canuckleheads fan

To be honest, I think Miller signed with the first team that treated him well, encouraged his offensive flair and actually acted like they wanted him. He never gelled with the Rangera, they were disappointed with him, he was never anything but a 3C in Tampa, a role for which he is poorly suited and was eventually a cap dump, but here, he became a star, the toast of the town. I think his problem this year is that he' trying too hard to live up to the contract and to match what he did last year. If he plays within himself, he'll be just fine, maybe not 99 points fine, but top two three on the team fine.

Don't get me wrong, I love Petey, but the answer about Olympic gold vs. Stanley Cup is why I have always said all things being equal, I would take a Canadian kid every time. Hockey is THE sport and the Stanley Cup is THE symbol of excellence for Canadian kids more than it is for kids from any other country. American kids grow up thinking about football, baseball, and basket ahead of or equal to hockey. They dream of Superbowls and national championships ahead of the Stanley Cup. Canadian kids across the country find themselves on homemade sheets of ice, or like I did on a frozen lake for 12 hours a day, visualizing that breakaway goal that wins the Stanley Cup. It's why you hear about guys every year after the playoffs having surgeries to mend something they've been taping up for the past 16 games. It's why Bobbie Baun returned to a finals game six with a broken ankle to score the game winning goal. That's why I love Canadian players and have long thought our problem is not enough Canadians, and management just gave away our best Canadian player since Bieksa, Burrows, and Luongo.

I definitely don't trust him or his people. This trade for Bo was robbery. They sold off a 1-1a center reaching his prime, who if you look at his yearly progression will likely be a 40-50 goal scorer for at least the next three seasons, who has for years taken all the tough defensive assignments without complaint, the majority of faceoffs, and tough defensive zone starts, and was a class guy; and what did they get in return? Beauvillier, a bottom six bust of a winger, Raty, a former top prospect who slid to the second round and is not impressing anybody in the A, probably projects to a 3-4C and they didn't even get a guaranteed pick in this draft! And if they do get the pick, it's mid first, which becomes crap shoot time. THIS is the best they could do while retaining salary? They got ROBBED!

The Isles, whose window is now, just stole a guy on his way to a 50 goal season. That lottery pick better be top 9 or management just gave away our second-best player for peanuts. Beauvillier is a depth winger only has only broken 20 goals once and is traditionally a minus player, and Raty, who had a great WJHC is not playing great in the A. Now deal Miller, Garland, and Boeser, who are obviously outside our window. The team is two bodies down now with Mac on LTIR and management giving away Pederson, I wonder if Raty gets a show-me promotion.

Sadly the Kracken have now passed us up, and will never look back. If a player wants to live in the NW and pay no income tax, big name UFAs will sign in Seattle. What we have now is probably the best the Canucks will be for years. It takes four to five years for a rebuild to work, and they are never assured to succeed. The Canucks start with a fairly empty cupboard, basically a few bottom six wingers, Pods, Hogs, etc., maybe a bottom pairding D and two legit long-term top players in Petey and QH, and I'm fairly positive Hughes will flee to NJ as soon as he's a UFA if not traded first.

Not a head coach. The only time he made the playoffs as a HC was in Pheonix in the Covid shortened bubble season, which I don't think really counts.

I think they're trying to pump up Boeser's trade value and depress Kuzmenko's value to make him easier to resign. They can't get rid of everybody, because they'd draw crowds like the Coyotes are drawing only in a rink four times as large. I don't think the majority of the hockey fans in Vancouver are willing to put up with three or four years of horrible hockey as bottom dwellers, they will alienate a large portion of the fan base. Worse, I think Petey and Hughes would walk at the end of their deals. Who wants to lose game after game just to stock up on picks?

Well obviously, Rutherford is a full-on Tank Commander, hiring a stupid idiot, horrible coach with a depressingly bad record who has NEVER sniffed the playoffs in an entire season. Consider he couldn't even make the playoffs with a stacked team in Tampa when his successor made it to the third round the very next year. Then hire two untested assistants plus keep the two worst assistants in the league and you have losing hockey for at least the next couple of years until Tank Commander Jim, Alvin, and Tocchet get canned. I know I won't be buying Comcast's Canucks package next year; maybe I'll start following the Kracken until the Canucks get watchable again. I swear, I've been here for this team for 50 years, and I have NEVER been so unhappy with how things are going.

This is an excellent point. When you look at last year to this year, this team is more talented with the additions of Kuz, Mik, and Bear, so why is the team so bad? The systems suck, and that was Shaw's job. When we lost him last summer I thought it was slipping under the radar how vital he was to our late season surge. I know the team was immediately batter on defense once Baumer was gone and that became Shaw's responsibility. They should have told him he was the HC in waiting to keep him around.

I haven't been watching the scouting reports, but the announcers at the WJC said he's had a very disappointing year. Considering his team was relegated to a lower league, instead of playing against quality grown men as Petey did, he's playing against similar competition and not impressing anybody. Oh, and on another down note, we are not getting Bedard. Watch, even if we finish dead last, we'll get New Jerseyed or Rangered in the draft lottery. Canucks luck; I don't recall the last time the team moved up in the lottery; has it ever happened? The lottery is a joke; it punishes teams who are legitimately bad and need help and rewards teams that don't need the help. I'm losing hope, and I've been a fan since the inception of this franchise. Now in these times of tight caps, the good players will sign for less money in low tax states like Nevada, Florida, and Washington so those teams will always have the upper hand or in major media markets like New York and LA. The Canadian teams have no chance against that. A rebuild of this franchise with Canuck luck won't happen. The current talent pool is thin beyond Pods and Hogs. And even when a team does a rebuild and spends the money on good coaches, gets the number one pick, and signs a big-name free agent, it's no guarantee of success; I point you to the hated Leafs and Oilers. The Leafs, in particular, is a team one or two years away from tearing it down again. The only way a Canadian team can win is to build from the net out, play a really dull lockdown defensive game, and have incredible luck with a few diamond in the rough type players and injuries. Maybe what's depressing me is all the tank talk, I hate it. I'm turning 60 later this year and I'm convinced we're never going to win a cup.

