canuckleheads fan

Totally classless move. It's exactly why a lot of players don't want to come to Vancouver, and one of the reasons management has to offer over market contracts to UFAs. Every season the fanbase picks a whipping boy, rarely does he survive the lashes, thought I'm really happy that Myers seems to have survived, because I've liked him from the start.

He and all his sycophants are exactly like comic book villains!

I had no idea that there was a Trump branded property in Vancouver, I had to Google it. Wow, now I'm wanting to change the city of my birth from Vancouver to a place without a Trump property, perhaps Yahk? Why has the hotel owner not removed that moron's name from his property the way they did in Toronto and other places?

Short of defensive injuries, I wouldn't be surprised if Bowey never sees action in a Canucks game. It appears JB acquired him strictly to expose for the ED, which allows the team to protect Myers, OJ, and Schmidt. If he doesn't get picked by Seattle, I suspect JB waives him to the AHL. Chatfield has played pretty well the past two games, and gets better the more comfortable he gets. He's an excellent skater, and although he makes a bad pinch every once in a while, generally he has the speed to get back into the play, I wouldn't be surprised to see Chatfield as the 7th-8th DMan with the big club next year, if for no other reason than he'll be cheap for the cash-strapped team.

I would flip Boeser and Podz. Horvat is a north-south player. Hogs has gotten used to that style and has flourished as a distributer on that line. He will only get better in that role. Podz seems to be more of a north-south player as well, which will be a great compliment with Bo's style of play. Petey and Miller are more cycle players, and Boeser has gotten really good a finding the quiet spot and waiting for the pass.

It hasn't been a week since they traded for Bowey, so he's not out of COVID protocol.

Again, I offered up my men's league team, we'd look great stretching out the waistlines of those Canucks jerseys. Give us orange helmets, and we'd look like the pylons we pretend to be on the ice.

Looking more and more like Lind is going to get to play. I'm excited to see what he can do! Who subs for Schmidt out of Breezer, Sautner and Rafferty? I'm hoping Raffety gets another chance, since he's a righty and Schmidt has been playing the right side. I think he could be a good one if given a chance, certainly his ceiling is higher than Breezer and Sautner.

The Mayo Clinic good enough? Can COVID-19 cause blood clots or blood vessel problems? COVID-19 can make blood cells more likely to clump up and form clots. While large clots can cause heart attacks and strokes, much of the heart damage caused by COVID-19 is believed to stem from very small clots that block tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in the heart muscle. COVID-19 (coronavirus): Long-term effects https://www.mayoclinic.org › in-depth › art-20490351

One of the more severe symptoms of COVID is blood clots. It would be devastating for everybody involved if a player stroked out or had an embolism during the game.

They should give my men's league team Canucks Jerseys, and trot us out there. I want to wear Myers' jersey, it would be golden to hear John Garrett say, "Boy, COVID was rough on Myers, he lost a foot in height and gained 30 pounds."

Wow, top defensive pairing and two top-six wingers gone. Considering that we just sent Benn packing, the team will feature all four skaters from the taxi squad. So Defense will be made up of Hughes, Hamonic, Myers, and rookies OJ, and two of Breezer, Sautner, and Rafferty. I hope they play lights out, and Rafferty scores a goal.

So what if Silvos gets the start, stands on his head, gets a 50+ save shutout and we beat the Coil 1-0 in the shootout? It would be our luck to see him go on a Binnington type run at the end of the season, and we realize that we're paying the wrong goalie $5 million. Only that could happen to JB.

He was also in town prior to the shutdown to have his broken nose examined by team doctors. It seems like he missed the Utica outbreak, and the Canucks outbreak. I'm looking forward to seeing him play, I hope he dresses on Friday and gets to play 3C.

