alt kilgore

I'm glad to hear Bieksa is remaining with HNIC. Yeah I see the original post came from a giant word salad at the end of a blog. Dam, I hope its true. Please not Kenward or Tomlinson. Tomlinson is not as annoying as Kenward but almost. Both are amateurs compared to having Bieksa, Ferraro, OR Cheech. We were lucky and blessed to have Garrett here while he was here. If Bieksa is out, Hansen or Ferraro please. Not gon happen but: wouldn't it be fun to have Brucethereitis as colour?

Good choice. Ray has his flaws. Gets a little stubborn and bent out of shape on some topics. But he's always enjoyable to listen to, and insightful. I was honestly dreading this decision, that it might be someone like Joey Kenward *shudder* or another of the schmoes from 650 I honestly thought Ray was 'too big' for us. I thought he's made it into the national, and American market now. Why would he come back to BC, in the remote corner of the hockey world, to start a new job. Doing games when half the country is already going to bed. Hearing how Bieksa is being let go in HNIC, if I had my druthers, I think Ray is better suited to Kevin's spot there speaking nationally, and I'd then rather have Kevin come back here to do colour for the Canucks. Hansen would have been an okay choice too. I really like his radio spots. But his voice, and delivery, could get a little tiring IMO.

On Kuzmenko, I agree that there was probably some in the media who questioned how ready Kuz might be for the NHL, right after he signed here. A shorter season in the KHL. Less skill to play against there. A new culture and language to deal with. etc etc.. I'm saying this from my memory. I do remember a few off the cuff questions right after he was signed from radio personalities. They have to fill their time slots. But I found no actual articles written with the topic being about a concern with his NA game. Unless you have a source. Here is one early article by MacIntyre after the first times we saw him at training camp, Where he was already impressing media and fans alike https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/rookie-kuzmenko-shows-early-star-potential-at-canucks-camp/ Rookie Kuzmenko shows early star potential at Canucks camp I can understand raising those questions before he got here. Perfectly legitimate questions that might come up on talk radio. I think we were all asking them. And hoping for the best. And the best is pretty much what we got from the get go. And so the media, and fans, had their answer. And pretty much shut up about questioning his readiness once the season began. I just don't see any controversy or overstepping their roles in simply asking these questions especially before he played a game in NA. Totally different if a pundit was going on about being certain that Kuzmenko WOULD be a bust, not fit in, be bad at the NHL game, etc... (And I don't know how they could if he hadn't actually played here yet.) Its easy to say.."it was all over the sports media" but then its kinda difficult to take you seriously if you can't produce just one article to back that up. Questioning JTs signing...yes I can find one source easy. .......one minute later..... Canucks Army did a piece on that https://canucksarmy.com/news/9-reasons-hate-canucks-jt-miller-extension. I just think there are so many other more legitimate dumb, and incendiary things some say in our sports media that to use this is a weak example, and takes away from the more egregious crimes of idiots and rumour mongers like Sekeres.

I agree with your describing the handwringing in here when JT was signed. I loved that signing at the time too. But someone asking for a source is not unreasonable. In most message board rules, you should back up any controversial or challenged claims with at least one source. I typed in the key words "media kuzmenko needs time to adjust to nhl not ready" And sorry, but in the first page of articles that showed up on Google, none said anything about what you put out there. I'm not saying there wasn't any articles on him not being ready etc. If you find one, post it. There may well have been, but if there was, it didn't have much legs, and was quickly snuffed out by his start to the season.

One of the dumbest decisions by this new management group. Its the first time they've made such a bad decision since the Stillman trade. Also dumb? Buying out OEL now instead of waiting at least one more season. And the decision to dis Burroughs at the same time has compounded this bad decision, and further complicated the cap issue on the team next season. Cole is a good addition , but he's 34 years old, and on a one year deal for 3 million. Then we will have to replace him. Signing Burroughs to 3.3 for 3 seasons was a steal for San Jose. And would have worked well here as the team could at least be assured of 3 years of cheap but efficient (and physical) 5/6 D position, plays both sides and can stand in when needed as a 4. This position could have been taken care of, for the coming years when we will be in such a crunch. Nothing wrong with Kyles game. He was trusted with Hughes as stand in by both Boudreau and Tocchet. He was one of our top defensive defensemen, improving every year. And for that price and term, considering the team's cap position, it was just stupid beyond belief not to re-sign him.

