Unpopular Opinions 2023-24

[IComeInPeace]

Demko is traded by the deadline.

I think he will once again have some nagging injuries that even if they don’t take him out of the lineup altogether, his backup will need to play more games than management would initially have felt comfortable with.

I think Silovs will eventually show he provides enough between the pipes, and behind a much better defensive team, that trading Demko becomes a legit option in light of the other concerns of Demko just not being reliable enough with his health.

 

[VanJack]

The Canucks flop once again, and tired of being an 'also-ran', Pettersson pulls a Mathew Tkachuk and puts in a 'trade request'.

 

[Vancouver_2010]

We need to tank a number of years and trade Hughes and Petterson. Take tanking very seriously and rebuild our team through draft. I volunteered to the cause by being their goalie, I promise to get out of the way every time the opponent shoots the puck

 

[LemonSauceD]

The last 20 years of my life as a Canucks fan were about the most tedious waste of life possible. This organization is ran by a bubbleheaded corrupt idiot billionaire who uses the Canucks as his personal toy and for other nefarious means. The NHL is corrupt and will never allow the Canucks to win a championship. The NHL under Bettman has degraded into a shitty Disney parody of itself. It's exhausting to try to care about.

It's the same movie every year. Shitty mediocre people who are puppets for the idiot owner running the organization ensuring the Canucks never make the playoffs or become a threat. Yet never become bad enough to actually draft top players. Meanwhile its just that mid-1st every year with a player that good ol' boy scouts selected that's going to bust in our wreck of a minor league system. It was hilarious, haven't even watched the Canucks in years. Yet logging on today, sure enough. There's our 11th overall, where we took some defenseman who was ranked in the 20s that we may or may not ever see again. How many f***ing times do I have to sit through this f***ing movie?

I've literally gone from a young boy to an old man watching this cycle. And it's just complete idiocy.

Jeez what a roller coaster of a post Lol.

 

[Peen]

My worry is they rush Mikheyev back when history shows the risk of re-injury is quite severe.

They have him for three years. I think if they do that, they’ll regret it. Just live and die with Podkolzin and Hoglander in top nine roles. Let Mikheyev take his time getting healthy. Trade Myers for an upgrade and make an inseason trade moving out one of the forwards when Mikheyev is actually in a good spot.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

unpopular opinions has turned to doom n gloom predictions, which ain't unpopular round here.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

My worry is they rush Mikheyev back when history shows the risk of re-injury is quite severe.

They have him for three years. I think if they do that, they’ll regret it. Just live and die with Podkolzin and Hoglander in top nine roles. Let Mikheyev take his time getting healthy. Trade Myers for an upgrade and make an inseason trade moving out one of the forwards when Mikheyev is actually in a good spot.

Your concern over Mikheyev's health is a valid concern...Played four years in the NHL and only played in 39,54,53, 46 games per season...You'll be lucky to get more than 2/3 of a season out of him.

A good player when healthy though imo.

 

[Zaddy91]

Gillis will still get blamed for the team's failures over a decade after being fired.

Benning will still get blamed of the team's failures forever after being fired.

 

[Diogenes92]

Benning will still get blamed of the team's failures forever after being fired.

Rightfully so.

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

Tyler Myers is a high-end #5D that struggles with conditioning due to his size. Cap hit aside, he is actually an excellent fit on our 3rd pair.

Our wings are not at a competitive level. Beyond Kuzmenko and Boeser we lack true top 6 wingers. We really lack physicality on the wing as well.

You stole my hot takes

Benning will still get blamed of the team's failures forever after being fired.

Well, as long as most of the roster (and cap hit) are his, then yeah, he should.

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

The last 20 years of my life as a Canucks fan were about the most tedious waste of life possible. This organization is ran by a bubbleheaded corrupt idiot billionaire who uses the Canucks as his personal toy and for other nefarious means. The NHL is corrupt and will never allow the Canucks to win a championship. The NHL under Bettman has degraded into a shitty Disney parody of itself. It's exhausting to try to care about.

