Post-Game Talk: Canucks lose to Blue Jackets | 3-4 in OT (Horvat, Pettersson, Horvat)

[Vector]

Is Hughes playing that bad…would the fact that almost the entire banged up RHD affected his play..?

Yes he is but it's because he's being leaned on to do everything.

-Hughes also had a big volume night, similar to Washington, and turned the puck over a lot as well. That’s 9 turnovers on 51 touches over the last two games. I don’t think he lacks for ability, but he’s just looking exhausted. A little easier to knock off the puck, a little less power on passes, and would-be good plays can turn into turnovers very quickly.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Yes he is but it's because he's being leaned on to do everything.

-Hughes also had a big volume night, similar to Washington, and turned the puck over a lot as well. That’s 9 turnovers on 51 touches over the last two games. I don’t think he lacks for ability, but he’s just looking exhausted. A little easier to knock off the puck, a little less power on passes, and would-be good plays can turn into turnovers very quickly.

I’d like to see a decent sample size of his play with a healthy right side before I start jumping to rash conclusions on his play this season.

Going into tomorrows game things are more back to normal for the D…first time this season.

 

[Vector]

I’d like to see a decent sample size of his play with a healthy right side before I start jumping to rash conclusions on his play this season.

Going into tomorrows game things are more back to normal for the D…first time this season.

Well, through 4 games this season he's noticeably been worse than last season. I'm not sure what kind of sample size you're looking for when we're talking about his play in the last 4 games. I'm not going to make any sort of projection and say this will last through out the whole season. Playing as much as as he has without great back-up, and the injuries, is bound to affect his play, though.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Well, through 4 games this season he's noticeably been worse than last season. I'm not sure what kind of sample size you're looking for when we're talking about his play in the last 4 games. I'm not going to make any sort of projection and say this will last through out the whole season. Playing as much as as he has without great back-up, and the injuries, is bound to affect his play, though.

He’s played 27-28 minutes a night the last three games..that’s unsustainable imo..A healthy Myers (and OEL) should alleviate that heavy ice time..and take the pressure off.

 

[Sedinery]

Fact - losing 4 games at the start of the season is no different than losing 4 games in the middle or end of the season

For those saying “its early, relax”…. Have you forgotten about last season already?

 

[EP to Kuzmenko]

Fact - losing 4 games at the start of the season is no different than losing 4 games in the middle or end of the season

For those saying its early, relax …. Have you forgotten about last season already?

The only difference is that it is easier to right the ship and go on a tear early on than in the middle r end to get into playoff position. But if we keep losing, that really does get harder and harder. if you estimate 96 points for playoffs, we need 48 wins. We can only lose 34 games in a season and we already lost 3 1/2 of them.

 

[Canuckle1970]

Yeah, I think that's right. OEL seems fine in transition and Myers in the offensive zone but together they are a below average second pairing for generating offence. Add zero offence from the third pairing to that and the team revolves around Hughes.

I've mentioned before that when you look at last season, this was a tale of two teams: under Green, the team gave up any pretence of offence to be a good defensive team at even strength, which led them to be a middle of the pack defensive team and a bottom-end offensive team, whereas under Boudreau their defence dropped a bit but their offence shot right up. I'm not going to pretend to be a systems expert, but the results they have gotten so far this year look basically the same as Green's, and the team seems to be playing more in that direction when I watch them.

Rutherford commented several times this offseason about playing with more structure in the defensive zone, and I'm curious if this is the result of the coaching staff trying to do that.

The model seems to be Rutherford's Cup winning Hurricanes team (great goalie, deep forwards, defence by committee) but I'm not sure this team has the horsepower up front in terms of players who can create zone entries/rush offence that team had. Getting Mikheyev back should help.

Your assessment is bang on.

 

[Sedinery]

The only difference is that it is easier to right the ship and go on a tear early on than in the middle r end to get into playoff position. But if we keep losing, that really does get harder and harder. if you estimate 96 points for playoffs, we need 48 wins. We can only lose 34 games in a season and we already lost 3 1/2 of them.

Exactly. Just creates a much bigger hill to climb for a marginal team with an ahl core

Just hate the losing culture many fans have accepted

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Canucks really poured it on late in the 3rd period...surprising for a team that was on a b2b ..third game in four nights.

Podz had a couple of big bodychecks in the game..He destroyed one of their smaller forwards early in the 1st..and laid out Andrew Peeke with big hit in the 3rd (Peeke is 6'2 ,210lbs).....

You give and receive..Podz had his head down and took big hit in the 2nd (I think he had a target on his back after the 1st period hit).

 

[Hug Ben Laf]

Garland is not a leader on this team, he dont wear any letters or is the most paid player, so if small balls Boudreau wanna "send a message" about the teams poor performance why did he not scratch the highest paid player or one of the players with a letter on their jersey.

Instead he went with the safe pick in Garland, that dont send a strong message at all, on top of it all scratching Garland to make space for Mikheyev who got a -3 in the game... lol what a joke.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Garland is not a leader on this team, he dont wear any letters or is the most paid player, so if small balls Boudreau wanna "send a message" about the teams poor performance why did he not scratch the highest paid player or one of the players with a letter on their jersey.

Instead he went with the safe pick in Garland, that dont send a strong message at all, on top of it all scratching Garland to make space for Mikheyev who got a -3 in the game... lol what a joke.

You forgot to tell who was supposed to be scratched.

 

[Hug Ben Laf]

You forgot to tell who was supposed to be scratched.

"why did he not scratch the highest paid player or one of the players with a letter on their jersey."