Post-Game Talk: GAME #2 - Canucks vs. Oilers

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Nuckles

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Apr 27, 2010
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BloatedGuppy

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Jun 29, 2007
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Yeah, I mean it's a topic we talk about often but people are really running out of excuses for Ballard. You can talk about how the coach doesn't use him right and blah blah but what it boils down to, is that Ballard is an NHL veteran. He is not just making system mistakes or bad reads based on his style of play (although he does that too). He is making rookie type mistakes and sometimes getting badly burned by them. Ballard just simply is not the defenseman we thought he was. He just is not very good...

I had high hopes for Ballard and have patiently waited for him to turn it around for a couple of years now, but it seems like the more I defend him the more his play regresses. The guy seems to have fallen off a Wade Redden sized cliff. He can still skate like the wind, but his confidence with the puck has utterly evaporated, he plays like it's a bomb on his stick. It's actually kind of amazing that a young kid with a few dozen games under his belt is the steadying influence on that pairing. I imagine him sighing deeply as he cleans up yet another of Ballard's gaffes.

Pity, really. He seems like a good guy and a good teammate. If he can't put it together here, I hope he can turn it around somewhere else with a fresh start.
 

Lonny Bohonos

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Apr 4, 2010
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I had high hopes for Ballard and have patiently waited for him to turn it around for a couple of years now, but it seems like the more I defend him the more his play regresses. The guy seems to have fallen off a Wade Redden sized cliff. He can still skate like the wind, but his confidence with the puck has utterly evaporated, he plays like it's a bomb on his stick. It's actually kind of amazing that a young kid with a few dozen games under his belt is the steadying influence on that pairing. I imagine him sighing deeply as he cleans up yet another of Ballard's gaffes.

Pity, really. He seems like a good guy and a good teammate. If he can't put it together here, I hope he can turn it around somewhere else with a fresh start.

I taken less issue with when the pucks on his stick and more so when its not. Hes out of position often.
 

mrmyheadhurts

Registered Boozer
Mar 22, 2007
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Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?

...because the building wasn't full of HF nerds?

I guarantee that 95% of the crowd had no clue what the backstory on him was - and 50% of the lower bowl had probably never even heard of him. Plus, who really cares? He was a free agent, with the ability to sign with whomever he wanted. I don't understand the sense of entitlement that Canuck fans have for every player that has even the smallest connection to B.C.

If you ask me, he made the right decision for his career. He's going to rack up the PP points and ride it to a huge payday on that team.
 

Smokey McCanucks

PuckDaddy "Perfect HFBoard Trade Proposal 02/24/14
Dec 21, 2010
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Pros: Good game from Lu, shootout excepted (and for me, shootouts are always excepted); Great game from Kassian; everyone looked a lot more synchronized than yesterday, they were more on the same page

Cons: still pretty lousy defensively, Tanev blew that second goal and everyone blew the Eberle goal. And that's not even counting numerous lapses that didn't end up as goals. Lack of training camp really showing. Also, Schultz survived. Luckily there is still lots of time to remedy these problems.

All in all I'm totally unconcerned by starting 0-1-1. It's not even weighing on my mind in the slightest. To me, these are basically preseason games right now. One we hit twenty games or so, then we can start with the overly critical analysis, for now everyone's still just trying to get their heads wrapped around this short season.
 

Reverend Mayhem

Lowly Serf/Reluctant Cuckold
Feb 15, 2009
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Also, Smokey. Last two years (the ones we won the PT) we started 1-2-1. Just win the Calgary game and build from there.

We played a bad game for our standards and an Oiler team who 55% of them had already played most of the season had to take us to the shootout to win. We'll be a good team when we get our feet under us, and right now I'm not afraid but I will be very anxious if we can't at least get a point in the Calgary game.
 

opendoor

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Dec 12, 2006
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Just for perspective, here are the starts various teams had last season and where they ended up in parentheses:

DAL: 6-1-0 (10th)
COL: 5-1-0 (11th)
ANA: 4-1-0 (13th)

BUF: 5-1-0 (9th)
TOR: 7-2-1 (13th)
NYI: 3-1-0 (14th)


And now some good teams that had mediocre starts:

VAN: 4-5-1 (1st)
STL: 2-4-0 (2nd)

NSH: 3-4-1 (4th)
NYR: 3-3-3 (1st)
BOS: 3-7-0 (2nd)


Obviously the shorter season is going to make the start a little more important, but even then it's importance is going to be overstated. No one bats an eye when a crappy team goes on a 4-1-0 run or a good team goes 1-3-1 in the middle of the season, so they really shouldn't just because it's at the start of the year either.
 

moog35

Registered User
Jul 25, 2007
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To be honest, I'd rather Kassian just lay big hits rather than fight. That way he can actually stay on the ice so his other tools will be useful to us (what good is his passing or being strong along the boards if he's in the box?), and still give the team/crowd an energy boost with a devastating hit.