I mentioned to another poster the stumbling block, according to Friedman, is his bonus this Sumner. He thinks their will interested in Myers in the summer. Garland could be packaged with Hughes to NJ for picks and prospects. We can do without Hughes more than we can do without Bo, from what I've hears, NJ has some interest in Garland.

Myers will be gone this summer after he gets his last bonus, Friedman thinks that's the major stumbling block to moving him. Garland is harder, but maybe packaged to NJ with Hughes for picks and prospects coming the other way. I think we could live without Hughes more than we can live without Bo.

Honestly, we need to clear Miller, Garland, and Meyer's contracts off the books. For Myers and Garland, at least a couple of second rounders would do. For Miller, Rutherford blew his chance for a big haul and now we need the cap space to resign Bo and Kuzmenko now and Petey after next year. I don't think the team can afford to lose Bo, who is just reaching his peak, and still compete in a couple of years. Kuzmenko is proving to be the perfect winger for Petey, and I don't think he would be easy to replace either. Miller has turned himself into a 3C with some PP upside, for which he is being paid far too much. His production is being replace by Mikheyev, who's faster though less physical. And we now have NHL caliber talent in Abbey to replace the losses of Garland and Miller.

Cheech made an interesting observation about Bo's shot after his second goal. He credits the work he's been putting in with Adam Oates. I noticed his shot was different earlier this year, it's quicker, harder, I thought he changed sticks, but it's that coaching. It's what makes him perfect for the bumper on the PP. Oates is something of a genius. Bo's also always positioned perfectly to pick up the loose change, probably Oates' influence as well.

This is a great point; during regulation Brock was invisible, it was like Petey and Mac we're out there on a PK. I know they're trying to showcase Brock to see if somebody will take that albatross contract without forcing the Canucks to throw in sweeteners, but the team needs to win too.

Four things about this game: 1. Character win, they started fast, had a bad half a period and overcame it. 2. QH is a horrible defenseman. Overmatched, out of position, and scoring on his own goal. The Suzuki, goal what's up with the weak wave instead of getting a body on him. Yes, Martin misplayed it, but Suzuki should have never gotten the shot off. I wonder what NJ would give us for him, maybe a first, a second and a prospect? 3. Thank gawd for Delia, he looked pretty good while Martin was awful. I'd split them until Demko returns, we might have found a gem that Ian Clark can polish. 4. And most important, we are seeing the evolution of Petey. Other teams are over playing him, trying to take away his shot, so he becomes a distributor, if you're his winger, get open, get your stick in position and magic happens.

I was six-years old when the Canucks joined the NHL. At the time I was a fan of the Habs. But Orland Kurtenbach came to the hockey school in my hometown the next summer. He was great with is kids, and I became a Canucks fan for life.

There is no such thing as a no-pressure experience for a rookie at the NHL level. These players are born competitive, they can't take a no worries approach to losing at the NHL level, and getting shelled night in and night out will destroy his confidence. Better to let Delia rack up the L's and save Silovs for next year.

Petey is awful tonight, -5 on the ice for all five goals against, OUCH!

I wasn't initially thrilled with Dries getting ice ahead of prospects despite what he did last year in Abby, but I was wrong. He's not flashy, but he is rarely out of position, he's responsible defensively, decent on the dot, can poke the puck in when he gets a chance, and best of all, he's cheap! As he plays, he should get used to the speed of the game and only improve. He is the ideal 4th line center other than he's not a big thumper to wear down the other team's forwards. I like him better than any option we could dress.

I have always hesitated to bash the team and management, but this is baaaaaad hockey. They should move JT, Brock, Garland, Myers, and anybody else not in the Petey, QH window. I doubt anybody would take OEL without the team retaining a significant portion of his contract. I would keep Bo, because he is generally a stud. It'll hurt for a couple of years, but they have to free up cap space for Bo, Kuzmenko and Petey, and having those other guys on the roster is obviously not getting them to the playoffs this year and likely next. Its a shame that we don't have a deep cupboard of young guys down in Abby to play NHL minutes if we offload those contracts. There was an interesting conversation on 32 thoughts a few weeks about how rebuilds generally don't work. People point to Chicago and Pittsburgh, but those teams rebuilt around generational players. The way the draft works now, you can't guarantee that even if you are awful that you will win the lottery and get that generational talent and even if you do, well Edmonton.

Considering they were missing between half and 66% of what will be there top six D once everyone is healthy, that was a frigging amazing effort! Also, where does Brock go when he gets back? He's no longer a top six winger because those two top lines are getting it done, and he doesn't play the 200 foot game well enough to play bottom six. They should use him as trade bait. They'll need to free up cap to resign Kuzmenko at the end of the year the guy is the real deal, what a steal!

Does this mean the Hughes playing the right side experiment is over?

Keith Olberman, who knows a little something about announcing some sports, is a Canucks fan precisely because of Shorty and Cheech.