Our Second Line Conundrum.

[Freakshow]

So here we are again, five years into the Mike Gillis era and we've still got garbage for a second line. Injuries have played a part in all this for sure, with Kesler and Booth both out now. What is it gonna take for Gillis to put a secondary scoring line together for this team? We've been without a RW for the second line for three years now! As it stands, looks like we'll be starting with Raymond-Ebbett-Kassian as our second line. Slow start is gonna kill this team.

We're right back to where we were when Brian Burke left here, a one line scoring team.

Click to read more...

 

[y2kcanucks]

I said it all off season that the Canucks need a legitimate second liner, but people, and Gillis repeated that wasn't the case. Maybe we should trade Luongo for Tyler Bozak so we can dump Bozak in the off season and have nothing to show for Luongo but another early 1st round playoff exit.

 

[Biggest Canuck Fan]

And a coach who wants to continue to play a more defensive way when the teams greatest success was when they attachked and lead the league in scoring... hmmm]

I hear ya though... Injuries are the Canucks greatest enemy.

 

[craigcaulks*]

I said it all off season that the Canucks need a legitimate second liner, but people, and Gillis repeated that wasn't the case. Maybe we should trade Luongo for Tyler Bozak so we can dump Bozak in the off season and have nothing to show for Luongo but another early 1st round playoff exit.

Yes yes, "people" don't think we need 2nd line scoring.


I've been saying all along that the Canuck should lower beer prices but NOBODY will agree with me. BTW, Bozak is garbage.

 

[Freakshow]

And a coach who wants to continue to play a more defensive way when the teams greatest success was when they attachked and lead the league in scoring... hmmm]

I hear ya though... Injuries are the Canucks greatest enemy.

Did you hear AV in his interview yesterday, singing the praises of Andrew Ebbett with hardly a mention of Jordan Schroeder. The guy hates younger players.

 

[Tiranis]

Did you hear AV in his interview yesterday, singing the praises of Andrew Ebbett with hardly a mention of Jordan Schroeder. The guy hates younger players.

Source? Have only seen the interview on the Canucks website and he didn't mention either. The only thing I found is this from TSN when he was asked about Ebbett:

"I think both him and (Schroeder) have looked very good," said Vigneault. "Today, I liked (Ebbett's) practice. I liked (Schroeder's) practice. We're going to continue with this and see what happens in the next couple of days."

 

[craigcaulks*]

Did you hear AV in his interview yesterday, singing the praises of Andrew Ebbett with hardly a mention of Jordan Schroeder. The guy hates younger players.

I liked Ebbett yesterday, he looked a step ahead. If he was only 6'3, 225....

 

[Freakshow]

Source? Have only seen the interview on the Canucks website and he didn't mention either. The only thing I found is this from TSN when he was asked about Ebbett:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2013/01/14/canucks_training_camp_january_14/?source=video

48 seconds into the video. There's a better video of the same comments on the Vancouver Sun website.

 

[dave babych returns]

So here we are again, five years into the Mike Gillis era and we've still got garbage for a second line. Injuries have played a part in all this for sure, with Kesler and Booth both out now.

Yeah it's amazing how losing 2/3 of your second line can make your second line much worse.

 

[Freakshow]

Yeah it's amazing how losing 2/3 of your second line can make your second line much worse.

I'm not sold on Booth, and Kesler's been injured for how long? Yet still no one to fill that hole, that's on Mike Gillis.

 

[Reign Nateo]

I don't think you can blame Gillis. He's brought in Booth, he's drafted Cody Hodgson etc. He's put the pieces in place for a decent 2nd line, but due to player performance, injury and attitudes it hasn't materialized.

 

[Freakshow]

I don't think you can blame Gillis. He's brought in Booth, he's drafted Cody Hodgson etc. He's put the pieces in place for a decent 2nd line, but due to player performance, injury and attitudes it hasn't materialized.

The time to win is NOW! Not in a couple of years when Henrik and Daniel are 35 years old. Just want him to do something instead of being the second coming of Brian Burke with his attitude and lack of action.

 

[Tiranis]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2013/01/14/canucks_training_camp_january_14/?source=video

48 seconds into the video. There's a better video of the same comments on the Vancouver Sun website.

It's an article about Ebbett and they asked AV about Ebbett. What did you expect? You can tell it's hockey season when people read into stuff way too much.

This whole thing about AV hating young players is such a ******** myth. He'll pick the guy that plays the best in camp.

 

[craigcaulks*]

The time to win is NOW! Not in a couple of years when Henrik and Daniel are 35 years old. Just want him to do something instead of being the second coming of Brian Burke with his attitude and lack of action.

I think we should just get a great 2nd line centre. It sounds easy and we should also just ignore the salary cap when we do it. We should also be allowed to FORCE teams into making the deal we want.

 

[dave babych returns]

I'm not sold on Booth, and Kesler's been injured for how long? Yet still no one to fill that hole, that's on Mike Gillis.

I'm not sold on Booth but he is a second liner. Even last year his production was in that strata.. maybe not good enough for the Canucks needs but "a second liner" nonetheless.