I agree totally. Just yankin some chain

But of course WWE is staged fighting. There's none of that in NHL.........oh wait. There's no manufactured winner based on the ref just coincidentally looking the other way and not seeing an infraction.......oh wait There are no contestants that will take a fall, or tank, just to gain some payout, or high draft pick........oh wait

Yeah, opinions evolve after you get a little distance from a player like Horvat. Different now than the time of all the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth bemoaning JR not rushing to sign Bo to whatever he wanted, and the pitchforks when Miller was signed first. Quite telling that no one is batting an eye at Blueger taking 53. You're a bit harsh but true in that his stats, overall, don't warrant it. And he never really had any memorable games that other ROH or Jersey retired members had. Its interesting to note that the last 5 captains were ALL inducted into either the ROH, in Lu's case, the rest had their jerseys retired. (Messier is dead to me) Smyl Jersey Retired Linden JR N/A Naslund JR Luongo ROH (this season) , but a strong push from some fans for a JR Henrik JR Bo's number comes up without a thought of saving it for the rafters. That is sadly quite telling, and reflects the state of the team while he was captain. And it was mostly not his fault.

Nah. you have that backwards. Jim Benning convinced Canucks fans that he was the worst GM in Canucks history - at least. I never heard anyone say he was the worst in the league's history. But if I had to rank him there, he'd be in the top (bottom) ten, maybe even bottom five. The OEL trade has to be one of the worst ever taking into account everything we gave up, plus a buy out and future cap hits for the next eight f'n years,... and the bonus, an overpaid small winger no one else wants. That deal was the final nail for a lot of fans. With every idiot decision he convinced a few more of us fans to see the incompetent fool of a yes-man we had running our favourite team for way too long.

Even those 'good picks' were not slam dunks for JB. Demko was pushed by Brackett, as a member of the scouting staff, because of Bracketts connections and acquired knowledge following American Eastern hockey leagues and Eastern colleges like Boston even before he was hired as the director of A.S. (along with Boeser, Gaudette and Madden) And its pretty well known that JB wanted Cody Glass. But there was enough of a backlash and push from most all the scouting department from Brackett to Delorme to especially Gradin who ultimately convinced JB to go with the svelte Swede, Pettersson. After the Joulevi disaster where JB swooped in to insist on the pick over the objections of almost every other scout on the Canucks and in the NHL for that matter, while Tkachuk was still standing there. Ian McIntyre wrote that JB was more open to listening to his scouting staff, rather his own hunches after that. So he got rid of the Amateur Scouting director responsible for showing him up. F the team, his feelings were more important. He and his buddy Weisbrod (who had made a number of stupid decisions with Calgary's prospect pool before joining the Canucks) would replace the department. Judd was a brilliant exec for us. Learning and developing for eleven years with the Canucks until he was at the height of his craft when JB had had enough of the upstart embarrassing him. Now, after a few short years, the Wild have the best rated prospect pool in the NHL according the The Athletic and others. https://www.thefourthperiod.com/mar-2023/call-of-the-wild-a-look-behind-the-nhls-best-prospect-pool Dim Jim couldn't stand anyone smarter than him working in the organization. No matter how beneficial to the team's progress. Gilman, Linden, Brackett... He never should have been hired as a GM for any team. Well, I suppose it would have been entertaining to watch him destroy Calgary's pool if he'd gone the other way and joined Weisbrod there. We would have picked Tkachuk, and then he would have still picked Joulevi hands down.

I guess we all have our hills to die on.

Sure. Thats why he just signed a three year contract with San Jose, a Pacific rival who saw a lot of him. Kyle may have been that when he first came to the Canucks, but he was steadily improving in his defensive play until both BB and RT had no qualms pairing him with Hughes when needed. You could see that on the ice, if you honestly were watching his play. Locking up for three years, only 1.3 per season, for such a solid, improved, D who hits and defends well as a 5/6 D who can also play both sides and trusted to move up the lines if needed? Priceless. For a GM looking for value pieces to round out his roster, so he can then afford higher priced talent. I love Cole, he's a beast. But he's also older, and his one year is almost as much as Kyle for three. When the OEL penalty is the highest, Cole will probably be gone, and have to be replaced. I know about, and share, all the excitement about the new D coming in. Its nice to believe that the grass is always greener. Hope is eternal. I remember Gudbranson, Sbisa, Pouliot, Del Zoto, Sautner, Dipietro, Poolman..... But with a proven, now veteran, value for the $, piece like Burroughs, its just smart to hang on to him. IMHO, it would have been wise to use Kyle, as San Jose will probably be doing, as a cheap, but solid physical and reliable, lower paired D and not worry about filling that position for 3 more seasons. I like the improvement overall in size on D. Kyle wasn't the biggest D. But he greatly outperformed physically the 6' 6" Myers so for him, I don't think size was a problem. I'm not unhappy with who we picked up on D. And on paper, we have improved. But Kyle already knew the system and team, it will take time for new players to adjust. But they will, and I wish nothing but the best for them, and the Canucks defensive play improves. i have every reason to believe it will. Our D was broken, but its just odd to me to be throwing away the one reliable piece that was working above his pay grade.

