Canucks Off to Hot Start

[PG Canuck]

Big fan of comeback wins, even thought its arguable we shouldn't have been down goals in the first place.

You're going to be down in games at some point, but it's nice to see some fight in this team. Whenever we were down a few goals under AV, the chances of a comeback were slim. Under Torts, we've had two comebacks already, that resulted in wins - I have a reason to stay tuned to a game even if we go down a few goals.

 

[Bougieman]

Comeback wins when you're down 2 or 3 goals early on feel like they're worth 4 points, somehow! ^_^

They just put me in a great ******* mood, quite frankly. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Echoing what others have said - I'll be more excited when we start beating better teams. Games like Calgary and Edmonton are really games we should be winning. Contests with teams like LA, Chicago, SJ, St. Louis...those will be the real tests.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Echoing what others have said - I'll be more excited when we start beating better teams. Games like Calgary and Edmonton are really games we should be winning. Contests with teams like LA, Chicago, SJ, St. Louis...those will be the real tests.

Pretty much intended to post this. If we beat San Jose on Thursday, then I will start getting excited.

 

[David71]

Echoing what others have said - I'll be more excited when we start beating better teams. Games like Calgary and Edmonton are really games we should be winning. Contests with teams like LA, Chicago, SJ, St. Louis...those will be the real tests.

I agree. even without regular players in the lineup. van has some secondary scoring from santorelli/richardson+ goals from garry/edler. sedins racking up the points. true test is against the powerhouses or "better teams."

 

[Hammer79]

Promising start yes, but let's keep perspective here. The Canucks beat 3 teams that aren't likely to be in the playoffs, and lost to a likely playoff team.

 

[canuck4life16]

We need to beat the Shark to prove we still a contender and good team find ways to beat teams that has owned them

 

[Wetcoaster]

Pretty much intended to post this. If we beat San Jose on Thursday, then I will start getting excited.

Check in 20 games to see how the players are with the new system.

The Sharks have the same coach and system so they should be ahead of the Canucks at this point.

 

[JuniorNelson]

The trend I am most gratified with is the even officiating. Tortorella is keeping them honest, to my eye. I haven't checked any stats or anything, but the NJ game seemed to be well called, to me. This is awesome. Tortorella deserves acknowledgement for this.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

I'm just talking first 4 games, and with Luongo in the pipes, not Schneider.

What....what's that sound?

Is that the sound of goalposts moving i hear...


You should have added the caveat of autumn/October/rainy season

 

[me2]

J

they beat some pretty crappy teams. solid start but we'll see how they fare in the coming weeks with that road trip

Beat an Edmonton team missing its top 2 centes. Calgary are terrible. Scraped by an offensively challenged NJ.

Got spanked by the only playoff team they played. I want to believe but they need to beat some good teams first.

 

[13 others]

Not really. 82 games is a long season. Beating teams like the injured Oilers and Flames doesn't mean anything. I don't think we can compete with the top teams in the west. We need to see more before making a judgement, because on paper the team doesn't look great.

 

[Havre]

Promising start yes, but let's keep perspective here. The Canucks beat 3 teams that aren't likely to be in the playoffs, and lost to a likely playoff team.

Correct.

Obviously you can only beat whatever is in front of you, but I don't think we have looked especially good. Not that I'm overly worried, but if we had played Red Wings, Senators, Penguins and Tampa as Buffalo have we could very well have been a team with 1p and not 6.

Not that I'm not optimistic a bit "longer term". If we "gel" in the right way both in terms of the new players and the coach as well as being healthy come play off time I think we can win it. Definitely.

 

[King of the ES*]

Now we've had some close wins, but we're still 3-1 to start the season, which is rare.

In fact, the last time we started 3-1 was back in 2008, winning 3 of 4, 2 of which were won in OT (just like this season).

Not to mention, the Twins and Luongo have had hot starts, which is also rare. It usually takes Luongo at least a few weeks to really get in the groove, but he's been great thus far.

Is it the new coaching staff? Is it because of the upcoming olympics? Is it just pure luck?

Discuss.

I know that I'm the resident pessimist, but I don't think they've looked that good.

2/3 wins have come in OT, where it required them to bounce back from multi-goal defecits to even get there in the first place. Can't expect that to happen very often.

It seems like the exact same team as last year, quite frankly. Accumulating points, but doing so in very unconvincing fashion. The playoffs have a tendency to weed these teams out pretty quickly, as we've seen in the last two years.

