Patel Bure

You and your clan at HFCanucks will also try and make excuses tonight for the Senators if the Canucks manage to win tonight’s game. #JuddBracket #Markstrom #Gillis

It’s unfortunate for Norris but you just know that guys like Thomas Drance are going to use this as an excuse for the Senators losing tonight’s game if the Canucks manage to win tonight.

One game at a time. Focus on having a good 60-65 minutes and let nature take its course.

Decent points but many Canucks fans aren’t exclusively NHL fans. For example, I’ve seen my other favorite teams such as the Seahawks, Blue Jays, BC Lions, and Miami Heat win, while my favorite tennis players Sampras and Agassi won numerous grand slams. From a pure hockey perspective, we’ve seen Team Canada (Mens and Women) win the gold. From a Canucks perspective, we’ve also seen everything outside of a cup (Presidents trophies, Conference championships, divisional championships, numerous individual accolades such as Hart trophies, Art Ross trophies, Jack Adams’, Jennings trophy, etc). We haven’t won the cup but we’ve seen and experienced everything else. By comparison - what have newer generation Flames fans and Oilers fans experience since 1989 and 1992 respectively outside of 2004 and 2006 cup runs? What about the Leafs since 2004?

It’s not bad at all to be tired of cheering the Canucks for being a bottom feeding team. All teams go through this. My point being is that this won’t last. Look at the Oilers and what they endured after 2006 for example. Leafs, Panthers, Hurricanes, Avs, Stars, Lightning, Rangers, etc., etc. They all went through it. Jets/Thrashers....you name it. Canucks, at some point, will be good again.

Hopefully, you also wonder where the Oilers would be without McDavid or where the Leafs would be without Matthews.

That’s the anti-Benning crews’ favorite weapon. “We only stay in games because of Demko, Markstrom, and Judd Brackett.”

Whoever wrote that comment........they’re not wrong. Given the way Petey has played this season, it’s a perfectly legitimate question. Boeser and Dickinson as well.

“The Canucks being emotionally wrecked by the Bruins” How do you figure? The Canucks defeated the Bruins on January 7th 2012 by a score of 4-3, and then proceeded to win the Presidents Trophy once again. In the playoffs, they lost to what suddenly became the best team in the NHL in the LA Kings and that was also partly due to the fact that we didn’t have Daniel Sedin for the first three games (we won game 4 when he came back). In 2013, the Canucks as a team were in decline and this had nothing to do with Boston. Agreed with you that the Canucks should have started rebuilding after their loss to the Kings. Gillis actually created a rebuilding proposal during the 2012 Summer and presented it to ownership and the Aqua’s basically told Gillis to go &^@# a goat.

http://canuckscorner.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10892&start=1725 [quote] Start dates alone shouldn't be used to judge a managers performance...you've got to look at what they inherited on their start dates... Comparing what Gillis inherited on his first day to what Benning inherited is night and day different and to think how badly Gillis ran the organization into the ground in 6 short years is likely one of the reasons he remains unemployed... For all of the bragging he and his supporters do about how progressive a manager he was doesn't equate to what happened to the organization in those 6 years... Many in the hockey world predicted that it would take Benning at least 7 years to rebuild the organization, and while they never put this condition on their time lines, I'm sure that they were expecting that the team would have at least 1 first overall pick in those 7 years... And for sure none of them would have predicted that Gillis would haunt the organization one last time with the Luongo recapture penalty ... Benning has put together his core group of players, before this season began it was being touted as one of the very best young core groups in the league and now there are major question marks ... If it needs to be retooled then in my opinion Benning shouldn't be the one to do it...If ownership decides to give Benning a mulligan because it still believes in that young core and the core is what has let the team down this year, then I think they change the coaches and Benning stays on... If they have an opportunity to hire a highly qualified, proven manager then all bets are off and I think they let the Benning go and allow the new manager to decide Greens fate... btw, I wish the media would stop throwing around 8 years...Bennings first year produced a 101 point season and how many fans would have been on board with blowing it up after that season and beginning the rebuild? So the 8 years becomes 6 and then you had the bubble playoffs where the young core looked ready to take over the team which is what led to the decision to let some of the veterans go rather than get into long term deals... Take care... [/quote]

The opposing teams decline on #1 and #2 imo.

