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kilgore

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Everything posted by kilgore

  1. Watching Bruce high five his new players as they came into the dressing room after the game was priceless. The moniker "players coach" was put on Green too. But its like he thought being a players coach meant he had to be cynical, eye-rolling, and defensive with media questions. Pretending he was an alternate captain spokesman, instead of the head coach. Boudreau has enough experience to know that you can still be a players coach with the players. But then know you are not one of the players after the game, and that the media, and fans through them, want to not hear excuses like you are just one of the boys, and were unfortunately plucked out of the group to have to answer for your teammates. Cynical and defensive. Bruce has this confidence and character to say he can be a players coach and still understand his responsibilities go beyond that. And hes happy and relaxed because he's not burdening himself with painting himself into that corner. That he knows he doesn't have to play that role. That he's actually not one of the players. Hard to explain what I mean.
  2. Bruce on the new aggressive style PK, "Evidently they got tired of sitting back"
  3. Cory Hirsch just said that on the radio about Shaw! He said NOW you'll see more of what Shaw can bring, post Green.
  4. Phew! I was right. So the coach gets to live another day in my books.
  5. Ah...the good old Edler soft shot from the point with no traffic. Thanks Eddie!
  6. Hogs needs to shed his Player $#$% Name number and go back to his old one. He's having the same bad ju ju trying to score.
  7. Well, it seems he's not putting them together to start. I wonder if Schenn has to prove himself all over again. Maybe Bouds will change it back at some point. Some unlikely pairings just work... Burrows and the Sedins come to mind. I think, until we get a bonified right side shot to play with Huggy, Schenn is the best choice.
  8. Schenn should stay with Hughes. Even Hughes praises the pairing, and probably prefers it. A more intimidating partner for a small skilled D. Can stay at home while Huggy breaks up the ice. He's also better than most at seeing the ice, and passing it out of the zone quick. No fancy azz short cute passes in our own zone. Why fix what isn't broke? You instead put Hamonic in? who's hardly played a game for months? Yikes.
  9. Doomed long before JB? So the curse is real??? Gillis sold the farm? He only traded one of his first round picks, to get Ballard in our Cup run year. A reasonable decision. And i think less second rounders than Benning as well. So no, Gilis did not "sell the farm". His problem, which he later admitted to, was in relying on the amateur scouting staff already there, some of whom had been there decades, with not a great record. But he came from a player agent world, he wasn't a draft guru like Benning was supposed to be. And its pretty reasonable to think he'd delegate that responsibility to them. JB's luke warm, half measures, don't-say-the-R-word replacing one batch of badly pro-scouted veterans over developing the picks you have each season, ended up worse in the end than going def con 1 right away. And then he ended up still selling a lot of the farm off anyways. He just didn't do it all at once.
  10. "apologies for likely spelling errors" What about the apologies for a failed GM? I think have more of those in your post than spelling mistakes. I take issue with your premise in such a savvy hockey market like Vancouver, who could see the Sedins, Bieksa, Kesler, even the beloved Burrows, start to decline, to say that "nobody wants to hear we are rebuilding". In fact it became a running joke how the organization was censored from even using the word. If New York fans could stomach their GM writing them a letter about going through some pain to get better, I'm sure Vancouver fans would have also accepted that. At least the Rangers had a clear plan and vision for their fans besides "day to day". I'm not saying Green was the least of their problems, but coaching is not the main issue with this team. Look how even after they DID make coaching changes with Shaw and King, and that did not do anything. In fact we are worse off. I am still in favour of a head coach change, and was after about 15 games into this season, just for a new voice to wake up the team. And I'm stoked that its Boudreau. But it was way more about the player mix, the communications and treatment of players, the living in a dream world about how close this team is to being a contender.
  11. Funny how some can watch the same team and come to way different conclusions on who to blame for the decline. Also you should include the "strength of roster/depth" in "JB's moves" no? Still only 25% fault in your opinion. We are at the end of an almost eight year run, with a less than stocked prospect pool. Our farm team is one of the oldest vet laden one in the AHL. Traded away more picks than he ever traded to get back. Cap spent with perennial "foundational" support batch of vet FAs, almost every September as the missing pieces for playoff success. Or forced into risky salary dump deals. We'll see how much we love OEL after a couple more years. The communication and treatment of some of our best most respected players like Tanev, Stecher. Losing Toffoli is not disastrous on its own, but the fact that just months earlier he traded for him for one of our top prospects at the time and yet another second round pick, to create an even deeper hole in our picks pool. I could go on....blunder after blunder after blunder....Value, in many different forms, bleeding out of this franchise. Drip drip drip. Travis Green could only work with what he had. And a merry go round, "day to day" approach to his GM installing new overwashed vets each season, with instructions that it was playoffs or bust, I don't know how many coaches could work with this. That said, I think Boudreau is an improvement. And the team needed a fresh approach, and a jolt to the system. And putting the fear in them knowing that first impressions mean a lot in determining how much the new coach will value them and play them. So for me, it would be the opposite. 75% blame to JB, and 25% to Green. But at any rate, its done. We can all be on board now together for now at least. Go Canucks Go!
