Post-Game Talk: Ducks 1 @ Canucks 2 (SO) | Happy New Year | 1/1/16

[MS]

That's the fun part.

You can just guess that that was the moment they realized Biega does things well and is worth something. Up until that point he was just a typecasted AHL player in their minds.

"So you say this undersized AHL player stood up for our captain and started punching things with his fists? He must be a NHL level player!"

I'm not actually joking. I truly believe that happened. That's how atrociously bad the pro scouting of this regime has been.

Sadly, this is probably likely.

The comments on him were to this extent - about his 'try' and 'compete'. Whether they grasp that his defensive reads and gap control are the best on the team aside from Tanev and Hamhuis is extremely debatable.

Biega obviously does try hard and have great work ethic. But he's succeeding because of his intelligence, not his 'try'.

Geez, am I in the minority when I'm happy the Canucks pull out a win? What kind of loser culture are we cultivating here? This isn't Edmonton.

It's sickening.

If we utterly suck balls and draft #4 overall in June, I'll enjoy it in June. And I'll be cognizant that this benefit exists as we're losing. But I will never, ever sit there and cheer for my team to lose. It's absolutely disgusting and so are the gutless anti-fans promoting this sort of attitude. Go cheer for Edmonton, losers.

 

[Nucker101]

Watching the highlights and seeing the Kesler goal, gave me a giant grin.

The "you sly *******" grin.

Hated, but loved it at the same time.

I enjoy Kesler, don't like the way he left, but as a player I still don't mind him. At the end of the day we got the last laugh.

I'm in the same boat, but then again I've always liked players/teams that have that swagger/cocky attitude. People getting super annoyed with this are reacting exactly how he wanted.

 

[Shareefruck]

But even removing the practical aspect of gaining first overall draft picks, what you see as refusing to have a loser mentality, I see as a stubborn desperate attempt to save face (on management's part), a short-sighted money-motivated attempt to cling to a hopeless old core, and refusal to healthily re-start from the ground up to farm for the future the right way.

People argue the competitiveness vs. tanking thing as a principle vs. practicality thing, but I'm on the tanking side even based on raw moral principle, personally.

Being unwilling to reset because you're too scared and comfortable with the way you're currently getting by is a horrible attitude to have, even removed from hockey.

 

[MS]

But even removing the practical aspect of gaining first overall draft picks, what you see as refusing to have a loser mentality, I see as a stubborn desperate attempt to save face (on management's part), a short-sighted money-motivated attempt to cling to a hopeless old core, and refusal to healthily re-start from the ground up to farm for the future the right way.

People argue the competitiveness vs. tanking thing as a principle vs. practicality thing, but I'm on the tanking side even based on raw moral principle, personally.

Even if the team was intentionally tanking, and even if I 'get' that in the big picture losing might be a positive, I'm still going to be cheering for them to win on any given night.

I don't watch sports to cheer against my team and will never understand the mentality of anyone that can.

 

[TheWolf*]

Kesler does not get under my skin with his antics, but I do find it hilarious how he feels slighted by the fanbase when they boo him. Does he not understand we realize he demanded a trade? He expects that the fanbase will continue to hold him in "god" status despite the fact he abandoned them? What a peculiar individual.

 

[Shareefruck]

In a perfect world, this is the mentality I would like to approach it with:

Clean house and start from the ground up, build the team entirely with the focus of grooming youth in a healthy environment that doesn't play like a chicken with it's head cut off. Don't build the team to be competitive and win as many games as possible, build it to play the right way and emphasize work ethic and structure.

Don't focus on making the team as competitive as possible. Then when they play cheer for development and cheer for a team building towards something, don't cheer for wins or losses, but expect and be okay with losses.

I get MS put off by cheering against the team, but I also think it's wrong to be so unflinchingly stubborn about cheering for the team to WIN every game being the right way to think about sport. I don't think it is, even in principle.

 

[Knight53]

I consider myself a huge fan, but I turned down free tickets for this game and the last home game. I don't even have to drive 9 hours, I live downtown! This is how little excitement I have for this current team. If I'm gonna watch them suck, I'd rather do it at home where I can turn off the TV in the 3rd period.

No kidding. Went to the game only because of free tickets and wanted to see Hutton and McCann for the first time live, come to find out McCann was scratched. This team disappoints in every way.

Absolute zero excitement from this garbage team.

 

[thegutter]

Id rather see the team winning any time than "tanking". We need to win, young players need to win for us to have success. Edmonton has been losing for the last 7 years. All the high picks in the world and they are last in the west.

 

[Knight53]

you call yourself a fan?

Yup. Can't blame me for not cheering for a team that has buffoons known as the management team running this team with zero direction. Awful move after awful move.

I wasted to much time and invested to much emotion to not be allowed to cheer against this crap.

