canuckleheads fan

I think OJ slides in for Eddie just fine at a budget saving price. He's faster, a better first passer, and hopefully will regain the 20 pounds he lost with Covid and add some size and strength as well this summer. Before he was stricken by Covid, he was looking like a solid stay-at-home guy who could lay a good hit, won board battles, blocked shots, and could add some offense. As much as I love Edler and everything he has done for this team, it's time that we opened spots for our younger players to develop with the rest of our young core. QH - Hamonic or another RHD UFA (which will be a tall order) OJ - Schmidt Rathbone - Myers Breezer - Chatfield

This is an excellent post. One other note, late in games when Hughes was out with one of the other more offensive defensemen and the team was trailing on the scoreboard, they were pressing, not playing good defense, but instead taking more chances to generate offense, sometimes with an empty net, which left them open to giving up more goals. His +/- is nothing more than a unrepresentative distraction, and it will improve as he gets more experience. Remember, Bo was one of the worst +/- players in the league a few years ago, and it sparked him to vastly improve his strength and defensive game. Hopefully this will inspire Hughes to hit the gym harder in the summer, gain a few pounds of muscle, and improve his defensive reads.

He didn't deny he met her because the police will have his and her phone GPS data through Google, she might have his DNA in her underwear, and maybe surveillance video of them checking in still exists somewhere. The best thing he could do is turn it into a he-said-she-said situation, which are nearly impossible to prosecutor and to win a judgment on. Now if she has documentary evidence of physical injury, and if told her friends and maybe a medical professional immediately after it happened that Jake assaulted her, then her case stands a greater chance.

I've always thought of goalie coaches as independent of the rest of the coaching staff. They are part technical expert helping the goalies work out their mechanics, and part psychologist because everybody knows that goalies are crazy! They don't really have a ton of input into the team's systems, so it doesn't matter who the HC and his assistants are, the goalie coach basically stays in his lane.

My thought exactly, they just hired Shaw, a well regarded defensive coach who has worked his magic for two different franchises, I suspect Shaw will be the D coach going forward, and Baum will coach special teams, or something else. I also suspect that Baum is back because he got a thumbs up from the players, which is what appears to have saved Green's job.

I live in the Seattle metro market, so I watch for Kraken info on local news, and websites. There's a website that has been doing mock EDs every couple of months. In the first one they picked Holtby, in the second they took Jake, then Holtby again. In the last mock draft, they took Gadg. You could have knocked me over with a feather, as it was what I've been fearing. I think if I'm JB, I expose Motte (as much as I love him, health wise he's a long term risk) and protect Gadg, who is younger and I think has more overall upside. Gadj is potentially the player that JB thought Jake would become.

I will disagree about Vesey. When they plugged him into the top six right after acquiring him, he was squeezing the stick too tight trying to make an impression and gacked on several good chances. Once he was playing bottom six minutes and on the PK, he was actually okay. He's got good speed, worked hard on the boards, got more physical as time went went on and recovered more pucks than I expected. He's got very good vision for a bottom six winger, I think it was against Edmonton that he made that beautiful setup to Miller for a backside tap-in. And he was decent on the PK, because he's fairly tall and rangy, and moves well. I think once he got comfortable with the personnel, and was on a line with Boyd, with whom he had obviously played, he was fine. Better than any of the other bottom six wingers except Highmore, who really impressed me in the final five games. I think Vesey is one of those bottom six wingers who can move up and down the lineup as needed. I'd offer him a two or three-year contract at about $1M and see if he bites.

This is a great point, the entire first unit PP used to revolve around the Twins, they were their own PP coaches. When they left, Brown had to rebuild PP1 from scratch. I saw an earlier post that showed that since he took over as special teams coach the Canucks have actually been very good, eight best in goals, out of 12th best in chances, and about 14th best in percentage. That's deserving of a new contract.

