Snatcher Demko
High-End Intangibles
- Oct 8, 2006
- 5,954
- 1,366
Gillis is out to lunch and needs to be fired if he thinks all the Canucks need to do is vaguely get "bigger" or "younger".
The single biggest impediment to this team's lack of playoff success is that the Canucks lack snipers.
Look at several key Canucks ES goals in the last series. Kesler or Burrows snipes off of turnovers or the rush. Why did the Sharks beat the Canucks? Because they were bigger and bullied us around? No - the players that killed them were Couture, Pavelski and Marleau. All of whom have great shots and wil go into the dirty areas. Size is not the issue. Even Torres had a nice snipe on that 2 on 1 that broke the Canucks' backs. In the playoffs, time and space are precious, and rebounds are quickly collapsed upon or cleared. If you can't get shots through a maze or fire a quick snapshot or one-timer, you're in tough.
Why did the Kings steamroll their way to the Cup last year? They didn't play a single team in the WC that had more than one 30 goal scorer. The seas parted for them. Canucks, Blues and Coyotes. The only Canuck who scored 30 last year was Daniel and he was concussed. Kesler was hurt. The Devils had three 30 goals scorers and took them to 6 with an otherwise far inferior roster. Kovalchuk being a legitimate sniper, with Parise and Clarkson having very good years. I'd compare the latter two with Kesler and Burrows (2-way players with pretty good shots, although for Clarkson, 2012 may be an anomaly).
If Edler is to be traded, the likes of Couturier will NOT help this team. It had better be Bobby Ryan, Loui Eriksson, Eberle or Evander Kane or a less developed (but ready to break out) young forward with a great shot and isn't afraid to get his nose dirty.
Kesler and Burrows for this reason are untouchable. Higgins, Hansen, Booth, Kassian, JS and any other forward the Canucks intend to have on the roster next season must spend the entire off-season focusing on shooting quickly and with accuracy.
If the Canucks go after any big UFAs, it should be Ryder or Iginla. Horton can shoot as well but I think he gets ridiculous money and I doubt he leaves the East anyway.
One sniper who could come relatively cheap is Cammalleri.
It was a mistake to trade Grabner and Hodgson for players who could not shoot the puck. Both were important pieces for this reason on an otherwise impotent roster. If we had somehow gotten Bobby Ryan last year for a Hodgson package who knows what could have been.
Jensen is the only player in the pipeline with the potential to be a sniper and it is why he is a valuable prospect and it is imperative he develops well.
And finally, when Gillis is evaluating the return for Luongo, this type of player (either directly or via 3-way deal) needs to be his ultimate target - even if the Canucks take on a bad contract to buy out. For example, something off-the-wall like Luongo for Neiderreiter (or Grabner) plus Dipietro. Someone else suggested that one and I think it's crazy enough to work.
The single biggest impediment to this team's lack of playoff success is that the Canucks lack snipers.
Look at several key Canucks ES goals in the last series. Kesler or Burrows snipes off of turnovers or the rush. Why did the Sharks beat the Canucks? Because they were bigger and bullied us around? No - the players that killed them were Couture, Pavelski and Marleau. All of whom have great shots and wil go into the dirty areas. Size is not the issue. Even Torres had a nice snipe on that 2 on 1 that broke the Canucks' backs. In the playoffs, time and space are precious, and rebounds are quickly collapsed upon or cleared. If you can't get shots through a maze or fire a quick snapshot or one-timer, you're in tough.
Why did the Kings steamroll their way to the Cup last year? They didn't play a single team in the WC that had more than one 30 goal scorer. The seas parted for them. Canucks, Blues and Coyotes. The only Canuck who scored 30 last year was Daniel and he was concussed. Kesler was hurt. The Devils had three 30 goals scorers and took them to 6 with an otherwise far inferior roster. Kovalchuk being a legitimate sniper, with Parise and Clarkson having very good years. I'd compare the latter two with Kesler and Burrows (2-way players with pretty good shots, although for Clarkson, 2012 may be an anomaly).
If Edler is to be traded, the likes of Couturier will NOT help this team. It had better be Bobby Ryan, Loui Eriksson, Eberle or Evander Kane or a less developed (but ready to break out) young forward with a great shot and isn't afraid to get his nose dirty.
Kesler and Burrows for this reason are untouchable. Higgins, Hansen, Booth, Kassian, JS and any other forward the Canucks intend to have on the roster next season must spend the entire off-season focusing on shooting quickly and with accuracy.
If the Canucks go after any big UFAs, it should be Ryder or Iginla. Horton can shoot as well but I think he gets ridiculous money and I doubt he leaves the East anyway.
One sniper who could come relatively cheap is Cammalleri.
It was a mistake to trade Grabner and Hodgson for players who could not shoot the puck. Both were important pieces for this reason on an otherwise impotent roster. If we had somehow gotten Bobby Ryan last year for a Hodgson package who knows what could have been.
Jensen is the only player in the pipeline with the potential to be a sniper and it is why he is a valuable prospect and it is imperative he develops well.
And finally, when Gillis is evaluating the return for Luongo, this type of player (either directly or via 3-way deal) needs to be his ultimate target - even if the Canucks take on a bad contract to buy out. For example, something off-the-wall like Luongo for Neiderreiter (or Grabner) plus Dipietro. Someone else suggested that one and I think it's crazy enough to work.
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