Post-Game Talk: Canucks def. Preds - 5-2 | De(Smith)nied | Pettersson, Aman, Hoglander, Suter, Blueger

[Reverend Mayhem]

Yea, some people are getting carried away. Daniel was so much better than any winger currently and even Burrows was a better player than Boeser. I think the increase in scoring is maybe warping people’s opinions. 2011 was a far better team and the only significant edge this one has is Hughes

That's a tough thing to gauge too, is the game is just so different today and the Sedins are a big part of that change. The Sedins in their prime played a style that maybe 10% of the other stars at the same time played. Anyways, there aren't ever going to be two players you can realistically compare them to. No other two players who were as slow as they were, and as weak NHL shots as they had are ever going to get the points or more accurately the league point finishes that they did. And I don't really think there will be "superstars" like that again because players today come up so differently even from 25 years ago. There is god damn coaches for shooting, skating, and probably one for executing line changes at this rate.

The Sedins more or less comparatively had to figure all that out themselves. And if this is reading like a hit piece on them, it's really not because as much superstar skill as they lacked, they still achieved such great heights which is such a credit to the sport. Imagine a basketball player reaching MVP status without being a good shooter, not happening. Imagine a baseball player getting MVP with no power in his bat and not being particularly good at fielding, not happening. The Sedins were not particularly great at two of the most important offensive weapons a player can have - except for they had easily the most important skill any hockey player can hope to have - the innate ability to find spaces, play angles, improvise play on the fly, what is called hockey IQ.

Everyone in Pittsburgh believes Crosby is the most talented grinder there's ever been - and I would agree. But the Sedins make a pretty fair case themselves. What they lacked in natural ability they made up for in brain power and determination and courage. That's why I'm so proud to have had the privilege of watching them growing up. They completely changed my perception of what a great hockey player looks like, and how I played and thought the game - and the game became more enjoyable because of this because I myself am not particularly gifted athletically.

You mean you were drinking a pizza smoothie the next day

Shit you not, it was just pizza. To discredit myself a bit, I didn't use my incisors to chew. It was all front teeth which is not as satisfying. The only time I've had to drink smoothie is probably when I ran my mouth too much in school lol.

 

[DFAC]

22 ROW
125 goals for (most in NHL)
+44 differential (best in NHL)
PP is 6th best
Goals allowed/game 2nd best

If they keep Kuz, great, but better get him going. If they trade Kuz, great, but need a piece back that can make a difference like Kuz has the potential to do.

Would love to see Pod come up and make a difference.

Don’t think Allvin is done either. Doubt we could add someone like Tanev, but a Tanev would be ideal.

Hughes - Hronek
Soucy - Tanev/etc
Zadorov - Myers
Juulsen

I feel a lot better about a D like that.

What happened to Cole?

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

Kids these days are so soft, I had all 4 of mine removed at 17 and was eating pizza the next day! (Should I have been is a different story). Seriously though, that sucks. The food getting stuck in the holes was gross, and you only get the come down from the morphine or whatever they shoot you up with. Braces was a much more agonizing experience for me, if you can find any solace in that.

Luckily I never needed braces.

I’m gonna stick with tame foods for a while

But no hot and spicy foods for a week is painful

 

[arttk]

What happened to Cole?

I could see management flipping both Cole and Myers at deadline for picks and use the assets to make a Hronek like deal

That's a tough thing to gauge too, is the game is just so different today and the Sedins are a big part of that change. The Sedins in their prime played a style that maybe 10% of the other stars at the same time played. Anyways, there aren't ever going to be two players you can realistically compare them to. No other two players who were as slow as they were, and as weak NHL shots as they had are ever going to get the points or more accurately the league point finishes that they did. And I don't really think there will be "superstars" like that again because players today come up so differently even from 25 years ago. There is god damn coaches for shooting, skating, and probably one for executing line changes at this rate.

The Sedins more or less comparatively had to figure all that out themselves. And if this is reading like a hit piece on them, it's really not because as much superstar skill as they lacked, they still achieved such great heights which is such a credit to the sport. Imagine a basketball player reaching MVP status without being a good shooter, not happening. Imagine a baseball player getting MVP with no power in his bat and not being particularly good at fielding, not happening. The Sedins were not particularly great at two of the most important offensive weapons a player can have - except for they had easily the most important skill any hockey player can hope to have - the innate ability to find spaces, play angles, improvise play on the fly, what is called hockey IQ.

