Abbotsford Canucks Talk

[Blue and Green]

Ontario ties it on a PP, a cross-ice pass off of a faceoff win followed by a laser slapshot just inside the post to beat Tolopilo. Now Abbotsford has a PP opportunity.

 

[Blue and Green]

Abbotsford scores on the PP, second of the game for Sasson with a deflection on Nielsen's shot-pass.

 

[Blue and Green]

2-2 after two. Cicek and Dries took penalties a minute apart to give Ontario a 5-on-3 PP, Abbotsford technically killed the penalties but Ontario scored on a second rebound try before Dries could get back into the play. Abbotsford had a PP opportunity for the last two minutes but couldn't convert.

 

[Vector]

 

[Blue and Green]

Sasson throws a loose puck off of a Wolanin rebound into the slot and Jett Woo is there to fire the puck into a wide-open net. 3-2 Abby with five minutes remaining.

 

[Chaos Giraffe]

Thanks for the live updates B&G, appreciate it!

 

[Blue and Green]

Ontario pulled its goalie but Podkolzin hit the empty net from his own blue line. 4-2 Abby with 1:19 to go and it seems that the win is in hand.

 

[Chaos Giraffe]

Ontario pulled its goalie but Podkolzin hit the empty net from his own blue line. 4-2 Abby with 1:19 to go and it seems that the win is in hand.

Website showing Dries on the EN?

 

[Blue and Green]

Game ends 5-2 as Ontario took a penalty in the final minute and Bains put home a rebound at the top of the crease.

Website showing Dries on the EN?

It was Podkolzin.

 

[Deezone]

Ontario pulled its goalie but Podkolzin hit the empty net from his own blue line. 4-2 Abby with 1:19 to go and it seems that the win is in hand.

You’re clearly blind cause the AHL.com says Dries shot and scored…and they’re never wrong

 

[Vector]

And twitter has completely crashed so so updates there.

 

[CherryToke]

Podkolzin had 10 shots alone tonight wow. Any good chances?

 

[Blue and Green]

Podkolzin had 10 shots alone tonight wow. Any good chances?

A couple of decent chances going wide around the defenceman on his side which is basically his go-to move. I'd say that Dries had more good opportunities to score.

 

[logan5]

Is Podkolzin on the PK? And if he is, is he considered 1st unit?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Nice return for Sasson - 2 goals and an assist. Saw the two goals before Twitter shit itself, nice work.

 

[orcatown]

Couldn't get the replay to run right to the end but from what I saw would say the following:

Difference b/w Tolopina and Silvos is negilible. Tolopina might have had the first goal in this game but on the second he made two huge saves before the last shot went in. Guy continues to do well in his first year and seems a good pickup. Very calm and moves well for his size. Not a huge stretch to see him at the next level down the road.

Sasson was a little lucky on the first goal as it struck an Ontario stick and popped into the top corner. But made a nice deflection on the second. HIs line was the best in this game and Sassons, outside of Dries drives the the play as well as anyone on the team.

Gatcomb needs to be more consistent but he has the enough speed and enough of a physical game to make you think he could serve in a pinch with Vancouver. Would be fringe but still maybe not entirely out of place.

Podkolzin needs more finish. Some strong skating in this game and drove the puck well into the offensive zone. But he lacks touch on his passes and shot. Had chances to create goals or score but just a little enough off to be unable to complete those chances.

Had the new player Cicek in the line up and he played pretty hard nosed. The trade was defintietly an admission that Johnson signing of the ridiculously bad Loewen to offer some protection for other players was a dreadful mistake. Not only can't Loewen play even a little bit but also he makes only a pretense of sticking up for his teammates. In fact, all of Abby's off season pick-ups have been awful. Players like Passolt, Joyeux, Daschke and Lemieux have been useless signings. Much the same as he did in Utica when when Johnson brought in one uselss plug after another.

The underlying and most important story coming out of Abby this year has been the way the young players have been thrown to the Wolves. The announcer mentioned tonite that no player other than Raty has played every game. There have been 14 injuries (that might br some kind of record) on the team and many of them have been major and the long term effect of all the concussions is yet to be seen. Certainly they have not helped players like Sassons, Podkolzin, Neilsen and others to have chance to develop.

Johnson has been entrusted to do very little in terms of the roster. The team has basically been assembled by the Vancouver mangement and their scouting staff. One of the few duties Johnson has is to make sure the younger players had some vet help. Instead Johnson hires a useless crony like Stevens. And this was little different than when he was in Utica where the team was racked. year after year, with injuries and useless replacements. Indeed, fans in Utica hated the man if the accounts by Comet posters like Bad goalie are to be believed. There were times apparently when he was simply AWOL when the going got tough.

