After a few days of digesting the signings and all of the backlash, I’m starting to feel OK about them. Yeah, the Beagle and Roussel contracts are at least a year too long, but clearly those two players were targeted by management for what they bring both on and off the ice, so I can understand why Benning went into a bidding war for them. Just think about what the veteran leadership group looked like last week: Chris Tanev, Alex Edler, Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Sam Gagner? The first word that comes to my mind is “passive”. None of those guys are the type that is going to say “The team is flat tonight, what can I do to turn this game around?”, these are guys that seem to be perfectly fine with losing a game or 10. Beagle and Roussel by all accounts are great in the room and in the community, set a great example in practice and training, and are warriors on the ice. They will change the culture of the team in a positive way, and finally replace some of the heart that the Canucks have been bleeding since their cup run (Kesler, Bieksa, Burrows, Hansen, etc). It’s also a good sign that the team has realized that “Soft, Slow and Slightly Skilled” is not a good strategy for a bottom six. I’m hopeful that the victims of this change in direction are not Adam Gaudette and Jonathan Dahlen, but Sam Gagner, Markus Granlund, and Brendan Gaunce. Maybe that’s naive, but I’m going to choose to be optimistic about this and believe that even with these guys, the Canucks will still be one of the youngest teams in the league next year, but they’ll also be grittier and more passionate than they’ve been in a while.
Here is my opening day lineup:
Baertschi – Horvat – Boeser
Eriksson – Gaudette – Pettersson
Leipsic – Sutter – Virtanen
Roussel – Beagle – Schaller
Hughes – Tanev
Edler - Stecher
Joulevi – Gudbranson
Markstrom
Demko
