KKnight Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 Anaheim is in tough this year. Missing Kesler, Vatanen and Lindholm for awhile. Only way we make the playoffs is if we stay extremely healthy all year (not going to happen) and some teams suffer major injuried to their core players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baggins Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 2 hours ago, KKnight said: Anaheim is in tough this year. Missing Kesler, Vatanen and Lindholm for awhile. Only way we make the playoffs is if we stay extremely healthy all year (not going to happen) and some teams suffer major injuried to their core players. One difference between this season and the previous two is having decent young guys to call up from the farm when those injuries happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salacious Crumb Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 1 hour ago, Baggins said: One difference between this season and the previous two is having decent young guys to call up from the farm when those injuries happen. This is true but we do look to be the worst team in our division which doesn't help if the playoffs are a goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 On 9/13/2017 at 2:22 PM, ForsbergTheGreat said: Edmonton's D is far better than you give credit. I just don't see it. Per my summer thoughts, I don't like the make up of their team. I am sure they will prove me wrong but I don't see where they will get secondary scoring, I don't think Talbot is as good as many think and I don't think their D is up to the challenge of keeping pucks out while their forwards don't backcheck (they have a brutal lot for that - Lucic and Maroon rarely are seen worrying about the D side of the game, for two examples and Strome is even worse in that regard). I know everyone thinks they will be Cup champs but I am still not convinced they are much better than the Canucks and if you removed their generational talent, they are worse than they were with Hall...again, just in my opinion which, again, I am sure they will prove me wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 On 9/15/2017 at 8:57 PM, Kevin Biestra said: You think two career backups are equal to or better than last year's 4th place finisher in Vezina voting? And I still do.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 On 9/13/2017 at 2:39 PM, ice orca said: You must be the only one who has the Canucks ahead of the Oilers..even the biggest Nuck homers and Coil haters will disagree with that. Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apollo Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 On 9/12/2017 at 9:23 PM, 24K PureCool said: For our future sake, I wish we finish as low as possible. Yup... I'm %100 with you. Hoping we finish in the second and final wildcard spot so we can have a better Cinderella story when we win the CUP this year. CUP OR BUST! Tanking is for peasants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgarM Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 On 2017-09-13 at 9:20 AM, EdgarM said: I have noticed that teams are closer then most think since the Cap system came in. There is no "sure" wins anymore and anyone can win on any given night. The Canucks who are supposed to be a bottom feeder team was involved in a lot of 1 goal games in the last couple of years. I remember other posters thinking we were going to get run over by the California teams and yet we won some of those series. One of the obvious examples was LA missing the playoffs 1 year after they won the Cup. Look at the mighty Hawks and where they have been lately. Dallas and St. Louis should be better then they are and why have the Caps and the great "8" not have a Cup yet? The Canucks were able to strengthen the team by signing some free agents and provide better depth. This is due to the Cap system and we are lucky the owners are not like some other owners who choose not to spend to the Cap. The only Question mark in my mind is whether Markstrom can make the jump to #1 or not as I believe Miller kept them in some games last year they maybe shouldn't have. On 2017-09-13 at 11:28 AM, Canucks-12 said: Canucks could finish 3rd in our division behind Ducks and Oilers. Flames, Sharks, Coyotes, and Knights' season could go either way. I see our Canucks competing pretty hard for 3rd place in division. I predict a playoff appearance. On 2017-09-13 at 11:32 AM, canuktravella said: sorry i think canucks are much better with guddy being healthy and delzotto and burmi vanek gagner and rookies pushing for spots much better than megna and chaput oilers are gonna miss playoffs yes they have mcjesus and draisatl which is awesome but eberle for strome gives them cap help but cuts their offense a bit other teams all improved in my eyes On 2017-09-13 at 5:31 PM, oldnews said: The west will be a bloodbath this year. I think there will be about 11 teams that could win the conference in the end - likely a highly unpredictable season with the quality of teams / tight competition / parity - which will leave a few very good teams on the outside looking in on the playoffs. I'm going to go homer on this fool's game - I'm going to put two Canadian teams in the top 4 and and third in the top 6, I think Edmonton will regress a bit - still be a threat in the playoffs - but a slight sophomore regular season. I keep expecting the Jets to take a step forward and I think they're hitting a breaking point where they simply have far too much talent in their lineup to remain a outsider/tweener. If I were them I'd consider a coaching change, but regardless, I'm hoping to see a huge uptick from them - their youth is as good as anyone's. I also think the Lames will be a very hard team to play against - great blueline - I think they'll be middle of the playoff pack. 1. Anaheim 2. Nashville 3. Winnipeg 4. Calgary 5. Chicago 6. Edmonton 7. St Louis 8. Dallas Obvious omissions - I think the Sharks are gonna fall out (despite the HBadger). I'm never a big believer in the Wild - I think they once again lack depth, and they're a perenial