It's the same movie every year. Shitty mediocre people who are puppets for the idiot owner running the organization ensuring the Canucks never make the playoffs or become a threat. Yet never become bad enough to actually draft top players. Meanwhile its just that mid-1st every year with a player that good ol' boy scouts selected that's going to bust in our wreck of a minor league system. It was hilarious, haven't even watched the Canucks in years. Yet logging on today, sure enough. There's our 11th overall, where we took some defenseman who was ranked in the 20s that we may or may not ever see again. How many f***ing times do I have to sit through this f***ing movie?

I've literally gone from a young boy to an old man watching this cycle. And it's just complete idiocy.

You think the league is currently corrupt? That Gary Bettman is corrupt ?

You need to read about the history of the NHL commissioners if you think Bettman is bad.

Degraded ? LMaoooooooo

 

[DS7]

Benning will still get blamed of the team's failures forever after being fired.

His mistakes will literally be on the books till 2030 so very deservedly so.

 

[DS7]

unpopular opinions has turned to doom n gloom predictions, which ain't unpopular round here.

How about this then.

It is the right move for the long term prospects of the club to win now to rather than to tank.

Ugh even I had to double take myself on that.

 

[petterdaddy]

I don’t want the unpopular thoughts to turn into doom and gloom, so I’ll just let you guys pile on me instead:

Benning is the cap era’s shittiest GM, no contest. However I’ve worked with him personally on different lower level hockey stuff. Really a nice guy, always remembers your name and chats (believe it or not he’s not *as stupid* as you thought). Not a GM but a good person.

 

[CanucksSayEh]

Here's one. Bridging EP was the right move.

EP was casual af in his next 2 offseasons following the bubble run, barely training, all photoshoots and sunrays. his underperformance, with an impending big contract, would have led to a shitstorm in the media and management. His recent breakout season may not have happened when it did, and he could have been on his way out right now.

Instead, it will play out just as hoped, with a follow up big season, and team success to boot. A fair deal will be arranged long term thereafter.

 

[4th line culture]

I don’t want the unpopular thoughts to turn into doom and gloom, so I’ll just let you guys pile on me instead:

Benning is the cap era’s shittiest GM, no contest. However I’ve worked with him personally on different lower level hockey stuff. Really a nice guy, always remembers your name and chats (believe it or not he’s not *as stupid* as you thought). Not a GM but a good person.

How dare you say such disgusting things, mods ban this person for life

 

[CanucksMJL]

Prediction: this is the year that the Kraken-Canucks rivalry takes off. These will be the two teams battling for a wildcard spot. Seattle coming back to earth a bit, and Vancouver surpassing expectations a bit.

This. This is the promise of geographical rivalries.

 

[Shareefruck]

Warning: lots of run-on sentences.

I posted something similar, I think in the previous unpopular opinions thread, but to me, hockey, and professional sports as a whole is just some dumb brainless past-time that tricks you into believing that it has meaning or matters in some way that's worth getting invested in and get emotional about when you're young and don't have a lot going on, like a pointless distraction that always gives you something comforting to hang on to.

But then you grow up and find that other past-times and experiences exist that have actual merit and substance that it actually makes sense to hold dear to your heart, and I'm not even referring to ACTUAL real life/real shit, but just things like feeling inspired by art and creativity and things like that, but by then sports is just so habitually engrained into you that it can be tough to look away when something happens that can give you that hit of hollow andrenaline that you've grown up hooked on.

Nowadays, my belief is that watching professional sports is only at the level of something like eating McDonalds, gambling, or watching some crappy reality TV show/playing some crappy mobile game that just feeds on compulsions and rots your brain. I don't see any real value in it, personally.

