When healthy is this Canucks roster better than the 2011 Stanley Cup Final team?

[Zissou]

ugh, watching those 2011 run highlights hurts worse for me now than ever. The initial shock of the loss has worn off and now I'm not sure if we're going to get that close again in the foreseeable future.

I hope I'm wrong but I see this playing out like '94 - could be another decade or two before we get back.

[Rypien37]

Booth will be back to hunt some bruins in round 4

Sedin Sedin Burrows

Raymond Kesler Kassian

Higgins Roy Hansen

Ebbett (Booth round 3&4) Lapierre Weise

Hamhuis Bieksa

Edler Garrison

Ballard Tanev

Alberts

Schneider

Luongo

[theminister]

I suspect Booth is going to be back sooner than anticipated. I would not be shocked if he is gearing up to play in the 1st round.

If that happens, then it becomes one more notch in the argument that this team is better than 2011.

Booth, as he is getting back into game shape, can slide into a 4th line role for quite awhile in the event we don't sustain any injuries. Disregarding his salary because it doesn't affect the on-ice product, he could be a very effective 4th line element with Weise and Lappy that would continue to keep the other teams honest when matching our lines on the road.

If Booth outplays someone, say Kassian, he could slide up anywhere on the 2nd or 3rd line giving the line-up some added balance.

This is, of course, the best scenario as the only help fro the system the team will get in a deep playoff run, to compensate for injuries, will be coming from Booth, Schroeder, Pinizzotto and possibly Jensen.

[bolt]

NO EBBETT!

Sestito or Pinizzotto.

[Jma7]

The forward group, when healthy, it's 4x times better than the 2011 team. Easily. Not even close. Not only are they better on paper, but they have a deeper and more versatile group.

I wrote this in another thread, but you'll recall the 2011 team not having a 4th line - at all. The plugs/AHLers that were rolled out during the playoffs were highly sheltered and often a liability. Therefore, AV gave them little TOI. Now, 2 of 3 fourth liners play on the PK and eat heavy d-zone starts. Basically, the 4th line now plays an important role on the team.

2011 3rd line was Hansen- Lappy - Torres. While they were a physical line, they combined for 9 goals in 25 playoff games - or 3 goals each in 25 playoff games. That's pretty sad considering the amount of ice time they were getting.

Quite frankly looking back, I'm not sure how the 2011 team got to gm 7 with only 1.5 lines. It was all Sedins, Kesler, Luongo and the d-core. Raymond had 2 freekin goals, Samuelsson had 1, Higgins had 4 and that was it. It's easy to see why shutting down the Sedins and a hobbled Kesler was the demise in gm 7.

The 2011 team and this team have the same puck possession underlying #'s. The PP stinks this yr, but I really don't care cause they're not getting PP's in the playoffs. They need to be a strong even strength team with a great PK.

[BI3KSA-]

Edler and Ehrhoff never played together after Edler came back from his injury. (They played like 2 games and then were separated because they were bad but that was the regular season)

The pairings were:

Hamhuis - Bieksa

Edler - Salo

Ehrhoff - Rome/Alberts/Tanev

Edler was also beastly that year, so was Ehrhoff. Far from "defensive disasters.." Unless you're referring to the like 2 games they played together after Edler came back, then sure..

[kmotamed]

No, we are not better.

[bahaazar]

Hard question, we are bigger but no PP will be terrible in the post season....weakness = defense, still fight the puck trying to get it out of zone plus static wingers dont help...2011 the PP was feared not laughed at.

[6string]

heading into the 94 finals we took a dip in the standings after some better years in the regular season, in fact i recall just being over 500....

it's about chemistry and the 2011 edition had that in the lineup but i dare to say not in coaching, coach v is any better today than 2011 maybe he is the answer to our quest in 2013, can he make the hard decisions or continue to play the percentages game with veterans?

