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(DISCUSSION) Bold Predictions...or Wishful Thinking for 2018-2019


bigbadcanucks

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While my wife is out for her monthly girl's night out and I wait for the call to come and pick her and her drunken BFFs up from wherever they are (yah...this is what my life has become), I'm left contemplating what might be for this coming season for the Canucks.

 

Just curious what everyone's bold predictions (or wishful thinking) for the upcoming season are? 

 

Here are some of mine (caveat: lines are heavily blurred between what's real and what's fantasy):

 

1) Pettersson does what Matt Barzal did this past season and breaks 80 point barrier, en route to Calder Cup season (as a centerman);

2) Boeser scores 40 goals and quells concerns about his back and the myth of the sophomore jinx;

3) Gaunce makes the team out of camp and has a break out season and becomes Canucks permanent third line centerman, forcing Sutter to RW, where he re-discovers his 21-goal self of 2009-2010 and 2014-2015 (that's a two-for-one);

4) Hughes signs ELC and becomes the re-incarnation of Phil Housley/Brian Leetch;

5) Demko makes the team out of camp and becomes the undisputed number 1 goalie by Christmas;

6) Roussel -- Beagle -- Schaller form the best (and most expensive) fourth line in the NHL;

7) Pettersson, Dahlen and Eriksson form the Swedish Connection, resulting in Eriksson have a renaissance season;

8) Virtanen finally puts everything together and turns into the second coming of Cam Neely, Rick Vaive, Curt Fraser, Dirk Graham and all the other power forwards that the Canucks gave up too early on;

9) Juolevi makes the club, and plays with such poise that he makes Del Zotto and Hutton redundant, and removes any sort of urgency to re-sign Edler, forcing him to waive his no-trade clause at TDL to go play in Tampa Bay with his buddies Hedman and Karlsson;

10) Del Zotto, Gagner, Granlund and Hutton are moved out for a mittful of draft picks giving the Canucks a gazillion picks in the fourth and fifth rounds next draft in Vancouver where we know Benning, Weisbrod, Brackett rule the universe;

11) Canucks make the playoffs, lose in the first round in seven games, and gain invaluable experience.  Everyone touts "losing this one in seven hurts, but it didn't kill us, so it will make us stronger".

 

Would love to hear what everyone's predictions/hopes for the coming season are...

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I agree with a couple. I believe that Elias Pettersson is going to have a great season but not 80+ points. I was thinking more of the 70-75 range. While i think 80 is possible for Elias he is going to have to play with Boeser. 

Brock will break the 40 goal plateau. 

I think Juolevi will play in Vancouver but only about 20 games.

Hughes will be the same. 20-30 games but the rest of the season in Utica. 

Bo will be the third Canuck to break the 60 point mark in the season but only him, Brock and Elias do every body else ends the season under 50 points. 

Demko and Markstrom will essentially split the games with Demko's stats being better.

Baertschi gets traded at some point.

Eriksson will still suck. 

Tanev will be traded

And the Canucks will improve but not enough to make the playoffs.

 

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I believe Bo and Brock come 1-2 in scoring.

Erickson comes back 11 pounds lighter scores 22 goals and adds 33 assists.

Utica is SO stacked kids are going to come in with swagger for days when their called up.

Our PK will make our PP look great. We'll win most of our OT games and  lot of one goal games.

Palmu pushes for a spot right out of camp on the heels of Baer/Gagner for ice time.

EP Shaller and Erickson line clicks and finds magic.

Scramble and grab the last playoff spot.

Green gives a great speech after we lose game 7 in the 3rd overtime, in the first round.

 

 

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44 minutes ago, Stech said:

Why do people think losing in game 7 round 1 of the playoffs is the best outcome? That s#!% breaks my heart. Lol

I think we'll be really lucky to even make the playoffs with such a young team. Our goal is to develop into a bonafide contender.

Losing a tough series early on would or will probably be part of our growing pains.

But we'll get there.

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Great post ! This is a fan site. Emotional, unrealistic thoughts are always welcome. Of course the Negative Ninjas will start howling at the moon, but, that's what the ignore button is for.

 

To the OP ( re #1 )..........I made the same mistake as you and got roasted ( I exaggerate, he was very polite ) by @ep402brock2hughes for confusing the Calder Cup ( winners of the AHL post season ) and the Calder Memorial Trophy.

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Love this post. Kind of represents everything I want to happen this year.  Well, except for 3). Not a fan and I just can’t see that one happening, ever. Maybe not terribly realistic, but hey you never know, right? :-)

 

One I would add is that the Leafs fail miserably and either don’t make the playoffs or lose in the first round. please...

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imo, our utica fans are going to love their team kicking the marlies butt to win the cup. 

our young guns will grow together, down on the farm and eventually displace less talented canuck players. 

then, an errant puck breaks my crystal ball and the future remains a mystery.

