hlinkas wrister
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Everything posted by hlinkas wrister
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[GDT] Wild @ Canucks, Sunday August 2 @ 7:30 pm
hlinkas wrister replied to Dumb Nuck's topic in Canucks Talk
Closest to real playoff intensity of all of the series so far imo -
[GDT] Wild @ Canucks, Sunday August 2 @ 7:30 pm
hlinkas wrister replied to Dumb Nuck's topic in Canucks Talk
Freakin Greg Louganis drew that penalty -
[GDT] Wild @ Canucks, Sunday August 2 @ 7:30 pm
hlinkas wrister replied to Dumb Nuck's topic in Canucks Talk
Can't believe its been 5 years since we payed a "post season" game? -
[GDT] Wild @ Canucks, Sunday August 2 @ 7:30 pm
hlinkas wrister replied to Dumb Nuck's topic in Canucks Talk
For the record, I think a lot of this is on Jake too. But to be fair to the people arguing for him, Jake did play well when he was given top 6 opportunities and yet Green can't push him back into the bottom 6 soon enough. The one thing that drove me nuts though was Jake looks like he's much more engaged when he gets the top 6 minutes and then he goes back to looking disinterested when he isn't. On the flip side, when Boeser was demoted to the third line he may of not had success but it was obvious that he was playing hard as hell to get out of it. I know if I was the coach which one of those 2 responses I would reward. -
[GDT] Wild @ Canucks, Sunday August 2 @ 7:30 pm
hlinkas wrister replied to Dumb Nuck's topic in Canucks Talk
Don't tell my boss that or I'm in deep....... -
Pretty hard to get a read on either team after that game, neither team was playing with playoff intensity. Things I took away from it were: 1-Brock is moving much better than he ever was in the regular season, 2-Elias is ready to go and he seems willing to physically engage, 3-Ferland was moving much better than early this season, but he’s still a shadow of his former self. Oh, and I really dislike the “noise management system” they seemed to be using last night to drown out the players. Can’t wait to see some real hockey on Sunday.
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Fair enough, we are all entitled to an opinion. Seems a little over the top to say "you cant stand the guy" based just on that though. Passion for the team sometimes makes us all a little unreasonable but it's worth keeping things in perspective.
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His act? Are you talking about Jake the hockey player or what you see of him on social media?
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Not at all. I’m just curious why he says “he can’t stand Jake and It has nothing to do with hockey”.
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I'm curious, do you know Jake personally?
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Jersey looks straight out of the QMJHL
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I've wanted to stay away from this train wreck of a thread but I have a habit of doing silly things so here goes (sorry for the long read). I think there's a lot of misconception going on here about what's wrong with Jake and on the flip side, how people feel Green and the Canucks handle his deployment, and I think a lot of fans should be looking at this more objectionably. First of all, lets discuss the off ice stuff. Are some of the things (lets keep it recent, the home-dresser vid and going out to a bar) that Jake has been called out for doing immature? 100% yes. But are they equally being blown out of proportion by a bunch of people who are stuck living in myopic covid-closets and venting on social media? Also 100% yes. More importantly, do these 2 events show that Jake is a bad guy or will they have any bearing on whether Jake is still a Canuck come next season? 100% no. Jake and every other player in the NHL have conduct clauses written into their contracts and by any reasonable measure Jake didn't even come close to breaching in either instance. Let it go. Secondly, Jake's conditioning for training camps. In the preseason camp (and now again in the post-season camp) people assumed that Jake showed up out of shape. Is there any evidence for this? In the preseason Green said that Jake failed to meet agreed on targets, but were these targets ever 100% confirmed by anybody? I would argue that if anybody watched the preseason game where demoted Jake played for the B squad against Calgary he was absolutely flying, and he didn't look a step behind in the early going of the regular season either. Nobody in the org has intimated that Jake has shown up for this camp out of shape either, so let's put this argument for bed and look at the real reasons that Jake may find himself as a black ace instead of a starter this post season. Practice like you play. Anybody who has played sports, even at a mediocre level, has heard their coaches say this. None of us (to my knowledge) have been present at this most recent Canuck camp but the videos of Jake's first scrimmage were less than flattering. Sure, context will tell you that they are playing non-contact shinny but Jake was doing a pretty believable impersonation of a pylon at a couple of points in that game. Jake's biggest weakness has always been his play without the puck in his own end and Green is right in my opinion to send Jake (and everybody else) the message that a lack of effort defending will not be tolerated. There were a few Iverson "practice?" mentions flying around here but this isn't a typical training camp-it's a playoff training camp. In the regular season you can afford to give up the occasional weak goal but in the playoffs when the whistles get put away you can't score your way out from under those defensive lapses. I'm not an advanced stat expert but I thought this article was a fairly objectionable look at Jake's offensive vs. defensive contributions and his defensive shot map isn't very pretty: https://thehockeywriters.com/canucks-jake-virtanen-trade-options/ But a shot map and a bad practice aren't the only reasons why Jake might be replaced by big Mac on the third line come playoff time, sometimes it's just a question of fit. I think it was @Provost that was calling Jake out for his inconsistent play this year, saying that Jake essentially had a poor start and a poor finish sandwiched around a decent middle and for the most part he's right. If you look at that a little more critically though, the beginning of the season and the end of the season (after we acquired Toffoli) is where when Jake spent most of his time in the bottom 6 (mostly on the Gaudette line). Jake's best production (not surprisingly) coincided with the period where he spent more of his time playing in the top 6 and PP2. So why is MacEwan maybe a better choice than Jake for the third line? I guess it has everything to do with what Green envisions the third line being- hard to play against, physical and defensively responsible. Jake may have more offensive upside than Zack, but Zack suits what Green wants a third liner to be and he has shown better chemistry (albeit in a small sample size) with Roussel and Gaudette. So where should Jake play? I think it's fair to say that Jake has shown decent offensive improvement every year and that when given an opportunity in the top six and power play that he can not only hold his own, but excel. Some of these stats are adjusted for 60 minutes but they paint a pretty encouraging picture of Jake's year offensively, even when he spent a considerable portion of it "not producing" in a bottom 6 role: Jake Virtanen's rank amongst #Canucks fwds (min. 20GP w/ VAN this season). G - 18 (5TH) EVG - 12 (4TH) PPG - 6 (4TH) GWG - 6 (1ST) G/60 - 1.19 (2ND) PPG/60 - 5.86 (1ST ) HITS - 102 (3RD) TK - 37 (T-2ND) (sorry for the formatting but I don't have a clue how to copy and paste tweets) The evidence (to me anyways) points to Jake being a black ace for one of the top 2 right wing spots (or left wing, lets not even get into that argument) for the playoffs this year. He produces consistently when he's played top 6, he gets exposed defensively when he plays in the bottom 6 and he hasn't shown great chemistry playing with Roussel and Gaudette. Boeser and Toffoli are at this point in time better players and should get the nod for game 1. If we get an injury to any winger in the playoffs (or if we struggle to score) Jake should be first in. Let me be clear about something before Jake fans start coming at my assessment, Jake is probably my favorite player on the Canucks. But if we are being completely honest when assessing Jake and where he fits with our team, he's not very effective playing bottom 6 minutes or with bottom 6 players (not that Boeser was either but at least he looked like he was trying to play his way out of it). And if Toffoli re-signs I can't imagine Jake is a Canuck next season.
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Virtanen showing immaturity once again.
hlinkas wrister replied to cuporbust's topic in Canucks Talk
I'm pretty sure every member of the team will be tested before they enter the bubble when training camp starts. -
The way it was proposed the winner of Minny/Van goes on to play Colorado? That would be fantastic series to watch