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kilgore

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Everything posted by kilgore

  1. First off, every one of us is speculating. None of us know exactly how the chips fall if we 1. Kept Gillis longer to try and convince some of his NTC vets to be moved and begin a rebuild back in 2014 2. Got rid of Benning after a 5 year window was up, after his prediction of a "fast turnaround" was proven wrong after depleting the team of future picks, prospects to make his deluded fantasies true about being a playoff team. And worse, accepting the owners naive plan of "just get in, and anything can happen" way to the Cup, instead of the slower, step by step, approach. Getting our D in place first for instance. 3. If Benning had not re-signed Green, or even fired him before last season. And hired a more experienced coach. One thing that is laughable is blaming the GM who got the job almost 14 years ago, who took us to the final. He inherited a core, but had to also assemble the supporting players. And acquired D like Tanev. The Ballard trade was the season of the SCF run. The only time he traded a #1, perfectly reasonable, but Ballard didn't play up to snuff or was injured. As opposed to JB trading 2 firsts, and multiple seconds, when we were not even close to being competitive. When his trades didn't play up to stuff, there was no backup parts, like Gillis had. In the end, even a stacked team will fail in the SCF if they have enough injuries. Especially in concert with terrible decisions like Rome's suspension, and a Boston friendly NHL disciplinary department. I'm about as much impressed with a politician who blames the economy on a President or Prime Minister in power 10 years earlier, as I am when it comes to blaming a past GM for the present day hockey team. The average playing career of an NHL player is just FIVE YEARS for Peteys sake! To think that Gillis should have done more to make the 2021 Canucks better is ridiculous. There is plenty of blame to go around. Its not either or. We needed a change in both coaching and in team management. Both made bad mistakes. Ultimately its the GM who should carry most of the blame as its his decision to also hire the coach. I'll give Benning credit for actually, finally, assembling a competent team. I was happy with this team in September. Not a complete team, as our D is still a work in progress. But a team that should do better than they have been in the first 20 games. Good for him, but he's taken 8 years, numerous #1, #2 picks and prospects. Numerous times unloading players that vastly underperformed. Depleted the farm to get here. Tied the hands of management for years ahead. Talk about Gillis leaving nothing, his amateur scouting staff didn't do a great job, as Brackett did for Benning, but at least he wasn't deliberately frittering his picks away. In a desperate, day to day, kind of team asset management. JB was completely in the clouds about how to develop a "culture of winning". You can't force it or speed it up. And you can't ignore how important communication is. How important other voices are to bounce important decisions with. How much your behaviour as GM towards your players, especially veterans, can have an affect on that culture. Like the first 3 questions, you can't prove a negative or positive with hindsight. We don't know if we'd have a more complete deep team if we'd have had, say, Rutherford in here instead of Benning, after Gillis. We may not have been in a position to pick Petey or Hughes. Or maybe picked above them and overlooked them. But there are a lot of teams who are better than us right now, with their own top ten picks doing quite well. JB was a gambler. That was his GM style. He was an addict and every off season he couldn't help himself. Complete 180 than what we, at least I, expected from him when he came in. And after almost 8 years, of pulling the handle, he finally has a decent assemblage of players. After mortgaging the house twice, selling some nice pieces of furniture at garage sale prices, and then paying full price, draining the bank account, and borrowing even more, to get new pieces. But okay, at least we have a watchable team now. My hope is renewed from the start of the season, where while still acknowledging Jim's past mistakes, I was hopeful that winning breeds winning. That can help keep good players here, and make others want to come here. Help to build that culture, and worry about restocking the farm later. And, even if its too little too late for the team to gel in time for this season's playoffs, and even though we have not much in the way of assets left to help future management, at least we have entertaining hockey to watch now, at present.... so good for you Jim. Good for you!
  2. Yup. Green also probably had his own developed system he had been "perfecting" since his AHL coaching. It was a lot of x's and o's and who had to be where.....or else. A lot of over-thinking on the ice. Especially evident when backing into our own zone, allowing way too many entries. Then collapsing into a box, sometimes even if we were not on a PK. No player dared leave the spot that Green and Baum had designed them to stand in and defend. Or other plays. The drop pass on the PP was so overused we almost got burned a few times. But all these "play not to lose" rules for different situations had players thinking too much, took the fun out of the game. Over intellectualizing the system. That would explain how that collided with Bennings addiction to bringing in new vets each season, (over actually drafting ,and patiently developing our own prospects) who had to learn quick, Which is one reason the team took awhile to click with each other each season. Especially after all the changes after the bubble, and this season. Boudreau is much more intuitive coaching, based on his years learning from behind the bench. Not such black and white thinking. I'm sure there is still a system BB wants them to play under, but it just seems they have more freedom to push the boundaries of that system, if they see an opportunity.
