SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

Have to wonder if Benning would still have a job if there were fans in the stands this season? It took one “fire Gillis” chant to end MG. By the next day, our reactive ownership had decided that Gillis was done. One bad season, and they fired the GM who built the greatest contender in Canucks history. 6 seasons, 5 division titles, 2 Presidents’ trophies, 10 playoff rounds, and one trip to game seven of the SCF. It took one bad season and a fan chant, and Mike Gillis was fired. Benning has done some good things. I freely admit, I’ve never been a huge JB fan, but I’ve also never been a “hater.” I’d like to think I’m pretty fair in giving credit where it’s due, when it comes to JB. But when I look back over the totality of his record with the Canucks, I can’t help but think that he’s done far more things that would get the average NHL GM canned, and several times over during his tenure, than Gillis ever did in one failed season (when ownership installed Torts, reportedly against the wishes of their GM, and the new coach ended up burning the team to the ground in a single season). JB really seems to have more lives than a cat. (Wonder if Benning knows where the Aquilinis bury the bodies of their undocumented blueberry pickers? ) But even with the mysteriously blessed existence JB has enjoyed, when it comes to his job security as the GM in Vancouver, I really have to wonder how the owners would react if the struggles this season led to “fire Benning” chants from the fans?

Whatever it takes to make the playoffs, and then add 16.

Weeknd should have re-enacted this scene on stage before launching into “Can’t Feel My Face.” That would have been an epic “talking moment” for America.

KC players got so mad after that first half, they’re bullying the Weeknd’s dancers by making them wear jockstraps on their faces!

Glad I’m not a KC fan. Otherwise, this would feel too much like another Canucks game, and I need a break from Canucks hockey.

I don’t think there’s a huge issue with any of the contracts, in isolation. Sutter, Beagle, Roussel, etc, they are all within the range of what you’d expect to pay for players of their ilk. The issue is choosing to build a team with that many high priced bottom sixers in the lineup. While also having the complete wastes of money in Eriksson and Baertschi. At some point, something has to give. JB shot himself in the foot, and then refused to get treatment, and now he’s dying of gangrene. He needed to realize that he had to dig himself out of his self-created cap issues. He needed to admit the mistakes and pay the costs to fix them. Other GMs have taken this bitter medicine, and made the cap dump trades with sweeteners, to free themselves up the space to ice the teams they need to stay competitive. It can be done. There was a lot of warning that this cap crunch was coming. And there was a lot of time to address it. The Canucks had picks and prospects, and pieces like Virtanen, that could have been used to shed Eriksson, and maybe also Sutter (and then replace with a low cost FA who could play the same role), to free up the space needed to enter into last year’s bargain market with cap flexibility and the chance to be really nimble and take advantage. “Running out of time” on Toffoli is inexcusable. As was making that trade without having a real plan to get him resigned. Losing those assets, for 10 games of Toffoli, was never going to be ok. I said at time of the trade, if Toff isn’t re-signed, it’s a big loss, and one that could put JB in jeopardy, especially if that lost trade is compounded by other issues with the team in 2020-21 (and here we are). I was OK letting Marky and Tanev walk, assuming we couldn’t compete with the offers they’d get (which wasn’t necessarily a guarantee—if we’d really worked