bigbadcanucks

I'm sad about the current state of the Canucks. Next stop...Apathyville if nothing comes of real and meaningful changes. That means finding a way to get rid of Miller, OEL, Myers, Stillman, Garland, Pearson and Boeser. The aging vets are the problem. What I would give to have the Rooster, Beagle, E r i k s s o n (yah I said it) and the first back for OEL and Garland. I can get on board with 2 years of bottoming out. I never thought that I would ever say that.

It sucks, but the best thing that could happen to the current version of the underachieving/sloppy/careless bunch of players on the Canucks is blowing another lead and and being embarrassed on national TV. May just be the tonic for Rutherford and company to blow it up, which is exactly what this team needs. I can't wait for the dismantling of this group of players to begin.

According to your "the sky is falling" commentary of past, McDonough has already decided to play anywhere other than Vancouver.

What wasn't also in doubt was that McDonough had nothing but praise for the Canucks organization and his desire to sign once here once hie graduated from NE. With the tire fire that is the Canucks, I wonder if McDonough still feels the same way? The window for McDonough's tenure with the Canucks on his ELC could be as short as the end of 2023-2024 season if he signed his standard NHL ELC this spring, since given his age, he'd be signing a two year ELC. McDonough would be an RFA with team control, so it's probably not a big deal. The only concern for Canucks fans going forward is, why would any promising youngster want to sign with a team as dysfunctional as the Canucks organization?

Barry Trotz, please.

He also said that this group of d-men he had was "workable".

Lemieux will bite Matthew's finger and pull his hair. Book it.

All the reasons you mentioned, plus the fact that his play doesn't reflect that of a leader you want in a player in his age group. His lack of attention to detail is something I wouldn't want for the young players on the team to witness. All good with Miller sticking up for the team when Benning was a jellyfish during the Covid season, but other than that, I don't see a whole lot of leadership coming out of him during the course of a game. He yaps a lot, tries to direct traffic, but it looks like everyone has tuned him out. Most likely due to everyone losing respect for his lack of attention to detail and carelessness with the puck. That's just me speculating though.

That could be a good thing. When was the last time a big UFA signing ever worked out for anyone? I agree that the optics of signing and trading is not good, but at this stage, his future cap value and potential return would far outweigh all of that. As I wrote, Miller does too many things half-assed to make up the ppg that he's been delivering this season, which should make him expendable at any cost. All championship teams are built from the inside out...UFA signings and trades for players with limited NTCs have had limited impact on the fortunes of most teams. Off the top of my head, Butch Goring trade is the one that comes to my mind. I'm sure there are a handful of others (Ray Bourque to Colorado) but I can't think of any others right now.

As "glowing" as those offensive numbers may be, he's been a liability the entire season. He's minus 5, continues to serve up sloppy plays, quick to give up on plays, and has been careless on numerous occasions creating chaos for his teammates. Schenn should have simply dummied him on national TV. Does a bunch of fly-bys, never finishing his checks. He thinks his one time 99 point season makes him a superstar that he's not. Who cares about the optics of dumping him. Miller needs to go.

I have no idea who the problem is, and how many are the problem. But the(se) players need to be rooted out and eliminated from the roster. Easy target right now is JT Miller because of his carelessness, lack of attention to detail and overall sloppy play. The collective loser mindset of all the players, and the sloppiness of play night after night by Miller is pervasive through the entire line up. Myers was a pylon, Stillman does not belong in the NHL, and even Pettersson with overskating the puck in his own zone in OT are things good hockey teams/players do not do. Hughes is playing like a poor man's version of Tyson Barrie. That's uncharacteristic of him, but somehow, someway, the sloppiness of Miller and the chaos this creates is starting to work its way through the entire roster. Not once have I heard a player on the current Canucks roster talk about "playing the right way" this season.

Used that excuse for Tanev, Stetcher...signed Virtanen ahead of Tofolli; chased Hamonic. Let all valuable assets walk out the door for nothing.

No quarrel from me @NewbieCanuckFan. From what I remember the only offer on the table was a fifth round pick from Dallas. Couple of other things to add to Benning's legacy is not re-signing Tanev and Tofolli. Never understood that.

In seasons past, I had some ideas to make this team better. But this season and the season past, I'm at a total loss. Like you say, there is a good young core. But compared to other good young cores in the NHL, are they that good? The collective body language of the team is the worst I have ever seen in its history (I lived in Montreal the three seasons of the Messier era, so I can't comment on how bad it was at that time). And I've been able to observe first hand as I was around the team as a both a corporate and personal season ticket member for about 20 years (though I'm not a season ticket member anymore). I have never seen a collection of players on the Canucks roster that seemingly have so much talent, but play with such a loser mentality. The fragility of this group is nothing like I have ever seen. Easy to say that this is on the leadership core, but it most likely goes deeper than that. As Boone says in Remember the Titans, "attitude is reflection of leadership", I truly believe there is something really wrong at the leadership in the organization...whether it's ownership, hockey ops, coaching or players, there's something wrong to which there's no quick fix. Maybe the team needs a voice/leader like Kevin Bieksa to be part of the Hockey Ops group. I don't know.