The Bowey acquisition appears to be strictly for ED purposes. Now they will be able to protect Myers, Schmidt and OJ, which I always assumed was the plan. Highmore is a Motte type player, good skater, hard worker, who will eat up fourth line and PK minutes and not bitch about doing it. They see Pods coming in to play on the 2nd or 3rd line, Lind appears ready for 3C. We'll get a chance to see if Boyd or Vessey are good enough to deserve a new contract. In the end, JB saw no place for Gauds, who fancied himself a top-six player.

I think they chose Micheals over Gadjovich because they thought Gadjovich needed more seasoning. Michealis is older, and probably has a more well-rounded game. Organizations that have great junior and international scouting find great values in the 2nd and higher rounds (Hogs, Demko, Tryamkin, etc.). I've previously listed eight players who played a major role on the 2011 team who all spent at least half a season in Manatoba. Only Schneider and Kessler were (low) first rounders, otherwise Edler, Tanev, Burrows, Bieksa, Hansen, and Raymond were all 2nd or later rounders. They all made the NHL because they were allowed to develop into NHL players, and they all have had long and successful NHL careers. I understand that not every draft choice is a hit, look at Jake, and Nolan Patrick. During the previous administration, the Canucks had a lot more draft misses than hits. Ultimately what's important is the quality of the scouting and development.

Our bottom three costing $10 million is a function of the AHL cupboard being bare when JB took over. Ideally, you have three 2nd/3rd rounders filling those spots for about $3 million, but our second-rounders are either playing major roles (Hogs, Demko) or they're rounding into shape in Utica (Lind, Gadjovich). Eventually, Utica will produce those bottom-six value players that good team's get from their farm systems, it's just taking awhile to refill the cupboard. Gadj is having a good season in Utica, he had a goal and assist in a loss last night, Lind was playing lights out in his new center role before getting called up to the taxi squad. I could see a bottom six that includes Big Mac, Gadg and maybe Boyd next year.

What a lot of people don't understand is that the NHL is not like a video games, all markets and all situations are NOT equal. To sign a UFA, they actually have to want to come here. Had JB kept contracts small and short, the only UFAs he would have attracted would have been worse than Linden Vey or Jack Skille in caliber. Don't forget, a GM can only do what ownership mandates, and JB's original mandate was to try to reload so the Sedins would get one last shot at the cup. So he held assets (Hansen and Burrows) longer than he probably would have otherwise, and traded 2nd and 3rd rounders and farm hands for mid-20's players to fill out the roster. At least one of his most valuable assets (Kessler) backed JB into a trade corner. At the end of the Sedin's career, when ownership realized that it was time rebuild, Vancouver was a bad team on the decline with no prospects on the farm, heading into a long rebuild. No UFA of any quality was going to sign a short, low money contract to participate in that tire fire. Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities in the NHL to live, Canadian market, high taxes, high housing costs, etc. Any decent player coming to Vancouver as a UFA would expect longer term and about a third more in salary than they would take to play in low-tax locations like Vegas or Tampa. People expect JB to be a miracle worker, but don't forget there are a lot of inputs that factor into the hunt for quality UFAs beyond just the fact that you want them to play for you. As the Canucks have improved, they've been able to attract better UFAs, and players actually want to play here, so the players can see that things are improving, now I wish the armchair GMs could see the same thing.

No doubt, the dumbest thing that JB did in the offseason was trying to find a way to squeeze Ekman-Larsson under the cap, which I think froze him on other moves, like Toffoli. Yes, I think they would have liked Toffoli, for the same reasons they like Pearson, professional, good guy, plays in all circumstances, but the team's primary need was defense, and Ekman-Larsson was JB's white whale. JB was also hamstrung by Ferland's contract, not knowing if he would stay on LTIR, or be ready for the season. He had to leave that $3 million open. I think he has more clarity now on Ferland, I suspect he'll call it a career, as well as seeing some contracts, Sutter ($4.375), Baertschi ($2.291), Edler ($6), Spooner ($1) buyout come off the board in the offseason. I think Edler signs for around $3 million, which is half what he's making now, Pearson took a pay cut, Sutter will be replaced by Lind at a likely savings of at least $3 million. If the season ends now, it'll be too bad, it would have been good to see what the team had in Vesey and Boyd, to see if we wanted to retain them. Both are UFAs.

