Definitely not their peak seasons, but Virtanen maybe able to match the point totals of the Sedins nowadays with a physical edge in 3-5 years, same with Shinkaruk, but without the physical side.
At the same time, were the Sedins ever supposed to be as good as they were? If memory serves PPG was their top end ceiling when they were drafted. They exceeded it obviously, and the only hope the canucks have is that a couple guys from the current crop can reach or exceed their ceilings.
On the topic of the game, good showing for Corrado who I thought did as well as he could with the fire drill that is Sbisa. Him and Bieksa are anchoring the defence and not in a good way. Would love to see these pairings once Hamhuis is back to ease him in and if him and Corrado show chemistry slowly up their minutes by simply taking them away from Stanto-Bieksa.
Edler-Tanev
Hamhuis-Corrado
Stanton-*Bieksa
*If it were up to me I would try Sanguinetti here and let Bieksa sit a game.
On the forward side IMO it's time to go back to the drawing board, some of these pairings that were working earlier in the year are just killing momentum now. Matthias is killing more plays then you can count but Dorsett has somehow been worse the past few. Since SSV seems to be Willie's goto line and probably won't be changing I'd like to see the following lineup:
Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata
Burrows-Bonino-Vey
Higgins-Richardson-Kassian
Matthias-Horvat-Hansen
I find myself agreeing with what you say, and I like your defense pairings. I'm not sure I like that forward line-up entirely, but you are right in that it's hard to fit things around when there are so many players who need a change.
Higgins and Bonino need to be split up.
Matthias is dragging Kassian and Richardson down, even though his solo efforts are solid.
Dorsett is dragging Horvat down because he is mostly good off the rush and can't be in the right places offensively.
I think Vey should stop being sat. I think he is the least of the problem when it comes to forwards who seem to have hit a wall. I think we need to make a trade to shake things up because there are so many player combos that just don't do it for me - and a lot of that hinges on our left wingers: Higgins, Matthias, and Dorsett. I'm scared to look, but anyone who isn't could tell me how few points they have, combined, in the last however many games.........
Look at our centers and right wingers:
Sedin - Vrbata
Bonino - Burrows
Richardson - Kassian
Horvat - Hansen
That seems like 2/3rds of a good forward group. Thankfully we at least have Daniel Sedin over there...
