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Joe Blough

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  1. JB is like: “You get a contract! And you get a contract!” Now get Petey and Quinn done!
  2. Who’s on fire today? Vintage! Look at him firing out these signings threads from all over the league.
  3. Oh my gerd! The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Sell the team! Fire the front office and coaches and trade all the players for picks! Is any journey in life a straight line? Any at all? Or is it progress at all costs? Regression is forbidden? Doesn't seem like a very realistic perspective to me. This season has a pile of extenuating circumstances that make performance at a high level difficult. I would suspect that not getting off to a good start exacerbates it. They have by far the most games played in the league; very little time off to rest, review performances, practice.... Being in a funk and not being able to come together to be with each other outside the rink, as teammates, as people, to support each other to get through it has a major impact I’m sure. Lots of stuff going on that is probably contributing to the effort we’re seeing. I think patience is a virtue this season. Give them some latitude. If they suck this season, it’s a good season to suck. They will learn and grow from it. Go Canucks go! I have a feeling they’re going to play hard and disciplined and win tonight!
  4. The man is the head of the household. ... and the woman is the neck that turns the head.
  5. I’m not drinking any koolaid thanks. I’m sorry if I don’t share your opinion. The world isn’t a binary, simple, reductive place. There are countless variables in relationship to each other that create any particular condition. Having veterans on the team doesn’t negate what I said. What I said is simply my opinion based on my experience over decades and my recent observations of this team based on that experience. I find it frustrating to watch them struggle, but I also find it interesting to watch the learning taking place. Just like golf, I enjoy the good, the bad and the ugly. If it made me angry and upset to watch their games to the point I’m vilifying people, I would question myself as to why I’m watching them?
  6. I agree, but I attribute much of that to young guys thinking the game too much. Paralysis through analysis. I bet they’re stuck between the old system and executing the new one. Hockey is so fast that processing it has to get to an instinctive, intuitive level. To me it looks like they’re thinking the game instead of playing it. You don’t get plays like ‘the shift’ overnight. I remember watching the Sedins in the early 2000s when they were still learning the game. There was a game I was at against the Sakic/Forsberg/Roy Avalanche and Vancouver lost 4-1. Crow was throwing the Sedins over the boards constantly and they were getting run over, knocked down and stripped of the puck constantly. I was so frustrated watching it that I yelled down to Crow from the stands: “Hey Crow! Why don’t you put the Sedins out again?” Yes, I was one of those fans then. The arena was so quiet that he heard me from the upper bowl too. I figured out that Crow has forgotten more about hockey than I’ll ever know. Watching Green and this young group of Canucks reminds me of that very same thing. I’m looking forward to the progression and the outcome from this that I know we’re all going to be seeing in a couple of years. Wasn’t the general tenor of this board a mere few months ago, that we’re early in our timeline for competing and what we’ve seen so far is gravy? There’s still a lot of learning to come for this group before we see them at their best. They’re going to figure this out. I doubt we make the playoffs this season, but I’m okay with that. I know a lot of fans aren’t. That’s their prerogative.
  7. Tough times for the team. It’s hard to learn to play a higher risk, but more dangerous system when you’re a young player. Watching this team this year takes me back to another young core with a new coach in Alain Vigneault. AV was using a very straightforward dump and chase, defensive system when he first came here. He adapted his systems and the teams style of play as the players improved. I remember him saying that coaches adjust the teams sytems and style of play to the personnel they have. He was highly criticized early on in his tenure here too. What I’m seeing is Green and company are beginning to loosen the leash for the players now because they have the talent to play a more puck possession game. Unfortunately for a young team learning to play puck possession, the mistakes have a higher cost. When they play a dump and chase style, they generally have two D back with the forwards moving through the neutral zone at speed and it stretches the puck and puck support out up ice. The D can be back on the D side of the puck as it’s stretched up ice and dumped into the O-zone. If coverage breaks down or possession changes, you have men back to cover. With the possession game (which is waaaay more fun to watch) you have to have the 5 man group playing as a much tighter unit in transition. They also have to have a much higher degree of situational awareness because you may have a Quinn Hughes pushing the play up ice and a forward has to be aware and adjust to drop behind to cover. It’s also riskier in that players are trying more creative plays with smaller margins for error, like a tight seem pass through the middle in the neutral zone. With the young but talented group we have, if they don’t make the right read to cover each other and possession changes, then the group is caught up ice in a tighter configuration than happens in a dump and chase configuration. I think that’s why we’re seeing a much higher degree of odd man rushes and breakaways. I remember watching this same thing happen in the mid to late 2000’s when the team was maturing after the WCE days. I’m not worried. I know we have the players who have the creativity to learn each others tendencies and be able to read off of each other eventually. Unfortunately there’s no easy way to learn a to play possession with a young team. The knowing is in the doing and no success is ever achieved without going through the crucible of failure. That 3-2 goal ultimately won’t happen when they learn, because they’ll make the read that QH is the last man back carrying the puck out of his zone, and the right side player will drop back to ensure an outlet or coverage for him if things go sideways. That goal happened because you had a team trying to break out as a unit up ice playing puck possession through the neutral zone instead of just chipping it up the boards and dumping it in. Which style of play would you rather watch? I’m excited for watching a high skilled, high tempo puck possession team again. Like we were spoiled in watching through the peak Sedin/Kesler era. And I’m willing to watch them go through their growing pains to get there. For me that includes Green, Baumgartner and Brown. They’re much better coaches than they’re given credit for on this board. They’re also human beings. What would it be like for us if in our jobs we had thousands of people watching what we were helping produce and there was media and a website forum for it? And every time something went wrong we had people raging at how useless we were and we should be fired? How would that make us feel? Asking for a friend.