Podkolzin is 19 years old, and we see what rushing Jake did for him. I think they introduce Podkolzin to third line minutes, and see how he develops. Even if Pearson gets pushed down, injuries happen, and having a guy in your lineup that can play up and down the lineup is a luxury. Notice that since Pearson's injury Travis has tried about five different guys in that spot, and none of them has been as good as Pearson. Plus he plays all the special teams. I'm not attached to Pearson, he's nowhere near a favorite of mine, but I see the value of the contract. Plus he's a solid professional hockey player who helps the young guys with their preparation and professionalism. And, as I suspect he's well-liked and a leader in the locker room, which can't be discounted. I think he is what they were hoping Roussel would be, minus the fighting and stupid penalties, but Rooster hurt his knee and hasn't been the same since. Also, Pearson's signing means that the team is moving on from Jake, which I think is a good thing!

JB's not going anywhere, and I suspect neither is Green. This was a good signing, good term and good dollars. Pearson is a second line winger, who plays in all situations (PP and PK), chips in on offense and plays terrific defense, they don't usually come for $3.25 in Vancouver. Even if he gets bumped to the third line by incoming studs, he's still a good price. Add to that, as I mentioned before, that he's likely a leader, a glue-guy in the locker room, well-liked by his teammates. The team will lose Sutter this year, who is also one of those types of players, you can't give up all your late 20's leadership in one fell-swoop. Pearson is one of those high-quality people that JB likes, he's a great fit for this young team.

He has publicly expressed an interest to stay with the Canucks, which I suspect gives the Canucks the inside track, and if JB can swing it, a hometown discount.

I think this is a fine signing, Pearson is a Swiss Army Knife, currently the best match on the team for Bo's wing on the second line. Since his injury, you'll notice that Bo has struggled in all facets of the game. Pearson is quietly good, he wins board battles, scores goals, plays sound defensive hockey, and does what's needed to win. He's not flashy, but then neither is Bo, they play a straight-line game, and compliment each other well. On nights when the 2nd line is tasked to shut-down McDavid, he does it very well, on nights when the 2nd line is expected to chip-in on offense, he does that too. If the day comes that he gets pushed off the second line by Gauds or Podkolzin or somebody else, he'll be fine playing the same role on the third line. My guess is that he is also a glue guy in the locker room, a high-quality, well-liked teammate who helps the younger guys with their growing pains, and we saw how losing a player with that same quality, Marky, negatively impacted the team early this year. I have always suspect that JB intends to either move Jake or expose him and his salary in the ED. I'm now leaning toward the team also exposing Myers. My guess is that the Kraken will take Jake and hope he finally matures in Seattle. I also suspect we'll see Olli in the 5-6 spot, Lind playing 3C or 4C minutes, and Big Mac playing 4th line wing every night to help with cap space. It's time for Utica to start producing. A couple of weeks ago I listed eight Canucks (Kessler, Burrows, Edler, Schneider, Raymond, Hansen, Bieksa and Tanev) who played major roles on the 2011 team who played at least half a season with the Moose before becoming NHL regulars. Good organizations fill their bottom six from within so they can save cap space for their top six forwards, top four defensemen and goalie.

Lind was in Utica before returning to Vancouver for treatment of his broken nose. Utica is having it's own Covid lockdown complete with cancelled games. I love Cole Lind and hope for the best for him, but the timing is a little suspicious that he returns immediately before the Canucks get shut down. Yeah, because idle speculation is all I have left at this time.

I suspect that he's not practicing with the team, so was not exposed. I explained in a post a little while ago, that I saw an article quoting a scientist that suggested ice hockey is probably the least safe of the sports for Covid exposure. The warm air above traps a layer of cold air at ice level, so rather than dissipating, the Coronavirus gets trapped and concentrated at ice level, where the players are breathing heavily, thus exposing each other.