Pre-Game Talk: Canucks @ Flames. Wednesday. SNET. 7pm
- Thread starter The Stig
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Me neither. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if we got to experience what it is to be an Oiler fan....out of the playoffs by the end of November.
EpochLink
Canucks and Jets fan
polarbearcub
Registered User
What change from last years teams has you this down? Have 10 of 12 too scorers returning. Is Bieska Lack that good? Mathias Bonino?
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
"Today is the the day." -- Mel Fisher
Mel Fisher discovered the sunken gold wreck 'Nuestra Señora de Atocha'. Only a few diehard investors, crew members and family believed in Mel. But Mel came through and made them all rich. Perhaps the Canucks can soon too discover a different kind of treasure.
Mel Fisher discovered the sunken gold wreck 'Nuestra Señora de Atocha'. Only a few diehard investors, crew members and family believed in Mel. But Mel came through and made them all rich. Perhaps the Canucks can soon too discover a different kind of treasure.
polarbearcub
Registered User
Yeah I get people saying we miss the playoffs but I don't really understand how people think we will be a lottery team... It's basically the same team without a terrible bieksa , bonino. Added sutter and exciting yount plsyets with bo horvat emerging as a 2nd line centre who could almost double his production from last year.
StrictlyCommercial
Registered User
Sedins-Sutter
Baer-Horvat-Vrbata
Burrows-McCann-Hansen
Dorsett-Cracknell-Prust/Virtanen
StrictlyCommercial
Registered User
Hence my prediction of us finishing 7-10. Not good enough for the cup, not bad enough to be a bottom feeder.
The team overachieved a bit and not many injuries but lineup wise it is similar this year. xfactor is the young guys and health.
Pretty excited about the season. I think it will be a battle to make the playoffs, but I'm excited to see what some of the younger players can do and what the twins have left in the tank.
I feel like the team is in a pretty good spot, and I'm excited for the future.
Would be great to start the year with a big win in Calgary.
I feel like the team is in a pretty good spot, and I'm excited for the future.
Would be great to start the year with a big win in Calgary.
Miller coming off a near career ending injury, looks slower than ever.
In front of him is a D unit that is a mess really because the coaching staff is required to ice Sbisa and the parings are kind of messed up now in hopes of being able to shelter him somehow.
The forward looks ok right now but I am not sure the forward group is strong enough to bail out the D and the G.
According to our practice lines yesterday...
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Brandon Sutter
Sven Baertschi - Bo Horvat - Radim Vrbata
Alex Burrows - Jared McCann - Jannik Hansen
Brandon Prust - Adam Cracknell - Derek Dorsett
Alex Edler - Chris Tanev
Dan Hamhuis - Matt Bartkowski
Ben Hutton - Luca Sbisa
Ryan Miller
The major change will be not having a goaltender put up a 0.930 SV% down the stretch to get to the playoffs. This team made the playoffs by 6 points and only 6 points.
I don't believe the team is at all better. I believe it is worse. I understand the excitement over having kids in the linuep but if one is completely honest having essentially 4 rookies (Baertschi, Virtanen, McCann, Hutton) make the team out of camp, another that arguably should have (Gaunce) is just as much of an indictment of the team quality then it is a plus for how well the kids played.
I believe that Sutter is not as good as Bonino. I believe that Bieksa was certainly no worse than Bartkowski. I believe the goaltending will struggle. I believe other teams got better and not many got worse.
I think people forget that a 101 point team is just 12 points removed from third last in the division. Missing is quite a realistic possibility.
Only looks fine if Baertschi, McCann, Cracknell and Virtanen continue their play from preseason. Otherwise there are as many holes there as on D. That's not even accounting for the fact that I think Sutter will be a 4th liner on this team and that Prust is not an NHL-level player.
I can't believe some actually ignore the huge downgrade in net. Maybe Markstrom comes out and replaces Lack but it's far from guaranteed, it will also take a bunch of lost games from Miller to get there by which point we might already be out of contention altogether.
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Lunatik
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- Oct 12, 2012
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hellstick
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So excited for the season to (finally) begin tonight. Really excited to see the kids in action.
Chairman Maouth
Retired Staff
Game 7 - Cal/Van - 1994 is on SN at 10 this morning. Get a taste of what the NHL used to be like.
thecupismine
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- Apr 1, 2007
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First time I won't be able to watch the entire duration of the home opener in 10 years. You know you're getting old when job interviews/hunting are more important than hockey.
JuniorNelson
Registered User
I am loving this! I don't expect this line up to survive even the first game without alteration, but it's the options they have! It's very exciting watching a team reinvent itself.
This is all good stuff. The second line should push the top line on a good team. The third line should be damn quick and the fourth should be thumpers. It's the same in net, Miller is being pushed by Markstrom.
Defense is too unknown to even guess but there are some positive signs, early on. Shock addition Hutton, for instance. He might steady Sbisa.
It's possible that this team doesn't win many games outright. IMO, they should play dull hockey all game and surprise teams with Sedinery in OT. I think the Sedins will be deadly three on three. Deadly!
This can work.
I should also add that I don't believe bleeding assets can lead to sustainable success.
With all that said...I of course hope they make the playoffs. I will cheer for them to do so. I will never cheer for a tank.
With all that said...I of course hope they make the playoffs. I will cheer for them to do so. I will never cheer for a tank.
Bourne Endeavor
Registered User
So they really are going to try Sutter on the wing. Hopefully, he shows a lot better poise with the Sedins than he did in preseason. Seems they're going to rotate Virtanen and McCann. Le sigh.
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