Nikita blew it big time. Not sucking it up and being willing to pay his dues in the AHL if the coach wanted that. The arrogance of youth. He had enough talent that if you add his size, and working with NA professional trainers in off seasons, I have no doubt he could have landed an stuck a job here or somewhere else in the NHL, if we had kept and traded him. Now he is stuck in a country spiralling down into economic disaster and destabilization. He would have been living the high life in a Western city by now as a proven defender, with a contract paid in American dollars instead of a crashing rubble.

I thought he won his fair share. At least a draw. Again though, fighting is phasing out in the NHL. Its a bonus in a D now if they even "try". If that was all Kyle brought I'd agree he was expendable. But the grass is always greener in this managements mind. I'm just blowing off steam for now. I'll get over it. Probably shouldn't post when p'd off. Just dumb IMO to not see what you had in front of your eyes...for that price at least. A player that is not a gamble, you know what you will get and really wanted to play for this team.

Which is why I said fighting was a bonus. And he handled himself just fine physically, with his weight. Maybe the fact that he fought actually worked against him in that he was never appreciated for his great defensive play. He was trusted as Hughes partner at the end of Bruce's term. Great hockey sense, reliable and solid. As I'm writing we sign Soucy for a similar deal that Burroughs got. Near the same age. But IMO Burroughs is a better player. And already on the team and beginning to be familiar with Tocchet's system.

3.3 for 3 years for San Jose. For what he brought here, especially when we have such a lack of physical defensive defencemen with Schenn gone, it should have been a slam dunk to match that offer. Skill wise he was way undervalued here. From my eye test, he was one of our best D with recovering the puck and making quick smart accurate passes to forwards. + added bonus of willing to stand up and fight. Someone on the Sharks pro-scouting staff was smart. Edit....update. Signed Cole to 3 mill for one year. Almost the same as Burroughs 3 year deal. Ridiculous.

If only we had a player already who was not only that, but a smart hockey player who could move the puck out efficiently, a good passer, hits, and stands up for his teammates even better... a local kid, who always gave his heart and soul. And was cheap as well and a lot younger. Even better ...who already was playing here. Oh well.

@$&%^$@&$&#@#$%&^%$#%$%$#!!!! Not resigning Burroughs was dumb dumb dumb dumb

Yeah. The point is that it doesn't matter if Torts was kept on or not, or was the right coach for that team at that time, he was right with his assessment of the staleness of the team. Which was promptly ignored. In spite of the teams brave efforts and physical sacrifice, the Canucks ultimately didn't bring the Cup to Vancouver in 2011. But it was worth the journey and the shot. But after that the Presidents trophy repeats in 2012 season ended it badly with Daniel's concussion, and a sweep by the Sharks to end the playoffs early. And things only went down from there. Bad timing for a lock out to start 2012/13 for half a season. So in hindsight, which admittedly is 20/20, management could have blown it up way back when Torts first made his comments, when the core was close to its highest value on the market. He actually said on his way out in 2014 he felt from "day one" that the team was stale. He was hired in 2013, five months before we re-signed the Sedins to a shiny new 4 year contract. What might have been.

Another draft day Watching the cream of the crop Snagged by stinkin foes

"So, it's fine for Linden to say he was the one to have a longer vision and come off looking like the good rebuild guy ... BUT ... In his own words ... he was also the guy who wasn't prepared to break the immoveable contracts." You make a good point here. Looking back, Linden was the wrong choice for President of Hockey Operations then not just because of inexperience, but also his close relationship, as an ex player, with the veteran players on the team. It was like forcing a person to chose between his head and his heart. It was an impossible position for Trevor. He was installed as President to shore up season ticket sales after a big dip. That's it. And to shut up and go along with whatever hackneyed plan Aqulini and Benning dreamed up. It seemed like a big honour at the time, but in retrospect, it was a huge disrespect to use him and his reputation to whitewash a debacle. Should have hired an experienced, neutral President that was actually granted the respect and power to make decisions, and not a figurehead to smooth public relations for the short sighted gambles that Aqua and JB were plotting. If I was cynical I might even suggest they hired Linden, in part, BECAUSE they knew he would probably resist the idea of force-trading away players who he knew and was friendly with.