Johnson is remnant of the Benning era and seems to have some organizational survival skills. But his managment of the Canuck farm team has been questionable over the years. Allowing the team to go through what they have this year (which essentially forced the Studnicka trade) is sheer incompetence. This really is a matter that senior Canuck management should deal with. Johnson talks a great game with all rah rah, cliche-filled sports jargon, but when you look at what he actually done, there is legit reason for concern about the state of our farm team.

 

[MS]

Really strong, comprehensive performance last night despite some very suspect refereeing. Felt like playing Calgary as their goons were punching guys in the face after basically every whistle and somehow never getting called for it.

- surprised there isn't more positive talk on Podkolzin here. Absolutely terrific performance, the best he's ever skated at this level. Best player on the ice by a mile. 5 or 6 dangerous rushes, looked legitimately powerful and fast, 10 SOG. Only issue is that the finishing was pretty terrible once he blew wide on a defender and had a grade-A chance, but he looked like an NHL player playing against AHLers last night. Also had a couple very strong backchecks/defensive plays in the 3rd period. Was happy he got the ENG because he deserved a reward for that performance. Still some hiccups in final product and execution but the skating and the motor and the ideas were all spot-on, exactly what he needs to be doing.

- Sasson was back (what was his injury? who knows!) after missing 7 games and was really solid with a 2+1 game. Now 7-4-11 in his last 10 games. Smart player who is solid everywhere but doesn't really have any one skill that pops and makes you think he could move up levels and looks a bit smaller than his listed size, but he's certainly making a case for himself to get a callup at some point.

- Cicek took two penalties (I thought one was quite soft and was just hard physical play, would never be called in a playoff game) but otherwise that pairing with Irwin was rock-solid. Really good addition, and as @orcatown noted it's nice to have another bigger player to actually push back a bit in scrums etc.

- Woo has been a bit off since taking the crosscheck to the face against Calgary a few weeks back but played a terrific game last night. Skated well, a couple big hits, scored a nice goal. Had one rush in particular that really popped, was the best/fastest I've ever seen him skate.

- Tolopilo is *almost* really good and might be really good with some more seasoning. Looks big in net, makes some really impressive saves ... but his rebound control at times is not ideal.

 

[MS]

Had the new player Cicek in the line up and he played pretty hard nosed. The trade was defintietly an admission that Johnson signing of the ridiculously bad Loewen to offer some protection for other players was a dreadful mistake. Not only can't Loewen play even a little bit but also he makes only a pretense of sticking up for his teammates. In fact, all of Abby's off season pick-ups have been awful. Players like Passolt, Joyeux, Daschke and Lemieux have been useless signings. Much the same as he did in Utica when when Johnson brought in one uselss plug after another.

The underlying and most important story coming out of Abby this year has been the way the young players have been thrown to the Wolves. The announcer mentioned tonite that no player other than Raty has played every game. There have been 14 injuries (that might br some kind of record) on the team and many of them have been major and the long term effect of all the concussions is yet to be seen. Certainly they have not helped players like Sassons, Podkolzin, Neilsen and others to have chance to develop.

Johnson has been entrusted to do very little in terms of the roster. The team has basically been assembled by the Vancouver mangement and their scouting staff. One of the few duties Johnson has is to make sure the younger players had some vet help. Instead Johnson hires a useless crony like Stevens. And this was little different than when he was in Utica where the team was racked. year after year, with injuries and useless replacements. Indeed, fans in Utica hated the man if the accounts by Comet posters like Bad goalie are to be believed. There were times apparently when he was simply AWOL when the going got tough.

Johnson is remnant of the Benning era and seems to have some organizational survival skills. But his managment of the Canuck farm team has been questionable over the years. Allowing the team to go through what they have this year (which essentially forced the Studnicka trade) is sheer incompetence. This really is a matter that senior Canuck management should deal with. Johnson talks a great game with all rah rah, cliche-filled sports jargon, but when you look at what he actually done, there is legit reason for concern about the state of our farm team.

We've discussed this before and I agree 100% on the toughness thing. They really dropped the ball there and replacing the effective, character Arseneau (even if he took some dumb penalties) with the useless Loewen was a massive mistake. And they should have been adding more toughness on top of Arseneau.

I'm the furthest thing from a goon guy but the AHL is 20 years behind the NHL on this stuff and you just can't play a team this soft against goon squads like Calgary or Ontario last night, and the injuries have been a predictable result.

