Glory_Days

I like OJ, really smooth skater and moves the puck up the ice well, not sure why everyone is comparing him to Maata, I see more of a resemblance to Roman Josi. If OJ turns into a Roman Josi type, I am more than ok with that, we've seen what happens to teams with D that lack skating ability, they get hemmed into their own zone for most of the game.

He's a big dude, takes a lot of effort and energy to move around when you're as big as he is. Lot of big guys tend to have this issue, even Chara did when he was younger. I don't expect dramatic improvements to Tryamkin's conditioning and endurance for this year, if however by 2017-2018 he's not substantially improved after having a full NHL season under his belt and another summer of off-season training, then my alarm bells will start to go off.

Well, I dress up and pretend to be a woman...oh wait, we're talking about how we cope with the stream of Canucks bad luck...yup, that's my coping mechanism...I mean, it's not like I dress as a woman on Friday evenings and do duckface poses in my bathroom mirror for fun...that would be crazy!

BUST! Not even ppg in the NCAA?! What a waste of a roster spot!

Well, let's look at this rationally. Reasons Demko could have for staying in College: * Finishing his degree (No idea what he's taking, might not be that important to him) *Having one last crack at trying to win the Championship with Boston College *Being able to become a FA and sign anywhere (Don't see this as a likely reason, he has a clear path to become Van's #1 and little competition in that regard) Reasons for Demko to sign with Canucks: * Start your pro career one year earlier and burn off that ELC earlier as well * Start making money, 70K in AHL is still not bad, plus if he sees any NHL time during his first year, he'll make like around 10k per game, even as a backup * He's accomplished pretty much everything he can as an individual in college, time to play at a higher level and grow as a player * Demko loves Vancouver, loves us and he wants to win the SC for all of us!

I would say yes, to having that potential anyways, they would have gone #1 and #2 in their draft if a team had both of those picks. I would say forwards being drafted at those spots should at least have that possibility.

Well, seeing as how I have Boeser in my minor league system in my keeper pool, if we get Matthews that would be aweeeeeesome! At this point, Boeser is looking like our best potential sniper in our system. Horvat has the two-way complete game, Virtanen is a power forward type build, has a good shot though. Baertschi has skill, but don't see him ever putting up 30+ goals.

HEY! I still have hopes that Hodgson is going to be our next captain, put up 100 point seasons and win us three Stanley Cups single-handedly!!

Just to name a few players that were also taken in the same draft class as Boeser. Mitch Marner, Dylan Strome, Lawson Crouse, Noah Hanifin, Kyle Connor, Mikko Rantanen, Zach Weresnki. Not to mention that there usually is one or two players from each draft that come out of nowhere from the latter rounds and far exceed expectations. Jamie Benn 4th round pick, Joe Pavelski 7th round pick, Pekka Rinne 9th round, Mark Stone 6th round, Johnny Gaudreau 4th round to name a few. If Boeser can even be in the top 10 best player from that draft class, for where we drafted him that's a huge steal for us.

I like the guy, a lot, I think he has a lot of upside...but, let's not get carried away. If Boeser turns into a legit top six player at NHL level, that's a big win for us, if he can be a legit 1st line scoring winger who puts up 30+ goals, massive win for us for where we drafted him. Saying he's likely to be better than the other 210 (minus McDavid and Eichel) players that were drafted that year, when it hasn't even been a year since that draft is silly

Actually Buffalo has a couple of young goalies that are regarded quite well, Linus Ullmark and Andrey Makarov. Plus staying on topic here, Boeser is looking like a beauty, I was able to grab him a couple months ago in the keeper pool I'm in, so I'm doubly hyped for him!

Great! we can pair him with our shoot first center Kesl...oh wait In all seriousness though, not in the least bit upset all we gave up was a 2nd for this "kid", has the potential to be a legitimate top six player, whereas most 2nd round picks are either large risks for boom or bust, or high end bottom six talent. Now if we had Detroit's draft pedigree might be different, but looking through our draft history...isn't the prettiest to look at. Last couple of years looks pretty good though, still a bit early to tell though.

As does Mr. Kesler (I know we all hate him, but...he did take a hell of a lot of punishment)

It's what Virtanen brings to the table in his size, physicality, speed and shot that I like. When we first drafted him, I hated the pick, to be fair, I would have hated any pick, when Bennett dropped to 4th was hoping Flames would do something moronic and draft off the board and for Canucks to have just a small chance to grab Bennett. Yes, his point totals don't exactly wow in his 2nd season, but points arn't everything in juniors, lot of players have fantastic junior careers and end up being fringe NHL'ers at best. NHL is completely different from juniors, defenders are so much bigger and mobile. Juniors, team defense is a bit of a foreign concept, NHL, on most teams, your two-way game better be up to snuff, or you better be putting up 60+ point seasons. Lot of players from Juniors, their game doesn't translate very well, Virtanen's translates very well, in my opinion. Now if he is able to put all the pieces together is another question.