Kesler is injured, yes. Given his prognosis around the start of the lockout (ie. the last time Mike Gillis had a chance to address his absence) it was pretty reasonable to expect that he'd miss about a month of action.

I don't see the rationale behind giving up a pick and a prospect to get a decent second line player.. if that player is even on the market at this point.

Of course Kesler's recovery has been slower than expected but Gillis couldn't do anything as that news came out because of the lockout.

Anyway it's obvious that you want a GM who will gut the organization to get the best damned band-aid possible for the second line, I don't have an inside track on Ryan Kesler's recovery but as long as he's going to be ready for the playoffs I'd much rather roll with what we've got or make a move once it's established that we actually do have a problem (instead of making panic moves because the message board community isn't happy with our roster on paper).

 

[Angry Little Elf]

Didn't AV basically develop Ryan Kesler and Alex Edler? He doesn't hate young players.

 

[shortshorts]

Raymond Schroeder Kassian 2nd line please. Then when Kesler's back shift them down to the 3rd line.

Sedin Sedin Burrows
Booth Kesler Higgins
Raymond Schroeder Kassian
Malhotra Lapierre Hansen

 

[Reign Nateo]

Didn't AV basically develop Ryan Kesler and Alex Edler? He doesn't hate young players.

Yeah it's a myth around here. He may have his favourites, but he doesn't hate young players. He just likes players that are responsible and play the Canucks' system.

 

[Freakshow]

I'm not sold on Booth but he is a second liner. Even last year his production was in that strata.. maybe not good enough for the Canucks needs but "a second liner" nonetheless.

Kesler is injured, yes. Given his prognosis around the start of the lockout (ie. the last time Mike Gillis had a chance to address his absence) it was pretty reasonable to expect that he'd miss about a month of action.

I don't see the rationale behind giving up a pick and a prospect to get a decent second line player.. if that player is even on the market at this point.

Of course Kesler's recovery has been slower than expected but Gillis couldn't do anything as that news came out because of the lockout.

Anyway it's obvious that you want a GM who will gut the organization to get the best damned band-aid possible for the second line, I don't have an inside track on Ryan Kesler's recovery but as long as he's going to be ready for the playoffs I'd much rather roll with what we've got or make a move once it's established that we actually do have a problem (instead of making panic moves because the message board community isn't happy with our roster on paper).

"Gut the organization" there's nothing to gut. We have one of the worst prospect pools in the entire league! I'm just looking for him to be more active is all, Gillis has done some great great things off the ice with the organization. But his inability to address the second line issues bugs me.

Also; the original return time for Kesler was December, more than the one month you're suggesting. Gillis had the perfect kid for the job in Hodgson, but we all know how that turned out. AV didn't like him.

 

[Angry Little Elf]

"Gut the organization" there's nothing to gut. We have one of the worst prospect pools in the entire league! I'm just looking for him to be more active is all, Gillis has done some great great things off the ice with the organization. But his inability to address the second line issues bugs me.

Also; the original return time for Kesler was December, more than the one month you're suggesting. Gillis had the perfect kid for the job in Hodgson, but we all know how that turned out. AV didn't like him.

, Hodgson is long gone. How was Gillis supposed to know that Kesler would be out for so long?

 

[Freakshow]

It's an article about Ebbett and they asked AV about Ebbett. What did you expect? You can tell it's hockey season when people read into stuff way too much.

This whole thing about AV hating young players is such a ******** myth. He'll pick the guy that plays the best in camp.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/...ks+David+Booth+injury+adds/7818955/story.html

They took the interview at Sportsnet and spun it into an Ebbett story, here's another one. Just for some reading.

 

[Freakshow]

So you don't want to have a discussion or you don't have an opinion, but yet you're on a discussion board about the team. If you don't want to discuss the team then move along. This is all just food for thought, a hockey discussion.

 

[dave babych returns]

"Gut the organization" there's nothing to gut. We have one of the worst prospect pools in the entire league!

Well accepting that statement for the sake of argument would you rather it become even worse so that the Canucks have a better team on paper for 20-30 games?

I'm just looking for him to be more active is all, Gillis has done some great great things off the ice with the organization. But his inability to address the second line issues bugs me.

We had one of the best second lines in the league for a couple of years, Kesler obviously had injury troubles last year and who knows what's going to happen this year but the second line is simply not the chronic problem that you describe.

Also; the original return time for Kesler was December, more than the one month you're suggesting.

Pretty sure it was January that Kesler's camp said, I recall someone in the Canucks organization saying he was ahead of schedule (ie. December) and being shot down by Kesler's agent.

Gillis had the perfect kid for the job in Hodgson, but we all know how that turned out. AV didn't like him.

Uh huh.

 

[Freakshow]

All in all I hope Kesler comes back and Booth gets healthy, who know's, maybe in a month all will be fine. But as it looks now, I don't like it. Will AV give Kassian a shot at the RW on the second line, or is it the Everybody Love Raymond show again?

 

[L4cer8]

All in all I hope Kesler comes back and Booth gets healthy, who know's, maybe in a month all will be fine. But as it looks now, I don't like it. Will AV give Kassian a shot at the RW on the second line, or is it the Everybody Love Raymond show again?

Raymond plays LW, but whatever.