Nothing wrong with him fighting after the other team scored, we brought him here to be physical and part of his physical game is fighting.

I can't remember the last time there was a fight of a faceoff when the twins were on the ice
 

Tiranis

Registered User
Jun 10, 2009
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Obviously the shorter season is going to make the start a little more important, but even then it's importance is going to be overstated. No one bats an eye when a crappy team goes on a 4-1-0 run or a good team goes 1-3-1 in the middle of the season, so they really shouldn't just because it's at the start of the year either.

I can't find it now but there's post in the "Rangers are unbeatable" thread on the main boards which shows how the best playoff teams, including the Cup-winning Devils, did last time this happened in 94-95. Pretty much all of them started the season really poorly.
 

Proto

Registered User
Jan 30, 2010
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As I said last night, the fight Kassian had with Eager was dumb, dumb, dumb. I hate that AV seems to reward that sort of stupidity, rather than discouraging it. I wonder if that's why the Canucks always take so many penalties.

After the Oilers tied it up though, it was Sedin time again – the faceoff at centre ice had the Sedins lining up against the Oilers fourth line. Curiously, this was the time that Eager decided that he needed to take some retribution from Kassian. Kassian claimed after the game that he was the one looking for the fight, which didn’t really seem to be backed up by the tape. The guys on the broadcast were talking about Eager taking retribution for a hit that Kassian had thrown on Taylor Hall, which seems odd too – that hit was in the second period and, as I’ve shown before, fighting goes way down in the third period of close games, with about 1400 minutes being required per fight in a tie game – it’s basically the playoffs.

What that fight did do though was prevent the Sedins from getting a shot at Edmonton’s fourth line in the last six minutes of a tied hockey game. When the puck dropped again, they were still on the ice, with Dale Weise replacing Kassian. Belanger and Petrell were gone though, replaced by Hall, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins. Was this a coincidence? Possibly. It sure worked out well for Edmonton as far as matchups go though. Better that Ben Eager gets his face punched in then the Sedins spend a shift in the Oilers end of the ice.

http://www.mc79hockey.com/?p=5210

I doubt anyone is surprised by this start. Most of the team hasn't played any hockey, and AV spent the pre-season trying out brand new forward PK combinations (several of which don't involve centers). Surprise, surprise, the team's PK is awful and the team looks lousy. It's the same as every other year since AV has been here. I just hope the team isn't playing sub-adjusted-.500 hockey at the 20 game mark like they did the last two years.
 

Tiranis

Registered User
Jun 10, 2009
23,097
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Toronto, ON
Why? because he didn't come here?

I bet you half the suits at GM place dont even know who he is.

because true Canuck fans have class and only those who are the stereotypes that other boards have built up about us would boo

Who cares? Get some emotion into that building FFS. Don't care if it has to come from booing some kid playing in his first game. Out of all the games I've watched, our building has been by far the quietest.
 

Dado

Guest
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?

Why would he be? As far as I know, he's never said a bad word or acted in a negative way towards Vancouver, either city or team.
 

opendoor

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Dec 12, 2006
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I can't find it now but there's post in the "Rangers are unbeatable" thread on the main boards which shows how the best playoff teams, including the Cup-winning Devils, did last time this happened in 94-95. Pretty much all of them started the season really poorly.


That's mostly correct. NJD and PHI had terrible starts (3-5-2 and 3-6-1 respectively), but DET and CHI were good, both going 7-3-0.

I definitely think this shortened season is going to throw a lot of conventional wisdom out of whack.
 

ItsAllPartOfThePlan

Registered User
Feb 5, 2006
16,105
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Calgary
Who cares? Get some emotion into that building FFS. Don't care if it has to come from booing some kid playing in his first game. Out of all the games I've watched, our building has been by far the quietest.

How about they just cheer for their own team? Like I said, the suits at the game probably didn't even know who the guy was.
 
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