[PGT] Columbus Blue Jackets at Vancouver Canucks | Mar. 08, 2020

[Bo fan]

I want to see more of Petey mad

And I'd also like to see a lot more bite from Horvat - maybe Miller will rub off on him

On to Tues

[wallstreetamigo]

Horvat needs to get back to being hard to play against. He has gotten away from that a bit this year. I know he gets a lot of the tough assignments but he still has to be able to generate 5 on 5 offense. 

 

Eriksson has been a good defensive addition to that line but it needs a true two way right winger that can play at both ends against good players. If Toffoli wasnt such a good fit with EP and JP I would say he would be the perfect fit for a two way shutdown line that can add 5 on 5 offense. 

[189lb enforcers?]

There’s very little room to criticize Horvat as a player. That being said, revisiting the captaincy selecting issue/result will continue to be a thing until the team develops an identity beyond that of a vanilla, sportsmanlike one. I am not at all surprised that Horvat is leading the way he is and that the Canucks haven’t developed a team style and identity yet. 

[wallstreetamigo]

I really like what Toffoli brings. He is dangerous offensively, responsible defensively, and has that bit of fire in his belly. I would like to see him re-signed if its a reasonable contract as he gives our rw position that two way player that Boeser and Virtanen are still trying to become. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

3 minutes ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

There’s very little room to criticize Horvat as a player. That being said, revisiting the captaincy selecting issue/result will continue to be a thing until the team develops an identity beyond that of a vanilla, sportsmanlike one. I am not at all surprised that Horvat is leading the way he is and that the Canucks haven’t developed a team style and identity yet. 

Horvat to me gets a bit more rope as he sometimes has Eriksson as a winger.  Horvat ain't THAT good to be carrying around that "Selke candidate winger".

[Lazurus]

The first period looked like two teams outside of a playoff spot wanting to guarantee a point each.

 

What to say, it was a must win and they didn't.

 

Green can do anything he wants but he just doesn't have the horses to pull the wagon.

 

Columbus's youth beat the Canucks experience playing their second game in less than 24 hours on the road.

 

At this point firing the coach, which I don't think he could do anything different, would be the only thing Benning can do to try to keep his job and shake up the team.

 

But as was pointed out the team did have those posts and crossbars.

 

Next game is against a team with a worse record over the last 5 games than the Canucks but also fighting for a playoff spot.

 

Then the schedule gets hard with 3 back to backs two on the road.

 

They can still do it.

[BPA]

36 minutes ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

Most hockey people, I assume. 
The same would be said for EP. 

Well on CDC, most were optimistic that the team would keep on rolling.   No one really predicted a losing streak. 

[GritGrinder]

3 hours ago, Silent Man said:

Yes, Canucks will be better next year, but so will most of the teams in Pacific. And it will be as tough to make playoffs next year.

But it is not a point though. Point is Canucks had a great opportunity this year to be one of the three top teams in the division, and, for whatever reason, they've missed that opportunity.

And, at this point even a wild card spot looks very doubtful. Painful to watch .

 

Will they though..? Go look at the top 8 scorers for the Canucks right now. All are having career years (yes I know QH is a rookie) and all have missed little to no games (yes I know BB has missed 11 and Gaudette was in the press box early on this season), Markstrom is having a Vezina calibre season and little to no injuries to the defense and the Canucks are still just a playoff bubble team that spends to the cap. If even a couple of those guys take a step back or miss any significant amount of time then that likely affects the entire season for the team.

[Nucker 67]

Green outcoached again. Torts must be loving the season sweep against his former team. I would've thought the Canucks would've given more effort, like play their a**es off and give 100%. Isn't that what Green said? I don't really buy the puck luck thing. It's a convenient excuse when players can't score. How 'bout stop passing it around like soem kids game of keep-away and shoot the damn thing. This is why I like Toffioli,. he's not as patient as some. He'll shoot.

 

The Canucks were down 2-0 after two periods, I thought they'd come out in the 3rd and really hammer the Jackets. But it was actually the Jackets with the effort. Good jiob getting your team up and ready Torts. Not sure what the problem is. This team has really good players that can't seem to get it together.  One game they look like a good playoff team, the next they look like a bottom feeder. Too inconsistent. 