Appreciate the dialogue @stawns. Though Gillis handcuffed the team, it wasn't for 3-4 years. As an example, players like Garrsion who had a full NTC got moved out easily. It's true Hamhuis refused a trade exercising his NTC, but the loss was Canucks could not get anything of value back. No doubt Benning did well to draft Pettersson, Demko, Hughes, Podkolzin, Hoglander, and a few others, but this is part of the core that has given us fans atrocious starts to the 2021-22 and 22-23 seasons. For a guy who was supposed to be a wizard at the draft table, he's given us Virtanen and Juolevi. That's a failure. I would argue that the acquisition of OEL, Garland, signings of Myers and Loui E r i k s s on are greater anchors to overcome than what Gillis left the team with on his departure. I guess we can agree to disagree about the Gillis and Benning legacies. Admittedly, I am biased because I actually got to speak with Gillis while I never had that privilege with Benning. If I may, I'll leave you with one last thought (owner's and pure business perspective)...during Gillis' watch, the team went from being valued at $250 million to $800 million, while during Benning's watch, the team's value depreciated (can't remember the exact number but it's in the Forbes list). Though Gillis can't be entirely (or even partly) credited for this and the team he inherited, this material fact is something that he can claim took place during his time. Not sure what Benning would be able to say.

Yes, I've heard that as well and thought that would have been the right move. Canucks hung onto Kelser, Burrows, Edler, et. al. way past their best-before date and ability to capitalize on their top value. The state of the team is on the ownership and the decision they made to bring in Benning and deny a full rebuild when it was time to do so.

The context I would put this in is that he got players to sign at cap-friendly hits and in return, he had to give up NTC. All part of the negotiations. Bad drafting (i.e., Patrick White, Jordan Schroeder) and the Luongo/Schneider debacle is where he screwed the franchise up. Giving up draft picks while the team was on a Win-Now mode is something I don't hold against Gillis. Eight+ years since Gillis' departure should have been enough time to the Canucks to have righted what Gillis had done to handcuff the team. It's just unfortunate that it couldn't be corrected by someone who was touted to be a master assembler of talent. But that's all revisionist history now. The state of this current team is the direct consequence of Benning, Rutherford and Allvin (IMO).

Gillis was canned because of his sandpaper personality with the media/fans. But he was the smartest guy in the room. He just shouldn't have tried to tell and show everyone he was. I had a three hour conversation with him while flying from Pearson to YVR when he was GM/POH. One of the most engaging, articulate and insightful persons I've ever talked with. Best Gillis insult was when he essentially told Bob Marjonovich that he was a fat disgusting pig who couldn't control himself at the media buffet at Rogers Arena while on air. As good an insult as that was, it turned off a lot of the media types which added fuel to the Fire Gillis movement.

Observations made for the season so far: -Canucks skilled players aren't as good as the skilled players on opposing teams -Canucks tough guys aren't as tough as the tough players on opposing teams -Hughes is looking more like Tyson Barrie than Adam Fox/Cale Makar -Demko is looking more like Jack Campbell than Carey Price in his prime -Canucks vets on defence (OEL and Myers) need to be taken out to the back of the barn and put out of their misery -Canucks young emerging players have all turtled -Boudreau is looking like Bill Laforge -Allvin and Rutherford is a recycled version of Benning -this is a team full of losers who play like losers and have the attitude of losers I feel so bad for the Canucks season ticket holders who are paying thousands to watch Miller, OEL, Hughes, Myers, Garland, Pearson, Stillman slop it up every home game. Thank the good lord that my only out-of-pocket costs is my monthly Telus Optik bill.

"Bad ice". The excuse made for and by losers.

This guy can't play hockey to save his life. He wouldn't even cut in Burnaby 8 Rinks ASHL Division 8. He's that pathetically bad. Him and Myers. WTH was Boudreau thinking?

I like Conor Garland, but he's one of those players who looks like he's doing a bunch of stuff on the ice, but in the end, doesn't give you what you think he's given you. I love the fight in this dog, but he's too small and gets sealed off to easily. My wife and I have two dogs, of which one is toy poodle. He reminds me of Garland from time to time...tons of fight and heart and is always moving around. But in the end, he doesn't get a lot done. I wish everyone had Garland's heart.

Oh great. We have another soapbox hero here^^^^^^.

I'll say it, in case it hasn't been said yet. JT Miller is what L o u i E r i k s s o n was to Benning for Patrick Allvin.

JT Miller...instead of venting, he should get his head out of his ass and start being aware of what is going on the ice and stop giving up on plays. Right now, he's a liability. The Canuck leadership group, everyone of them, needs to get their sh!t together and start playing like the way they're being paid. Otherwise, all these guys are doing is stealing money from the franchise. Getting myself prepped for another long season. Apathy is right around the corner.