However, I'll disagree about throwing Johnson under the bus on roster construction. This is a deep team and with everyone healthy they're loaded with top-9 forwards and top-6 D. Like, these are all legitimate players at this level :

Bains-Dries-Podkolzin
Karlsson-Sasson-Nielsen
Wouters-Raty-McDonough
Klimovich-Stevens-Gatcomb

Wolanin-Woo
Irwin-Cicek
Hirose-Mcward
Schmiemann-Johansson

Plus 3 quality goalies.

That's as deep a squad as you'll see in the AHL and criticizing Johnson for not making signings that they don't really need isn't really fair I don't think. A guy like Schmiemann looks really good whenever he plays but can't even get in the lineup half the time.

They have a new agreement with Kalamazoo this year and the guys like Passolt and Joyaux are guys they would have had to provide as part of that agreement and are just the sort of typical ECHL filler that every team has.

It's a far cry from Utica 2019 or so when the team legitimately had zero depth.

 

[MS]

Gatcomb needs to be more consistent but he has the enough speed and enough of a physical game to make you think he could serve in a pinch with Vancouver. Would be fringe but still maybe not entirely out of place.

I said much the same thing after the last game.

You look at his production and the fact that he's on an AHL contract and you'd think he'd be a total nothingburger. But to me he's probably the most fundamentally solid player in Abbotsford. He skates well, good size, finishes his checks, is in the right places defensively.

Like, if we had an injury crunch in the playoffs and just needed a reliable winger body to play 5-6 minutes on the 4th line, finish some checks, and not screw up ... I think he might actually be the best choice. Most of the other guys have skating or puck management issues that you wouldn't want to put into an NHL playoff game but he doesn't.

I'd like to see him get some better offensive looks higher up the roster instead of just playing 10 minutes on the 4th line every night, typecast as AHL filler.

 

[Jerry the great]

Really strong, comprehensive performance last night despite some very suspect refereeing. Felt like playing Calgary as their goons were punching guys in the face after basically every whistle and somehow never getting called for it.

- surprised there isn't more positive talk on Podkolzin here. Absolutely terrific performance, the best he's ever skated at this level. Best player on the ice by a mile. 5 or 6 dangerous rushes, looked legitimately powerful and fast, 10 SOG. Only issue is that the finishing was pretty terrible once he blew wide on a defender and had a grade-A chance, but he looked like an NHL player playing against AHLers last night. Also had a couple very strong backchecks/defensive plays in the 3rd period. Was happy he got the ENG because he deserved a reward for that performance. Still some hiccups in final product and execution but the skating and the motor and the ideas were all spot-on, exactly what he needs to be doing.

- Sasson was back (what was his injury? who knows!) after missing 7 games and was really solid with a 2+1 game. Now 7-4-11 in his last 10 games. Smart player who is solid everywhere but doesn't really have any one skill that pops and makes you think he could move up levels and looks a bit smaller than his listed size, but he's certainly making a case for himself to get a callup at some point.

- Cicek took two penalties (I thought one was quite soft and was just hard physical play, would never be called in a playoff game) but otherwise that pairing with Irwin was rock-solid. Really good addition, and as @orcatown noted it's nice to have another bigger player to actually push back a bit in scrums etc.

- Woo has been a bit off since taking the crosscheck to the face against Calgary a few weeks back but played a terrific game last night. Skated well, a couple big hits, scored a nice goal. Had one rush in particular that really popped, was the best/fastest I've ever seen him skate.

- Tolopilo is *almost* really good and might be really good with some more seasoning. Looks big in net, makes some really impressive saves ... but his rebound control at times is not ideal.

Am i wrong to think that organizational depth is actually decent right now?

forwards that could be called up and not look horribly out of place:

Podkolzin
Raty
Sasson
Bains
Karlsson

Defenders:
Wolanin
Woo
Cicek
Irwin
McWard

 

[MS]

Am i wrong to think that organizational depth is actually decent right now?

forwards that could be called up and not look horribly out of place:

Podkolzin
Raty
Sasson
Bains
Karlsson

Defenders:
Wolanin
Woo
Cicek
Irwin
McWard

See my other post above. Yeah, the team has a lot of depth right now.

Add Dries to the usable callups as well.

Nobody 'dynamic' but there are a bunch of guys who could probably be 'serviceable'.

I don't think Sasson or Bains are quite ready, though.

 

[sting101]

Couldn't get the replay to run right to the end but from what I saw would say the following:

Difference b/w Tolopina and Silvos is negilible. Tolopina might have had the first goal in this game but on the second he made two huge saves before the last shot went in. Guy continues to do well in his first year and seems a good pickup. Very calm and moves well for his size. Not a huge stretch to see him at the next level down the road.

