Sportsnet replayed a Canucks game from early in the season, a 5-2 win over Detroit with Horvat registering a hat-trick. All five goals came in the third period.
It's amazing how you tend to look at the game more analytically and focus on individual players, when you already know the outcome.
Detroit of course had a legendarily bad season, one of the worst in the salary cap era. But in this game, the Canucks simply don't win if Markstrom isn't absolutely brilliant. The Canucks coughed up at least three or four eyeball-to-eyeball chances in every period. My gawd they were an awful defensive team last season, and in this game their 'big three' of Edler, Tanev and Myers might have been their worst.
I worry about both Edler and Tanev....both now over 30 who've played a ton of minutes and endured injury plagued seasons.....just not sure you can rely on them going forward for top-four minutes.
So this blueline does need some sort of major makeover.....it needs more mobility, more physicality and players with fewer brain-cramps. Maybe part of it is coaching and the system they're trying to play, but who knows?