Schedule

January 25, 2021

Finally some exhibition games.

January 25, 2021

44 minutes ago, Canuckster86 said:

Mr. Brown, here is a recommendation to try and mix up your PP options...put Tyler Myers in front of the net ala Chara for the Bruins.

Thank you

Simple change but would give us a large body net front presence

I’ve seen worse ideas on here. I think MacEwen would be good as well because he has good hands.

I'm more worried about the PK to be honest.

January 25, 2021

Israel sees 60% drop in hospitalizations for age 60-plus 3 weeks after 1st shot

Israel has led the charge in vaccination, good to see some fruit to their labour.

January 24, 2021

7 hours ago, canuck2288 said:

You think that is the sole difference?

and do you think our play is materially different from what was last year? We were not even in a trajectory that would have put us in the conventional playoffs.

we were disjointed and disorganized then as well, nothing “changed”. Having Marky save us and covering up sins was not sustainable even last season

You just proved my point. (Not having Marky). There was too much roster turnover. That’s why we suck right now. There is nothing wrong with Travis green. Calling for the coaches head is so uncreative and predictable.

January 24, 2021

39 minutes ago, canuck2288 said:

Ummmmm

did you forget who coaches this team ?

Who made bigger changes from last season? The coach or the GM?

January 24, 2021

6 minutes ago, iceman64 said:

Well that's not the only thing either, for most of the franchise history it's been "sell the farm" win it all now? Well I'd love to know how that works when you have next to no depth.. and because of fan pressure for the most part, that's the road we ended up on, I don't know about you but after all the time of being a fan I was considering just dropping the nux altogether but then JB came along and I decided to stay around to see if the team was rebuilt and it was/is, no it's not there yet and people should stop thinking we're anything less than a couple of seasons away from being the team we want to see if we can shore up our D and have our bottom six performing good, hopefully Podz comes in makes our 3rd line into something really potent OR slides in with Bo on 2nd.. things just aren't as bad as people are saying... but hey this is the CDC and media driven and we know how that is..

No things aren’t as bad as they seem. I think we have a great young core. I just think it’s time for some new ideas. Benning’s weakness is holding back his strength. He has admitted to trying to “stay competitive” while building this time. “Filling the age gap” Now that we can step back and critique his plan and where his plan has taken us, one could argue that his “filling the gap” is detrimental to us today. We are now in the future period he talked about reaching and IMO he screwed up by not giving himself flexibility. A lottery team shouldn’t be signing long term deals. If you want mentors sign guys like Cory Perry to a 1 year twilight a contract.

January 24, 2021

6 minutes ago, iceman64 said:

That's the thing, we don't need it anymore... and if your not aware of a certain thing, be happy to let you in on it.. for whatever reason and it's been like this for as long as I can remember, we always have to overpay people to play here and even some flat out said no way will I play in Vancouver so it's not as easy as some make it out to be to build a team here but that's finally changed now that we actually have players who other guys would love to play with but it's not been easy, believe me, I've watched since 74 and it was much worse.. at least we 1-2 years away from icing a team that will actually go somewhere and not some top regular season cream puff team that can't get anywhere near past the first/second round with only 2 exceptions. If people want that kind of team, we'll look where it got us, no cup but thankfully as it irks some people at least he had the nads to rip it down, could he have done better? maybe... ok probably but he was new too..

I’ve used this example before but imagine Benning is your portfolio manager. You give him $70-80M a year for 7 years. Your portfolio is full of great stocks with good upside and some really bad ones that are dragging the gains you made on the good ones down. The economic environment has already decimated your wealth and now your investment is nose diving. How long do you let it underperform before you look for someone else to manage your money? The feel goods or the “awe shucks” kinda disappear when you put yourself in managements shoes.

January 24, 2021

56 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

1st round picks have never been more valuable than in the modern NHL.

It’s pretty much the most valuable asset you have. Not only is it completely free, but that pick comes with an entry level contract and nearly a decade of full control. The Benning regime has been pretty good overall in the first round which also adds to the value of the pick. MG didn’t give a crap about his cause he couldn’t draft anyway.