Everyone in Pittsburgh believes Crosby is the most talented grinder there's ever been - and I would agree. But the Sedins make a pretty fair case themselves. What they lacked in natural ability they made up for in brain power and determination and courage. That's why I'm so proud to have had the privilege of watching them growing up. They completely changed my perception of what a great hockey player looks like, and how I played and thought the game - and the game became more enjoyable because of this because I myself am not particularly gifted athletically.



Shit you not, it was just pizza. To discredit myself a bit, I didn't use my incisors to chew. It was all front teeth which is not as satisfying. The only time I've had to drink smoothie is probably when I ran my mouth too much in school lol.

I remember scooping food pieces from the wisdom teeth crate, fun times

 

[ChilliBilly]

We are probably going to be faves in the 1st round of the playoffs ... anything else would mean a serious drop off in the next 50 games. If we win a playoff series, EVERYONE will be thinking that we can win it all this year.

We are roughly on pace for 115 pts. 2011 had 117. We have a long way to go in this season. But so far everything is about as good as anyone could have dreamed of.

HOWEVER, teams that make surprise rise in the standings like we have sort of have a history of being vulnerable in the 1st round.

This is joyous ... but lets see how this season plays out.

I will be happy with anything over 100 its. Which no one would have believed was likely at the start of the season. If we play about .500 hockey the rest of the way, (say 54 pts in 49 games taking 3 pt games into account) that puts us on 100.

Anyhow, no one predicted we would be close to 1st OA at Xmas.

Enjoy.

 

[604]

Harder not smaller

The zipper was in his mask.

 

[PG Canuck]

What happened to Cole?

Not sure what happens to him if they do add a dman, feel like he’s kinda forced out at that point though

 

[Diamonddog01]

22 ROW
125 goals for (most in NHL)
+44 differential (best in NHL)
PP is 6th best
Goals allowed/game 2nd best

A lot to like for sure. One area of concern is the PK is still abysmal though. Somewhat surprising as they finally made an effort to acquire some PK personnel but lots of work to be done in that area.

 

[Huggy]

the middle 6 is miles better than 2011

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Luckily I never needed braces.

I’m gonna stick with tame foods for a while

But no hot and spicy foods for a week is painful

It's basically like the pain currently in the corners of your mouth, spread out over all your teeth roots and gums every 3-5 days after having them retightened, which was once every 4-6 weeks IIRC. This made it damn near impossible to eat for basically 1 out of every 6 days which probably contributed to me being 5'7'' and 118 lbs. in grade 12.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

We are probably going to be faves in the 1st round of the playoffs ... anything else would mean a serious drop off in the next 50 games. If we win a playoff series, EVERYONE will be thinking that we can win it all this year.

The best way I can describe how I feel about the team right now would be: suspicious optimism. Enjoy the ride. I can't stress that enough how much we have earned this as fans. Enjoy this.

Murphy's Law has been flipped on its head. I propose to call this phenomena "Messier's Law" because I hate it already before I've said it: Damn near everything that could do right so far this season, has. My curiosity (and quite honestly, my experience as a Canucks fan) has me in the steady grip of asking "how much of this is sustainable?" I don't think ALL of it is. But I think big elements of it are such as coaching and organizational direction which is very encouraging. My confidence in the organization is as inertly eager as I can recall for over a decade.

 

[DFAC]

the middle 6 is miles better than 2011

I think you are incorrect sir.

 

[Diversification]

I want to replay Fallout 2 now so much.

Did a pretty comprehensive playthrough of Fallout 1 not too long ago and loved it still with all its clunky 90s inventory mechanics and punishing 1 shot kill combat <3

Play BG3. It scratches the same itch.

 

[tantalum]

I googled January 15th to figure out if it was some American holiday I wasn't aware of. Nope. Just stupid-ass scheduling.

MLK day. It’s recognized as a federal holiday and is considered a “day of service” such that congress must work. Government offices, schools and universities do not hold classes in order for people to attend celebrations. So you get a lot of afternoon games in the NHL.

Edit: guess I should have just read the next few posts. Oh well.

Absolutely ridiculous that they schedule Canadian teams into afternoon games on US holidays so most of their fans can’t watch.

If a Canadian team is playing on that date, make it a night game FFS.

NHL is a gate driven league. TV viewership in Canada isn’t a concern.

 

[Jimnastic]

A month ago someone offered to bet $100 that the Canucks wouldn't win 4 more games before Christmas. I offered to take that bet but never had a response. Does anyone remember who it was so I can take the piss out of them for a while?

