20-21 Season Tank Thread (MOD WARNING IN OP)

[CpatainCanuck]

He definitely looks bigger than 170 pounds there. I was going off his listed weight and an older picture, but this photo is actually pretty encouraging. Needs to hit the squat rack but he looks like he could actually fill out pretty well.

I was alerted to that picture as a result of this "podcast" I stumbled over on youtube while searching for Luke Hughes highlights. It's kind of hilarious and maybe a bit creepy watching these 20-something women gush about 17 year old Luke Hughes (starts at about the 5:20 mark)

 

[sandwichbird2023]

Vancouver Canucks 2013-14 season record: 36-35-11, 83 points. Jim Benning said "this is a team we can turn around quickly."
7 years later.
Vancouver Canucks 2020-21 season current record: 8-14-2, on pace for 61.5 point.

 

[tantalum]

Vancouver Canucks 2013-14 season record: 36-35-11, 83 points. Jim Benning said "this is a team we can turn around quickly."
7 years later.
Vancouver Canucks 2020-21 season current record: 8-14-2, on pace for 61.5 point.

He just forgot turning it around would mean a 180 and not a 360...

Very common mistake.

 

[valkynax]

He just forgot turning it around would mean a 180 and not a 360...

Very common mistake.

As someone whose first English is not language, relate I can.

 

[lawrence]

Vancouver Canucks 2013-14 season record: 36-35-11, 83 points. Jim Benning said "this is a team we can turn around quickly."
7 years later.
Vancouver Canucks 2020-21 season current record: 8-14-2, on pace for 61.5 point.

pfft.

remember the time we thought he had the Boston Bruin blue print? Benning comes in says "I want to make this team hard to play against" quite frankly we are a "fun" team to play against, making shitty players like Mike Smith, Spezza, Toffoli look like NHL hall of famers we are literally a confident booster for any shitty player out there, what a joke, I am so mad I am lost for words right now.

 

[EpochLink]

pfft.

remember the time we thought he had the Boston Bruin blue print? Benning comes in says "I want to make this team hard to play against" quite frankly we are a "fun" team to play against, making shitty players like Mike Smith, Spezza, Toffoli look like NHL hall of famers we are literally a confident booster for any shitty player out there, what a joke, I am so mad I am lost for words right now.

That ruined this team.
That whole ‘Boston Bruin’ mentality...

 

[Bad Goalie]

It's not a rush, its about development and evaluation...give them a taste of the NHL, see how they adapt, see if you can envision a role with the team next year...I'm not saying to gift them a full time role for the rest of the year (unless they force you to with good play), I'm saying stop putting Jordie Benn or Travis Hamonic out there regularly and give some of these younger guys a chance to get a sniff of the NHL. Give Rafferty a chance, see if he can do anything at this level with some playing time.

For #4, sure "work with them" if possible, if you can get them to retire and give them a cake coaching/scouting job, by all means...but if they aren't willing to play ball, they can ride the bus in the ECHL next year for all i care.

AHL but not the ECHL . Players under 1-way NHL contracts can be waived and sent to the AHL, but not any lower.

 

[StreetHawk]

Montreal gained a point so now 5 up with 4 games in hand still. Realistically I would put the Canucks at around 8/9 points out if Montreal goes 0.500 for those 4 games.

if Montreal can split the 4 games they have in March with Vancouver makes it very unlikely the Canucks can catch them.

 

[garbageteam]

Vancouver Canucks 2013-14 season record: 36-35-11, 83 points. Jim Benning said "this is a team we can turn around quickly."
7 years later.
Vancouver Canucks 2020-21 season current record: 8-14-2, on pace for 61.5 point.

To be fair, he shocked us all by getting the team into the playoffs, to date the only playoffs they legitimately got into under his watch (we all know how the team was doing last March). A lot of the moves in his first season raised a few grumbles - except that Kesler trade, WTF was that - but that season, most of us gave him a chance. I mean I thought Virtanen looked like a decent pick on draft day too, so shame on me. He really did "turn it around" in a year probably to FA's eyes, and he had reason to give him a couple years of a leash.

