It's kind of shocking how hard Virtanen, Gaudette and MacEwen have been treated since the premature end to last season. They all had their warts, for sure, but Virtanen and Gaudette had had solid secondary scoring seasons, and MacEwen showed well down the stretch.
Then the bubble comes, and Green immediately relegates them all to the pressbox in favour of his veterans, and it looks like none of them have really re-gained any semblance of confidence since. And with their sporadic ice-time and dodgy deployment, it's not like they can really be expected to be producing tons of results right now, either.
Yup. Gaudette is one of the highest individual chance producing forwards in the NHL right now, except his on-ice shooting percentage is a comically low 2% (7.8 is the average). Guy needs a look in the top 6 and, honestly, probably more PP time to give him some confidence/momentum and get him going.
Virtanen hasn't had a great start to the year but has more to give. Unfortunately with this coach, he's rather quick to bench, demote or scratch him despite already having shown that he's a top 9 forward. We don't even have 9 forwards who are better than him - hence Green shoots himself in the foot whenever he chooses to play somebody else. It's that simple.
As for MacEwen... I've already made my thoughts on this clear. He already should've been a 4th line regular last year and it's hilarious how he's still a healthy scratch in favour of Eriksson who actually, truly looks done as an NHL'er. To me Mac beating up Forbort is just icing on the cake.
Hopefully one of the prospects we have waiting in the wings from when our GM amassed draft picks during our rebuild.
No kidding. We have more wingers than we know what to do with that need more opportunities but are weak at center right now, so why not plug Miller in as 3C to balance out the top 9?
Heck, they're even trying to convert guys like Jasek and Lind to C and I believe it's partly to address this lack of depth.
Gaudette needs to be given a run of games as a top-6 winger, probably next to Pettersson. Put Miller down to the 3C spot and try to create 3 scoring lines.
Gaudette is a scoring line winger. Period. He isn't going to play C in the NHL, and he isn't going to be a bottom 6 guy.
I feel like you're in my head and reading my exact thoughts lol.
I have to think this is in direct relation to Green's lack of extension.
He's coaching for his next job, not for the future of the Canucks as long as he doesn't have a future contract.
I get that Green is coaching for his job here and most likely isn't going to give any of the unestablished younger players the benefit of the doubt over the vets, but this hardly makes sense. Especially when the younger guys are ones who actually contribute and help you win.
Sutter is one of the strangest players I've ever seen.
Most players' results and production are hugely tied to icetime, linemates, and usage. If you give them top-6 minutes with good linemates they score, if you throw them in 10 minutes/game with plugs they don't.
But Sutter's production is almost flat no matter how you use him. Linemates are almost irrelevant because he doesn't use them and has zero vision/offensive IQ/hockey sense. Everything he does is off broken play and physical skills - good skater (or used to be), good shot, pretty decent puckhandling skills. Picks up a puck off a turnover and skates into position and shoots. Put him on a top line and he'll score 15 goals while sinking that line. Put him on a 4th line and he'll score like 12, and the only difference will be that he's playing a bit less.
... And this is why he's better than Bonino.
Because his offence is
foundational - it isn't dependent on other factors like linemates or usage. It's consistent, predictable and can be relied upon. Truly, Benning was onto something here!!!
