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Honest analysis of our team


vcrguy

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To be honest I do not see Kesler as the biggest problem here. He is definitely not playing up to his potential but he is playing a sound defensive game and chipping in points here and there. If you look at the similar Centers like Mike Richards or Begeron, they have had similar production so far. I am not defending him, but this team have more server issues than expecting the second line center to constantly score goals.

Right now the problem of this team is two things. First is a first line sniper. This role should have been filled by Daniel, but right now he is anything but a goal scorer. He had only 6 goals in the past 40 games he played which is a terrible number. I also disagree with those who blame Gillis for not getting a goal scorer as getting those players are extremely hard and expensive. Vanek ? You can only dream of it ! Even if we can, I am not comfortable with Giving a 29 year old a long 8+ million contract.

Second problem is goaltending. While lots of people here blindly say Luongo it not a problem at all, I believe he is one of the main issues right now. If your goaltender's SV% is constantly below 0.9 (he has been below 0.9 in all games canucks lost this season), he have not given you a chance to win. You can't win in tight games with that kind of goaltending. We don't have the offensive power of teams like pittsburgh or sharks to allow so many goals in. If you watch other NHL games you will see how a goalie can steal a game, or at least make some nice saves despite the loss. Luongo have not let in lots of softies, but he has been average at best ( and if you look at the stats board, he sits in middle to bottom of goalies in NHL) I really even do not care if Lack is playing or Luo as both are performing at the same level. I hope this problem solves by it self as Luo is a slow starter.

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Me being Capt obvious to many no trade clauses on this team .There are 2 players that would bring a 1st and a top prospect each.and probably 4 others that could bring a 1st or more specialist type players in trades.There are to many defense men that are decent at defense and offense.But none that are totally great at just one aspect so you can have role playing situational

players.

i like this team a lot in the ways there are some real classy people involved with this team.Some decent talent and really would enjoy seeing them as a group succeeding.But it just ain't happening the way they have been built.They had some good years and maybe a couple more above average years.But good chance this era is in the books with the west coast express.Unless the Top six can regain the confidence to excel.

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Shinkaruk and Horvat will step into that top 6 soon enough. Patience.

Yeah,and Dan and Hank will be 36 years old and Horvat and Shinkaruk will be too young and inexperienced to provide anything but third line/second unit PP roles.I am certain Gillis told us Kassian was "playoff ready" 2.5 years ago.Soon enough is too late.

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Gillis has some holes to fill. The team isn't good enough to win it all in its current form.

He's gonna have to be creative since we can't afford to give up many assets in return. Possibly Schroeder if it brings us back a good young third line center or 2nd line winger.

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It's a little early for an analysis as we haven't seen Schroeder/Burrows much so i'll leave them out, but from what I've seen so far

1st liners

Twins

2nd liners

Kesler

3rd

Hansen

Santorelli

Higgins

Richardson

4th

Kassian

Booth

Sestito

Weise

This team is very lacking in skill, they only have two true offensive players who have the creativity/skill to be a consistent threat.

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When they won the Cup, LA slept through the first 75% of that season, especially with a brutal offense. So, it's been done that way before. We need some of our depth-guys to come up big(at times), until we're more proficient playing Tort's way. Be patient until about Dec. Remind ourselves on how to get some ugly, greasy road wins.

Lu & our D performing to their usual standards, alongside this uneven fwd-production, should be enough to keep us in the mix. IF a nice trade opportunity arises(only giving up about 1 key young piece), we can go for it. Otherwise, sit tight & grind towards respectability. We can't expect to attain the standards of 3 seasons back-we've aged, as the competition's gotten better.

Need patience, people.

The Kings top 6 that season look a lot like the Canucks this season when the year began. They had 2 skilled players on the top line and a great 2 way centre on the 2nd line. However I don't think they simply wake up,their GM made a bold move and acquired Jeff Carter and suddenly their offense started clicking I don't think it's a coincidence. It's going to take more than just patience for this team to do it that way.

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This thread is like a who's who of trolls and who can be more negative circle jerk

Yes,critical analysis will provoke this type of reaction.

There are a minimum of five threads that pop up every day with the 'who's who of positive circle jerks' each contributing twenty daily posts and saying absolutely nothing that you can satisfy yourself with.

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Fixed. Blind faith in a team that has struggled to put away bottom feeders is not a safe route my friend.

Realism is not a synonym of pessimism, contrary to the average CDC users belief. As for your "struggled to put away bottom feeders" remark, Pitt lost to the Panthers, the Blues lost to the Jets, the Sharks lost to the Stars etc etc. Losing to lesser teams happens to all good teams, especially this early in the season.

Yes,analytical analysis will provoke this type of reaction.

There are a minimum of five threads that pop up every day with the 'who's who of positive circle jerks' each contributing twenty daily posts and saying absolutely nothing that you can satisfy yourself with.

Pretty much none of what you just said makes much of any sense.

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Pretty much none of what you just said makes much of any sense.

The team has yet to beat a contender nine games into the season with a new coach that brings 100% more grit,focus,attention,shot-blocking,determination,fitness and toughness.

