TOMapleLaughs Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Pretty detailed analysis. I'm thinking he'll click with the Sedins early on. If he's able to keep it up for a full season he should be able to hit 40 goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langdon Algur Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Decent read, I really liked the goal map and found it interesting that as a RW most of his goals were scored from the centre or left side.As for Vrbata I think it's important to keep in mind that while his wingers in Arizona weren't as good as the Sedins, the yotes do have decent puck moving Dmen in OEL and Yandel which for a goal scorer is huge. Not sure anyone on the Canucks can get him the puck from the backend the way those two players can.Also as nice as it is to have another goal scorer this team could use another play maker, right now Henrik is the teams only true playmaker, although hopefully Biono can prove to be one on the second line.Should be a fun season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Provost Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Interesting and thoughtful article. One thing I like is the areas where Vrbata scored. Pretty much all between the faceoff dots and near the net. Take a whild guess where the Sedins like to spring the puck out from the boards and their cycle game. If Vrbata can find open ice on those spots and simply wait for for the Sedins to get him the puck... it could be a darn fine complement of skill sets. For those who have said there is no one to do the dirty stuff and dig the pucks out of the corners (and a large number of people have). You have almost certainly never watched a Canucks game. That is pretty much all the Sedins do... hang around the boards and corners and win puck battles. It is uncanny how often they come up with the puck when pasted along the boards by 250lb defenders AND an opposing forward coming back for support. If they can continue to do that and draw an extra man to cover them it would leave a ton of open ice to get the puck back to the point or into the slot for Vrbata. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Agreed. If the Sedins return to how good they were 3-4 yrs ago, then Vrbata will be the main benefactor. Torts said they were tough as nails and they responded. At least early last year before they were signed to new deals. Among league leaders in scoring with Kesler. If they keep that up there's no reason why that top Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata line won't be the best in the NHL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTJ_AHockeyBlog Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Original article writer here. Thanks for the reads and suggestions guys! If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex425 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Agreed. If the Sedins return to how good they were 3-4 yrs ago, then Vrbata will be the main benefactor. Torts said they were tough as nails and they responded. At least early last year before they were signed to new deals. Among league leaders in scoring with Kesler. If they keep that up there's no reason why that top Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata line won't be the best in the NHL. I agree, even if they return to 2 years ago form that would make Vrbata a 30-45 goal scorer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneezy Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I wasn't a big fan of the Vrbata signing at first...but these advanced stats tell a story of a player that looks like he can contribute significantly to the resurgence of the Canucks. Thanks for the great read, OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckledraggin Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Great article! One of the assets he posess that the writer doesn't really mention is how smart he is with the puck when he's got a scoring chance. If he have to wait 0.5 sec or deking the jock off of the goalie before he releases his shot he will do that and if he has to shoot it right away he'll do that aswell. One thing I realised though when looking at the "goal mapping" from last season is that he didn't score any one-timers. Not sure if that's something to be concerned about but the Sedins do feed pucks for one timers quite often. And I do not know if he's bad at shooting at one timers or that last season was a just a coincidence. Anyways, really exited to see Vrbata in a Canucks jersey. I was thinking the same thing about the one-timers until I watched that 2011-12 highlight reel, where he scores a couple beauties. I think with the Sedins feeding him he won't be able to help but score a few. The other thing I noticed is that he is a great team guy. He didn't look to go running around celebrating on his own. The most you see is a fist pump and then he looks for a teammate to celebrate with, then puts his head down in a humble aw shucks kinda way. And he was the first guy to the net to fish the puck out for Ray Whitney's 1000th point. I think team chemistry is going to be good with this mix of players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Doctor Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Well done on one of your first posts. Good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elvis15 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Since it wasn't copied into this thread yet: ... Thank you! I never get why people would bother creating a thread unless they can add something of substance to it - and no, a link alone is not substance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucks-4-Life Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 At least early last year before they were signed to new deals. Among league leaders in scoring with Kesler. If they keep that up there's no reason why that top Sedin-Sedin-Vrbata line won't be the best in the NHL. People seem to forget that before Xmas last year the Sedin's were both on pace for 100 point seasons. I believe Tort's grueling system eventually made its affect on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chalky Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 2 points. No, not my prediction for Vrbata.... 