on the cap situation, we could have probably worked something out with Tanev), and not wanting to commit longterm to players on their age curves. There would be some short term pain, losing key guys like that, but there were also plenty of opportunities to mitigate those losses, had we gone into free agency with the cap space to bargain hurt, during a rather unique Covid-19 market. Walking from Stecher was just a mistake IMO. I was one of the few here that really felt like we were making the wrong choice by not working harder to sell Troy on taking a pay cut and staying. Those conversations should have started early and been going on daily, until a deal was done (instead of just radio silence and maybe a lowball offer late). If Benning felt he didn’t have the time, he should’ve delegated the Stecher negotiations. But Troy should have been given the respect to be kept in the loop, and given the opportunity to re-sign (I expect he would have). He ended up signing for a bargain $1.7M in Detroit, and that’s something we should have matched. Stecher is currently leading the Red Wings D in 5v5 icetime, and posting sparkling underlying numbers, especially on the suppression side (ie: defence). He’s actually above 50% in scoring chances for and expected goals, on a really bad Red Wings team. He used to do the same for us, most seasons. Having him as a 4/5 D here, instead of pushing rookies into those minutes, would have been a cost effective way to likely help us stop some of the bleeding on the defensive side. And Troy was also one of our biggest “no quit” players, despite his small size, and having that effort and drive in the lineup would be helpful to this team. On the positive side, we brought in Schmidt, which was a good move, but we neglected the bottom of the defensive order, and failed to replace two outgoing Ds, who also happened to be two of our best defensive Ds, and two of the more popular guys in the room, and big parts of the “glue” that held those group together. We went into the season on the hope that Juolevi would be ready to be a regular, which he’s not, and that the depth could be covered by the rookies, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Hamonic was a good add, but probably should have been counted on for just depth, and had a more certain option (like Stecher), also in the D order. I think in some ways, the mistakes this season are of a similar error in reasoning to the ones that precipitated them. Like I said at the top, there aren’t any truly egregious errors in the contracts that JB has given out. He’s just done it too many times. Signing one or two overpriced veterans and sprinkling them into the lineup is fine. Even necessary, for stability on a young team. But having too many big tickets in the bottom of the lineup, or not even playing (like Eriksson and Baertschi), and you **** your cap. And then you can’t afford to maintain the roster and you’re hooped. In a similar vein, letting players walk from the leadership group and key on-ice roles is a necessary evil sometimes. You can’t always afford to keep veterans, and there are times when you must cut bait. But letting all those guys go, at once, and not adequately replacing them, either through cheaper options, or internal promotions, can upset the delicate balance that makes teams successful. We lost a lot of leadership (Marky, Tanev, Stech), defensive value (Tanev, Stech), top end scoring (Toff), and an elite goalie (Marky). That’s a lot of turnover. Basically a heart transplant for this team. And while some of it was necessary, not all of it needed to happen, and certainly not all at once, had JB handled the cap better, and recognized (and early, because we’ve been talking about this for years, and it’s been right there for everyone to see) that he needed to clean up the mess he created.