Last year's bubble team was a dump and chase team too. It's because when teams stand up at the blue line your only option is to dump and chase. Otherwise you turn the puck over at your blueline, and it becomes an odd man rushing going the other way. It was reported that Miller convinced Petey that dump and chase was the best way to make zone entry. They work hard, recover the puck, as Miller often does, and gain zone time. Now that we have several defensemen who are deadly zone exit passers, Hughes, Rathbone, and most of all OJ, maybe we'll see more transition offense, but when the team is forced to chip the puck out and recover in the neutral zone, all that's usually left is to dump and chase. It's pretty much what every team in the league does. That's why puck retrievers like Hogs, and hopefully Pods, Gadj and Lind, are in such high demand.

The owner needs to stay in the background and let the hockey people run the show. They're the ones who are responsible for the on-ice product. Why should Aqua have to answer questions about why they kept JB and TG? He did it, that's a fact, they have his confidence, what more do you need?

I watched all the post COVID games, and as exhausted as that team was, they never mailed it in. They could have gotten down because right out of the pandemic hitting the entire team, the NHL put them on the Bataan Death March of hockey, giving them no chance to catch up to 4th place. Instead, they went out and beat Toronto twice, and played hard the rest of the way. They were minus their most explosive player, and pretty much the entire bottom six, and Greener was playing mix and match with the bottom six to give guys a chance to audition for next year, and still they worked their tails off. To me, that's a team that likes the coach, and plays hard for him. The results weren't always great, but the effort was pretty much always there, in spite of having to play five games in seven nights near the end.

My speculation is that they wanted to see if he'd improved his footspeed enough to pencil in as a serious contender for the big team next year. With travel restrictions, I doubt Jim got much of a chance to watch many Utica games in person this year, and the AHL competition was considerably down from years past, with teams carrying top prospects on their taxi squads. It gave Jim an idea what coming UFAs he might want to re-sign, and which he can let go. Gadj did in four minutes exactly what he had to do, he showed that his skating is still not great, but it is improved from a year ago, and that he's willing to drop the gloves and defend a teammate at this level. Jim and Travis probably wanted to see him play in a game, and more importantly to see him practice. Now he goes home with a workout plan, and probably some lessons with the same skate coach that turned Bo from a clydesdale to a thoroughbred. I also think Jim was afraid that Gadj was tearing up the A so bad, and the options from the Canucks roster are so awful, that Seattle might take him in the ED. I suspect they're not going to protect Gadj, but this was a way to effectively hide him. There also appear to have been hard feelings with the way things went in Utica this season, and you'll notice they called up pretty much everybody of note who was down there (Lind, Rathbone, Lockwood, Gadj), except Mikey D and Jett Woo.

Don't forget, this year's AHL was much less potent than in past years, as most teams carried their best AHL level players on their taxi squads. I was pleased that Jonah looks to have improved his footspeed. He needs further work on his skating, but I can see that he's potentially a Big Burt type winger, big, strong, rough, willing to drop the mitts, and most importantly he has good hands. I could see that he also thinks the game well, I was watching him in the defensive zone, checking his spacing and looking for his man. It might take more seasoning in the A before he's ready, but he definitely has potential. It was obvious to me that Jonah has to get used to the speed of the NHL, he gets away with that tip pass in Utica, in the future he'll learn to make the safe play. Power forwards take longer to develop. Lind's first game was similar, he made the adjustment by the second game. He's a better skater than Jonah, probably has more offensive upside, but Jonah brings a heavier game with more jam. I'd say Jonah is a top five prospect in this organization. I'd list, Pods, Rathbone, Lind, OJ and Gadj in that order.

I could see JB sending a second and a prospect (not Pods) maybe Lind or Gadj maybe OJ if they take LE off our hands.

If you look at next year's team, Benning draft choices will probably make up better than a third of the roster; that's very impressive, considering there are no first, second, or third overall picks on this team. EP, QH, Hogs, Pods, Lind, OJ, Brock, probably Gadj and Rathbone, and of course, undrafted Big Mac.

You can't argue with Benning's success, finding gems late in the first round and lower rounds, uncovering a diamond like EP who was not high on anybody's list. Being able to see how a player could develop in the future as opposed to being NHL ready on draft day. Benning travels all over the world to give guys the eyeball test, and he has the final say on draft day.