Thought this game was a good indication of the Canucks strengths. We outplayed them once we had the lead. Would say the biggest factor appears to be that our backup goaltending is stronger than their top goalie. This is a huge factor this year. Demko is in great form and is not being worked to death.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

And for all those advocating more tinkering ... are you unhappy with how this team is playing? They seem to have chemistry, desire and commitment. Lets let Lord Alvin judge this on his own, because I am starting to trust him completely. (oh I hope that comment does not come back and bite me on the ass).

Anyhow, we don't NEED to do anything. We MAY do something, but we are not desperate, and FFS don't keep up with this "we should go all in" crap. Do not trade draft picks and prospects. Assuming Petey signs with us, we should have a decent core for at least 5 more years. Allow for ELC's to help cost control, for depth. We should be fine.

Amen.

This team is a good team as it stands. Even more importantly, they are playing well as a team.

If they can add some playoff depth, that would be great... but I wouldn't want to trade much in the way of major pieces to do so. As it stands, Kuz is the only roster player I would be okay moving, but I think he gets another month to get his act together. Still, 50-50 chance he's gone at the TDL.

We'll see how they do in the back 9 and, hopefully, playoffs. Leave the large scale tinkering to the off season.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

A month ago someone offered to bet $100 that the Canucks wouldn't win 4 more games before Christmas. I offered to take that bet but never had a response. Does anyone remember who it was so I can take the piss out of them for a while?

Thought this game was a good indication of the Canucks strengths. We outplayed them once we had the lead. Would say the biggest factor appears to be that our backup goaltending is stronger than their top goalie. This is a huge factor this year. Demko is in great form and is not being worked to death.

That was me and that bet was with another poster.

I also made good on my bet.

And too be fair, it was before the Zadorov trade and the team was starting to struggle.

But things are going well now so time to move on.

 

[Jyrki]

We are probably going to be faves in the 1st round of the playoffs ... anything else would mean a serious drop off in the next 50 games. If we win a playoff series, EVERYONE will be thinking that we can win it all this year.

We are roughly on pace for 115 pts. 2011 had 117. We have a long way to go in this season. But so far everything is about as good as anyone could have dreamed of.

HOWEVER, teams that make surprise rise in the standings like we have sort of have a history of being vulnerable in the 1st round.

This is joyous ... but lets see how this season plays out.

I will be happy with anything over 100 its. Which no one would have believed was likely at the start of the season. If we play about .500 hockey the rest of the way, (say 54 pts in 49 games taking 3 pt games into account) that puts us on 100.

Anyhow, no one predicted we would be close to 1st OA at Xmas.

Enjoy.

The problem with playoffs hockey is that right now we're a pretty healthy bunch, but we don't have much organizational depth to go off once we go past the players on the roster. Say, Hronek and Zadarov go down, and Myers/Juulsen/Friedman make up half the D-men. One of the star forwards are down plus 2-3 bottom 6'ers, then we're already dipping onto Karlsson, Dries and Podz. With guys like McWard/Hirose/Podz/Raty either still very raw or projects you just don't have any callup to gamble on to play above their weight. So if injuries pile up it'll be very tough to make up for them in the post-season.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

the middle 6 is miles better than 2011

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Burrows
Samuelsson - Kesler - Raymond
Hansen - Malhotra - Torres
Higgins - Lapierre - Glass/Oreskovich

The only weak link in that whole forward group is a 4th line winger. The depth here was stupid. Even going the whole first three rounds without Malhotra and about half the run without Samuelsson, this team was a wagon.

The depth of the defense was stupid, too. They lacked a true franchise defender like Hughes, but damn, their depth was just ridiculous.

Edler - Ehrhoff
Hamhuis - Bieksa
Salo - Rome/Ballard

Any of these guys except Rome/Ballard would be either top pair or top four on our current team. And I’m not disrespecting anyone on the current group - I think we have a good group. But I don’t think it can be overstated how elite and deep the 2011 Canucks were.

 

[tyhee]

Probably some romanticization of history, but I don't think the way Garland, Hoglander or Mikheyev have played this year they'd be at all out of place on that list, and this year's Boeser is effectively the type of piece that team was missing.

I don't see Boeser as a type of piece the 2011 team was missing. In 2011 Daniel won the Art Ross (leading scorer in the league) and Ted Lindsay (most outstanding player as selected by the players) trophies.

 

[MS]

NHL is a gate driven league. TV viewership in Canada isn’t a concern.

I mean, that's obviously how they view it. We're second class citizens up here.

But it's just a joke. Games should be accessible to fans of both teams.

And I doubt NYR would ever get stuck playing an afternoon game in Canada on a Canadian holiday, for the record.