The only thing that is sickening is how we're expected to cheer no matter what because if not, out come the wolves who label you has a hater or "non-fan".

 

[CanaFan]

Id rather see the team winning any time than "tanking". We need to win, young players need to win for us to have success. Edmonton has been losing for the last 7 years. All the high picks in the world and they are last in the west.

Biggest falsehood on these boards. Edmonton isn't the *only* team that has ever tanked and yet people seem to cite them as the only outcome possible.

 

[thegutter]

Biggest falsehood on these boards. Edmonton isn't the *only* team that has ever tanked and yet people seem to cite them as the only outcome possible.

I would rather try to win games, continue to draft well and develop players, then suck terribly on purpose for the next few years to hopefully draft in the top 5. Not even guaranteed we select the right players.

 

[ginner classic]

Sadly, this is probably likely.

The comments on him were to this extent - about his 'try' and 'compete'. Whether they grasp that his defensive reads and gap control are the best on the team aside from Tanev and Hamhuis is extremely debatable.

Biega obviously does try hard and have great work ethic. But he's succeeding because of his intelligence, not his 'try'.




It's sickening.

If we utterly suck balls and draft #4 overall in June, I'll enjoy it in June. And I'll be cognizant that this benefit exists as we're losing. But I will never, ever sit there and cheer for my team to lose. It's absolutely disgusting and so are the gutless anti-fans promoting this sort of attitude. Go cheer for Edmonton, losers.

The team is not fun to watch. There is no story..its not entertaining and they have no hope of competing. What am I cheering for?

I see your Edmonton and raise you...

Pittsburgh
Chicago
LA
Tampa
Colorado v 1.0
Carolina
2011 Canucks.

Top 3 picks are a better guarantee of success

 

[CanaFan]

I would rather try to win games, continue to draft well and develop players, then suck terribly on purpose for the next few years to hopefully draft in the top 5. Not even guaranteed we select the right players.

Obviously there are no guarantees, but that applies to both scenarios. When you say "continue to draft well" are you sure we *have* drafted well in the first so that we can "continue" doing it?

We have almost nothing to show from 2005-2011 (Raymond, Grabner, Hodgson) and have a boost from 2012-14 in part because we traded two veteran players for the 9th and 24th picks in 2013 and 2014. Without those trades - which do fit into a "rebuild" strategy and not a "try to win now" strategy - we would not have Horvat or McCann to our "good drafting" credit. So you are basically left with Hutton, a maybe in Shinkaruk, a good prospect in Boeser, and of course Virtanen and Demko who came following a season in which we finished 25th in the league standings.

So without trading 2 of our top players for picks or having a crap season to draft high - both hallmarks of a tank/rebuild - has this team really "drafted well"?

I don't particularly think they have.

 

[me2]

I also think their moves, specifically trades, over the past few years have been dreadful. They've traded several of the support players that helped established their identity as a heavy team for much softer, but only marginally more skilled players:

DSP for Sekac
Palmieri for picks (terrible)
Etem for Hagelin

I think the Kesler trade & extension will be a bad one for the Ducks when all is said and done.

Then the Bieksa trade & extension was atrocious.

The Despres trade was good...and that's about it.

They got nothing for Perrault either. Wasted depth.

Kesler deal was fine - a short term (2 year) veteran on a $5m deal to help while Getz/Perry. Kesler seems to be trending down, right now I'd say he should be filling the role of an elite 3C, at the rate he's going in 3 years from now he might not be much more than a high end veteran 4C on nearly $7m (Madden type role in Chicago at a crazy price). Ducks have to be praying that Kesler can turn his offense around.

 

[MS]

The team is not fun to watch. There is no story..its not entertaining and they have no hope of competing. What am I cheering for?

I see your Edmonton and raise you...

Pittsburgh
Chicago
LA
Tampa
Colorado v 1.0
Carolina
2011 Canucks.

Top 3 picks are a better guarantee of success

And if that happens, fine.

But I'm not going to put the games on the TV and cheer for my team to be scored against and lose. To me that's just completely messed up and a total loser mentality.

I'm either cheering for my team to win or not watching at all.

Even if I can accept that losing might theoretically be the best thing for the club in a macro sense, I'm still going to cheer for them to win when the games are actually on for those 3 hours, 3x a week.

 

[PG Canuck]

I cheer for wins but am not greatly upset at loses. I follow other teams around us to see if they win to push us lower.

Now that's a loophole to not cheering against your team. Cheer for other teams to push us lower.

 

[Ryp37]

Rocking a mean hangover from that game but random thoughts
love me some Biega. He's aggressive as hell and was all over the ice but made sure to get back into position. Love me some Hutton as well, when he pulled that spin move I couldn't tell if he lost the puck and spinned while recovering it or did it on purpose but it was slick.

