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The Pathetic NW Division


Mustapha

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I know there are a ton of posters on this forum who assess and nitpick the Canucks' play on a regular basis, but I think it's really hard to truly evaluate the Canucks when they don't really play any big games until the playoffs start.

I mean, look at the other teams vying for the division lead. They would need to take the division just to make the playoffs, because chances are they won't make it with their end of season point totals. Colorado was the last team to make it to the playoffs, three seasons ago. Since then, it's only been Vancouver.

The Canucks are leaps and bounds ahead of these other teams, and as long as they continue to beat them, they will have at least 3rd place locked down.

Calgary - Can only beat teams that have horrible goaltending (Yeah YOU Richard Bachman)

They aren't that good when healthy, but injuries have made them even worse.

Minnesota - The players' names on the back say Heatley, Parise, and Suter....but they sure don't play like them most nights.

Edmonton - Will be great one day, if they get an actual coach. They are a Marc Crawford away from big trouble. Right now, they are still basically .500

Colorado - The best of the bunch, but between injuries and a contract dispute, they are handcuffed from reaching their full potential.

Sometimes I wonder how the Canucks would play if they had to compete against Central or Pacific opponents for a division title. The Central Division specifically, that is a nasty group of teams (aside from Columbus)

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I believe the biggest problem is the fact that the NW division opponents have shotty goaltending and weak offences. The Canucks rarely face a quality goaltender - sure some backups have had great games against us, but we struggled in the playoffs against elite goaltenders like Thomas and Quick because we rarely face off against these type of guys. That being said, the same can be said for other teams facing the Canucks.

I believe our defence really gets exposed outside of the division. Despite some good offensive stars, the Northwest are pretty poorly coached teams outside of Vancouver, with no big names behind the benches anymore, so they don't know how to dissect our defence. However, when we play well-coached teams like St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston their star coaches rip us apart, especially over a 7 game series where our weaknesses are well highlighted.

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that makes no sene.. we dont just play the flames & oilers 40 games each.. last year we were 22-11-7 combined against the central and pacific divisions... and if you think the east has better teams in their divisions... im sure if i go check we probably had a winning record against each of those as well.. i know for sure we dominated the northeast in the regiular season last year but dont remember the rest of the east...

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The whole weak division argument is just that, weak. We only play 4 MORE GAMES in our own division than we do outside of it. The benefit of playing in a weaker division is minor at best. I have done the math the if you removed all of the Canucks games against the NW for the season and averaged out their remaining win percentage for the season, the Canucks are still 1st in the league.

On top of that there are some top teams whom actually struggle against the NW. Boston, NJ, Chicago, LA, Wash, Montreal all had losing records to the NW last year, and there were a good 4 more that were barely over .500.

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First of all if you had any knowledge about hockey and Columbus you would know it was sarcasm when I said CBJ would pbbly make the playoffs.

Second, They were NOT 9-11 against the NW you goof. They were 9-9-2.

smells like a troll? says the guy with false facts and 3 posts coming here to pick a fight.

At least get your facts right you clown. I posted the link only 4 posts up, right below the one you quoted. It's not like you had to search for the info. moron.

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The whole weak division argument is just that, weak. We only play 4 MORE GAMES in our own division than we do outside of it. The benefit of playing in a weaker division is minor at best. I have done the math the if you removed all of the Canucks games against the NW for the season and averaged out their remaining win percentage for the season, the Canucks are still 1st in the league.

On top of that there are some top teams whom actually struggle against the NW. Boston, NJ, Chicago, LA, Wash, Montreal all had losing records to the NW last year, and there were a good 4 more that were barely over .500.

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The whole weak division argument is just that, weak. We only play 4 MORE GAMES in our own division than we do outside of it. The benefit of playing in a weaker division is minor at best. I have done the math the if you removed all of the Canucks games against the NW for the season and averaged out their remaining win percentage for the season, the Canucks are still 1st in the league.

On top of that there are some top teams whom actually struggle against the NW. Boston, NJ, Chicago, LA, Wash, Montreal all had losing records to the NW last year, and there were a good 4 more that were barely over .500.

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this is almost the same post i made a few days back about how easy our schedual is this year and lack of competition could hurt us befor this last 2 games i said these 6 games are probably the hardest stretch we will see all year and ,so far we are 0-1-1 .March is gross only 4 games vs teams currently situated in the playoffs we dont have another tough stretch of games until the end of april where i think we have another tough 6 games ... and it does matter every year in all sports people say "you are what your record says you are" but that is never the case .. broncos this year had the easiest schedual in the NFL they rolled hard to go one and done in the playoffs... last year canucks squeeked by bad teams down the stretch into the playoffs got smoked by LA . and in this shortend season having a terrible divison does matter as the % of games played vs your divison is far greater than any other season. and people keep bring up stats from last year.... that was last year we got knocked out first round its over... its this year now and we are under .500 outside our division but im sure that will improve as in march we play columbus 3 times and LA 2 times.

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We won't be playing teams from the NW in the playoffs so I guess we will judge this team then.

Otherwise this argument is a waste of time.

If you can figure out a way to manipulate the continent like putty, great!

We can move Vancouver east of winnipeg and play in the central.

then we will never have to be bothered by this ridicules argument again.

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