Canuckler87 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 With the cup final a mere three years ago seeming like a distant memory, one can't help but wonder how we have ended up as a bottom feeder team in the league with the likes of Calgary & Edmonton (pains me to say it) Once a cup favorite & mentioned along the same lines as powerhouses such as Chicago, Pittsburgh & Boston, what could have caused such a fall from grace so fast? Those teams were right there with us three years ago & they have maintained winning even today. I don't for a second buy the notion that we are aging. How can a team come within one win of a Stanley cup three years ago, with two presidents trophys (the last one a mere two years ago) then all of a sudden "age"? Poor management is definitely to blame. But where would you argue it all started to go downhill for us? No doubt a point can be made for Gillis' bone headed decision of traded both Lu & Shnieds for no where near where the return should've been, but we can go even further than that if we want. I remember when key pieces from our cup run were let go. An example being Raffi Torres being let go because he wanted that extra year& Gillis was only prepared to give him one. This despite public demand. He would go on to have a great season afterwards, not to sure how he is now. Also, one can also argue that the demise of our once mighty powerplay can be attributed to letting Ehroff walk. It is now one of the worst in the league. Changing the identity of the team after losing the final was also a grave mistake. Surely, a lot of mistakes were definitely made. Can you find one in particular that led to our downfall, or would it be a culmination of stupid moves on the part of Mike Gillis and co. ? Anyways, having said that I look forward to the future. But we should not forget what went wrong here. In fact, we should embrace it & learn from it. History tends to repeat itself & I hope we don't see these same mistakes being made in the future of the Canucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 imho Rome hitting Horton was the exact moment of the start of this teams' decline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikael Samuelsson Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 ...among others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HunterHorvatBure Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 It was when an agent was hired to manage this team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 ...among othersThat was after our 9-1 defeat to the Ducks though. Clearly things were wrong before Torts marched in that hallway to counter Hartley in a 'yay Canadian-style goonery and toughness' bs distraction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themcdeal Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 imho Rome hitting Horton was the exact moment of the start of this teams' decline. This and/or possibly the Hodgson trade dont wanna start that never ending debate here, but that's when I think things starting going south Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyCuddles Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Gillis changing his philosophy hurt this team. He built a team that got us one win from hockey's holy grail and decided getting bigger and tougher was the way to go. This team started going left right left and we lost our identity. Gillis ended up over reacting, when the reason we lost the cup was because of one injury and a Suspension. The mother of all knee jerk reactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Trying to pin this season on one thing or moment is an exercise in futility. Think "death by a thousand cuts". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiggs50 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 It wasn't so much coaching. The team was bot good enough. Untimely injuries over the past 3 years haven't helped either but it's on the GM.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JiffyPB Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Christmas break was when this team went downhill. In November the Sedins struggled to score. We tried to address this by loading up the first line but then we just moved Kesler back to #2C and put Santo on his wing and essentially played decoy with the Sedins. Because at any point you can play someone within your own division and then the next day you could face someone from across the country other teams were not able to effectively scout this out and deal with this. The Boston game where Chara was first chasing the Sedins around who couldn't score as Santo and Booth were only to later chase around our 2nd line as the Sedins got freed up and began to score highlighted this. During the break coaches and scouts began talking in more detail and made sure to divert the assets necessary to shut down our 2nd line knowing that our 1st line couldn't do squat. They were right, we were only able to eek out wins against lesser teams but January when this team was healthy but facing tough teams showed just how fragile and weak this team actually was. Our scoring after the break fell off a cliff and never came back. Injuries to key players later on were simply the death-blow to this team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 This and/or possibly the Hodgson trade dont wanna start that never ending debate here, but that's when I think things starting going southWas going to say the Manny eye injury also qualifies. But we still made it to the finals. With Manny still around and effective, nobody would care about the Coho trade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spliced Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 It's a problem traced back to bad drafting that left the team without proper prospects. The moment that sealed the deal was Nonis not drafting Kopitar, just imagine what this team could be with him. He addresses two major needs in playoff toughness/physicality and scoring. I'd also say that the Canucks were never quite as good as some people like to think they were, so the decline isn't as big as it appears to some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 ...among others I much prefer that to a non emotional coach. He stood up for his team. More than you can say for some of the Canucks players the past few years... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nazzyrulesall Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 When Gillis traded Cory away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Trying to pin this season on one thing or moment is an exercise in futility. Think "death by a thousand cuts". Exactly. It wasn't just 1 thing that got us here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
votrechien Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 How about a salary cap going down millions and subsequently our biggest free agent signing was Brad Richardson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthNinja Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 How about a salary cap going down millions and subsequently our biggest free agent signing was Brad Richardson? The new CBA also greatly diminished Luongo's value due to his contract. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonMexico Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 MOVE ON. Dwelling on the past does not improve the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etsen3 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Gillis changing his philosophy hurt this team. He built a team that got us one win from hockey's holy grail and decided getting bigger and tougher was the way to go. This team started going left right left and we lost our identity. Gillis ended up over reacting, when the reason we lost the cup was because of one injury and a Suspension. The mother of all knee jerk reactions. This. The toughness issue was always overrated IMO. In 2011, even though we lost, we played quite physical AND had tons of skill. You can't change the entire style of your team because of one series. Boston could easily have been eliminated that year by Montreal and Tampa, two of the softest teams in the league. After that series, Gillis (who normally has a calm, analytical style) panicked and we were left with a team that was neither skilled or tough. Our next GM should pick one style and build our team towards that style, without trying to create some watered down mixture. It might be that our team continues to go towards a tough defensive style, as most of our young players fit that mold. But what's important is that we have an identity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono2009 Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 I'm not buying it at all. And players arent buying into it as well. Bieksa even said today that they were fine with what he did and showed he was willing to fight for the team. Kevin even said those games Torts was suspended, a few were close games and almost won them too. Said they really missed Torts while he was gone. So no I am not buying into Torts vs Hartley was the downfall. The downfall:wherever Mike Gillis' fingerprints are. ...among others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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