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Ehrhoff was minus 13 in the playoffs with the lowest ice time of any of our top 4 defensemen. Nostalgia is great and everything, but lets be serious, he wasn't very good in the playoffs. Sure, he was great in the reg season when we get PP time, but on 5 on 5 is was a total liability... Which showed greatly in the playoffs. Edler was a minus player as well in the playoffs at like minus 4, but was much better than Ehrhoff defensively..

[Drouin]

Much better offensively, and goaltending (Schneids) is playing lights-out.

[Ferlands_Head]

When healthy this year's roster has MUCH better offensive depth and are better built for the playoffs than our 2011 SCF team and here's why. We have 4 very capable lines, we have Derek Roy or Ryan Kesler guys that are 2C even on contending teams on our 3rd line. This makes our team much harder to shut down.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Offence 2011 team

Defence 2011 team We had 6 strong defencemens, with 6 of them having previous top pairing expierence

Power play 2011 team. Nuff said.

Penalty kill 2011 team also.

Goaltending. 2013 Very tough one. the 2011 version of Luongo was statistically his best, with exception of the win colum. He had his best save percentage and goals against in that season. But I'm giving the nod Cory Schneider

Defence on paper. 2011 team

2011 team Featured Ehrhoff, Salo, Edler, Hamhius Bieksa , Ballard, and Rome

2013 team featured Garrison Tanev Edler, Hamhius Beiska, with alternating between Ballard, Alberts, and Barker.

To be honest, the 2011 team is the strongest defence we had in history. If Salo or and Edler played another 15 games, and Salo even played 60% of the season the Canucks could have easily gotten 130 regular season points. I remember that season, Edler and Salo both missed a chunk of games, and the defence that year was Anchored by Ehrhoff, Hamhius, Bieksa, Ballard, Tanev and Rome.

Offence on paper

2011 team easily. What was magical was the 2nd line, of Raymond Kesler and Samuelson. We had a 40 goal centerman. WHA WHA WHAAT????? 40 goal centerman? How many of those do we see every year? 0!!! not many centermans will score 40 goals. However the 2013 team might have the edge in centermans, as there was no Malhotra in 2011 until the finals. We have Derek Roy, who is easily a scoring centerman.

Here you have it folks. Our 2013 team is deeper in centermans, and better goaltending, but everything else the 2012 team is stronger. What the 2013 team is missing is Ehrhoff type of dman. Worst mistake ever, Gillis letting his ego get in the way.

[Bertorama]

This is the best offensive depth this team has ever had. I'm still not convinced team defence is where it needs to be but with the top of line goaltending we have I have no doubt this team has the ability to be great. Power play on the point is weak. Garrison needs to find the lanes and hit a net. Penalty killing is top notch.

This 2013 team in 2011 wins the cup. This team this year competing against Bruins Hawks and a healthy Pens team is in tough. We will need some injuries and puck luck to go our way for a chance or true shot at the cup.

Just my opinion of course.

[TheTruthHurts]

I think Schneider can carry us to the finals.

[Canucks_Hockey_101]

This year, we have a potential 1st line centre as our 3rd line centre. We upgraded our size and toughness, and have a bit more depth/

We have all of the pieces of a stanley cup contender.... Secondary scoring, a deep defense, and solid goaltending. Things just have to come together at the right time.

[Canucks_Hockey_101]

I think Schneider can carry us to the finals.

[wallstreetamigo]

I think you misunderstand my point. I never said the two were similar at all. Quite to the contrary. They are polar opposite players. But that's precisely why I choose to compare them. We've still got Edler, Bieksa, Hamhuis and Garrison is extremely similar to Salo (but better). Hence, the most pronounced change in our D core is that we've essentially swapped a player like Erhoff for a player like Tanev. We've lost a guy who was an offensive, PP specialist (and a big defensive liability) in Erhoff and gained a guy who is a rock solid defensive player (albiet with nothing in the way of offense). What that means for us is debatable but I think this is definitely the most clear way to represent how our 2011 D differs from our current D.

[MoneypuckOverlord]

I think you're as blind as a bat.

[Belsy91]

I think you're as blind as a bat.