Speculation: How fast are the Canucks?

[shottasasa]

I don’t think JR meant fast as in skating speed. I think he was referring to decision making. He traded for Phil Kessel who isn’t a very good skater

Kessel's whole game was built around his speed and shot

 

[Nucker101]

Teams can be fast in 3 ways :

1) Raw footspeed - having players who skate fast.

2) Motor/3-zone game/puck pressure - having guys who even if they aren't burners skate miles, hound the puck, and push the play.

3) Puck movement - having guys who can transition the puck and push it up the ice quickly.

We're a slow team in all 3 ways, and have been for pretty much the entire Benning era.

I firmly believe that Green’s coaching played a part in this as well.

Yeah, he was coaching shit teams but he made things worse by neutering his mediocre/bad rosters by preaching passive play.

 

[Nucker101]

I don’t think JR meant fast as in skating speed. I think he was referring to decision making. He traded for Phil Kessel who isn’t a very good skater

Prime Kessel could fly despite not being in great shape. I remember that those Leafs teams were very Benning era Canuck-like. Usually outshot and relied on scoring their ES goals off the rush and broken plays.

 

[F A N]

Prime Kessel could fly despite not being in great shape.

Some would say that Kessel had/has the ideal male body.

 

[Rick Rocket]

I think the only 10 here is Garland with agility

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

I think the ability to play fast is more important than the ability to skate fast. It's not mutually exclusive, but one doesn't necessarily equal the other either.

Bailey is probably the fastest skater on the Canucks this season, last season it was Virtanen. Point being, the ability to mentally process the game fast is far more important than skating really fast. Quickness and agility also trump straight line speed.

 

[F A N]

Bailey is probably the fastest skater on the Canucks this season, last season it was Virtanen. Point being, the ability to mentally process the game fast is far more important than skating really fast. Quickness and agility also trump straight line speed.

I agree. Adding to what you said, having a high motor also helps. Obviously there were other things involved, but if Virtanen had Tyler Motte's motor and 200ft effort we're talking about a completely different player. Virtanen at times wrecked havoc using his speed and was able to turn the puck up ice for breakaways. Speed does make a difference.

It will be interesting to see. Both Gillis and Benning came in saying that the Canucks needed to play a fast, uptempo, skilled game. Then Gillis drafted Hodgson and Benning has drafted a ton of guys whose separating skill wasn't their skating. Still, the 2010-2011 team was the fastest team at moving the puck up ice while the Currents of late have targeted players like Podkolzin, Hoglander, and Garland. I'm not sure what Rutherford is like although Kessel and Hagelin were definitely burners.

 

[thecupismine]

Teams can be fast in 3 ways :

1) Raw footspeed - having players who skate fast.

2) Motor/3-zone game/puck pressure - having guys who even if they aren't burners skate miles, hound the puck, and push the play.

3) Puck movement - having guys who can transition the puck and push it up the ice quickly.

We're a slow team in all 3 ways, and have been for pretty much the entire Benning era.

Might be my bias from remembering the best Canuck teams, but I value 2 + 3 far more than 1. Having guys who were fast like Grabner, Raymond, and Virtanen didn't matter nearly as much as having a guy like Burrows who was always hounding the puck and pushing the play (which made him look way faster than he really was).

Speed almost feels irrelevant (past a certain baseline) unless you have good puck movement. Otherwise, that guy is going to have to be like McDavid and carry the puck the whole way on his own in order to make the speed relevant. Now, if you have great puck movement, then you can start leveraging some speed, but only if the player can take a pass and handle the puck at said speed (something some players like Virtanen were trash at).

If the Canucks want to play faster, the quickest way to do that is having more players on the backend who can quickly transition the puck up the ice.