Sasson was a little lucky on the first goal as it struck an Ontario stick and popped into the top corner. But made a nice deflection on the second. HIs line was the best in this game and Sassons, outside of Dries drives the the play as well as anyone on the team.

Gatcomb needs to be more consistent but he has the enough speed and enough of a physical game to make you think he could serve in a pinch with Vancouver. Would be fringe but still maybe not entirely out of place.

Podkolzin needs more finish. Some strong skating in this game and drove the puck well into the offensive zone. But he lacks touch on his passes and shot. Had chances to create goals or score but just a little enough off to be unable to complete those chances.

Had the new player Cicek in the line up and he played pretty hard nosed. The trade was defintietly an admission that Johnson signing of the ridiculously bad Loewen to offer some protection for other players was a dreadful mistake. Not only can't Loewen play even a little bit but also he makes only a pretense of sticking up for his teammates. In fact, all of Abby's off season pick-ups have been awful. Players like Passolt, Joyeux, Daschke and Lemieux have been useless signings. Much the same as he did in Utica when when Johnson brought in one uselss plug after another.

The underlying and most important story coming out of Abby this year has been the way the young players have been thrown to the Wolves. The announcer mentioned tonite that no player other than Raty has played every game. There have been 14 injuries (that might br some kind of record) on the team and many of them have been major and the long term effect of all the concussions is yet to be seen. Certainly they have not helped players like Sassons, Podkolzin, Neilsen and others to have chance to develop.

Johnson has been entrusted to do very little in terms of the roster. The team has basically been assembled by the Vancouver mangement and their scouting staff. One of the few duties Johnson has is to make sure the younger players had some vet help. Instead Johnson hires a useless crony like Stevens. And this was little different than when he was in Utica where the team was racked. year after year, with injuries and useless replacements. Indeed, fans in Utica hated the man if the accounts by Comet posters like Bad goalie are to be believed. There were times apparently when he was simply AWOL when the going got tough.

Johnson is remnant of the Benning era and seems to have some organizational survival skills. But his managment of the Canuck farm team has been questionable over the years. Allowing the team to go through what they have this year (which essentially forced the Studnicka trade) is sheer incompetence. This really is a matter that senior Canuck management should deal with. Johnson talks a great game with all rah rah, cliche-filled sports jargon, but when you look at what he actually done, there is legit reason for concern about the state of our farm team.

interesting rant on Johnson. Curious if you can explain why?

The team has the 6th best winning pctg in the AHL and has had a myriad of injuries and call ups.

Klimovich 19 Nielson 11 Aman 10 Podkolzin 7 Sasson 7 they moved out Rathbone to get some NHL help in Friedman after injuries to the NHL club to Soucy and the RD needing re enforcements?

Cicek is an excellent pick up and adds some sandpaper Wouters Nielson Schmeimann Gatcomb have all been good by the reports here? Stevens is a serviceable guy.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I actually thought Johnson had received kudos for doing a pretty serviceable job of digging up guys to give PTOs and ATOs to to flesh out the Comets roster because the Canucks were rushing every prospect to the NHL, and did Benning did f*** all to stock the Comets up with depth.

Johnson has certainly been given a lot more to work with in Abbotsford, and I think the teams have been really good. Both from a prospect perspective and a free agent acquisition one.

But I think one area he has needed to address and fail is some toughness in the lineup. As MS said, moving Arsenault rather than adding guys to help him was a head scratcher.

 

[Blue and Green]

I said much the same thing after the last game.

You look at his production and the fact that he's on an AHL contract and you'd think he'd be a total nothingburger. But to me he's probably the most fundamentally solid player in Abbotsford. He skates well, good size, finishes his checks, is in the right places defensively.

Like, if we had an injury crunch in the playoffs and just needed a reliable winger body to play 5-6 minutes on the 4th line, finish some checks, and not screw up ... I think he might actually be the best choice. Most of the other guys have skating or puck management issues that you wouldn't want to put into an NHL playoff game but he doesn't.

I'd like to see him get some better offensive looks higher up the roster instead of just playing 10 minutes on the 4th line every night, typecast as AHL filler.

Gatcomb just doesn't have much skill with the puck and although his speed is fine for the AHL his agility is mediocre at that level. He's the winger version of Chase Wouters, with a step more of speed. Can do a solid job in the bottom six in the AHL and that's about it.

 

[Blue and Green]

One of the few duties Johnson has is to make sure the younger players had some vet help. Instead Johnson hires a useless crony like Stevens.

I've never understood your disdain for Stevens. He's a very good 3C in the AHL, he's not taking up a contract slot anymore and he is by all accounts well respected by his teammates.