  8. I'm cheering for both. Goldy's in tough as his window and opportunity is narrowing. Jake I have hope for. When I watch Jake what I see is a player that hustles and does a lot of things right. He hounds the puck, is really good on back checking and takeaways, but on offence still tends to play a perimeter game. His 'go to' move when he drives the net is to circle around the back. Defenders on opposing teams must have a book on his habits, it's so predictable. Force him outside and he won't challenge them. If he could learn from Bo to drive the net harder and play offence in the harder areas he would open up a ton of space for teammates. I can't help but think if he finally puts it together and 'gets it', he could be another Bertuzzi. Milbury gave up on Bertuzzi at 23 and I remember his comments after the trade: "If I ever felt [Bertuzzi] was going to fulfill his potential, I'd be a fool to make the deal, because his potential is so vast." The Islanders have spent three years trying to tap into that potential. "He's been hugged and kissed and educated," Milbury said. "We tried everything short of bamboo shoots under the fingernails." Don't give up on Jake; his potential is so vast.
  9. There's virtually no question that if Benning offered up Pettersen straight across for this year's #2 pick, that the deal would be done instantly. It's not much of a reach to presume that every GM in the league would regard Pettersen as more valuable than the #2 pick. As was said, he's played a year in the NHL and is an already highly regarded, as close to sure fire elite player at the NHL level as you can get. It's pretty obvious to see with his skill, IQ, vision, character and work ethic. Every hockey pundit across the league universally agrees on this. He will almost certainly be winning the Calder this year. I would argue Shero would also do that trade for the #1 straight up. It has nothing to do with us as fans overvaluing Pettersen as a Canuck. That is Pettersen's value across the league. It doesn't matter if you have choices with the pick. There is no player in this years draft that will clearly be as good, let alone better, than Pettersen. I'm not saying it's not possible Hughes or Kakko, or even another prospect will end up being a better player in the long run, but it sure would be a gamble at this point to speculate on that.
  10. Sign Iggy, Moulson and acquire a PMD/PPQB and this will be a very, very good team next year.
  11. Nothing wrong with Lack, he's an excellent goaltender, not even a downgrade to Schneider. Markstrom is more of an unknown at this point. I'm comfortable running with what we have or if we bring in Hiller to split with Lack for this coming season.
  12. I don't know. We have a lot of cap space and could end up getting a few pieces before the season starts that would make us quite competitive. Say we were able to land Iggy, Moulson and get a quality PMD/PPQ from somewhere;maybe Edler regains his form this coming season. We have a lot of really good players on our roster still and could be a pretty hot team next year if things fall into place. Benning has shown he's not tentative in making moves. Good teams have solid players that can mentor and shelter the young guys coming into the line up. I think the Canucks are still capable of that. Can you imagine Iggy on the wing with the Sedins? Moulson, Bonino & Kassian as a second line? That would be a hell of a 1-2 punch. It would also give us the ability to fill out our third and fourth lines with good players we already have under contract. I'm really liking what I'm seeing and I think if things fall into place the Canucks might surprise a lot of people, including the Canuck faithful. I'm feeling good about Lack too. I think he's as good as Schneider and will surprise many. He's certainly got the temperment and skills to be an elite level goalie.
  13. Funny how we all have different perspectives. I'm happy about the moves Benning made today. In the near term I don't think we're as good a team as we were yesterday, but in the long view I think we're set up much better to move ahead and contend sooner.
  14. Fair enough. I read your posts regularly and you always have reasoned opinions. Another comment though; teams rarely draft for positional needs for certain positions because quality wingers and defence can be had through other avenues. Obviously not elite defensemen either, those are usually drafted too, although that position seems to be a bit more of a crap shoot in drafting because they take longer to develop. Loading up on centremen in the draft I think is a smart oraganizational approach because there will be many personnel changes over the next couple of years that will address our other needs through trade and FA.
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