Well, it's over
Had some interesting times - the Saucer man's arrival and goal in the first game (only one he scored all season), the Dahlen he said, they said debacle, the Archibald trade, the Boucher scoring streaks and the a seemingly endless, frequently hard to spell, band of plugs brought in (most often fruitlessly) to fill holes in the lineup. I mean there was Cameranesi (boy was he bad), Anselmini, Petgrave, Wyszomirski, Thow, Dirk, Leighton, Vanderlaan, Stevenson, Gardiner, Reichenbach, Pratt, Thomas, Saucerman, Szmatula, LeCouvee, Kile, Watson, Manznec, and Kulbakov The one common thread being here that none of them were able to play well or (outside of maybe Saucerman, Kulbakov and Leighton) stick around long. This was just one indication of how injuries and untimely, and often useless, call ups torpedoed the Comets season once again.
From a Canuck stand point the season went awful.
The rookies were not ready at all. Lind showed some skill toward the latter part of the season but was absolutely physically manhandled leading to injuries and being pushed well out of the play. Gadjovich couldn't skate well enough to stay in the play, Jasek survived decently at times but was often gun shine and forced into many turnovers. Hopefully with a year under their belts they can compete better. Also, there was Palmu who was severely in over his head and utterly lost.
Dahlen looked a step slow and too slight to take the heavy going. Had some skill but didn't look like pro material at all. Eventually went to San Jose were he did little and was once again hurt. All the congratulating of Benning for making a great trade now seems the wishful thinking of the easily swayed or, more probably correctly, the ones that like to be swayed.
Gaunce played strongly through the middle of the season but then reverted to the lumbering, often non-involved player we have come to know. 38 points in 60 games, and complete fall off in production in the latter third of the year, is not begging for promotion and you'd think Gaunce should be done with the organization. But with the Dim One who knows.
On defense Chatfield was terrible and probably needed to be at lower level. Most of the ECHLers brought in outplayed him and most of those were poor players.
Joulevi also had significant problems. Showed some ability to find and hit the open man with the pass but was defensively poor. His skating looked sluggish and his pivoting was poor. He just didn't get to loose pucks quick enough to buy time to make a play. Teams could easily dump the puck in, get in on him and tie him up in the corner. Moreover, he was weak around his net and generally could not maintaining inside position. Benning may blow a lot smoke up people's rear ends to make himself look better and talk about how good Joulevi was, but if you watched him I think you saw very important, basic problems in his play. Again hopefully the off season injuries prevented Joulevei from showing his best but from what he showed this season he could well be a huge bust.
Only real bight spots were Brisebois who did improved and did show some NHL potential and the scoring of MacEwen. But even this has to be tempered by acknowledging that Brisebois has not shown much of any offensive upside and that MacEwen continues to have terrible plus/minus totals. Again the highest on the team and a testimony to some of his undisciplined, erratic play. Getting him to play good sound team hockey remains a issue. Might also appreciate the way Sautner overcame a brutal mugging and injury and showed some at the NHL level.
As for the Comets mismanagement continues to be obvious.
Keeping around trash players (and who cares about how good they are in the room) like Bancks, Hamilton, Darcy and others illustrates no concern for getting players you can build a team around. Moreover, the stupidity of not bringing in players that can protect the younger and smaller players is evident. Every year the youngsters and others get terribly run and the injuries are an on-going concern. One of the big problems with some of our prospects this year is that they were commonly banged around. It's hard to play when you getting nailed shift after shift. Having Schenn there made a big difference and really lifted the team during that part of the season. Question is why wasn't there a couple of players like Schenn from the start. That should be a priority.
Beyond this were mindless moves such as the non-papering of players to the minors and the waiving of a player like Beiga at the beginning of the season.
As far as the coaching goes I think Cull did ok with the hand he was dealt. The youngsters were not ready and playing them was usually senseless. He tried to seed them into the lineup as they developed but there was so little to work with. With Demko out and poor start to the season by Bachman, the goal tending was shaky although Kulbakov did better than expected. There were also, as mentioned, the countless injuries and call ups which prevented the coaches from getting more continuity and consistency in the team work.
If there was a key fault it was in management and the inability of the Canucks to provide better prospects to the team. Whether this changes for next season is an open question. There is some hope the defense can be better but there is little in the forward group that gives much hope.