[Silent Man]

6 minutes ago, GritGrinder said:

Will they though..? Go look at the top 8 scorers for the Canucks right now. All are having career years (yes I know QH is a rookie) and all have missed little to no games (yes I know BB has missed 11 and Gaudette was in the press box early on this season), Markstrom is having a Vezina calibre season and little to no injuries to the defense and the Canucks are still just a playoff bubble team that spends to the cap. If even a couple of those guys take a step back or miss any significant amount of time then that likely affects the entire season for the team.

Very good points, but I still think there is a room for impovement. 

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, BPA said:

Hindsight is 20/20.

 

Who knew Canucks would crap the bed without Markstrom?  In limited starts, Demko appeared to be able to at least go 50/50 the rest of the way.  Life doesn't always happen the way we predict. 

You bet.  Demko isn't the problem, he's making 9/10 saves and that's all we should expect.  He's had maybe one bad game, Markstrom has ones too.  Take away the empty net goals and each game has been very close.

 

Oh well - based on this Demko should win the next three or four right?  

[Nucker 67]

Haven't the Canucks lost 10 in a row to the Islanders? It'll be interesting to see how Green gets his team up for the next game.  

[aGENT]

1 hour ago, CanucksJay said:

The team is Jeckyl and Hyde. 

Almost as though our team has a young, inexperienced core that one would almost expect to be inconsistent...

[MikeyD]

2 hours ago, Duodenum said:

Gaudette has more points than Pettersson and Horvat in their last 16 games, without all the powerplay time. 

Horvat has 0 even strength goals and a measly 4 even-strength points in his last 16. 

 

 

And I think most of those were from a couple games. He's such an inconsistent player now it's mindboggling. He went from being one of my favourites to one of my least favourites. The guy doesn't play hockey like he used to. 

 

Coaching? 

[IBatch]

9 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Green outcoached again. Torts must be loving the season sweep against his former team. I would've thought the Canucks would've given more effort, like play their a**es off and give 100%. Isn't that what Green said? I don't really buy the puck luck thing. It's a convenient excuse when players can't score. How 'bout stop passing it around like soem kids game of keep-away and shoot the damn thing. This is why I like Toffioli,. he's not as patient as some. He'll shoot.

 

The Canucks were down 2-0 after two periods, I thought they'd come out in the 3rd and really hammer the Jackets. But it was actually the Jackets with the effort. Good jiob getting your team up and ready Torts. Not sure what the problem is. This team has really good players that can't seem to get it together.  One game they look like a good playoff team, the next they look like a bottom feeder. Too inconsistent. 

 

I agree with most of this except The second to last sentence.   Over the course of the entire season the Canucks have only had a handful of really bad games (bottom feeders), and definitely more really good ones.

 

Its also why our goals differential is still above, and much better then all the teams around us (think CAL is actually a minus team)... a ton of our losses have been one goal games or one goal games plus the empty netter.    If we are that close to a tie with that many games it doesn't at all make us a bottom feeder.   The parity in this league is actually ridiculous right now.  So many what ifs ... Markstrom and BB going down was just terrible luck.  

 

The team needs a hard gigantic kick in the ass right now.  Every player should be incensed that their hard work earlier is gone now - and that they are trending the wrong way at the wrong time.    A week ago I was pretty sure they'd turn it around and keep a spot - now I'm wavering. Still think they can it, it's been like hand grenades and horseshoes lately but not enough.  Demko is giving them a chance - need to capatilize when he does because he won't do it every night (and neither did Markstrom)....  .500 won't be enough now.   We need a winnjng streak - adding BB next game would be absolutely huge..those extra few shots and sweet passes would make a huge difference in these close games.  Posts ... ugh they have to go in soon right!   

[MikeyD]

Also for being a checking line (our 2nd line), it's sad to see Horvat sitting at a - 14. Most of that damage coming from the past 17 games (-14 in those games). As a captain you should be leading by example. Don't give me those hard minutes excuses. You're not even a scoring line in the past 20 games lol. 

[GritGrinder]

What a difference a year makes...here are the Pacific standings this morning compared to March 9th, 2019.