first round exit (which I think is telling - they're not that good when you get down to it). L.A is a tough call but I think they've been unable to restock with the kind of quality young players they'll need to keep competitive - they spent their share of futures (some quite poorly) and it might be catching up with them (although those Cups in their back pocket certainly lessen the pain that might be in their future). So - that leaves us with an unpredictable remaining four. Las Vegas could be better than generally expected, the Yotes shouldn't be gimme points, but I don't think they're ready to compete, the Avs, well, what have they done to lead us to expect an uptick from them? The Canucks - I'm not going as far as most and predicting a bottom 3 conference finish - I think they could be in the mix with the Kings, Sharks, Wild in around the 9 to 11 spot - I think they could be one of the more improved teams in the West (in part by virtue of the past two years simply being M.A.S.H. disasters). Perhaps next to Dallas (and the Jets) they stand one of the better chances of improving this year - so if things go well ie. they're reasonably healthy, I think they could remain in the race for the most part and make the season quite interesting. Best thing underlying the Canucks imo is that the majority of their best young players are unlikely to be in their lineup this year, so while I think they'll be reasonably competitve, I also think they're going to have lots of young players banging on the door in the next few years. With the decent quality of transitional veteran depth that Benning has assembled in the meantime, the next few years should bring some solid reasons for optimism. I also think that while the Canucks may be in tough to crack the top 10 in the west, on the other hand Utica could be a contender and shouldn't be quite as depleted by the parent club this time around. On 2017-09-13 at 8:35 PM, Honky Cat said: I predict the Canucks will play themselves out of the top (bottom) 5 this season...which is a poor scenario for a team that badly needs a franchise player....So,realistically,they will be picking anywhere from 8-12....Sucks if you want a high draft pick,and sucks if you want playoff hockey,because we will get neither. The free agent signings have made the team stronger on paper,but the real reason the Canucks will increase their point totals will be coach Green. On 2017-09-15 at 9:19 PM, EdgarM said: Well said Kloubek your assessment seems the more realistic outcome for next year. The need to play the "Plugs" for the last couple of years seems to have diminished drastically this year and I can't see the team repeating last years poor performance. Maybe not playoff bound right now but far more competitive then the last couple of years. I really believe the Cap system puts most teams on a level playing field and teams can shore up deficiencies with FA's or benefit from the fallout of teams who have spent too much and need to gain more Cap space. There seems to be a couple of very good teams in each division and a couple of really bad teams and then the middle which is filled with teams who are pretty evenly matched for the most part unless they lose key components through such incidents such as injuries. The Canucks will probably remain somewhere in the middle of the pack and may drop down if there are too many injuries or Markstrom does not successfully make the jump to the #1 goalie position or something similar. If the Sedins turn it up a notch or Bo does or Ericksson decides to erase his very bad season by coming out on fire then we may go higher up in the pack. Maybe Vanek or one of the new FA's makes the difference to the PP or one of the new coaches makes it more effective then this team may surprise some naysayers. Should be an interesting year and I am looking forward to watching some entertaining hockey. On 2017-09-15 at 10:40 PM, kloubek said: Think we are on the same page. If the stars align, we should be in at least ok shape. I agree that group of middle teams you speak of is large and will make it difficult to get that last playoff spot, so I'm hopeful but not that confident. Hey... If the games aren't brutal to watch thats a step in the right direction. There are many question marks with our team right now. Aside from typical Canuck luck, SOME of those questions ought to have positive answers. I like to look back at these and see where a lot of the armchair quarterbacks predicted how the season would go. The biggest surprises are obviously Vegas , Montreal , New Jersey , NYR's and Edmonton. The Cap system makes a lot of teams quite evenly matched then most would like to admit. Not saying things will be different at the end of the season but initially teams could move anywhere in the standings on most nights and there are really not a lot of "gimme" games to be had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 5 hours ago, EdgarM said: I like to look back at these and see where a lot of the armchair quarterbacks predicted how the season would go. . isn't that the point of the thread / what the thread asks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kloubek Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 37 minutes ago, EdgarM said: I like to look back at these and see where a lot of the armchair quarterbacks predicted how the season would go. The biggest surprises are obviously Vegas , Montreal , New Jersey , NYR's and Edmonton. The Cap system makes a lot of teams quite evenly matched then most would like to admit. Not saying things will be different at the end of the season but initially teams could move anywhere in the standings on most nights and there are really not a lot of "gimme" games to be had. Not to toot my own horn, but it looks like I was in the ballpark. So far. Actually, we are doing a bit better than I really expected. I think we will settle down to earth and play as a bit above .500 team for most of the season. Which really isnt bad considering expectations and where we finished last season. So my prediction remains pretty much as it was before the season started....points in the high 80s.... Somewhere between 85 and 90. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyg43 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Bottom three conference finish in west. October is not even finished an injuries are already happening at a fairly regular clip . A few more injuries an a few young inexperienced players sprinkled with more Megan will do that. Our D has not broke down to badly yet an are hanging together a couple more players go down team will follow . Does not matter that we are scoring more this year if we stop preventing goal in our net we are done for a playoff run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuktravella Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 5 hours ago, EdgarM said: I like to look back at these and see where a lot of the armchair quarterbacks predicted how the season would go. The biggest surprises are obviously Vegas , Montreal , New Jersey , NYR's and Edmonton. The Cap system makes a lot of teams quite evenly matched then most would like to admit. Not saying things will be different at the end of the season but initially teams could move anywhere in the standings on most nights and there are really not a lot of "gimme" games to be had. funny how my prediction s dead on ehhh. willie made this team trash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaudette Celly Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 6 hours ago, Rob_Zepp said: I know everyone thinks they will be Cup champs but I am still not convinced they are much better than the Canucks and if you removed their generational talent, they are worse than they were with Hall...again, just in my opinion which, again, I am sure they will prove me wrong. Agreed. McDoobie goes down for any length of time and they're back in the lotto. Their forward depth is shakey, and their D hasn't reached a level of consistency yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riviera82 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 6 hours ago, kloubek said: Not to toot my own horn, but it looks like I was in the ballpark. So far. Actually, we are doing a bit better than I really expected. I think we will settle down to earth and play as a bit above .500 team for most of the season. Which really isnt bad considering expectations and where we finished last season. So my prediction remains pretty much as it was before the season started....points in the high 80s.... Somewhere between 85 and 90. Yikes, I hope your'e wrong to be honest. Finishing in 'no man's land' without already having our own generational (or semi-generational) talent on the roster or in the pipeline doesn't really bode well for the team's future cup aspirations, if they have any that is. Perhaps for ownership, management, and a certain segment of the fan population, maybe being a bubble playoff team is good enough. I'm hoping it isn't though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Dog Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 bottom 6 in WC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 11 hours ago, EdgarM said: I like to look back at these and see where a lot of the armchair quarterbacks predicted how the season would go. The biggest surprises are obviously Vegas , Montreal , New Jersey , NYR's and Edmonton. The Cap system makes a lot of teams quite evenly matched then most would like to admit. Not saying things will be different at the end of the season but initially teams could move anywhere in the standings on most nights and there are really not a lot of "gimme" games to be had. I don't find Edmonton a surprise at all. I didn't like the mix on that team (still don't) and am not convinced Talbot was more than a couple of season guy who is now on decline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 I don't understand the title - is that pigeon German? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 24 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said: I don't find Edmonton a surprise at all. I didn't like the mix on that team (still don't) and am not convinced Talbot was more than a couple of season guy who is now on decline. Agreed but I will be thoroughly pissed if they scoop another top pick. If they tank this season they should be excluded from the lottery and draft last. It's not natural that any constantly high drafting team is so consistently useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Topcheeze86 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 This is out to lunch ...instead of putting descriptions for every team in the west u should have just put “every team in the west is better than us” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kloubek Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 7 hours ago, Riviera82 said: Yikes, I hope your'e wrong to be honest. Finishing in 'no man's land' without already having our own generational (or semi-generational) talent on the roster or in the pipeline doesn't really bode well for the team's future cup aspirations it doesn't help, I agree. But, 1) I don't think we are really THAT far away from being contenders. We have lots of quality prospects. I expect Pettersson to be a first liner and have high hopes for Dahlen. Maybe even Goldobin. 2) A high draft seed doesn't guarantee anything. We've been stiffed in the lottery forever and we are too good to finish last again so our chances of getting that generational talent is slim no matter what. 3) We kept up last night with a likely cup contender. No we didn't win but it could have gone either way. This team as it stands might be overperforming but it shows what we are capable of. Add in the aforementioned talent coming through the system and while we might not be the strongest team in the league we should at least have a cup contender that we can build on. I believe while a 1st or 2nd oa pick obviously does help speed up a rebuild (especially if you are able to snag a generational talent) its not the only way to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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