January 24, 2021

1 minute ago, iceman64 said:

those dumb UFA signings helped our young guys play with experienced vets and it already paid of last season and look how far we got... and we only lost to Vegas because our D hadn't been rebuilt yet..

There is some validity to this narrative, however, we let the ones that made a difference walk and kept the ones who don’t. That’s pretty apparent on the scoreboard. If Beagle, Sutter and Myers are that influential then why do we look like a mess out there? Guys like tanev and even stetch competed hard which was infectious. Markstrom gave the team the confidence to take chances. He is also extremely competitive. What we are left with isn’t leadership.

January 24, 2021

8 minutes ago, NHL97OneTimer said:

A buy-out. I just forgot the term....tired

A buy out is as embarrassing as seeing someone you know at McDonalds. This organization doesn’t do that. That should never be something you depend on.

January 24, 2021

3 minutes ago, iceman64 said:

That would be stupid of Aquaman to do anyway, it's not JB's there was a cap freeze this year because of Covid, people need to give their head a shake, had the cap gone up as projected TT would still be here and second line would have pulled the slack enough to win especially in our first games this season.. people need to relax! lol

Hang on here a second. When you’re a team who just broke out of multiple lottery ball seasons, the only salary cap issues you should be dealing with is reaching the cap floor. A lot of people predicted the Canucks would be in this position after multiple years of dumb UFA signings and here we are.

January 24, 2021

4 minutes ago, NHL97OneTimer said:

The media are reporting that JB didn't let them walk. JB wasn't given permission to write off any players to make room for Toffoli (due to COVID-related revenue losses). Markstrom loss was inevitable but they couldn't afford to trade him last season (and playoffs were fantastic).

Write off? What do you mean by that?

January 24, 2021

1 minute ago, stawns said:

TT is the only player that should have come back, I agree and the only cap casualty. They were never going to sign Marky for 6 years at $6m and Tanev is too fragile. The same people looking for non player scape goats are the same ones who would be calling for JB's head had he signed Market and Tanev at those prices and terms

Tanev and Markstrom resigned or not, it still doesn’t change the void left behind. His job is to manage the team. Letting that many players walk, disrupted too much. It’s the only difference from this year to last. To blame the coaching staff for dealing with what they have is unfair.

January 24, 2021

Seriously think about how stupid the idea is that it’s the coaching staff’s fault we are getting rag dolled. The only thing that changed from last season is what JB had his hands on. Everyone is acting like the coaching staff is trying this radical new system. The only radical new anything is a dressing room without ole dad Taney, a Net without Markstrom, TT on the other team who we let walk for what we pay our bottom 6. We gave up big assets for him, the guy wanted to finish his career here at an extremely reasonable price but we couldn’t sign him because JB couldn’t unload any of the dead weight he crippled this team with.

With that being said, we could still turn this around pretty quickly. I actually thought we played a lot better tonight. I think they should just ride this out till the off-season and start over fresh then.

January 24, 2021

1 minute ago, ktcy2 said:

Do you guys still think Demko and Holtby are good enough? What a joke, Demko has never been ready. He is just another backup goalie. What now? Holtby is a bit better but he also sucks. I don’t know why we let Marky go. Who did we have in the pipeline to let such an important player go? I would’ve done all in my power, if I were GM, to keep marky. Apparently they misjudged Demko’s talent level.

I don’t care if you’re 1996 Dominic Hasek, you cannot be hung out to dry like this and expect your goalie to win a Vezy.

January 24, 2021

2 minutes ago, stawns said:

Didn't they get the the final 8 last year when everyone predicted bottom 5?

Yes with game stealing, goaltending from a goaltender who walked to make room for his July 1st brain aneurisms.

January 24, 2021

Just now, Darius said:

JB had had a good run. He’s had since 2014. Time for a change. This is a results business.

He has done a good job but imagine if he was your portfolio manager and this was your money performing like this.

January 24, 2021

That was the most canucks thing ever

January 23, 2021

On 1/22/2021 at 9:22 AM, Warhippy said:

America over the last 12 years has pumped their production full of steroids to the point they're a net exporter of oil and gas.