Your first two points, (Shot, Hockey IQ) I won't agree or disagree with you, I would need to see more of Horvat's play before I would feel comfortable commenting on those. As for speed, he has vastly improved his skating from when he was drafted, his acceleration is vastly superior to what it was over a year ago, he's also improved his speed a lot as well, won't win any speed contests, but he's been able to blow by defenders using his speed/acceleration. As for a career 50 point guy, I think anyone making long-term judgements this early in a players career is short-sighted, at best. He may end up as a 50 point 2nd line C, or a 1st line 70 point C, or whatever. I would have put money down that Kesler was never going to evolve past a great 3rd line checking center. If anyone remembers him before he broke out, guy had hands made of stone, couldn't finish plays at all...went on to score 40 goals, I ate dirt pretty badly on that one haha. Just for comparisons sake: Horvat's 1st year as a 19/20 year old rookie: 68GP, 13G, 12A, 25P Best F/O guy we had, played in key minutes during big games. Ryan Johansen's 1st year as an 18/19 year old rookie: 69GP, 9G, 12A, 21P Ryan Johansen's 2nd year as a 19/20 year sophomore: 40GP, 5G, 7A, 12P Now some people would be willing to trade the farm for a chance to have him on our team. Will Horvat be as good as Johansen? Hard to say, I would lean towards not likely, but it's not outside the realm of possibility either, so locking Horvat in as capping out as a 50 point player when he's only played 1 year of pro hockey, and just turned 20...seems silly at best

Can't say I'm surprised, Milos didn't have his best game and so he lost, there is a legitimate chance Milos could have played the best tennis ever in his life, and still end up losing, obviously a closer match though. In a way I'm sorta happy, beating Fed would have been huge for Milos and to have two Canadians in the finals would have been beyond epic, but to expect Milos to beat Fed, and then Dorkovic...yeeeeah, do YOU believe in miracles!? Federer vs Djokovic and Bouchard vs Petkovic (Euros really like those Kovic names eh), is going to be so fun to watch. PLUS, we got Pospisil/Sock vs the Bryan brothers is icing on the cake...and can't forget about the cherry! Nestor has a chance to make it to the finals in the mixed doubles! So much sweetness this weekend, going to have to go on a diet after

Very nice, didn't realize they had played 5 sets before, just makes it even more dumb that they can't at the least have the final rounds be 5 sets. Is it just me that finds 3 sets for all women's matches annoying? Like I've said, not really a tennis savant, only been loosely following the sport for the past 4 years or so, been paying more attention to it for the last couple of years and this year it has really taken hold of me.

I'm so excited for the finals! hopefully Raonic wins, but if Federer wins, I'll still have him to cheer for, would be could if he was able to win one more Grand Slam, especially at Wimbledon. For me though, even if Raonic gets through, the main draw is Eugenie Bouchard and Andrea Petkovic. It really pisses me off that women's matches are only 3 sets, it's a different time/era than when that rule was implemented, pretty sure majority of the woman would have no problem going 5 sets if needed, at the least, make the quarters/semi's/finals 5 sets.

I agree Mr.Bob.Loblaw, Genie is fun to watch, she is very aggressive on the court and it puts her opponents off balance, it's really fun when her opponent is someone who is very good at defending. I like Raonic, but...he doesn't play an exciting brand of tennis, he lives and dies off his service game. He is inconsistent in defending, feels like a lot of the time, all his opponents have to do is get into a small rally game with him, and he'll end up making a mistake or they'll be able to land a good shot that he can't get to. Although, he has tremendously improved his overall game this year, before I found it painful to watch him go up against anyone with a good skill set that could return some of his serves, he would get torn to pieces. Now he can still win games if his opponent has a handle on his serve, and can even break the other player at times...not sure if he has ever broken a top player though, has he?

To be fair, I've noticed in a lot of her matches, it seems to take Genie a few games to really get into her groove. Yes though, it looked like she was missing some shots that she normally wouldn't, but when the points mattered most, she made them count.

Nestor lost his quarters match-up in Men's Doubles, but Pospisil and Sock won theirs and are now in the semi's. Nestor did win his Mixed Doubles match, and is in the quarter finals. Raonic is in the semi's, Eugenie is in the finals, pretty amazing how well the Canadians have been doing. I think the only way Raonic will be able to beat Federer is if his serve is completely on, and doesn't allow Federer to break him, Raonic is going to have to win a couple of tie breaks methinks.

It may have seemed petty, but she didn't act petty about it, it's not like she screamed, yelled and just generally had a giant hissy fit, which It seems some tennis players are wont to do.

woohooo, Genie in the final!! No matter what happens, she's played an amazing tournament, hasn't lost a single set...but screw that Kvitova! Kill her good Genie!

His size doesn't hurt either, 6'3, could end up being 6'4, add all of athleticism, poise, positional strength, I think we got a winner

With the results Canadian tennis players have had so far this year, and if they continue this trend, do you feel that tennis will have a larger sphere of influence in Canadian media? I've only really started to watch tennis maybe 4 years ago or so, and then it was basically just the Finals of the Grand Slams, over time become more of a fan, and last year or so it's really taken off with the emergence of Raonic, Bouchard, Pospisil. Just wondering what your experiences are with tennis fans in Canada? I know less than a handful of people who are basically even aware if there is a Grand Slam currently going on. It's such a fun sport to watch, has become, far and away, my second favorite sport next to hockey.