Post-Game Talk: Wild 4 - Canucks 2 || Kenins scores his first, the youth movement goes on.

[BROCK HUGHES]

Bonino needs some better winger, I like Matthias' jump but he's not getting Bonino the puck nor is see a good finisher, same could be said for Hansen.

Sedin / Sedin / Vrbata
Burrow / Bonino / Kassian
Higgins / Horvat / Hansen
Matthias / Vey / Dorsett

is what I would look at.

yeah i agree,he needs better wingers.Problem is,,is that they are playing for other teams right now.We are really ,really lacking the talent.Our top line right now,is just a second line on another team.After that we have a ton of 3rd and 4th liners with lack of skill.

 

[VC]

Vey's role has been spot filler. In for Kassian when he was out, same for when Burrows was out and now with Richardson out he is playing centre again. He has been bounced around the lineup. He doesn't have a regular spot on the roster yet.

I was surprised that Kennis was in for Kassian. him scoring doesn't make it too back but it is still a head shaker. Did they want to give Kennis another game to see what they have in him before moving a forward or two out?

 

[Pip]

I think it has now reached the point where I am more dissatisfied with the current regime's roster decisions then both of the previous regimes which includes Tortarella. Either Willie just isn't a good NHL coach or he is given bogus directives from management to play awful players over more qualified ones.

More times than ever I have questioned or flat out disagreed with the decisions they've made, and felt even more strong about it as time went on.

It's really sad honestly.

 

[Tv9924]

Don't like Vey as a center, nor Horvats low ice time despite his improving play. This is what I'd like to see:

Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata
Burrows-Bonino-Vey
Higgins-Horvat-Hansen
Kenins-Matthias-Dorsett

 

[TheWanderer]

I propose that the pic used for Sbisa on the GDT's is replaced with this:

 

[MS]

I think it has now reached the point where I am more dissatisfied with the current regime's roster decisions then both of the previous regimes which includes Tortarella. Either Willie just isn't a good NHL coach or he is given bogus directives from management to play awful players over more qualified ones.

Yup. And it's worse because, at a time where we should be focusing on developing young players, it's our younger players who are getting the shaft.

5 things went really well in last year's disaster season:

1) Chris Tanev stepping up into a top-pairing defender.

2) Zack Kassian made huge steps forward and was our best forward and leading scorer over the 2nd half of the season.

3) Ryan Stanton proved himself to be a terrific-value bottom-pairing defender with upward mobility.

4) Eddie Lack showed he was an NHL-caliber starting goalie.

5) Mike Santorelli was a 5-on-5 impact player who looked to provide terrific long-term value to the franchise.

We've given Santorelli away for nothing, buried Lack who will surely soon be traded, Kassian has been mis-handled disastrously, and Stanton is stuck behind Sbisa despite outplaying him by a wide margin.

As for Tanev, the club didn't seem to know what they had, low-balled him in contract negotiations last summer (which will cost us $millions moving forward) and it seems like we tried to move him in a deal for the #1 overall pick.

Just a total screw-up in evaluating what they had with this roster when they took over.

 

[Hardyvan123]

That sigh of relief is Minny getting 2 points and now only 5 out of 8th place.

7 back with 30ish games left might be too big a hill, 5 is doable, the Canucks better pull up their socks quick here, as LA is out right now but will they be after game 82?.

 

[PM]

I think we might be out of a playoff spot by March. Yes I'm bitter from the loss today and the Seahawks loss added to it may be making me irrational but if you look at the upcoming schedule and how our team has been able to deal with fatigue so far this season I really think this next string of games could be the one that breaks us. 14 games in 26 nights against mostly solid competition with a 5 game road trip to cap it off. A game each against the Devils and Sabres should be wins, and we usually win against Calgary but the only other "weak" competition is Minnesota who just beat us. We basically need 7 wins in this 14 game stretch to stay afloat and we've started out with a loss. If we scrape a few wins out against playoff-calibre competition then we can do it but this team doesn't look like they are up to that task right now.

 

[David71]

How was clendening.? Defensive wise and offensively

 

[PG Canuck]

We need to play Lack more. Miller is going to burn out, if not slowly doing that already, and Lack couldn't be anymore rested.

 

[thedean]

There has to be something going on with Kassian behind the scenes we're not aware of. I'm not saying he's been a world beater the last few games but he is coming off of two pretty solid performances inwhich he's also been doing exactly what the coaching staff wants him to do.

Particularly against Buffalo him and Horvat really played well off of each other. Him being scratched tonight made no sense.

 

[Barney Gumble]

Wondering what the idea behind benching Kassian is. Has to be a trade incoming. I don't want to see one, but I can't wrap my head around any other reason to bench a guy after 2 good games. Especially to slot in a guy with 1 NHL GP.

Best way to minimize the value of an asset you don't feel is in the long-term plans of a club is to do what they're doing right now.

 

[me2]

Best way to minimize the value of an asset you don't feel is in the long-term plans of a club is to do what they're doing right now.

Everyone will be praising management for getting rid of him for being invisible (if they don't play him)

 

[WinterEmpire]

How was clendening.? Defensive wise and offensively

He has some nice offensive instincts and moves with the puck on his stick.

Defensively? Hard to say he made some bad clearing attempts but who knows how much of that is just not knowing the system yet

 

[Jimson Hogarth*]

Possession in terms of shot differential. They may not finish, but they create the shot differential to allow other shooters to do their damage. They are the base. Without the base, the team would get even less shots for, which increases the pressure on the shooters even further.