Became clear as day with the Sutter trade, then followed by the Juolevi draft, Gudbranson and Eriksson that we had a grade A moron of a GM and one of the worst in the league. I think making the 2015 POs was one of the worst things that could have happened to this franchise, next to making the 2020 Covid cup, as it bought Benning a lifeline he really shouldn't have had.

 

[Kryten]

Detroit can pass us tomorrow in point percentage, and points

 

[Intangibos]

To be fair, he shocked us all by getting the team into the playoffs, to date the only playoffs they legitimately got into under his watch (we all know how the team was doing last March). A lot of the moves in his first season raised a few grumbles - except that Kesler trade, WTF was that - but that season, most of us gave him a chance. I mean I thought Virtanen looked like a decent pick on draft day too, so shame on me. He really did "turn it around" in a year probably to FA's eyes, and he had reason to give him a couple years of a leash.

Became clear as day with the Sutter trade, then followed by the Juolevi draft, Gudbranson and Eriksson that we had a grade A moron of a GM and one of the worst in the league. I think making the 2015 POs was one of the worst things that could have happened to this franchise, next to making the 2020 Covid cup, as it bought Benning a lifeline he really shouldn't have had.

He "got the team into the playoffs" by downgrading the roster and enjoying the bounce back after the vast majority of our team had career low years in the Tortorella year. His only contribution to that roster were downgrades in Bonino (Kesler), Sbisa (Garrison), and whoever we lost to make room for Vey. I wouldn't call Miller an upgrade over Luongo either, especially since Lack outplayed him that season.

If Gillis "inherited" the team that were all on contracts he signed and had his own acquisitions in key roles,

 

[VanJack]

Said it before, making the COVID playoff bubble might have been the worst thing to happen to this team.

At the time the season shut down last March, Canucks had lost seven of 10....Markstrom and Tanev were hurt, and the Canucks were actually a point out of the playoffs, even thought their winning percentage was slightly better than a couple of teams ahead of them.

But if the season had continued to its logical conclusion, it's no better than 50/50 the Canucks make it....without their MVP goalie they could easily have missed. And if they had, we'd have had a far more realistic view of this team heading into the 2021 season.

Missing the season six years in a row would have placed the entire organization under the microscope.....which is where they're going to end up at the conclusion of this season anyway.

 

[Intangibos]

Said it before, making the COVID playoff bubble might have been the worst thing to happen to this team.

At the time the season shut down last March, Canucks had lost seven of 10....Markstrom and Tanev were hurt, and the Canucks were actually a point out of the playoffs, even thought their winning percentage was slightly better than a couple of teams ahead of them.

But if the season had continued to its logical conclusion, it's no better than 50/50 the Canucks make it....without their MVP goalie they could easily have missed. And if they had, we'd have had a far more realistic view of this team heading into the 2021 season.

Missing the season six years in a row would have placed the entire organization under the microscope.....which is where they're going to end up at the conclusion of this season anyway.

Honestly, while I felt that at the time, I'm not so sure it's true.

Given the recent behaviour of Aquilini publicly supporting his pet, it appears he needs to absolutely eat shit and watch this team implode even more than it already has. He needs to be humiliated if there is any hope of him learning a lesson from this. The longer this goes on, more and more hate from the fanbase will be directed towards ownership rather than management, especially with the way ownership has handled all of this and the fans who have pointed out the reality of the situation.

Management is the sickness destroying this team, but ownership is the cancer making us vulnerable in the first place. Maybe it's time for a round of chemo rather than treating this current illness with antibiotics

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Said it before, making the COVID playoff bubble might have been the worst thing to happen to this team.

I dont know.. There have been so many horrid things that happened under Bennings tenure.

Us acting like cup contenders at last years trade deadline being worse. Jim putting his own interest ahead of the teams long term success.

But I guess it is very possible that we are rid of Jim if we dont make the playoffs...

 

[lawrence]

Detroit can pass us tomorrow in point percentage, and points

that's utter pathetic if the Red Wings finish ahead of us.
what a joke of a professional sports club if that happens, my gosh.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

He "got the team into the playoffs" by downgrading the roster and enjoying the bounce back after the vast majority of our team had career low years in the Tortorella year. His only contribution to that roster were downgrades in Bonino (Kesler), Sbisa (Garrison), and whoever we lost to make room for Vey. I wouldn't call Miller an upgrade over Luongo either, especially since Lack outplayed him that season.