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liking the optimism @bigbadcanucks if just 3 or 4 of those things happen it will be a fun year. 

 

For me I don't really care about the win/loss record I just want to see solid progress with everyone under 23. 

 

But who knows, if last year showed us anything with Vegas, a fast-paced defensively sound team can do a lot. The Vegas experience shows us as well, imo anyway, the ridiculousness of trying to extrapolate individual "analytics" to team performance. If the analytics guru's really knew anything about the team component at least one of the experts would have modelled success for Vegas but none of them did. So it gives me some hope that the new additions of Beagle, Rousell and Schaller will give this team a chance to be competitive every night so who knows, it might be a good year. None of the so-callled experts that are pooping on Benning for these moves saw Vegas coming either.

 

For me a year that beats expectations would see us competitive for a wild card spot down to about the last two weeks or so of the season. 

 

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9 hours ago, bigbadcanucks said:

While my wife is out for her monthly girl's night out and I wait for the call to come and pick her and her drunken BFFs up from wherever they are (yah...this is what my life has become), I'm left contemplating what might be for this coming season for the Canucks.

 

 

Once "Man" finds a mate, there is joyful bliss

He will take over Number 1 on his mates priority list

Life will be good!

Then, after 6 months or so, you will get a puppy, cat or fish

That will become Important and you will slide to #2 or 3

Depending on how many you get

Several years later, a child will be born, and you will again

descend downward in the spiral of life,

as the baby rightfully becomes the true number 1  

Once the baby has aged 1 year, you will notice largescale changes

and the girlfriends will reappear and claim number 2 spot

from the puppies, cats and fish

Sadly, one day you will look around and understand your true

rightful place in the world, underneath all living creatures

 

Hockey becomes Man's Number 5 or 6 after the imposed list is brought forth

#1. the wife

#2. the kids

#3. the girlfriends

#4  the dog, cat and fish

#5 the in-laws

 

This is "Man's" burden!

 

Welcome!

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2 minutes ago, janisahockeynut said:

Hockey becomes Man's Number 5 or 6 after the imposed list is brought forth

#1. the wife

#2. the kids

#3. the girlfriends

#4  the dog, cat and fish

#5 the in-laws

 

This is "Man's" burden!

 

Welcome!

The trick Jan is to do like I did (and a few other CDC'rs) and find a wife thats even more of a Canucks fan than I am! 

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I think this year we may take  step forward if Elias can come in and pout up 60 points. if he does that it means that the rest of the team only need to improve by 40 points to replace Daniel and Henrik which i think is quite a reasonable challenge.

If Brock stays healthy all year he should hit 40.

The power play should be good with EP Horvat Boeser but who will man the point. We still do not have much happening with the D. Edler has played on almost every 1st unit PP and had 1 goal in a calendar year.This needs to improve. Stecher, Hutton, Pouliot are not viable options here.

The PK will improve simply with a bit of speed and experience from the third fourth line players.

Goaltending will be key. Can Markstrom and Nilsson carry the load or will we finally see Demko or Dipietro on the big club.

Lastly will the team finally be able to play the game at the speed Green has been itching to have the team play at. No More excuses. Daniel and Henrik are not there to slow the game down anymore. If they can play with the speed of a Vegas......who knows what could happen

I am thinking they are in the hunt for a wildcard come the last month but cant get over the hump yet

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21 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said:

The trick Jan is to do like I did (and a few other CDC'rs) and find a wife thats even more of a Canucks fan than I am! 

Ah, yes Jimmy, I do, but the list is only temporarily suspended at game time and still remains, in perpetuity 

 

And if the kid squawks, the dog or cat want out, or the phone rings.....the list is re-imposed immediately

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6 hours ago, Stech said:

Why do people think losing in game 7 round 1 of the playoffs is the best outcome? That s#!% breaks my heart. Lol

Because it would mean that our kids truly took over and brought this team up out of the mire and back into competitiveness.  Particularly if the likes of Pettersson, Gaudette, and another forward (Dahlen, MacEwen, Jasek, etc.) play significant time and we have at least one new face on D (Hughes, Juolevi), they will have had to be the primary contributors along with Bo's line, and thereby the transition is complete and we are back on the up-swing.

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Back to the original Post

 

I would love for this to be true

 

My only hope is that CDC and Canuck fans in general remember that the new prospects will have ups and downs and will have growing pains

as with all young players put into a higher league where there are higher expectations

 

My fear, is that the fans forget these are first and second year players and put their own expectations over the players true reality, where there 

is a learning curve. 

 

(This was last exhibited after Gaudette played the last 5 games of the year, and was deemed a bum by some posters.)

 

This will take time in most cases and there will  be failures, as well as successes...….

 

Personally, I have no team expectations this year, and only hope the "talent": we have amassed, develops to their ceilings, over the next few seasons.

 

If we get that, we will all be very happy....but don't expect it all to happen as we have written it! There most likely will be bumps!

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