Pettersson and 2023 1st for Barzal and Dobson?

Disagree. Laine can still play and is still a dangerous force when he's on. He's missed half the season with injuries so far, but had 10 points in 9 games. Put Laine in a system where the coach gives Laine some leeway to play to his strengths, and he'll be a force to be reckoned with. Laine, under an elite head coach, would absolutely thrive.

Ottawa’s lackluster play has really surprised me this season. Given the way they finished last season, I thought they’d be on the ride this season. They were basically boning Calgary for the entire 2nd half last season.

Good post, So since the Columbus game: -Columbus -Boston -Montreal Along with our solid puck possession game, we are starting to add a more prominent net position to our repertoire. Canucks should build on that.

Jack earning more than Quinn = I can't help but laugh.

Try and be positive. On average, the Canucks make the cup every 14 years [(12+12+17)/3] I’m not sure how old you are but I’ll be 41 in January and so I’m expecting somewhere between 2-3 cup runs before my time is up. None of us know how these things will work out. I’ve already seen my other teams win (BC Lions, Seattle Seahawks, Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Heat), and so the Canucks is all that’s left for me. If it happens, great. If not, I have plenty of other things to be grateful for. Some guys in third world countries have to drink sulfuric water and eat dog sh1t for breakfast every day just so that they can live and dream for the next day and so I consider all of us here in Canada to be extremely fortunate.

Comparing our management team to Toronto’s due to our 2014 start date is nonsensical in my opinion since the Leafs had been struggling for a LOT longer than the Canucks. The Leafs had been struggling since 2004 while the Canucks had won back to back Presidents trophies in 2011 and 2012 and finished around 7th-8th overall one year prior. In other words, the Canucks had just started to enter the their dark days in 2014 while the Leafs had pretty much been there since 2004. The Leafs had their version of our 2019-2020 season in 2013.

I think the best approach the Canucks can take right now is one game at a time. Best case scenario = we miraculously make the playoffs. Worst case scenario = we have a very strong rest of the season and put the league on notice for next season. Set the tone. p.s. - I'm not sure if Boeser gets you a Top 4 D given what his QO will be but I hope you're right.

Outside of the Pittsburgh game, I think one can make a pretty strong argument. Boston was probably a toss up. We were outplayed by the Avs for the first ten minutes.

Your Leafs haven't won a playoff series since 2004 and so you might want to dial back the arrogance.

The Canucks have been outplaying their opponents since the Colorado game..........can they turn it around? Our record aside, the Canucks have been outplaying their opponents outside of the Pittsburgh game. Lets have a look: -We outplayed Colorado (after the first 10 minutes of the game) -Outplayed Winnipeg -Outplayed Chicago -Outplayed Columbus -Boston was a toss-up -Outplayed Montreal So outside of our game against Pittsburgh, and a toss-up against the Bruins, the Canucks arguably could have gone 5-1-1 over these last 7 games. Obviously, they did not, but the fact remains that the Canucks have been playing some decent hockey over these last 7 games outside of the Pittsburgh game. They are clearly a fragile bunch right now but sometimes all it takes is one game to start something. While the Canucks chances of making the playoffs this year are slim to none, can they get on a hot streak at a certain point this year to make things interesting?.........and perhaps set the tone for next season? Last year for instance, despite our horrible season, we still managed to pull off one hot streak of 8-3-2 between the Pettersson injury and the Canucks covid outbreak. A win over Ottawa next game and maybe the Canucks get their confidence back.

You're likely right but maybe Miller-Pettersson-Toffoli capture lightning in a bottle again? Those guys were absolutely magic together before the covid stoppage occurred in 2020.

Agreed. My only outside hope being that Boeser is the younger asset.

Post 2020 bubble, there were rumours that the Canucks were trying to keep Toffoli while moving Boeser to accommodate TT's cap hit. Benning ultimately didn't pull the trigger on any offers since he felt like he was being low-balled. Perhaps Benning should have went ahead and made the deal anyways? p.s. Would the Habs be interested in Boeser for Toffoli? :-p