Vanek - 3 goals in 27 games

[El Nino22]

I think can be attributed to struggling to find chemistry with line mates, a god awful power play, and looking to pass way too much. He's got great vision, and his 13 assists are second on the team, but he's passing up good looks trying to make an extra pass. Once in a while it turns into a highlight goal. Most of the time it kills a rush and is deflating because we don't even get a shot.

I don't think Vanek is Heatley 2.0 though. Vanek looks lazy at times but he still skates and isn't nearly as slow as Heater. All it takes with a guy like Vanek is one goal and the flood gates could open.

 

[Al Lagoon]

He's looked more aggressive going to the net of late. We'll see if it translates into goals, but at least he's shooting the puck.

 

[El Nino22]

Yeah he's hit a few posts too and it doesn't help that no one else on the roster is really finishing right now either. The power play is where he really needs to provide a spark and when that gets going his points and goals will catch up.

 

[CanadienShark]

He picked up where he left during the last playoffs.

What a disappointment.

Don't know why I laughed like this, but I saw the 1st line you wrote and then your avatar and got a good chuckle.

 

[FlyingKostitsyn]

Not really sure how you can say that.

During his time in the regular season here, he was good and helped boost Montreal to one of the best 5 on 5 teams from his arrival.

He sucked in the playoffs, but still had 5 goals, 5 assists in 17 games.

I think Vanek isn't "the" guy in Minnesota. He doesn't even seem to be the back up to "the" guy.

Yeah pretty much. He reaaally helped Montreal's offense in the last stint of the regular season and wasn't all bad in the first playoffs series.

I wonder what happened however, perhaps some guy on the Rangers told him something mean like ''HEY VANEK you suck!'' and it hurt is confidence so much, he stopped scoring? He's a big softie after all..

 

[tohaa]

-3 goals is pretty bad, that's basically a Chris Philips statistic.

 

[Rebuilt]

What is up with him? He is on pace for 8 goals this season. You look at their roster and their record and something doesnt match up. For the talent this squad has, their record should be a lot better than 4 games above .500.

They have a stacked top 6 and their bottom two lines are loaded with young talent. I think their top 6 are really underachieving. These guys should be tearing it up offensively. They have 4 very good 2 way forwards with two being two of the best in the league (Parise, Koivu).

Parise
Vanek
Koivu
Granlund
Pominville
Niederrieiter
Coyle

Vanek to me has always been a guy who flourished the most when playing with lesser talented mates (Buffalo), he was a beast in his prime with Buffalo with two 40+ goal seasons and two 30+ goal seasons.. But when you surround him with more talent around him (Montreal), his play drops off considerably. 3 goals in 27 games is just unacceptable for Vanek, a guy who was expected to be the Wilds top sniper. Remember, Vanek was THE best forward available at last years deadline.

But I think the most important question to ask is, is Vaneks prime over?

Might have something to do with the fact these guys are 30 and over. You see these names and think of their glory years in their 20s and it might not necessarily be so.

 

[kytem2]

Gambling debts are never conducive to peak performance.

 

[Bee Sheriff]

The new Heatley, but not as good of a prime.