The one thing NOBODY in Alberta seems to consider at all, is that the US has literally zero need or incentive to allow Canadian exports through their country as it will take money out of their pockets. The US helped destroy the Canadian energy plan in the 80s to ensure that Iran/Iraq/Saudi had no hold over them via energy shocks as they wanted a secure source of oil nobody could hamper. NAFTA helped cement that.

Now they don't need us as they've ramped up everything in their own nation, Biden has not re-enacted protections for oil development areas because he knows there's still a few decades where oil for fuel will be essential.

Basically, Alberta signed their own fate back in the 80s and the US has zero need now at all to help them. Kenney is demanding trade wars and sanctions against the US yet taking no ownership for the waste and lies he foisted upon the people in his province.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/keystone-xl-u-s-oil-supplies-pipeline-alberta-biden-1.5882313

This isn’t entirely true. Most refineries in the US need a heavier crude to refine into product. Mexico, Canada and Saudi crude are still the most suitable grades. The production surge in the lower 48 is a very light grade. It’s condensate. It already looks like gasoline. This stuff can’t be refined on its own so they mix it with heavier grades and refine the larger volume. Canadian crude is actually very desirable because of its SG and discounted price. It has a high surfer content so not a lot of refineries can make it into gasoline but they do make it into coke for steel products and asphalt right out of the pipeline.

The bottom line is the world isn’t in a oil/ gas production vs consumption crunch anymore. That is where this era of wealth came from. Where oil is today is pretty average historically. The root cause of the rise and fall of Alberta isn’t due to a lack of pipeline expansion, it’s due to lower oil prices cause by a surge in production. The more market share Canada takes the more oil will be on the market and the lower the prices. Alberta was booming at $100 oil without pipelines and if oil jumps up again which I believe it will we will see Alberta rebound.

Another alarming trend is the premature move from FF energy infrastructure that feeds basically everything that keeps us alive in today’s world. The inevitable switch to clean energy is going to require a nearly completely new global power grid. Everyone talks about Tesla taking over the world but they sold less than 500k units last year. It’s huge growth but it puts into perspective how much further we have to go. California already has rolling blackouts during heat waves. How on earth are they going to be able to support a huge surge in EV’s with a clean energy power grid? It’s simply not possible right now. For the time being, and there will be some time. North America should keep the oil on the continent and off the ocean. We should become energy independent, use that revenue to invest in a power grid and things to help transition.

January 23, 2021

6 hours ago, StealthNuck said:

So Laine goes from Canada Ohio to USA Winnipeg and Dubois goes from USA Winnipeg to Canada Ohio.

Feeling like CBJ wins here. They were pressured to make the trade and arguably ended up with a better player.

Columbus is actually one of the most surprising beautiful cities I’ve ever been too. I don’t understand why it’s always so undesirable for players. Downtown where the arena is amazing. Everything is red brick with cool restaurants and Archway park I think it’s called in the middle of downtown. The city is super clean. It’s full of parks, your right in the middle of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. The OSU district is awesome if you like to party. They have the second biggest state fair in the country. I honestly believe that if they started winning down there it would become a very desirable place to play. Winnipeg at least has Grand Beach so it’s still ahead of Edmonton but it’s wayyyy worse than Columbus.

January 23, 2021

3 hours ago, oldnews said:

Gotta love this place for it's epic poor-me- ism.

A couple patently obvious things...

1) Luongo is what brought Markstrom here....and has literally nothing to do with Benning.

2) If a bad contract is enough to ruin a rebuild, every rebuild in the league has been ruined, because every GM has signed one. Le'ts just take the Canadian franchises as examples....

Toronto = that Marleau contract that cost them a 1st. Zaitsev, lol, etc (among a flurry of bad contracts, particularly if we are going to dredge Luongo era garbage into the conversation). Anyone remember Robidas? There is a literal archipelago of Robidas islands in their wake! Clarkson lol? Phaneuf's albatross. Joffry Lupul. Remember John-Michael-Liles? Jeff Kinger! Jonathon Bernier? Tim Connolly. Mike Komisarek! The perpetual #proper-rething - alongside countless braincramps.

Edmonton = Lucic = Neal. Koskinen? Kris Russell? Remember Souray, Penner, and Horcoff? They are perpetually rethinging so these all arguably count - and the only thing saving them from themselves in the present is 20+ million to their top2 centers and no money left in their allowance to blow.