Dang, got back late and missed the start of Wayne Simmonds hat trick night! At least only one goal in, so still some game left to watch.

Brutal. Really hope those kids pull through ok. Britt Reid also has previous convictions for road rage (pulled a gun on another driver) and DUI. Sounds like a family ran out of gas on an on ramp and then another family member drove over to help. While they were trying to get the car started (with the kids sitting in the backseat), Reid smashed into both vehicles. Don’t know if Reid was high (drugs in his system were apparently prescription Adderall), but certainly sounds like he was drunk. Reid’s brother also had a history of DUI, and later was caught smuggling drugs into prison, while serving his sentence. Eventually he died of a heroin OD. I can feel for the Reid family, when it comes to their struggles with addiction issues and resulting tragedies, but I have very little sympathy for drunk drivers, especially repeat offenders.

Just to add to the pain: Troy Stecher is quietly having a very good season in Detroit. He’s leading their D in 5v5 minutes per game. And he has pretty much the best across the board analytics of any Detroit defenceman this season. This whole playing some of the hardest minutes on that D corps. Basically, he’s been their best overall Dman so far. Certainly the best two-way and/or defensive minded D on the Red Wings. Troy’s numbers might not jump of the page, especially with counting stats of 11 GP, 1 assist, and a -4. But his underlying numbers tell the real story (as well as the fans’ eye tests, and Troy is quickly becoming a fan favourite out in Detroit). So far, this season (and rank among Red Wings D with >1GP): 16:56 5v5TOI/GP (1st) -7.74 CA/60 Rel (1st) +3.95 CF% Rel (3rd) -6.68 FA/60 Rel (1st) +7.21 FF% Rel (1st) -5.36 SA/60 Rel (1st) +4.76 SF% Rel (1st) -0.93 GA/60 Rel (1st) +12.12 GF% Rel (4th; but 1st for the Dmen appearing in all 11 GP) +0.05 xGF/60 Rel (4th) -0.67 xGA/60 Rel (1st) +9.51 xGF% Rel (1st) -7.47 SCA/60 Rel (1st) +7.98 SCF% Rel (1st) I’m running out of time and won’t be able to finish posting all these stats, but you can keep running down the list and Troy is either 1st or 2nd on that D in relative rates for suppression and events for%, pretty much across the board. Damn good start for Stech. Of course, he’s just the best Dman on a bad team, but still, even for raw numbers, instead of relative rates, he’s holding up quite well. I mean, he’s even 50% on raw Fenwick rates and counts, and he’s actually above 50% for scoring chances and expected goals, which is pretty great for the high minute 5v5 D, playing defensive zone skewed minutes, and on a team like the Red Wings. And his suppression stats (defensive stats measures) are even better. He prevents more goals that pretty much anyone else on that team. And he used to do much the same for the Canucks. Can’t help wondering what we’d look like this season had Stecher been brought back on a cheap deal (and he signed for only $1.7M with Detroit, so we could’ve afforded him—probably even could’ve had him back for cheaper, if the Canucks had kept him in the loop, and been more respectful in their dealings with Troy this past offseason). His on-ice impact has always been undervalued by Canucks fans, but he’s continued to be just rock solid after moving to Detroit, and now leads their D in pretty much all of the key defensive on-ice fancy stats and overall events rates. Having a steady Dman like Stech, especially defensively, would be real nice right now. And Troy is also the one kid who never quit, and would play his ass off to the final horn, even when the whole team was sucking. Would sure be nice to see some of that ol’ Stech in a few of the games we’ve played this year.

The is just part of the Canucks’ penny pinching for 2020-21. Players like Bailey, on two-way deals (750k/225k), are cheaper on the taxi squad than the roster (as they draw the lower AHL salary on the taxi squad). While Loui Eriksson earns the same salary wherever he is. So Eriksson tends to get “activated” whenever there is an off day, while a two-way contract player gets taken off the active roster, and moved to the taxi squad, to save money. Then, on game days, Eriksson goes to the taxi squad, and the two-way player (like Bailey) gets activated (so they’re available if needed), and paid their NHL salary, but only on game days. I’d expect the Canucks will continue this all season long. In other years, they haven’t cared to pinch pennies to this degree, and have kept depth guys up and let them enjoy earning some NHL dollars. But it’s pretty obvious that Benning has been given a clear directive from ownership to save money wherever possible, since the Canucks will operate at a significant loss this year. And it could very well be that the money saved by these small moves is indirectly paying for the salaries of some team staff members that might otherwise have been laid off (as the Canucks organization has already made deep cuts to their staff and payroll for 2020-21).

Finally! Bought that goat back in 2014 and now I get to collect!

Hadn’t considered that, Deb, but you could be on to something. Beyond what Manny brought as a technical coach, he really added value just being a guy that kept everyone’s spirits up, and seemed to really have a connection with many of the players, especially the young guys. I don’t know if missing Manny has put us in this funk, but I would suggest that not having him around could explain why it’s taking so long for this team to bounce back mentally and really find themselves. Manny was the ultimate “glue guy” as a player, and I suspect that he functions much the same as a coach, and is missed by Vancouver, for these same reasons.

Canucks reminding me of this guy: But when a boxer punches himself in the face, does he fire his coach, or just try to stop punching himself in the face? I’d suggest it’s better to just stop punching yourself in the face. Can’t really blame your coach for that. Hopefully the Canucks can learn to stop punching themselves in the face. (Although I wouldn’t be against a few of the players punching themselves in the face during the next intermission.)

No surprise he cleared. Wonder if the next step will be contract termination?

Good news, if these tests are as accurate as claimed, and the costs are reasonable (I’m hearing they’ll be priced at $30 each, initially): Don’t know if/when we’ll get these in Canada, but hopefully sometime soon.