Gillis was horrible at drafting and left the cupboard absolutely bare, if anything the success for those teams was thanks to AV, who I believe is maybe the best coach we've ever had.

I think as much as anything, Travis wanted to see if Gadg and Lockwood were NHL caliber. Gadg is ED eligible, if his skating is up to snuff, I wouldn't let him near the rink until training camp. He had a great year in Utica. His skating has always been the question mark, if he has improved to the point where it's not a drawback, then he's exactly what the Canucks need next year, big, tough, good hands, willing to drop the mitts. Maybe a winger in the Bertuzzi mold. The choices Seattle has from the Canuck's roster are abysmal, if we dress Gadg, and he pots three or four in the remaining games, I bet Seattle would take a flyer on him. I would hide him so they don't have to protect him, same as Cole Lind. He's shown he's capable of playing at this level. Unless they plan to protect him, good enough, give these meaningless games to Highmore or one of the other scrubs.

Dude, this is a dog tired team, more than half of which is AHL caliber, playing on fumes. The fact that they won the first game vs. Winnipeg was good enough for me. Winnipeg is good at getting into passing lanes and taking the possession game away. The Canucks need to get the puck deep to facilitate their quick changes, which is why they don't always chase that well.

I'd say only play the players you expect to protect, or who don't have to be protected. If Gadj's speed is up to NHL caliber, I wouldn't give him a sniff until next season. They have one spot, and I suspect it goes to Lind. If they expose Motte, then they would have Gadj too. The way Holtby has looked the last couple of games, he's no longer a lock for Seattle's pick.

At this stage, what matters to Green is not winning and losing, but that the guys are playing the game the right way. If you play the right way, the wins will come. People get upset that he doesn't go ballistic, or call out his guys in the media when they have a bad game or are in a bad stretch, and that he's so calm. That's by design, this is still a very young core. If you start calling players out, they grip the stick tighter and make things worse. Better to praise them when they do the right things, and teach them away from fans and the media when they do something wrong. Given the way the league was broken up due to COVID, most of the experts expected that this team would not make the playoffs. So all season, it's been about giving maximum effort, going to the dirty places, and making chances.

I'm a Montreal fan because of Toffoli and Weber, I'll cheer for them until they're done. I'd like to cheer for Calgary for Marky and Tanev, but I hate Tkachuck so much, that won'the happening.

Huh, I've got a two-year diploma from Mount Royal, maybe I should apply to HNIC. At least I don't sound like I'm in desperate need of coffee for most of the game, he was without a doubt the worst hockey announcer I've ever heard at this level. I kept wanting to doze off, and it was a decent game.

Funny, it made news here in the US for two reasons; first, because it was supposed to be a controlled reentry into the ocean that somehow went sideways; and secondly, because it rained big enough pieces of debris to do some severe damage and kill people, hence your linked story. The reentry video was pretty spectacular; I saw it on tv. This is not anti-China sentiment; it is an interesting news story in an era where the White House is not dominating every news cycle. I heard a NASA scientist on tv last night; we don't usually hear about US rocket parts reentering the atmosphere because the US has always used a staged system, which meant that most of those smaller pieces burned up on reentry, making them much less of a threat. This rocket coming back in one piece means that like the SpaceX rocket, large parts of it won't burn up on reentry and do create a risk, depending on where the parts land. If they land in a major metropolitan area, there could very well be deaths.

I love Eddy, and appreciate all that he has done and meant to the team, but we have no room for a LHD. Rathbone and OJ look more than ready to compete for spots next season. If we make no pre-season moves to acquire a UFA or make a trade pre-ED, the left side will be QH, OJ, Rathbone. I'm quite comfortable with that. JB will need to resign Hamonic to join Myers and Schmidt on the right side. The team has viable cheap options for 7-8 with Chatfield and one of the decent AHL level LHD. If JB can work a deal for a quality RHD in exchange for Schmidt, that would be good too.