Basically, the team could easily do worse than expected without these guys. Let alone get a few shooters to improve it.

Let Higgins drive shot differential from the 3rd line for the love of god

 

[Yammer]

How was clendening.? Defensive wise and offensively

You could see the skills. But looked nervous, clenched. Made two weak clears on his first shift that led to unnecessary running around, didn't stay on his side and had the game on his stick in the third but his big blast sailed wide - you could see how annoyed he was with himself.

But for all that, noticeable skills

 

[vanuck]

Exactly. Lindey Vey is not a good even strength player, he's getting a bit better but for him to be effective he needs to be sheltered. I really think Willie D should be looking at a Burrows / Bonino / Kassian line, as do I think Benning should push for another centre capable of playing tough minutes.

He wouldn't have to if he'd evaluated the roster properly when he came in... Let's hope he doesn't make the same mistake again.

 

[vanuck]

Yup. And it's worse because, at a time where we should be focusing on developing young players, it's our younger players who are getting the shaft.

5 things went really well in last year's disaster season:

1) Chris Tanev stepping up into a top-pairing defender.

2) Zack Kassian made huge steps forward and was our best forward and leading scorer over the 2nd half of the season.

3) Ryan Stanton proved himself to be a terrific-value bottom-pairing defender with upward mobility.

4) Eddie Lack showed he was an NHL-caliber starting goalie.

5) Mike Santorelli was a 5-on-5 impact player who looked to provide terrific long-term value to the franchise.

We've given Santorelli away for nothing, buried Lack who will surely soon be traded, Kassian has been mis-handled disastrously, and Stanton is stuck behind Sbisa despite outplaying him by a wide margin.

As for Tanev, the club didn't seem to know what they had, low-balled him in contract negotiations last summer (which will cost us $millions moving forward) and it seems like we tried to move him in a deal for the #1 overall pick.

Just a total screw-up in evaluating what they had with this roster when they took over.

Sums it up, sadly.

 

[Wilch]

Yup. And it's worse because, at a time where we should be focusing on developing young players, it's our younger players who are getting the shaft.

5 things went really well in last year's disaster season:

1) Chris Tanev stepping up into a top-pairing defender.

2) Zack Kassian made huge steps forward and was our best forward and leading scorer over the 2nd half of the season.

3) Ryan Stanton proved himself to be a terrific-value bottom-pairing defender with upward mobility.

4) Eddie Lack showed he was an NHL-caliber starting goalie.

5) Mike Santorelli was a 5-on-5 impact player who looked to provide terrific long-term value to the franchise.

We've given Santorelli away for nothing, buried Lack who will surely soon be traded, Kassian has been mis-handled disastrously, and Stanton is stuck behind Sbisa despite outplaying him by a wide margin.

As for Tanev, the club didn't seem to know what they had, low-balled him in contract negotiations last summer (which will cost us $millions moving forward) and it seems like we tried to move him in a deal for the #1 overall pick.

Just a total screw-up in evaluating what they had with this roster when they took over.

You can add Garrison to the list.

And the worst part is that's only on the internal evaluation part.

 

[Verviticus]

garrison is a mistake but he did not "go well" last season. ms is making a point independent of garrison

 

[JuniorNelson]

I'm still confused from day one as to why Benning decided to let go of Santo. Basically a free 3rd line center who wanted to play here & always gives it 100% every shift. All hustle, and had decent hands

Santorelli plainly wanted out. Benning had no chance to sign him. Read the Toronto quotes.

 

[DCantheDDad]

Im happy Clendening looked like I expected him to, nerveous, but with definate potential. I dont understand the treatment of Kassian, and the only thing that makes sense to me is that the "rumours" that float around about him are at least partially true. Either that or he did something with a relation of Desjardin that Willie dont like,

Holy moly give Lack a start. Miller whined about being fatigued in the first half, and is doing the exact same frickin frackin thing in the second half.

 

[Jack Tripper]

just caught up with the game...nice 3rd period, but that 2nd period was an absolute travesty

also mirror dissatisfaction with lineup decisions...benching two of the best canuck players in the buffalo game in kassian and weber for two negative players in vey and sbisa (ie key offseason acquisitions) raises all kinds of red flags about this new regime...id actually feel better if benning/linden had a say in those calls because itd give at least some excuse to desjardins for making such poor choices

organizations that aren't meritocracies fail miserably in professional sports

 

[Samzilla]

I swear to god if sbisa keeps getting spoonfed icetime...umm...i'll be really, really mad at the tv. i really hope for desjardins' sake that benning is forcing him to play sbisa, which lets desjardins off the hook. but then what does that say about benning? point being, there's a problem somewhere in the chain of command, and it needs to be fixed.

 

[NYVanfan]

garrison is a mistake but he did not "go well" last season. ms is making a point independent of garrison

and garrison simply didnt work on a left side stacked w Hamhuis and Edler ... and glad we didnt dump edler, as many called for

tanev is going to get paid regardless
lack has played less, but has similar stats to last year (i know he was hotter earlier last year)
stanton's numbers are also pretty similar. He was better last year, but he's a bottom pair guy.
Santo, meh.
Kassian is the one that sticks out to me -- for whatever reason he was playing well for Torts but is lost this year.

But otherwise, despite the fact the wheels have been teetering lately, this team has out-performed expectations overall, and is on a near-100 pt pace.

this despite the fact that there are obvious flaws w the lineup...
I dont think you can be overly-critical of the new regime