TOMapleLaughs

Was just going looking into it. 89 NHL games played. So no, no longer a prospect again, but a graduated player. However, this is based on HF standards. And who cares about HF? We're in a process picking up guys who could never cut it with their current club. Looks like this could go on for awhile.

Ben Carson books are in the humour section?

New Star Wars is good, but not as good as Empire. Just as Kylo Ren is not as strong as Darth Vader was back in Empire. This was the problem with the prequels. Why do they feel the need to turn the maskless badguys into wimpy crybabies? At least have one episode where the badguys are formidable, THAT is what made Empire so great. Not only did he cut off Luke's hand, but he did it while telling him he was his freakin' dad. Kylo was doing well until the moment he met Rey. I love the movie, and it certainly was better than the prequels, but Empire still rules.

Of course. The ones who cannot handle it go on to be not effective. I think this is found out before they become pros, however. The clutch factor is different, and it does involve skill. Certainly Mario Lemieux's superior skills allowed him to be one of the most 'clutch' players of all time.

If it comes to boos, then that's a team thing, not an individual thing. And yes, pro sports players can handle being booed. It serves as inspiration to improve. At any rate, I don't see any issue with this regarding Virtanen or any other prospect we have. The local kid factor is almost totally irrelevant. Larkin is doing quite well despite also being a local kid. Probably because his team is a lot deeper than ours. All pros have pressure and deal with it appropriately. The Canucks have to add a lot more depth if they want to succeed. For starters, an all-scrub 4th line does not fly in today's league.

What this is doesn't affect on-ice performance however, clearly.

All i'm saying is that this white noise is tuned out, so it doesn't make a lick worth of difference to the players. We seriously overestimate the affect we have on their psyche. Luongo started a professional life in Florida. Phil Kessel started his in the US. Both are guys who were traded to Canada, and both realize it's a business. Are they affected by Canadian media and fans? Perhaps, but not to the degree we think, and frankly media and fan pressure is just used as part of the 'trade justification' talk. It's a process. The Sedins have been here forever and have received buckets of fan and media criticism here throughout their careers. Yet, the remain dedicated to this city and team. They're pros. All these guys are. The argument that Canada somehow presents a tougher environment for these pro athletes is complete bunk. They're pro athletes. If they let pressure get to them, then they're just not effective pro athletes. It's other factors that are to blame for a drop in performance, mostly related to the rest of the team/franchise.

A lot of people here know him, but it hasn't added much pressure. This pressure exists wherever you play pro sports. If you don't feel this pressure to perform, then you're not in pro sports. He's a pretty chill guy actually. At age 19 being brought in slowly to the NHL it's more important to set the pro path down for him to follow. His parents are solid, the Canucks have solid role models, from the top dog Linden (who we'd also consider a local guy) on down, so he should be good to go. We as fans like to consider ourselves to be able to affect things on the team through online commentary, but that isn't the case at all. This thread for example has been nothing but twitter-like white noise for years now. If you think that whatever the media says or what bloggers have to say affects Jake personally, you'd be mistaken. This also applies to the rest of the pros on the team. In pro sports with fans and media attention, you learn right away how to deal with this white noise. You ignore it. If Jake or any other great prospect we have doesn't become all that he can be here, then that's a failure by our franchise. The only way I see it happening is if they don't add the proper level of support for them throughout their careers and overwhelm them with too high a workload. The soul-crushing 30 minute per game WCE days are history.

John Shannon also spoke to God and his great-great-great grandfather awhile ago.

Looking at those centers, man, if McCann went he'd dominate. Too bad he's not going. Watching him click with Virtanen would bring in some Canucks Christmas cheer.

Ritchie is 20 now.