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[Discussion] Are the Canucks better this year over last year?


Crabcakes

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69 games in and people and things aren't looking great.  Are we over reacting or not?

 

This year  69 games, 65 points (pro rates to 77), 187 goals for (2.71 ppg), 217 goals against (3.15 ppg) -31

 

Last year 82 games, 73 points, 218 goals for (2.66 ppg), 264 goals against (3.22 ppg) -46

 

2017-18                                             2018-19

 

Boeser    29-26-55 (0.89 ppg)          Pettersson 26-32-58 (1.00 ppg)

D Sedin   23-32-55 (0.68)                 Horvat        24-25-49 (0.71)

H Sedin   3-47-50 (0.61)                   Boeser       22-25-47 (0.84)

Horvat     22-22-44 (0.69)                 Roussel      9-21-30 (0.47)

Vanek     17-24-41 (0.67)                  Goldobin     7-20-27 (0.45) 

Edler       6-28-34 (0.49)                   Virtanen      12-10-22 (0.37)

Gagner   10-21-31 (0.42)                  Eriksson     10-12-22 (0.32)

 

 

 

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Definitely better. Didn’t expect a huge improvement especially with losing the Sedins, but the emergence of Petey and the development of Gaudette as well as the impending arrival of Quinn makes it a good transitionional year. It’s a good thing we’re in the mix for a top 5 pick this year. I hope we finally get some damn draft luck this year!

 

The big disappointment this year has been the Powerplay. With all that young talent on paper you’d think we would be at least in the top half of the league but nope! We’re in the bottom 3! Hopefully Quinn’s arrival will improve it and I am praying they axe Newell Brown in the off season. 

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Honestly, Id say we are the same but trending in the right direction. Pettersson has stepped in and replaced the Sedins production while guys like Horvat continue to improve.

 

Im really excited for next year! I don't want a big ticket D like Karlsson but with a solid D like Myers we could be good. Obviously injuries are our downfall every year but I feel like we now have some young depth thats growing and getting close to filling roles. 

 

After last year I said there'd be 2 more years as our young core transition and I still believe that to be true. Although some young guys haven't taken as big of steps as we'd like they are still taking steps. Next year will be fun to watch as some younger players go after roster spots. If we don't get Kakko or Hughes I think we will see a good young lineup next year with

 

Goldy-Pettersson-Boeser

Leivo-Horvat-UFA (maybe Nyquist)

Pearson-Gaudette-Virtanen

Roussel-Beagle-Motte

Hughes-Tanev

Edler-Stecher

Hutton-Myers

 

We have seen good improvement this year from a lot of those younger wingers such as Goldy, Leivo, Virtanen and even Motte. Gaudette has played well in his limited ice time and deserves more ice. The addition of Hughes and subtraction of Pouliot and Guddy will do miracles on its own. Marky has played exceptional this year and Demko has looked more comfortable with each passing game.

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51 minutes ago, Crabcakes said:

69 games in and people and things aren't looking great.  Are we over reacting or not?

 

This year  69 games, 65 points (pro rates to 77), 187 goals for (2.71 ppg), 217 goals against (3.15 ppg) -31

 

Last year 82 games, 73 points, 218 goals for (2.66 ppg), 264 goals against (3.22 ppg) -46

 

2017-18                                             2018-19

 

Boeser    29-26-55 (0.89 ppg)          Pettersson 26-32-58 (1.00 ppg)

D Sedin   23-32-55 (0.68)                 Horvat        24-25-49 (0.71)

H Sedin   3-47-50 (0.61)                   Boeser       22-25-47 (0.84)

Horvat     22-22-44 (0.69)                 Roussel      9-21-30 (0.47)

Vanek     17-24-41 (0.67)                  Goldobin     7-20-27 (0.45) 

Edler       6-28-34 (0.49)                   Virtanen      12-10-22 (0.37)

Gagner   10-21-31 (0.42)                  Eriksson     10-12-22 (0.32)

 

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, BlueDragon23 said:

Definitely better. Didn’t expect a huge improvement especially with losing the Sedins, but the emergence of Petey and the development of Gaudette as well as the impending arrival of Quinn makes it a good transitionional year. It’s a good thing we’re in the mix for a top 5 pick this year. I hope we finally get some damn draft luck this year!

 

The big disappointment this year has been the Powerplay. With all that young talent on paper you’d think we would be at least in the top half of the league but nope! We’re in the bottom 3! Hopefully Quinn’s arrival will improve it and I am praying they axe Newell Brown in the off season. 