It is early but it is what it is.

Hard to have a positive circle jerk with reality setting in.

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The team has yet to beat a contender nine games into the season with a new coach that brings 100% more grit,focus,attention,shot-blocking,determination,fitness and toughness.

It is early but it is what it is.

Hard to have a positive circle jerk with reality setting in.

They have only played 2 contenders and 1 of them they outplayed the crap out of. We haven't beaten the Sharks, but literally no one else in the league has either. It's really early in the season and we are overall having a better start than most years. There is literally no point in the whole doom and gloom and anxious, scared mentality. People don't have to have a positive circle jerk but there is nothing beneficial about up preemptively being as negative as we possibly can before we actually have something to logically be negative about.

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do me a favor... stop polluting the forum.

Pretty much what papa said -_-

Kesler has been taking almost all our defensive draws and has done a damn good job of it too. He has been pretty consistent thus far for the role Torts has given him.

Oh I'm sorry. I should be ecstatic that our 2nd line C/1st line Winger is playing like ass.

There is something extremely wrong with this team if the player who we rely on the most for secondary scoring only has 4 points so far, and the only positive is "taking almost all our defensive draws and has done a damn good job of it too".

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usually when you use "honest" and "our team" in the same sentence you know it's going to be anything but honest/objective lol.

Then you prove it by saying our defense is Fantastic! I would be fine with very good, above-average, better than most team, but it's anything but Fantastic.

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welcome to the age of the cap.

no team is going to be absolutely stacked. Pittsburgh went years without proper wingers for Crosby.

the void needs to be filled from within, which means it will take a year. Schroeder looks promising, like a real NHL player. Kassian / Booth are good candidates to step up once they have some confidence in their game. They have the skill level to become 2nd liners at least, so hopefully this works out

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The only core players playing to their capabilities are Hank, Higgins, Hansen, Garrison, Edler, Bieksa and Luongo.

Santorelli, Tanev, Richardson, Stanton, Lack have been good support players.

Kesler, D.Sedin, Booth, Kassian, Hamhuis need to be better.

Burrows needs to get healthy. Schroeder needs to as well and move to the wing.

Tortz has been a huge upgrade over AV.

It's really early to be making an analysis on 10 games but I'm really starting to get concerned about D.Sedin.

We came into the season needing a top 6 forward and still do. Hoping Kassian and Booth would step up and get 20+ goals this year. Well it's not gonna happen if they can only effectively play 12 minutes a game and Daniel doesn't look dangerous as a goal scorer anymore.

Bottom line is we're gonna be scraping for a playoff spot unless things change.

Well put, maybe bit harsh on Danny but the overall concept is very true - we need 1 more player still not 1 less. Booth/Kassian/X is looking like an OK 3rd line but it doesn't help our secondary scoring

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For my player rankings, a second post for the sake of organizations:

H. Sedin - 1

D. Sedin - 1

Kesler - 2 as a winger; 3 as a center (right now) // potentially 1 as a winger; 1b as a center. However, he's far removed from that.

Burrows - 2 as a winger if the Sedins are making him look good. Realistically, on a deep team, 3. He only scores lots with Sedins.

Booth - 3. Potentially a 2, which is what MG wanted. But he is far removed from that.

Higgins - 3

Hansen - 3

Schroeder - 3. Perhaps potentially a 2, or in the near future. We just don't know yet.

Santorelli - 4, playing like a 3

Kassian - 3, playing like a 4 (except the last few games). Has all the tools for a 2 right now, and even a 1 in the future.

Richardson - 4, playing like a 3

Wiese - AHL

Sestito - AHL

Welsh - AHL, but I haven't seen him yet *shrugs*

- - - - -

This is what the Canucks would look like if they were a real contender:

Sedin - Sedin - ?hole?

?hole? - ?hole? - Kesler < -- we stuck a 3rd line here and called it a second line

Booth - Schroeder? - Burrows

Santorelli - Richardson - Hansen (small but super energy)

(redundant - Higgins and Kassian because of inconsistancy, Weise and Sestito because of useless)

The situation of out forward group is the result of the bad contracts of our D core. Namely, Bieksa and Edler.

- - - - - -

What MG is hoping for:

Sedin - Sedin - Kassian -- with Kassian pretending he's Lucic

Booth - Kesler - Burrows -- with Booth and Kesler playing the way the once did

Higgins - Schroeder - Hansen -- with Schroeder growing 6 inches and gaining 40 lbs

Wiestito - Richardson - Santorelli -- With Sestito and Weise becoming one player, with high energy and size and throwing checks.

Hamhuis - Bieksa -- with Bieksa playing like its a contract year

Edler - Tanev -- with Tanev after he's devoured the soul of Nick Lidstrom and learned to harness his hockey prowess and sharing it with Edler

Garrison - Stanton -- with Garrison playing like Weber, and Stanton playing like a second Hamhuis.

Young Luongo

Schnieder Lack

You'll notice here that there is no spaces filled by outside players.

Kassian is playing way better than where you ranked him.

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