If Gillis "inherited" the team that were all on contracts he signed and had his own acquisitions in key roles,

Benning did sign Vrbata, who scored some key goals for us that season riding shotgun mostly with the Sedins. But yea, to credit Benning for "getting us into the playoff" is definitely a stretch, considering the majority of the key contributors were holdovers from the Gillis/Burke era.
At the rate things are going, I'm not convinced missing the playoff last season, had it not been for Covid, necessarily means Benning gets fired. For sure if we miss last season, we would still finish ahead of the Wings/Sens/Kings/Sharks. This year we are 3rd from the bottom and Benning is STILL here. Clearly the team sucking has no direct relationship with Benning's employment.

 

[Fatass]

that's utter pathetic if the Red Wings finish ahead of us.
what a joke of a professional sports club if that happens, my gosh.

At this point it’s best we get last. Then we for sure get a top four pick. I’m cheering fir Ottawa, and Detroit.

 

[iceburg]

You know what I like most about this season’s tank??? We didn’t have to wait 4 months with faint hope that they would be competitive. The season started and 4 weeks later it was like “time to tank”. No extended periods of false hope is a good thing.

 

[Izzy Goodenough]

acting like cup contenders at last years trade deadline being worse. Jim putting his own interest ahead of the teams long term success.

There you go, you hit the nail on the preverbal head. Not only did they do this last year, they do this almost every year and they will probably do it this year.

The Canucks have operated without an autonomous and competent President of hockey Ops for years now and this is by far the largest and most profound problem with the franchise. Instead FA appears to be acting in this capacity. He authorizes Benning to spend like a drunken sailor on UFAs and trade assets at the trade deadline for players like Toffoli the Nucks can't possibly resign.

It is telling that the only area of autonomy Benning truly has is in amateur scouting where Benning and Co have done reasonably well and where FA can't meddle. It is also the area Benning says he is best at "I have a background in amateur scouting" and will be concentrating on because of the departure of Brackett " I plan to spend more time in amateur scouting". In all areas of proscouting, where ownership can presumably meddle, the franchise has been basically brought to its knees.

On average the Canucks are currently acquiring good players through the draft or through trading, at a rate of one per year over the 7 years of the Benning regime and this is not acceptable if they are every going to win a cup. Only having 7 decent players leaves them 13 short of a Cup contender.

As time goes by it has becomes apparent that the Canucks have a dysfunctional executive structure. Fixing this is the only way this cycle of desperation will end and a cup contender will emerge.

 

[Lindgren]

It wasn't a spectacular night on the out-of-town scoreboard last night. Eight teams behind the Canucks in the point standings were in action. They produced two wins, one extra time loss, and four regulation losses—so not great, but probably effectively compensated for by the three point game between Montreal and Winnipeg.

Four teams behind Vancouver in the point standings are in action today. The Rangers are already down 3-0 to Boston, so not much hope there.

I know it's too early in the season to be focusing on minutia like this. I should go out and enjoy the rain.

 

[valkynax]

It wasn't a spectacular night on the out-of-town scoreboard last night. Eight teams behind the Canucks in the point standings were in action. They produced two wins, one extra time loss, and four regulation losses—so not great, but probably effectively compensated for by the three point game between Montreal and Winnipeg.

Four teams behind Vancouver in the point standings are in action today. The Rangers are already down 3-0 to Boston, so not much hope there.

I know it's too early in the season to be focusing on minutia like this. I should go out and enjoy the rain.

Our team will likely f*** up the tank like they f*** up everything else, then we get something like a 12th overall pick while listening to Jimmy telling us how bright our future is.

But that's down the line~.

In the mean time, I see Jets in the sky prepared to dive bomb us into oblivion.

 

[Dab]

“The fastest growing thread in sports entertainment”

 

[Samzilla]

Our team will likely f*** up the tank like they f*** up everything else, then we get something like a 12th overall pick while listening to Jimmy telling us how bright our future is.

In accordance with the prophecy.

 

[valkynax]

In accordance with the prophecy.

 

[Kryten]

In accordance with the prophecy.

Call me a masochist but I have a good feeling about this draft