 

2018-2019

San Jose 41-19-8 90pts

Calgary 41-20-7 89pts

Vegas 38-26-5 81pts

Arizona 34-29-5 73pts

Edmonton 30-31-7 67pts

Vancouver 28-32-9 65pts

Anaheim 27-33-9 63pts

Los Angeles 24-36-8 56pts

 

2019-2020

Vegas 38-24-8 84pts +3pts

Edmonton 37-24-8 82pts +15pts

Calgary 36-27-7 79pts -10pts

Vancouver 35-27-6 76pts +11pts

Arizona 33-28-8 74pts +1pts

Anaheim 28-32-9 65pts +2pts

San Jose 29-35-5 63pts -27pts

Los Angeles 27-35-6 60pts +4pts

 

So the division isn't that much weaker this season with spots 4-8 having very similar #'s and the top 3 being a bit better last season. Will likely even out by the end of the season in terms of points/position.

Edited March 9, 2020 by GritGrinder

[oldnews]

1 hour ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

There’s very little room to criticize Horvat as a player.

No - there is room to criticize his game.   I'm hesitant to - for a number of reasons - but if we're being 'real'....

He's getting caught up, too often, trying to play a 'pretty' game - losing his own identity - making cute blind passes, fancy crap that is not his calling card.  Nifty little drop passes, between the legs - it's like he's trying to compete with EP as the most skilled forward on the ice -and it's failing, predictably.  He forces more ill-advised passes and gives the puck away more than anyone else on the roster right now - while he 'should' be playing a power game.

 

The reason I hesitate to criticize him for it:

1) he's a rookie captain - on a team where he's not really 'the' leader - he's one among......   Imo arguably the 'leaders' are Beagle, Markstrom, Edler, Miller, Tanev, EP,  Sutter and Horvat - it's not hard to see why Horvat might be trying a bit too hard (in some senses) to lead and not really 'feeling' like 'the' leader.

2) the other reason I hesitate - is because of his workload.  He plays 20 minutes a night -  at 43% ozone starts - has taken 1500ish faceoffs - plays matchup night in night out....has been doing so for a few years....once again on a team that has had repeat injuries to their shutdown centers (Beagle, Sutter, Beagle again....)  Horvat has logged a lot of hard miles and he's still only 24 years old.

3) He's stuck with a borderline useless offensive presence on his wing for 12 (of his 20) minutes a night.  I think this, in large part, is why we're seeing so much less transition game, less transition production from Horvat.  Pearson may fit his game alright in this sense - but LE, aside from the matchup aspects without the puck - is as anchor as anchor gets - a broken offensive player.  For this reason, I think I'd have permanently gone with Virtanen on that line some time ago - because it's lost a lot of it's edge with LE - and they need that s secondary push from Horvat's line (I don't think it gives up much, if anything, with Virtanen).  Unfortunately, losing Boeser, Ferland, Leivo etc has reduced their options this year, but the LE option , at least on that line, is one thing I have a hard time rolling with (the other is keeping Gaudette at center....)

 

Horvat's game has been frustrating to watch on many nights - spotty - too many attempts to be 'flashy' - .....on a certain level I expected some flagging from Horvat this year, but if we're being real, as a player (ie not referring to his captaincy) he's probably going to show another gear/level in the future imo - I think he's having a forgettable season on the ice as well (relative to what he's capable of imo).

Edited March 9, 2020 by oldnews

[Wayne Glensky]

I find it funny how the last 30 seconds it wasn’t Bo trying to rally the boys together. It was Miller. Miller and Petey have done everything right as leaders. I am sorry but Bo is non existent as a Captain. First year or not that is your &^@#ing job as a captain to get your boys going. I am getting sick of it. Unpopular opinion but he was the wrong choice for a Captain. The team looks up to Miller more than Bo. 

[IBatch]

10 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

Haven't the Canucks lost 10 in a row to the Islanders? It'll be interesting to see how Green gets his team up for the next game.  

We better win or this forum will be rampant with how we should have offered Trotz the keys to the bank accounts... he's one of the best coaches the past decade.  Reminds of Ruff, with the exception he won a cup.   NSH owes him a lot for what he did with some mediocre or even below average teams early, him and Poile seemed inseparable for a long time - talk about trust if Poile decided to quit on him early during bad spells maybe he wouldn't even be here now.

 

There are a lot more Yeo's out there - coaches that get a couple chances with usually bad teams and then let go and are basically done then guys like Trotz and Ruff (Buffalo) who's GMs give huge amounts of rope too (patient with).   So far I'm hoping TG can eventually become one of these guys - and do think if he's fired won't have a long wait to get another offer, it's mostly our fan base that thinks he's a bad coach.  Also hope he's not fired and bails this sinking ship out and plows us through a few rounds.

 

TG with the win.