 

14 minutes ago, Jack Fig said:

The fact Markstrom has played so well, although GA is down only slightly, is concerning. 

Thanks to the OP for doing the numbers. I was going to check them and I appreciate someone else doing it.

 

As the numbers indicate, and as other posts suggest, this year has been only slightly better than last year in terms of results. As I have indicated elsewhere, I think that Canuck progress has been disappointingly slow.

 

However, that said, this year is quite a lot better in terms what it says about the future. Last year only 2 of the top 7 scorers were "young guys". And guys like the Sedins, Vanek, and Gagner were obviously not going to be part of any rebuild. This year 5 of the top 7 scorers are "young guys", all of whom are likely to improve further next year. And one of the "vets" -- Roussel -- is pretty much in his prime,  And Gaudette, Hutton, and Stecher all took steps forward.

 

As for goals against, scoring is up around the league, at least partly because of the changes in goalie equipment. And Marky was not that good early in the year. So the fact that he has been very good in the second half is a plus.

 

Last year was a terrible year. The only good news story on the team was Boeser and he ended his season with a disturbing injury. The best story of the year was probably a guy who was not even on the team -- EP 40 -- who was great in the SHL.

 

Also, Hughes looks promising. So does Woo. I have not seen much commentary on this, but Woo appears to be having a better draft+1 year than Juolevi did. 

 

However, let's face it, the still have quite a ways to go. They Canucks obviously need to draft another potential elite player this year if they hope to build a Cup contender in the foreseeable future.

 

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1 hour ago, naslund.is.king said:

Elias Pettersson on his own made this year better then last 

The fact we lost our franchise players introduced more youth, Yes I would say that yes we are a much better team this year. A lot of stats especially goaltending get skewed due to the fact we have hads2 very bad stretches of injuries. The first time it affected  Marky, the second time our lack of an NHL backup made those numbers higher. Last year all we had was Brock to keep us hopeful. This year EP40 Jake Leivo Rousell Brock Bo have all been very good this year IMO. The reemergence of Edler, The arrival of q and getting rid of noguddy have been positive. The most important thing this year has been the arrival of the Marky a small minority said was in him. He playing like this next year will be huge. Demko is still nowhere near ready yet to be a full-time starter. Sorry also forgot how stoked I am about Adam and Goldy. Both I think have they're coming out party next year. Cheers

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2 hours ago, Jack Fig said:

The fact Markstrom has played so well, although GA is down only slightly, is concerning. 

Offense is the same but given we lost the twins and had to rely on the young guns, we are 'better' going forward

Defense was as bad or worse

Goaltending was better

PK same or slightly better

PP worse, much worse

 

Pretty obvious what we need to fix!

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I'm pretty happy with the year.

 

I thought if the season went perfect we could get the last play off spot? I like the extra team speed. I love Petey!

 

And I adore we are now adding even more Quinn...  (Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddd…)

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Petey was a nice surprise. I love the intensity he plays with and he might be the most talented player ever to don a Canucks sweater. Even though he's not getting tons of points right now, his play is still a notch above the other young guys.

 

Its a mixed bag after that. Gaudette looks to be figuring things out, so hoping for more growth next year. Same goes for Boeser, he had a big setback last season so i am sure this season was uncomfortable to say the least. Markstrom was excellent. It looks like he has figured out how to be a #1 in this league, my guess is Clark was able to help him make those changes.

 

Defense and special teams need mega work, because collectively they are broken. Its disheartening to see this team still lean so heavily on Edler and Tanev, there is no 'next' guy ready to perform in the top slot. Kudos to Biega, the one guy who makes the most of his opportunities. 

 

Some decisions leave me shaking my head. Apparently it was decided that Sam Gagner was washed up and no longer worthy of an NHL roster spot, but Markus Granlund can turn in a mind numbingly ineffective performance game after game and still have a warm seat on the bench. If you look at PPG this season, Gagner still has him beat by a large margin. They brought him in for the PP, maybe try to use him? 

 

Bottom line: Young guns are improving, but this league is all about youth and the Canucks might not be improving fast enough. Defense is still a huge problem and without Markstrom advancing his game the way he did, this team would likely be dead last.

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The offense has dried up,  but you have to give them lots of credit where it’s due, there a young team that lost three vets last year that carried the mail for them and they didn’t miss a step until the grind (and of course the usual suspects injuries) wore them down.   By the end of the year I’d expect we are about the same or a little worse offensively...and considering the PP was 9th last year our 5 x 5 must be considerably better.  Maybr Hughes comes in and we go on a roll I don’t know.   Markstroms play had been their one bright light recently, he’s definitely better than he was last year.

