Stoyoma

I just want to see the team play hockey how you need to play to be successful. You know move your feet and not take lazy penalties (Miller), finish your checks (the whole team minus Schenn), go to the front of the other team's net for some greasy goals (all the forwards), and box out opposing forwards from the front of our net (all the defencemen). Not sure why Green had them playing such a hopeless system if you can call it that.

Maybe the Sedins need to take over coaching the PP. Seriously though half the goals scored on the PP in the league come from getting shots through with traffic and crashing the crease for rebounds. If #40 wants to score he's going to half to get his nose dirty.

This poor start is on the top guys, they have been shockingly useless so far, wasting prime opportunities on the PP every game and generating nothing at full strength. It was obvious the PK was going to be dreadful without another LHD, and that is on management and coaching who decided to keep Rathbone with the big club, but you can take any team in the league and if their top guys don't show up, there will not be many wins.

Canucks played well, especially considering its was the 2nd game of b2b. However special teams are concerning right now, which is one reason I didn't like the OJ trade. There is no one to PK on the left side if OEL is in the box, and he shouldn't be playing the full 2 minutes anyway. I would like to see Miller drive the net when Petey has the puck on the PP, looking for a rebound, and Petey should be shooting at the goalies feet to create rebounds more often.

McDavid got away with a blatant elbow on OEL in the first too. Definitely a different set of rules for the superstar, must be nice.

I didn't like Miller's game last night and Pettersson (why did he leave Puljuujarvi wide open for his goal when he just had him tied up) and Hughes were rusty in the early going, but improved as the game went on. PP1 looked a little to lackadaisical as usual, but I thought the majority of the team played well.

I really like the idea of moving 43 to the right side, it's not like he can be much worse defensively than he is on the left. I noticed a couple of shifts last night where Myers let Rathbone play on the right side in the defensive zone and covered the front of the net while the puck was in the right corner. This lets both defensemen play to there strengths and works with elite skaters like Quinn and Jack, who can get from one side of the zone to the other in a heartbeat. 43 gets abused in front of his own net so you want to minimize the amount of time he has to be there.

Tough to make that play when it's in your skates. Olli tried to get his stick on it but would have been better off using his skate. Anyway, the goalie should have made the save. Anyone who understands the position of defense would know that Olli had a steady game, and made lots of smart little plays, both on O and D. He bailed out Hoglander after a brutal giveaway in his own zone, and set up Di Giuseppe for a great deflection chance. That so many Canuck fans desire to see Olli fail says alot about them...

Might want to look again. OJ made a great defensive play to eliminate his man from the play and separate him from the puck. It's not his fault JV was cheating offensively on the wrong side of his man and was beaten to the net (he did manage to get back and disrupt the play at least).

Their expectations for Rathbone were likely lower as well given how little pro experience he had, which makes it easier to impress. I do find it strange that Juolevi hasn't signed his QO. He doesn't have any bargaining power imo.

OEL is a massive improvement on Edler. The Canucks will spend way less time shorthanded without Edler's repeated trips to the box for hooking and holding when he was beat. The Canucks also get to play the Kings numerous times and will take advantage of that lead footed old warrior. I liked Edler, but he is just to slow to keep up anymore. Hopefully he screens his goalie a few times for us too.

Because of asset management Rathbone likely starts in Abby, unless he shows so well in training camp that they have to keep him in Van. He will have to demonstrate an ability to kill penalties though, since you don't want Hughes out shorthanded. Juolevi looked good for the most part last year imo. I really like his game in the offensive zone, his stretch passes are outstanding and would have led to more points for him last year if their forwards were more talented. His transition defense needs to improve but he's probably never played on a team that gives up so many odd man rushes and has so little back pressure from the forwards. This makes defending the rush very difficult even for the best defencemen in the game. Montreal's vaunted defense looked fairly ordinary against Tampa when the forwards couldn't apply back pressure. I suppose he could have just taken penalties to nullify scoring chances when he was beat like Edler, and rely on the pk to bail the team out.

I think it's been so long since the Canucks have had a good team, most of this fan base doesn't even know what one looks like. This team has the pieces to do some damage, if the injury bug doesn't bite too hard.

I've noticed he has become much better at making plays in his own zone to get the puck out or pass to a teammate. He was atrocious at this early in his career and even earlier this season. He was decent last game, made some good plays on the cycle and had a couple of chances but needs to bear down and bury some sooner or later.

For the 15 seconds they have after PP1 passes it around the outside and misses the net a couple of times?

I've seen peewee players with better defensive awareness. Opposing forwards must salivate when they see 43 on the ice.

Take the shot FFS.

Didn't see #83.

I do too. I've liked what I've seen, but given the canucks history with injuries to D-men, I have a feeling he'll get back in soon.