Calgary = Neal = Lucic. Troy Brouwer. Some of the kids would add Markstrom and Tanev to their list, but that is way too premature. Remember Wideman?

Ottawa = Bobby Ryan, Craig Anderson, Matt Murray lol.

Montreal has a history of Cammaleri, Gomez type deals, and in the modern era = Karl Alzner (who is costing them 4 million this year with 3 more buyout cap hit years), Price is making 10+ million until 2026, and when they cut the Weber deal (I disagreed with these claims but) it would supposedly handcuff and sink them until 2026....Drouin is also a flop of a deal imo.

Winnipeg = slimmer pickings than most. Kulikov's deal did not age well. They dodged the Ladd re-up bullet. They overspent and lost Stastny. Unfortunately Chevy doesn't necessarily need to sign bad deals - he and Winnipeg have plenty of other crap luck to contend with. Hopefully the Dubois deal will reverse some of it.

3) Myer leads the team with 16 blocked shots, is 2nd to Hughes in D scoring, is one of the team's penalty killing D, and brings a lot of elements this blueline needed and needs. On a message board where the overwhelming protests are about a team that is not tough enough, here we are whining about the player that has stepped up more than anyone else on the roster - throughout the playoffs and early this season. I'll take those penalties every time - particularly the beautiful punch to Tkachuk's ugly face parked in our crease. Take some more liberties, please, Tyler. Myers also expires young enough to assume that he will hurt the team in 3 years time is way too premature- and if anything, he's been good early this season.

I’m not trying to disrespect you here but I’ve watched these boards and you for many years and you always stick out as one of the most dogmatic Benning supporters anywhere on the internet. You’re very intelligent and your humorous at times but it’s really too bad your blind adulation for Jim Benning impairs your ability to constructively criticize. You remind me of Ben Shapiro defending Trump. A great debater that overwhelms with condescending walls of one way conversation. I enjoy reading your posts whether I agree or not though just like I find Shapiro entertaining.

Jim has done some great things, he has built one of the best young cores in the league. I’ll never dismiss that. However, he has also built a pretty average bottom 6 with an above average amount of dollars. Bringing up contracts signed by GMs that have been fired for like 10 years isn’t going to dismiss that either. Jim’s biggest weakness is an inability to predict a players downward curve. UFA’s are a tricky game. By the time the majority players become UFA’s there is absolutely zero upside. You end up giving contract to players based on what they’ve accomplished in the past. A $30M contract over 5 years for a 29 year old Myers isn’t a progressive move, it’s a stagnant move there is no progression in that deal. Yes, the first few years of that deal might marginally make sense but as that contract goes on you’re not going to get much return on investment. On most contenders Tyler is a fringe #4. We have a lot of swamp water in our salary cap. I wouldn’t quite put him in that category yet, but it’s coming.

January 23, 2021

5 minutes ago, IBatch said:

His cap management for sure doesn't line up with his great drafting. Would you rather have Dubas or that ARI GM? Great math skills vs way better drafting? Hmm. Like i said, he didn't think we'd be this good this fast. Neither did I. We missed four entire playoffs. With 31 teams even bubble teams can do that - and they do all the time. I measure him against other teams going through similar cycles. Detroit was is the closest comparable given how good they were for that long. When was Larkin drafted again? Are they not still a bit of a mess? Holland was considered the best GM for two decades .... even he and all his might, couldn't do it. But we should throw JB under the bus because we aren't winning right now.

Based on this JB isn't sub-par - he's knocking it out of the park. We don't as many cap issues as some think we do. For sure it's complex - well this year. It's all going it work out just fine. We aren't ARI, we are not CAR (missed 9 in a row), we are not CLB. JB deserves a freaking statue or at least a medal. I had zero hope that we'd manage anything for two cores with the mess he inherited. Expected 10-12 years before we could contend again- and still might be right. Not easy with 32 teams (soon). Wish we only had 21....the talent level would be outstanding but we don't.

