EdgarM

I don't know , a lot of your statements sound pretty vague. Not sure how you can just omit a player like Miller and think you are going to perform better? So I guess your 3rd and 4th line C's will make up his 90 or so points, play on the PP etc.? I think you need key pieces to the puzzle and I would say he is a key piece. So you are going to rely on a bunch of cheap rookies to take you to the promised land? Yeah OK. I guess that would be ideal but I don't know how realistic that is. Is there really a do or die push to make the playoffs this year? This new management has not had much time to undo the wrongdoings of the past regime so i am not expecting miracles this far in yet. If they can rid ourselves of the abundance of top 6 wingers , then maybe they can balance out the rest of the team. Until this happens, I am not expecting anything that looks like a finished product. If we improve over last year, i would be good with that.

Oh yes, that's huge! Those things that this team did in the past which caused me so much frustration is hopefully behind them. It will be a great day in "Canuck Land" when other teams do not feel like they have an opportunity to take cheap shots at our smaller, non-aggressive players on the team.

Yes, a team who comes to play "in shape" and has the "hard work" mentality , is going to be a welcomed change. We have not had that mentality in a long time.

I think once we see how the top 6 is finalized , we will see the bottom six fall into place. We still have a glutton of wingers who need to be sorted out. I am patient enough to wait out the time its going to take to make these final moves. As long as we don't take any shortcuts , we should be fine.

I agree, the plan seems to revolve around that age group and I don't remember the last time we had such a definitive game plan moving forward. We are not caving in on player demands and are taking a team first approach, such a refreshing way of doing business.

That Pat Quinn guy did a pretty good job too. Getting Bure was pure highway robbery and drafting Linden was alright. Gillis no doubt found the skill, I don't think he was ever able to get those character guys though. I liked Kessler and what he brought and Burrows and Hansen, but we lacked that guy that was going to lead us into war. Linden is pretty much the only one in that department so far for this franchise. We have been for so long, built to win games in the regular season, the playoffs is a whole other beast we have been unable to have success at.

Amen to that, I thought after the close call in 94' it was only a matter of time before we won one. Man was I sadly mistaken. We went from one group to the next , that Lays chip guy , Sundin, Naslund , the Sedins to Horvat and always coming up short somehow. I finally feel we have components we never had before and we have a compilation of good things coming together at the same time. The right management, the right coach, a PMD, a Goalie and character players to pull it all together. It will be interesting to see what this team looks like once management has completed the changes they want to make.

Meh, I can take him or leave em, we will get similar quality players for him if he moves on anyway. Personally, I would prefer a bigger more rugged #1 Center who can withstand the riggers of a long physical playoff run if the opportunity presented itself. Also, I am not a big believer in putting all of your eggs in one basket and having the success of a team put on 2 or 3 players on your team. Paying your players stupid money like Matthews seems futile if you want to buid a championship TEAM. Ideally a bigger more rugged Center would be like a Kopitar, a Barkov or an Eichel and those guys come in around the 10 Million mark. Then you have a Lafreniere at 2.35 Million, so I think there is room there to get a quality #1 Center for a lot cheaper and still have enough Cap space left to build a playoff team around them. Vegas did a pretty good job with that thought process.

So the cards have been played and unfortunately, Petey is taking a play out of Horvat's playbook. This new management has shown they are willing to pay, "fair market value" for their players and obviously, Petey is thinking he is owed more. This regime, unlike the past, does not pay for what you May accomplish, they pay you what you are worth. I am thinking that management is going to get ahead of this and trade him off, while they still are driving the bus. I liked it that he said that he wanted to win,................ well that is not what he is saying now, that is a huge red flag. Now he is saying he is not sure if he wants a short or long term contract, ...........just excuses. We need to move on him ASAP, before it gets ugly. He is not in the same mind set as Hughes or Miller, when they signed their contracts, his agenda seems to be different. Sad some players think that way, really.

I totally agree, and I think we took a step in the right direction by continuing to build around these guys with checkers and big bodies who compliment the players you mentioned. I feel like this group knows how to build a team correctly which was in total disarray in the past with no clear direction. The #1 Center with Bo versus, Miller, versus Petey seemed to go on forever as well as the who is our PMD defenseman, OEL? Myers? Hughes? Bear? with the occasional appearance of Rathbone here and there. I don't even want to go to who our top 6 wingers are. This will hopefully be rectified sometime this year.

I guess some don't see that these things make a huge difference in how they make us a better team. Not having the pouting attitude where the players were out there doing there own thing and getting cheered on by BB was not getting us anywhere. The not finishing your checks or sticking up for your team mates was not getting us anywhere. Yes it starts in the minors so that they come to the big club knowing exactly what they need to do to be successful, like a real plan. I have not been excited for the up coming season for a very long time with this team. I am very much looking forward to this season though. Not because I think they are going to win the cup this year or go deep in the playoffs, but because I know they are going to be playing a better brand of hockey then what they have in decades.

I am wondering how Seattle has done so well so far too?

Oh I see, now its 3 elite players "IN EACH IMPORTANT CATEGORY", gotcha! Boy those goal posts have a tendency to keep on moving. EDIT: Ooops my apologies, i thought you were EddieVedder.

I think with the new coaches work ethic and the commitment to team play, we will be able to withstand the odd injury or two better then we used to.

Best in the league? Nah I am good with Petey and Miller thanks. Vegas has good a pretty good group of Centers as well.

Sorry but it takes about a team of 23 players to win, otherwise, wouldn't Toronto or Edmonton have had some success by now?

We improved in all aspects that we needed to improve upon(as you stated) and people still think that the team is not going to improve? That makes no sense. The only major hurdle we may need to over come is injuries. We could be better by ridding ourselves of our smaller wingers but I think that is coming this year sometime. Barring any major injuries, we should be better then last year, and that's all I am hoping for at this point.

Blow it up? If you are disposing of Petterson , you are going to get quality players and/or picks back, I don't think there is a need to "Blow it up". Teams like Vegas and Seattle did the team build first and then brought in their top players. You could still build a quality team around Kuz, Demko, Miller, Hronek and Hughes and who ever you get for Petey. Not all is "lost" or "Doom and Gloom".

Is that a fact ? are you a fortune teller?

The point is.......your comparing 2 completely different rosters. We know what happens when 1 or 2 people are in/out of a roster we have a lot of different players who are better then we had last season. Bumping Myers to the third pairing and ridding ourselves of OEL easily makes us better then last year, not to mention getting Mik back, a healthy Hronek or getting players who are going to help our PK. A full season of Tocchet coaching is going to be huge and ridding ourselves of Boo Hoo is also a great improvement. I could go on but you get the idea.

You do realize that the team is different this year then last, right?

Oh is that a fact? Is that how Vegas won last year. What about Demko in your list? It takes a TEAM with good COACHING to win, picking out a couple of players and saying that is what it takes to win is ludicrous. We are a stronger team this year, thats no doubt. Are we a complete team yet? I don't think so. Odds are just that, Odds not for sures. Any team in the league is an injury or a trade away from competing for the playoffs or not. Its far too early to make a decision on who or who isn't going to make the playoffs at this point.

Honestly, I really don't care who the Captain is as long as that person makes his team accountable for their actions and they also do the same for the opposing team. No sugar coating anything and no putting up with anyone's crap. If a "Tkachuk" or a "Marchand" is going to think they can get away with things, I would hope the leadership group is going to let them know we are no longer the "Mr. Nice guys" of the NHL anymore.

I think I seen where you were going with it , it just didn't make sense.

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