, especially this one, but that's a clear bias on my part.

 

[RobertKron]

It’s kind of weird how a year or two back, people were yelled at for being haters when they said they saw Virtanen as being somewhere in the Booth/Torres territory of useful mid-roster player, and now they’re getting yelled at for being haters because it looks like Virtanen is headed toward the Booth/Torres territory of useful mid-roster player.

 

[Canucks1096]

So many tools but still so many brain farts that show he's not gonna be a smart player in the league. Did anyone see him completely skate pass Markstrom when Marky had the puck and failed to provide an outlet with the forecheck coming in? Its little things liek that that will always be a bruise on his game.

I saw it. But I don't think a lot of Virtanen fans saw it because they only see what they want to see. Only the good things they see and not the bad things.

 

[Canucks1096]

Looking more and more like the 'haters' will have to find a new target.....this is the coming out party for Jake.....he's terrifying some pretty decent NHL d-men right now.....can head to the net with impunity, and if he has to stop-up he's consistently finding the guy trailing the play..... could still use some better finish around the net, but on his goal you can see the guy has a quick-release cannon.

In fact when you really look at the pure shooters the Canucks have coming, it's hard not to be bullish on their chances going forward. Boeser, Virtanen, Gaudette, Pettersson, Lind and Dahlen have devastating releases. It's going to be like a shooting gallery in a few years.

I am type of fan who call things the way I see it. Some other Canucks fans will just ignore all the negative things and just focus on the positive things. You need to look at it all angles and don't just see what you want to see.

"Consistently finding guys that are trailing the play" This might be the most ridiculous comment someone actually said about Virtanen. I think it's time for you provide some evidences. I have nhl game center live. I can go back and watch all the games. Last 10 games. Can you tell me about 20 times the last 10 games Virtanen found the late guy trailing? Tell me which player Virtanen pass and around what time during that game?

The fact what he is doing is not good enough. Virtanen has 5 points in his 20 last games. So he is getting all those chances and making all these plays and has 5 points to show for in his last 20 games. Are you exaggerating a little bit?

Man If Virtanen wasn't a local Boy. People opinion will be completely different.

 

[iceburg]

I am type of fan who call things the way I see it. Some other Canucks fans will just ignore all the negative things and just focus on the positive things. You need to look at it all angles and don't just see what you want to see.

"Consistently finding guys that are trailing the play" This might be the most ridiculous comment someone actually said about Virtanen. I think it's time for you provide some evidences. I have nhl game center live. I can go back and watch all the games. Last 10 games. Can you tell me about 20 times the last 10 games Virtanen found the late guy trailing? Tell me which player Virtanen pass and around what time during that game?

The fact what he is doing is not good enough. Virtanen has 5 points in his 20 last games. So he is getting all those chances and making all these plays and has 5 points to show for in his last 20 games.

Man If Virtanen wasn't a local Boy. People opinion will be completely different.

let go and breathe...in...out...in...out

 

[Canucks1096]

let go and breathe...in...out...in...out

I don't get it

 

[iceburg]

I don't get it

seems you're trying to start something that isn't there. I'm saying calm down. There are those that like JV and those that don't. It isn't a big deal.