Shots were even but Anaheims were higher quality chances so shouts Markstrom. Goalies look like pitchers these days, Markstrom and Anderson looked giant out there. When Markstrom played against Lindback that one game it looked like the two towers. Canucks run around too much in their own zone and someone always loses their guy, Anaheim was able to create chances out of nowhere at times whereas the nuckleheads couldn't get into the high percentage areas

Ill never get sick of watching the Sedins, the no look passes still amaze, Daniel had a sickening one in the neutral zone to Henrik
Standing O was great for juice, KB2 just doesn't have the same ring to it as KB3.

 

[CanaFan]

And if that happens, fine.

But I'm not going to put the games on the TV and cheer for my team to be scored against and lose. To me that's just completely messed up and a total loser mentality.

I'm either cheering for my team to win or not watching at all.

Even if I can accept that losing might theoretically be the best thing for the club in a macro sense, I'm still going to cheer for them to win when the games are actually on for those 3 hours, 3x a week.

That makes sense and while I don't have the same hang up I will admit to missing far more games than I use to or watching while doing something else more often. I guess it comes down to how you "cope" with this team being not only as bad as it is but also how boring they are to watch even when they do stumble and trip their way to a win. While I remain a fan in the sense that I care about the overall fortunes of this team and how certain things are progressing (prospects, young players) I find actually watching the games has slipped down my list of "must do" activities this season.

 

[thekernel]

I consider myself a huge fan, but I turned down free tickets for this game and the last home game. I don't even have to drive 9 hours, I live downtown! This is how little excitement I have for this current team. If I'm gonna watch them suck, I'd rather do it at home where I can turn off the TV in the 3rd period.

If this happens to you again, PM me and I will gladly take those tickets off your hands, 100 times out of 100.

 

[quat]

I cheer for wins but am not greatly upset at loses. I follow other teams around us to see if they win to push us lower.

Now that's a loophole to not cheering against your team. Cheer for other teams to push us lower.

This is basically the model I've been following. Just can't find it in myself to actually cheer against the Canucks when they're on the ice. I want them to win every game they play and it's as reflexive as breathing. ha ha

 

[Hardyvan123]

No kidding. Went to the game only because of free tickets and wanted to see Hutton and McCann for the first time live, come to find out McCann was scratched. This team disappoints in every way.

Absolute zero excitement from this garbage team.

Those 5 goals in his first 9 GP is turning out to be a bad thing.

Since then he has a 2-4-6 line in 27 games and missed the WJHC where he could have got some of that confidence back.

Why didn't the Canucks call someone up, heck anyone from Utica to play his 12 MPG and let him go to the WJHC?

This is a treading water season at best, luckily it's a great draft year and we seemed destined for a top 5 pick.

 

[MS]

That makes sense and while I don't have the same hang up I will admit to missing far more games than I use to or watching while doing something else more often. I guess it comes down to how you "cope" with this team being not only as bad as it is but also how boring they are to watch even when they do stumble and trip their way to a win. While I remain a fan in the sense that I care about the overall fortunes of this team and how certain things are progressing (prospects, young players) I find actually watching the games has slipped down my list of "must do" activities this season.

Oh, I'm definitely the same. I've missed most of the games over the holidays.

This is probably the most boring/least inspiring incarnation of this team since the 1980s. Even at that, though, it's still interesting to follow, if not always in a positive way.

But still, no matter what, I can't stomach people cheering for their team to lose. It's pathetic.

 

[monster_bertuzzi]

Kesler does not get under my skin with his antics, but I do find it hilarious how he feels slighted by the fanbase when they boo him. Does he not understand we realize he demanded a trade? He expects that the fanbase will continue to hold him in "god" status despite the fact he abandoned them? What a peculiar individual.

I don't blame fans at Rogers arena for booing him, but at the same token I don't blame him for wanted to get the hell out of this place.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Those 5 goals in his first 9 GP is turning out to be a bad thing.

Since then he has a 2-4-6 line in 27 games and missed the WJHC where he could have got some of that confidence back.

Why didn't the Canucks call someone up, heck anyone from Utica to play his 12 MPG and let him go to the WJHC?

This is a treading water season at best, luckily it's a great draft year and we seemed destined for a top 5 pick.

It really is a strong draft year. Doesn't have the two franchise talents from last year, but there's one and several elite prospects in the top 10 picks.

 

[beachcomber]

Mediocre, competitive hockey is for losers.

We have needed to have drafted top 3 picks to make the last two cup finals. Sedin Sedin Linden and Nedved (Brown, Hedican Lafayette). Drafting top 3 is pretty much a necessity to win a cup....not that anyone should have to explain that.

Tanking is for losers. Anybody who has played any sport at a high level should know that. Fans? Not so much.