1.) Vrbata will not be able to provide the Sedins with enough grit to battle top defenders in the West without a gritty and dangerous second line assuming some of the D's attention. That is not to say he won't match his historical average, I just question that he will be eclipsing 30 goals, something he has only done once. 2.) Vrbata's best seasons have come with puck moving Dmen accumulating good assist totals. He had Jovo and Yandle. Who is going to feed him the puck here? I would be cautious to predict 30 goals, I see him getting similar numbers to last season, 20G, 30A, 50 points. Nothing wrong with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Doctor Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I hope he does well. We have had so much dissapointment with new players such as Booth, Ballard, Bernier, and Alberts that I just hope for him to have a positive injury free season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I'm kind of shocked the writer of that article actually went through all the trouble of watching highlights and plotting the goals onto a map of the rink! There are actually several free tools online that allow you to create maps like that within seconds. And there's good data freely available for shot/goal location (ie: x,y coordinates), so there's really no need to watch tonnes of video if you only want to visualize where a player scores their goals. Here's a link to a map I generated on Vbata's 2011-12 goals. It literally took 10 seconds to create, using SportingCharts' icetracker tool: http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/icetrack/?r1Id=171352&r1Year=2011&r1eventType='GOAL'&r1type=2&r1strength=#5 Same thing for somekindofninja.com and their "Super Shot Search" tool. Wish I could have saved him some time. I know what it's like to watch an entire season of highlights and try to tease out specific information. Someone should also tell him that behindthenet, while less pretty than ExtraSkater, has long been the standard for free online advanced stats (since about 2007). So I'm not sure why he doesn't trust their numbers or wishes he could verify them on ExtraSkater (if they were different, I'd probably toss out ExtraSkater's data and trust behindthenet anyway). Maybe he's just sad that ExtraSkater went offline (and I do miss their ease-of-use and those novel QoC and QoC stats that were TOI-based instead of using the standard Corsi Rel QoC and Corsi Rel QoT). EDIT: I don't mean to be dogging on the article. It's a nice, positive piece and it makes some good points. And certainly welcome during the dog days of summer when there's not much being written about the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elvis15 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Not a single backhander was given in 2013-14 Or one-timer. He'll have to brush up if he wants to capitalize on all the sweet Sedinery. But all the advanced stats would have been more interesting if there was a comparison to Burrows over those years. A comparison to other Sedin wingers would generally be too small a sample size to be useful, but that would have been interesting too. And isn't all the shooting info (maybe not wrister vs deflection vs etc.) available online already? EDIT: and of course Sid already posted it before I could even go look one of the sites up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaudette Celly Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 For those who have said there is no one to do the dirty stuff and dig the pucks out of the corners (and a large number of people have). You have almost certainly never watched a Canucks game. That is pretty much all the Sedins do... hang around the boards and corners and win puck battles. It is uncanny how often they come up with the puck when pasted along the boards by 250lb defenders AND an opposing forward coming back for support. If they can continue to do that and draw an extra man to cover them it would leave a ton of open ice to get the puck back to the point or into the slot for Vrbata. Yup, it's the 3rd member of the line who goes to the net or open ice awaiting the puck. Whether Carter, Burrows, or Kesler, it's the Sedins that do the majority of the spade work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdubuya Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I'm more concerned about what Burrows will do without the Sedins. He's never really found his niche with anyone else 5 on 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCanuck Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 People seem to forget that before Xmas last year the Sedin's were both on pace for 100 point seasons. I believe Tort's grueling system eventually made its affect on them. I've said this in a number of posts, Torts did not manage the playing time of his top players and that was a really big part why this team collapsed and became so overrun by injuries. Torts had never coached in the West. I think he badly under estimated the impact that travel has on players in Vancouver, especially in an Olympic year where the schedule is even more intense. The Canucks were a playoff team up till the end of December and were trending really well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake Doctor Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 As long as Burrows is healthy, he will contribute anywhere in the line-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMJB Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 2014-15 hockey poolers guide magazine predicts Henrik to get 72 points Daniel to get 70 Vrbata to get 54 points 27 goals and I think that's a pretty good prediction then again i'm not sure how accurate the magazine is known to be to so take what you will from it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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