That's kind of been my experience with it, anyways. On a hockey forum, I imagine that'd be a pretty unpopular opinion. I'm sure people disagree, and last time posters insisted on some tribal/societal need that they felt was important but that I could not care less about (if anything, I had a distaste for parts of that influence), but I don't know, not for me, I guess.

 

[JoeCool16]

Warning: lots of run-on sentences.

I posted something similar, I think in the previous unpopular opinions thread, but to me, hockey, and professional sports as a whole is just some dumb brainless past-time that tricks you into believing that it has meaning or matters in some way that's worth getting invested in and get emotional about when you're young and don't have a lot going on, like a pointless distraction that always gives you something comforting to hang on to.

But then you grow up and find that other past-times and experiences exist that have actual merit and substance that it actually makes sense to hold dear to your heart, and I'm not even referring to ACTUAL real life/real shit, but just things like feeling inspired by art and creativity and things like that, but by then sports is just so habitually engrained into you that it can be tough to look away when something happens that can give you that hit of hollow andrenaline that you've grown up hooked on.

Nowadays, my belief is that watching professional sports is only at the level of something like eating McDonalds, gambling, or watching some crappy reality TV show/playing some crappy mobile game that just feeds on compulsions and rots your brain. I don't see any real value in it, personally.

That's kind of been my experience with it, anyways. On a hockey forum, I imagine that'd be a pretty unpopular opinion. I'm sure people disagree, and last time posters insisted on some tribal/societal need that they felt was important but that I could not care less about (if anything, I had a distaste for parts of that influence), but I don't know, not for me, I guess.

Yeah, it's a type of entertainment. People enjoy it for some reasons that other types of entertainment don't have (randomness, no fixed outcome), but for a lot of the same. It's nice to have something to bond with over, whether it's where the Canucks should go from here or what you think Character X in HBO series Y should do next. Do you like Kpop Idol ____? Me too! What about ___? Yeah, me neither!

It's good you've assigned merit to your hobbies, but I assure you that those can become meaningless for the new father, or meaningful to the retiree who finds a new social circle for the first time in 30 years. I do read your post like it's a condemnation of sports fans, which I hope it's not. If it's not connecting with you, you can count yourself lucky that you can spend money and time on something else. It would be a shame to continue wasting free time on entertainment that doesn't entertain you!

 

[Shareefruck]

Yeah, it's a type of entertainment. People enjoy it for some reasons that other types of entertainment don't have (randomness, no fixed outcome), but for a lot of the same. It's nice to have something to bond with over, whether it's where the Canucks should go from here or what you think Character X in HBO series Y should do next. Do you like Kpop Idol ____? Me too! What about ___? Yeah, me neither!

It's good you've assigned merit to your hobbies, but I assure you that those can become meaningless for the new father, or meaningful to the retiree who finds a new social circle for the first time in 30 years. I do read your post like it's a condemnation of sports fans, which I hope it's not. If it's not connecting with you, you can count yourself lucky that you can spend money and time on something else. It would be a shame to continue wasting free time on entertainment that doesn't entertain you!

To an extent, it kind of is, at least when it gets into the extremes. Like, I can respect and appreciate disagreement from people who feel differently, and I'm not saying it reflects poorly on their character or anything, but I do feel that what they're engaging in and the degree that they might take it seriously is something that I find silly about them (and about myself when I fall into those habits) and disagree with them and do not see eye to eye on that.

I'm fairly judgmental about the idea of ultra diehard fandom in general, though-- When it's treated as being more important than it actually is, it feels creepy and parasocial to me, not unlike k-pop stans who care too much about the idols themselves, teenage girls who care about celebrity couples getting together, people who root for characters in television as if they're real, etc. As a result the whole "die-hard fan vs. casual fan" stuff feels a little backwards to me, and when people complain about how they've dedicated their lives to the Canucks and feel scorned by the misery that they've endured, I can't help but roll my eyes at that. It's not that serious.