 

[Huggy]

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Burrows
Samuelsson - Kesler - Raymond
Hansen - Malhotra - Torres
Higgins - Lapierre - Glass/Oreskovich

The only weak link in that whole forward group is a 4th line winger. The depth here was stupid. Even going the whole first three rounds without Malhotra and about half the run without Samuelsson, this team was a wagon.

The depth of the defense was stupid, too. They lacked a true franchise defender like Hughes, but damn, their depth was just ridiculous.

Edler - Ehrhoff
Hamhuis - Bieksa
Salo - Rome/Ballard

Any of these guys except Rome/Ballard would be either top pair or top four on our current team. And I’m not disrespecting anyone on the current group - I think we have a good group. But I don’t think it can be overstated how elite and deep the 2011 Canucks were.

It could be the new car smell with guys like Joshua, Garland, Hoglander, Lafferty, Suter, and Blueger.

But I feel like Raymond, Sammuelson, Hansen, and Torres all had clearly defined ceilings that were lackluster in retrospect. Was the whole team that never competed again but its bizarre how fast everyone disappeared injury or not. I am happy to exclude Hansen he was a warrior.

I think because today's group is so young and hasnt even fully developed makes me hopeful we have a truly interchangable top 9. I just like these guy more than one dimensional down goes Raymond. or Raffi "wrecking ball" Torres.

 

[ChilliBilly]

It could be the new car smell with guys like Joshua, Garland, Hoglander, Lafferty, Suter, and Blueger.

But I feel like Raymond, Sammuelson, Hansen, and Torres all had clearly defined ceilings that were lackluster in retrospect. Was the whole team that never competed again but its bizarre how fast everyone disappeared injury or not. I am happy to exclude Hansen he was a warrior.

I think because today's group is so young and hasnt even fully developed makes me hopeful we have a truly interchangable top 9. I just like these guy more than one dimensional down goes Raymond. or Raffi "wrecking ball" Torres.

What are the ages here. 23, 27, 23, 28, 27, 29? The good news is that we have a few legit players coming up in Pods, Lekkerimaki, Raty, Bains, McDonough, Karlsson, Klimovich and Alriksson. And Aman fits on that list too. Okay, I Will accept that Manukyan isn't going to make it. But Kravtsov may come back. Hopefully our young core will have complimentary players for years ...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

It could be the new car smell with guys like Joshua, Garland, Hoglander, Lafferty, Suter, and Blueger.

But I feel like Raymond, Sammuelson, Hansen, and Torres all had clearly defined ceilings that were lackluster in retrospect. Was the whole team that never competed again but its bizarre how fast everyone disappeared injury or not. I am happy to exclude Hansen he was a warrior.

I think because today's group is so young and hasnt even fully developed makes me hopeful we have a truly interchangable top 9. I just like these guy more than one dimensional down goes Raymond. or Raffi "wrecking ball" Torres.

useful to remember that our 2011 wingers’ career highs in goals were 30 (sammy), 27 (higgins and torres), 25 (mayray), and 22 (hansen).

hansen wasn’t fully formed yet and torres had plateaued but i think it’s also fair to say that the middle six had at least four wingers capable of potting 20 goals in the right situation and all were to some degree playing farther down the lineup than their ability.

in the current group, excluding boeser and kuzmenko, i only see hoglander as having the scoring ability to hang with the 2011 group. although if you want to say garland is basically raymond, i wouldn’t argue.

D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Burrows
Samuelsson - Kesler - Raymond
Hansen - Malhotra - Torres
Higgins - Lapierre - Glass/Oreskovich

The only weak link in that whole forward group is a 4th line winger. The depth here was stupid. Even going the whole first three rounds without Malhotra and about half the run without Samuelsson, this team was a wagon.

The depth of the defense was stupid, too. They lacked a true franchise defender like Hughes, but damn, their depth was just ridiculous.

Edler - Ehrhoff
Hamhuis - Bieksa
Salo - Rome/Ballard

Any of these guys except Rome/Ballard would be either top pair or top four on our current team. And I’m not disrespecting anyone on the current group - I think we have a good group. But I don’t think it can be overstated how elite and deep the 2011 Canucks were.

and i just had the sad realization that there were zero games that that whole group was in the lineup at the same time.

 

[Jimnastic]

That was me and that bet was with another poster.

I also made good on my bet.

And too be fair, it was before the Zadorov trade and the team was starting to struggle.

But things are going well now so time to move on.

I retract my threat of taking the piss.....