 

[carolinacanuck]

A few reasons for optimism from my perspective...

- we've beaten teams we're supposed to beat

- we've come from behind to win

- garrison playing awesome

- santorelli playing with a ton of confidence and receiving a ton of praise from the coach

- coach isn't reluctant to split the sedins for a few shifts and put another winger with them

overall, it just feels pretty freaken good to get off to a good start and get some points in the bank with the mother of all road trips a few days away.

 

[dave babych returns]

So this is the four game retrospective thread?

My take is that we are beating the teams we are supposed to beat. That is a good thing, but not that good.. it is literally what is supposed to happen.

At this early juncture I think all we can really say is that a lot of players are still adjusting, but as a team it's nice to see the group more tenacious.

Like Wetcoaster said, let's check back at the 20 game mark and see what kinds of conclusions we can draw.

 

[GrogZilla]

A lot of people downplaying the start because of the opposition.
Sure the Canucks have been playing & beating teams they should beat.

Thing is, we have seen a lot of Canucks teams that don't do this. A lot of times where the Canucks look like world beaters vs the best in the league & then get spanked by bottom feeders.

Piling up wins & points while missing 2 or 3 top 9 forwards & still learning Torts system is very encouraging.
Not planning a parade or anything but there are lots of things to be optimistic about early in the season.

 

[vanuck]

Canucks off to a hot start?

 

[tiny103]

I really hope Kassian has bought into tort's system. Hes the only one that scares me for not playing up to snuff to even make our four lines.

 

[Luck 6]

Hate to say it, but Luongo IS having his typical slow start. He hasn't looked bad, and I think a lot of it comes from bad defensive breakdowns, but Luongo only has a .901 save percentage. Just think how well the team will do when he starts playing better!

But yeah....next game is a big test against the Sharks, so let's see how we feel after that, if nothing else.

This just isn't true. Luongo has been great so far, forget about the statistics. Have a look at each goal individually, and then look at all of the goals that could have been. He's made countless big saves at opportune times to keep us in games, and I think he only has 1 bad goal against. His S% last night was only 0.913% and I'd say he played fabulous. I'm not sure we can expect wonderful goalie stats when were playing such an aggressive style of hockey.

 

[Reign Nateo]

We got spanked by a good team and then played 3 pretty weak teams. I'd give it some time before we start congratulating each other.

 

[dave babych returns]

A lot of people downplaying the start because of the opposition.
Sure the Canucks have been playing & beating teams they should beat.

Thing is, we have seen a lot of Canucks teams that don't do this. A lot of times where the Canucks look like world beaters vs the best in the league & then get spanked by bottom feeders.

Piling up wins & points while missing 2 or 3 top 9 forwards & still learning Torts system is very encouraging.
Not planning a parade or anything but there are lots of things to be optimistic about early in the season.

I'm not saying it's not good. It's good. Thing is, I expect this team to be good.

So.. it is to be expected. If we can beat a team like San Jose half the time while learning Tort's system, missing guys etc.. that will be better than "good."

 

[carolinacanuck]

To counter some of the optimism I posted earlier, I'll post a few pessimistic things I've seen from my perspective...

- ryan kesler is invisible. ferrarro had a good line on kesler last night during the broadcast...said he's 'wandering' all over the ice with no real purpose. good analysis.

- i know chris higgins bro is on here sometimes, so sorry to say this but your brother isn't providing much. he's trade bait in my opinion.

- dan hamhuis looks like a shell of his former self.

- team sometimes falls into bad habits of trying to make the looooooooong cross ice pass out of the zone or turns the puck over too much instead of eating the puck along the boards and grinding it out of there.

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Anything else and I'd be trying too hard to find a negative.

 

[NYVanfan]

first period of Sharks game was very good too
i think they can skate with the Sharks if they get adjusted to the system.
Right now, SJ is the better team though (look what they did to AV and the NYR last night!)

 

[Eddy Punch Clock]

I don't disagree with anyone that says they want to see us beat a real team now; but as least so far we've won the games we "should have" won.

I think part of the country club reputation the Canucks have gotten over the past two seasons has partly to do with the fact that they only seemed to show up for the big games and go on auto pilot for the non playoff teams.... usually resulting in them getting embarrassed.

Again, small sample size, but so far I prefer the character of the team that doesn't just mail it in when playing a supposed lesser opponent.

Who knows, maybe this will be the year we turn it all around and stop making back up goalies on crappy teams look like Veznia candidates.