  3. That wasn't a gaffe. At least not his. It was on whatever forward that should have automatically covered for him. Once Burroughs beat his man, deked past him and was able to skate into the O zone, he has a green light. (maybe not a Green light, a Bruce light) to follow through with the scoring chance. I think it was Pearson that ended up slow to cover for him. Most coaches, but especially the offensive minded Bruce, WANT the D to take offensive chances more if the opportunity presents itself. Its up to one of the players to recognize what's happening, and stay back. I like that our D is more aggressive now offensively. Its more risky, but works as long as the winger on that side knows how to react if and when one of our D can get past the opposition's blue line and is going for the net. A scoring chance was created. Most coaches are not gong to discourage that. The one dimensional, overly cautious, static, skate backwards all the time, inviting teams to just skate into our zone, just wasn't working.
  4. I disagree about Burroughs. I think he was one of our better defensive Ds all night.
  5. It was up to another player to back up Burroughs. Kyle made a nice rush and deke and created a scoring chance. His pass didn't work out, but that's what BB wants, our D to be more involved.
  6. Actually it kinda has in the past. Nonis and Benning both moved from AGM. That or first time GMs. including Pat Quinn, is our history. You have to go back a few years to find anyone with experience. Burke had a job as a GM before, but it was just one year's worth in Hartford. You'd have to go further back to Jake Milford who had a few years experience with the Kings as GM before us, and Jack Gordon with the North Stars for a few years. This may be the first actual experienced POHO we've ever had. And hopefully he will hire an actual properly experienced GM for the first time.
  7. Don't mean to wade into your convo, but you do realize the title of the OP right? And that you are also participating in it? Just checking.
  8. Pearson is not a bad machine. He's serviceable. The question is value for cap hit. A lot of pundits were thinking JB could re-sign Pearson again for 2.5. Eager Jim decided to bestow him 3.25 x 3. Complete with NTCs. That is a big part of JB's legacy, bad pro evaluation, scouting, overvaluing and caving to player agents. Its about the cut of a thousand knives. Overpaying here, undervaluing there, overvaluing here, Not realizing the value until its too late there... Value lost in picks, prospects. Value lost in over-valuing acquisitions. Then having to dump them for less value than what he paid. Either dollar value, or talent value, Jim was always a day late and a dollar short with his day to day type management. Which bleeds out value, which in turn bleeds out options to move forward. Pearson is one of the least of our problems on its own. He's a bigger player, who uses his size well, when he wants to. Even if hes not so fast. Its just that in such a tight cap situation, thanks Jim, every even slight overpayment adds up. So Pearson could be moved out as just part of a house cleaning to make sure that we are paying third line calibre players, with third line contracts.
  9. I don't mind him either. Other than his laugh is annoying. I think its a kind of sport on CDC to insult the local sports media personalities, just because. When if you actually just read someone like Drance's questions and thoughts, many would have the same questions. I loved Botchford. He was speaking truth to power in the early days of JB, about how "we need an army!" while JB was giving away picks and prospects like candy. But most here had their blue and green glasses on with Francesco, and were fooled by the "quick turnaround" dreams, with the 2011 run still fresh in their heads. And Botch was tarred and feathered on CDC. Of course some go too far sometimes. Sekeres is a moron sometimes. I can't listen to him. But so many fans here just generally hate on the messengers all the time. Maybe I'm just someone who likes to hear about the parts that still need work on a team. No matter if its a successful team like Tampa Bay, there's always something a team can be better at. Some of us can still love, support, and cheer for our favourite team, and can also stomach the critical voices on the side who nag the team management to always point out ways they could do better.
  10. He shouldn't have to deal with that outside of the arena at the very least.
  11. I sympathize. Vancouver fans don't know when to stop. Its mob mentality. It was clever and fun, but why not have more than one chant? For different situations. I can see this one after a successful coaches challenge. Or maybe after a tongue lashing at a ref for a bad call. But I get it, the coach doesn't want to be on a pedestal every time a goal is scored ffs. I can only imagine the alternative versions that will come out if we ever go on a losing streak. I heard a story of how some fans were chanting "Bruce, there it is" at a restaurant he was in dining with his family. He had to shhh them himself so he could have some peace and privacy. Its fun for a while. But I hope this doesn't become a chant we do after every goal, every fight etc.
  12. Seriously sucks. Is this China retaliating again? Don't want to get humiliated by Canada on the ice. I heard today it could be five weeks they'd have to quarantine in China. And because of that the players probably won't be going. Why? Why can't the NHL charter a "sick plane". I'm sure they could afford it. Even have one at the ready at a Chinese airport for the duration of the Olympics. If the worst happens, and some players come down with COViD while there, they quarantine in the hotel while whatever left of the games there is. Then after the hockey games are done, whomever had been quarantined, travels separately to be boarded on this reserved plane which flies directly back. Maybe two planes, one to an American city, and one plane to a Canadian city. Maybe they'd have to stay in those cities, and quarantine, but at least they'd be in the countries their teams played in, and families lived. So many great Canadian players we couldn't see in the last Winter Olympics. Was really looking forward to seeing them dominate. Just a question in goal. It would be interesting to see us go up against Demko.
  13. Myers glass is way past half full this season. Big guy is putting out the quality minutes. Just one annoying flaw in his game. How often he loses the puck, or gives it away, to opposition in our own zone.
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