I think his English has always been better than was reported by some. For example, during his draft interviews, I can remember one reporter noticing that Vasily would answer some English questions without waiting for his interpreter. He’d speak only Russian, but could clearly understand some of the questions in English. And since then, he’s worked on improving his English, and the results show in that video. Pretty clear he already has enough basic English to get by, when it comes to talking to teammates, or receiving coaching. He’s probably just going to be a little like Petey was: shy about messing up words during TV interviews, but more than capable of following conversations and understanding the basics of what’s being said, and able to answer questions in English, just maybe with some reluctance, at first. I’d expect it’ll only take one season (or less) in North America, and he’ll be quite comfortable using English, both formally and informally.

I don’t think so. That would probably only apply to players who’ve already had NHL deals (like an RFA like Tryamkin), in which case signing deadlines come into effect. But for an ELC, the player can sign late into the season, or even after the regular season ends, and still suit up for the playoffs. Like Cale Makar for Colorado. Signed his ELC on April 14th, 2019, didn’t play any games in the 2018-19 regular season (since it ended April 6th), but played 10 games in the 2019 playoffs. EDIT: You probably did read something about it, however, during last year’s “return to play.” AFAIK, the NHL changed the rules for the COVID-19 season. Normally, players could be signed, burn a year, and participate in the playoffs. But with the season postponed, and the return to the playoff bubble, the NHL didn’t allow teams to sign late ELCs and have those players participate in the 2020 playoffs. IIRC, teams were still allowed to sign their players to late ELCs, and they could burn a year, but they weren’t permitted to join the 2020 playoff rosters. This affected teams and players like Kaprizov (Wild), Sorokin (Islanders), Romanov (Canadiens), etc. In a normal year, those players might have been signed and activated for the playoffs, but that option was taken away in 2020, as part of the NHL’s “return to play” guidelines. To be honest, I’m not sure what the NHL has decided for the 2020-21 regular seasons and the 2021 NHL playoffs. But I suspect they’ll revert to the old rules, and this year they will allow late ELC signings to participate in the playoffs. I think the bubble and “return to play” was just a one-off, due to the rather unique circumstances involved.

I’d also consider using Jake as the sweetener to finally move Eriksson. Maybe retain a little, and/or get a small return (late pick), whatever balances out the trade, but primarily just to shed the last two years of Eriksson’s contract. Offloading two contracts, and opening up two spots in the forward depth chart, would just be an added bonus. Plenty of guys, like Lind and Podkolzin, appear ready to fill the spots vacated. And the freed up salary space would obviously be a benefit, whether used toward extensions on Petey and Hughes (might even be able to go longterm instead of bridge), or to upgrade weak areas on the roster.

That’s almost too on the nose!

Hughes is only in that 10.2(c) “black box” for his next contract negotiation. Once he signs his extension, that’s over with. His 3rd contract, he’ll either be negotiating as an RFA (with arbitration rights) or a UFA, depending on the length on his next contract (if it’s a bridge, he’ll be RFA, if longterm, then he’ll be UFA by the time it expires).

Lockwood turning heads and earning some early praise from the coaches at Comets camp: “I’ve been impressed by the Lockwood kid, (Will Lockwood). He’s, (Lockwood) just a really good skater, you know, he’s got explosive speed. In speaking with Trent, one of his priorities is to really work with him on the penalty kill and turn him into what will hopefully be an NHL special teams guy. Lockwood is an important player… all guys are important, but I know that for him being in his first year of pro that Trent’s gonna really take some time with him to develop him into the right kind of player and the right kind of person.” (The quote is from Drew Bannister, Utica’s new associate head coach, coming over from the Blues.) Article: https://canucksarmy.com/2021/01/29/utica-comets-training-camp-day-three-five-more-takeaways/

So, it hasn’t hit the local forecasts yet (which all seem to max out at 14 days), but I was looking some international weather services and long range modeling, and it looks like we might finally see that La Niña winter hitting the Vancouver region by the middle of February. Some forecasts I looked at suggested temps getting colder that -10 for Vancouver, with snow. It’s still really early, and long range forecasts tend to be pretty inaccurate, but just thought I’d share. So if we’re all freezing our ****s off by Valentine’s Day, you can blame me.

Someone should punch Keith tonight, just for the trifecta. (Actually, someone should punch Keith every night, but I digress...)

Suttsy would’ve put that backhand top corner.