But yes, I am continuing to waste free time on this entertainment that doesn't entertain me (or does entertain me without feeling worthwhile/rewarding)-- It's at best a guilty pleasure and at worst a bad habit that I'm trying to shake (and I'm progressively watching less and less hockey as a result). This is a problem I was acknowledging.

I also just don't like entertainment that exists for the sake of escapism and nothing else in general, so that's basically where I'm coming at this from.

 

[Jyrki21]

Demko is traded by the deadline.

I think he will once again have some nagging injuries that even if they don’t take him out of the lineup altogether, his backup will need to play more games than management would initially have felt comfortable with.

I think Silovs will eventually show he provides enough between the pipes, and behind a much better defensive team, that trading Demko becomes a legit option in light of the other concerns of Demko just not being reliable enough with his health.

If Demko's issue is underperformance due to injury, why would he be tradable (a) at all, and (b) particularly mid-season? Why is someone taking him on in those circumstances?

 

[Petey But Really Jim]

If Demko's issue is underperformance due to injury, why would he be tradable (a) at all, and (b) particularly mid-season? Why is someone taking him on in those circumstances?

Not a cold take, but a...

 

[Soups On]

Warning: lots of run-on sentences.

I posted something similar, I think in the previous unpopular opinions thread, but to me, hockey, and professional sports as a whole is just some dumb brainless past-time that tricks you into believing that it has meaning or matters in some way that's worth getting invested in and get emotional about when you're young and don't have a lot going on, like a pointless distraction that always gives you something comforting to hang on to.

But then you grow up and find that other past-times and experiences exist that have actual merit and substance that it actually makes sense to hold dear to your heart, and I'm not even referring to ACTUAL real life/real shit, but just things like feeling inspired by art and creativity and things like that, but by then sports is just so habitually engrained into you that it can be tough to look away when something happens that can give you that hit of hollow andrenaline that you've grown up hooked on.

Nowadays, my belief is that watching professional sports is only at the level of something like eating McDonalds, gambling, or watching some crappy reality TV show/playing some crappy mobile game that just feeds on compulsions and rots your brain. I don't see any real value in it, personally.

That's kind of been my experience with it, anyways. On a hockey forum, I imagine that'd be a pretty unpopular opinion. I'm sure people disagree, and last time posters insisted on some tribal/societal need that they felt was important but that I could not care less about (if anything, I had a distaste for parts of that influence), but I don't know, not for me, I guess.

I'm with you for the most part. It's occasional fun watching hockey and chatting about some stuff with coworkers/friends - but there's no way I plan my evening or social events around it anymore.

Since moving out east and being on my own, I found significantly more value in hobbies like playing volleyball, board game nights, purposeful walking, reading books, etc etc. It's interesting - when hobbies/activities are deeply ingrained when you're young, they become a central part of you and a great way to socialize and add another dimension into your life when you're older. Watching hockey gives you some of that, respectfully, but it's so... Lazy? It's difficult to frame it sometimes - entertainment without any transferrable skills or social connection is incredibly low on the value/entertainment department.

And yet I'm still here doom scrolling and reading the discourse between a few posters that keeps me reeled in. Like reality TV!


Oh and my unpopular opinions. Not as gloomy as others with these takes.

The team will make the playoffs and Hoglander will supplant himself in the top 6.

Bleuger will put up points, Suter will not - but Suter will be the bigger staple on the PK.

Miller will score 90 points but people will still doubt his skill level and leave him off prospective Olympic rosters for some reason.

 

[Petey But Really Jim]

Miller will score 90 points but people will still doubt his skill level and leave him off prospective Olympic rosters for some reason.

J.T. Miller should be playing a regular top six and powerplay shift in any 2023 best on best American lineup.

 

[thekernel]

The Canucks flop once again, and tired of being an 'also-ran', Pettersson pulls a Mathew Tkachuk and puts in a 'trade request'.

If we can't find a way to make Pettersson a career Canuck it just might be enough to kill my love of the game