 

Overall one thing I can say is this is the first year in 17 that the Sedins haven’t played, that was quite the era and the next one couldn’t start until they moved on, and as I’ve been saying for several years the team can’t really bottom out until they are done.   This is it for sure, rock bottom, and it doesn’t look too bad.   

Another top five pick will go a long way into adding a core piece, whether it’s a defenseman that will take a couple years or a winger that can step in right away or in a year, it doesn’t matter we need both. 

 

Next year the young players will take another step into their early primes and things will improve.   If OJ can make the team and keep a spot that will help, and if Hughes can too then that’s two better defenseman than we currently have, and the PP can’t go anywhere but up.  Next season playoffs might still be a challenge but we should end up closer then this year and be on the way up.  All those quality prospects we’ve piled up will start trickling into every different part of the the team soon, Woo and Madden looking great, McEwen as a free agent looks good...just like AG this year someone is probably going to come in next year from the woodwork and earn a spot too.  

 

2020-2021 is looking like the first year this young core has a chance to make some waves...not next season, the team has too many holes to fill all at once, even if we grabbed some of the best UFAs available (mistake).   At least the hockey isn’t so bad, and EP is here.

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We are definitely younger and more dynamic upfront than we were.  But our weakness is on the back end, and that has been a problem since 2011.  Feels like it has been regressing every year.  Looks OK, when Tanev and Edler are healthy at the beginning of the season, but when injury starts, goes downhill.  

 

Hopefully Hughes will provide a little more production from the defense and help the powerplay, but we can't expect him to carry the defense on his shoulder.  I'm not sure Hughes and possibly Juolevi, alone are going to make this defense look like a contender.  Realistically, it would need another significant piece back there....and I don't think it's going to happen via UFA without overpaying and risking an albatross contract.  Only option would be via trade...like a Johansen/Jones type of deal, but that would signify parting ways with a prospect like Gaudette.

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21 minutes ago, timberz21 said:

We are definitely younger and more dynamic upfront than we were.  But our weakness is on the back end, and that has been a problem since 2011.  Feels like it has been regressing every year.  Looks OK, when Tanev and Edler are healthy at the beginning of the season, but when injury starts, goes downhill.  

 

Hopefully Hughes will provide a little more production from the defense and help the powerplay, but we can't expect him to carry the defense on his shoulder.  I'm not sure Hughes and possibly Juolevi, alone are going to make this defense look like a contender.  Realistically, it would need another significant piece back there....and I don't think it's going to happen via UFA without overpaying and risking an albatross contract.  Only option would be via trade...like a Johansen/Jones type of deal, but that would signify parting ways with a prospect like Gaudette.

More like Horvat or Boeser or even EP.   Gaudette would have to be a consistent 30/30 center for him to make the cut to get someone like Jones.    The best teams in the league have a very deep or extremely top heavy defense, some like SJ have two Norris winners on them.   Nashville is still the best but not by much (SJ also has Vlasic, the best defensive defenseman in the world the last five plus years) with TB in the mix and WNP isn’t too shabby either.  

 

OJ and Hughes would both have to be Norris candidates to propel us into a contending defense, simply put not going to happen.  At best we can hope Woo comes in and replaces prime Beiksa, OJ plays like Erhoff and Quin is something new entirely...hopefully Housley 2.0 but he’d better start working on his shot if he hopes to score any goals against NHL goalies that don’t bounce in off a defender.   Still even with those three coming in and doing well it might not be enough.   Looking to free Agency isn’t a bad idea at all, with the history Edler and Tanev have we need as many good ones as we can get.  Myers won’t be cheap but at least he can run a PP, has a monster shot and, well kind of is a monster...his injuries worry me a bit though.

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Defence needs to be retooled.

Defensive coaching and power play coaching needs to be retooled. 

Considering we are playing without the Twins, and how horrible the defence is I'd say the team is better. 

When all cylinders are firing this team is competitive. 

Goaltending has been a pleasant surprise. 

The offence needs to learn more consistency. I'm not surprised that Petey is struggling at the end of the year. This is a new grind for him. 

Brock needs to find the balance between more strength, and more speed. He's got the shot. 

Bo needs to stop putting the weight of the world on his shoulders and just get out, enjoy and keep putting pucks on the net. The rest will happen. 

I'd like to see Sautner and some of the young guys for longer stretches. 

What baffles me is yes Pouliot can skate. But he's lousy at everything else. Yet Green keeps putting him out there. 

Hopefully Hughes will force his hand. 

 

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