Kiss, a band similar to Nickleback, in that it was started by businessmen who saw being a rock star could earn them a lot of money, so they learned how to basically play instruments, studied and then mimicked the riffs of other commercially successful rock artists. The easiest 3 chord riffs they could learn. They knew that audiences, especially North American, would be happy with explosions and face paint and fire. "lots of fire etc" as stated in a post above. To each their own, with the blandest of rock song compositions you don't have to think too deep, and the explosions and fire distract from the repetitiveness of the music. If you want to pay hundreds to watch that, hey its a free country. Some people also rate how good a movie is by how many firey explosions there are too. And those movies usually rake in a tidy profit. So there is a market, I get it. As far as Rush praising them. What do you expect? They gave Rush their first big exposure in the States by having them on their tour. Kudos for that. But that was a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. Geddy: "Regardless of what you want to say about Kiss musically or otherwise, there was no more hard working band than Kiss. And no other band that wanted to put on a spectacular show and give people their money's worth than Kiss" Telling too how much went into being ready to perform such complicated challenging music on a tour that they knew it required a good nights rest, but Gene was clueless about why they weren't partying it up with them every night. Even then, in that more hedonistic age of R&R, for Rush it was about respecting the audience, and giving them your best.

My reason, and others, is that they are a band that came together not with music as their main goal, but money. And it shows. They studied what made songs sell from the top 40 playlist. What the most commercially successful hit rock songs had in common that made people buy those records. The actual construction into things like the most popular chord progressions etc... And then crafted songs that fit into the corporate rock sound that would be attractive to producers running rock music radio stations. And get them air play. Lowest common denominator sound = a greater audience = lots of $. Back when radio was still the main stage for musicians. This is why many, not all, of their songs sound similar to one another. Perhaps they have evolved and actually gotten better or more unique musically, I have no idea, but the means and ways they rose to popularity just doesn't work for me. And their music is reflective in their strategy, its redundant pablum made for newbies to rock music, or people who require music isn't too challenging, just safe predictable songs they can tap their foot to. Which is fine, whatever rocks your boat. But to me they are more of a mock band than rock band.

I'll grant you that the All Star game has become even more about pleasing kids and newbies in the last decades. More gimmicky. And for players its more of a low effort vacation where they get to mingle with a privileged class of players. Still its only for one weekend. Different than what I'm talking about. Its not like the NHL does not advertise. They still spend money to buy air time, but not to produce memorable and clever ads, highlighting the stars, but simple ads with loud music and animated graphics and a hidden announcer who simply shouts into the mic about upcoming games in a brash way. They could do so much better is all.

The All Star game is what it is. Every year they try and introduce something a little different which is good. But lets face it, the All Star game is mostly for kids. Its all glitz with no substance. Which is fine for what it is I'm not talking about an event, like the All Star game, but an ongoing strategy of making great ads using prominent players taking advantage of their unique qualities. Create an interest around actual personalities or at least a commercialized version of them. Its a way that an unaware, disinterested public actually sees a more personalized aspect of the league. IMO that goes a long way to garner interest. Canada has produced some of the best comedians and comedic writers. No reason we can't come up with material. Using what is unique (identical twins) to create funny, and memorable, content. Ovi is in a number of local commercials in the Washington area making fun of his Russian sensibilities. Maybe its just that here in Canada we don't need to be cajoled into attending hockey games. And ownership knows that. Which is why we don't see them. Maybe other American cities use their star players in ads more. I just think they could do more. Its ridiculous that the only time we see our star players outside of games, is when they are shilling for gambling companies. An addiction that has ruined many lives. I have a close relative that lost their home due to his gambling addiction. Trying to make a funny commercial promoting the online gambling scam, (the house ALWAYS wins), just doesn't work for me. Like Pronger's where he runs from a CGI tiger. Its really stupid to associate the leagues best talent with an addiction like that. Especially when those are the ONLY ones using NHL personalities.