It’s ok to be critical lol. It doesn’t mean you’re blindly throwing him under the bus. You make some good points. I just think there needs to be some accountability for some of these July 1st blunders. We are also going to find out how much influence Bracket had on the drafts here in the future. I’m not saying he deserves all the credit. I think Jim and his scouting staff collectively made most of these decisions but you can’t deny that Jude helped.
The ownership group basically invests money into Jim like me and you would invest money with a portfolio manager. They trust him to make the right decisions with their money to see a profit. He has some pretty promising and pretty brutal looking stocks in his portfolio right now and you know FA can flip in a heartbeat. We’ve seen it. If we take a nose dive this year, he will be chopping heads.

January 23, 2021

4 minutes ago, IBatch said:

You disagree but then go on to list all the things Gillis did wrong lol. I'm really indifferent as far as MG is, but a monkey could have come in and looked like Al Arbour with that roster. The best thing he did was create a professional environment from top to bottom. The best team he ever had was a result of Burke and Nonis's work. Nonis had one of the best drafts we've ever had (and one the worst too), but adding Luongo was what put us over the top.

If QHs and EP both came in a year later, nobody would be complaining about the cap. JB isn't faltering at all, he made the tough and correct decisions - did everything i hoped he'd do (letting all the UFAs walk), and then added the cherry on top with Schmidt and Holtby. Can't complain about his dead weight on one hand and on the other not praise him for locking JM and Tanev into contracts that almost certainly are going to come back and bite CAL in the ass in two or three years. That would have been the easy road.

Folks - who cares if we have a down year. Same thing happened when we got Luongo. Then we went on to have the best stretch we've ever had like you say. We don't need to change GMs to do that just because it happened before.

This time a GM could just as easily come in and make some bad trades including our core guys. JB is the only guy that signed the best RHD that's been on the market the last few years, traded a first for Miller and Schmidt for a 3rd. He's given the team the chance to make the playoffs this year despite the losses, and for sure knows that missing the playoffs is a long term tactic too. I want this club to win a cup, not end up in a cycle of mediocrity. That easily could have happened by selling off our future just to clear cap for one year to keep JM and Tanev.

I am just trying to look at things from a neutral point of view. I think Jim is great at drafting, he has gotten substantially better at trading but his cap management is sub par. Even we got a new president that could support and take some of the pressure off that might make a difference. Having a down year is fine, the Avs were up and down and got rewarded for that so I’m confident that if we do get another top 10 pick he will make the most of it.

January 23, 2021

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

Nonis - Gillis...so we need a GM that can hand out NMC/NTC like candy, pay 7th defenseman 6 plus million a year (that's what Ballard would get now), not be liked by other GMs - limiting trade options, and just sit back and enjoy all the hard work his predecessor(s) put into the club, and make sure not to draft anyone of consequence with the few draft picks he doesn't trade away, mostly for depth plugs?

No we don't need a new GM. Even if we lose every single game the rest of the season, JB has earned the right to see this through. He's lucky he still has a job - but he does because of the core he's acquired - plus Miller, Motte, Schmidt, and Myers. At the end of the day - once all the cap sheds and the core is all on their second contracts - there will be enough money for two more guys in the 5-6 million range or one big name star plus a bottom six or third pairing player. This year .... well if EP is going to have a bad year it's it for sure ... it was always going to be a transition one ... it's a win if we make the playoffs, and a win if EPs contract is team friendly and we get another top tier prospect coming in later too...

I would have to disagree. Nonis to Gillis was a great transition. It was a new unbiased set of eyes that took this team within a win of the Stanley Cup. That was the best team we’ve ever had. Then.. he became stale too. Like you said, NTC’s trading away draft picks. Never was good at drafting. Then Jim Benning came in and did a great job. This core has the potential to be a better one then Gillis inherited. IMO Jim is starting to falter a little. I don’t know how anyone can ignore the fact that we are a little handcuffed with this cap situation. He had to let some key pieces leave to make room for some bad contracts he accumulated. Look what we gave up for TT and look how stupid not signing him looks right now. If Jim kept his pen in his pocket on UFA day, we’d be in much better shape then we are today as well. I’m by no means a Benning hater, We just we need a new set of hands on this.

January 23, 2021

I know it’s super cool and fashionable to freak out and say how ugly this is going to be but I’m going to be a troll here and say it’s going to be a good bounce back game by the boys.

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