  12. I really really hope that Francesco has learned his lesson. And/or that Luigi has him on a shorter leash. Even if its just for a season or two....just back away let the grown ups be in charge for awhile.
  13. Late to the party...but WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! FINALLY! Two or three years too late IMO. By keeping him after that he was allowed to screw the team more. And make the next GMs job more difficult. Would have been good if he'd let three of his mistakes play out their contracts this season giving a new GM some cap space. But he saw the writing on the ice, and went all in for one last desperate run for a playoff position to save his bacon. And Aquaman let him. What we need is a President of Hockey Operations right now too. A very experienced one like Gorton, who, as usual, Aquaman is late to the party to get before Montreal did. Someone not in the old Canuck boys club who can see the forest for the trees. And is rich enough already and who's reputation is already built to a degree that Aqualini won't be able to intimidate him. Who will then hire a new GM in the same mold. If they hire another puppet so Francesco can play "Be an NHL GM!" again, we are doomed.
  14. What Francesco needs to do is man up, hold a press conference, and apologize, and commit to change and spending money in the front office. Assure fans that he is aware and willing to embrace that the direction he has been overseeing is wrong. And better days are ahead.
  15. I like that the fans in the building know to chant Fire Benning. Not Fire Green. They know who's the real f up. For me, it was never about Green. Even if a change there might bring a spark. And I think it would be a big mistake to only fire him and think this team will improve.
  16. If Hamonic was not fit because he hasn't played enough I can see that. The real question is why he hasn't played more for Abbotsford. And it probably has a lot to do with vaccine hesitancy. Even if he is fully vaccinated now, (is he for sure?) the travel restrictions so far has screwed the organization's options on D. This team has so many things going against it right now. I don't have to list them all again. We were the worst team hit with COVID last season. Gaudette and wife's hesitancy have, perhaps, taken out our best penalty killing third line center this season. Now this. But I feel sorry for Hamonic, if disinformation has caused this upheaval to his NHL career. What burns my britches is not Hamonic's hesitancy, but the a-holes and idiots with some kind of media platform, who make their living scaring people with unfounded theories about vaccine risks, and/or blowing up way out of proportion the 1 in a million cases where one person is uniquely susceptible to complications from the vaccine. And blurring the lines between the two. Tucker Carlsons furrowed brow looking at the camera "shouldn't we all be concerned with this?" says the fully vaccinated rich boy who's never worked real job in his life. This unholy alliance between political operatives mostly on right wing media outlets, who are vaxed and safe, but use their platform to keep their audience on the edge of their seats with new "concerns" for them to fret about every day. And use this as just another avenue to screw the governing party they don't like. The other ones are the idiots with a mic. The ones that have been suckered in by the a-holes. Non politically motivated per say, (some hate O'Toole because he's pro-vaccine). Or speak from the paranoid left like Kennedy Jr. or Jimmy Dore. They are the ones that dig up any quack with outlier non-peer reviewed "studies" to raise alarm bells and keep their audiences up at night. They prey on those who are naturally paranoid and suspicious and give them an excuse to sink even further into their paranoid delusions. And in this day of social media proliferation, if one of them see that there are are thousands of others that are also true believers, its used as confirmation. Where before SM this kind of poison would not be able to spread so fast and so well. The Canucks organization has been very very patient with Hamonic. Which is fine, and I hope he is now fully on board, and will give Green another option on D.
  17. Life is full of risks. Just crossing the street. Its about weighing risks. I don't get vaccine hesitation. If you still believe in science at this point, specifically medical science, and almost 100% of that community is assuring the public that its safe, and approved by the FCC, and debunks the claims by antivaxers, Like it altering your DNA. So what is the problem? Among those findings, the risk of contracting the disease is 50% higher, then after that, the risk of hospitalization is 50x higher if you are unvaxed. And then once in hospital, you are 11 - 15x more likely to DIE. To me that seems like the much bigger risk would be NOT getting vaccinated and following the advice of some internet doctors and political talk show hosts wanting to stir up controversy. Its just common sense. This is a good list of the main debunked claims about DNA and side effects, and risks. From John Hopkins University, including one you raised, in that this vaccine is not new. the mrna technology has been being developed for almost 20 years now. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth-versus-fact What gets me is how powerful social media and its a-holes are these days. If you've got the gift of the gab, and are fine with making #$%@ up for money, and scaring a lot of people at once, this is the golden age. Those are the people I am most pssed with. You've taken vaccines before, all your life. But some quack on the You Tubes says all the doctors and scientists in the world are wrong and he is right. If you want to risk not only your own health, but those close to you, by deciding that the risk of listening to actual doctors is riskier than some internet "experts", then I don't know what to say. I actually feel kind of sorry for those folks, including my sister and brother in law who share your unfounded beliefs.
  18. Burroughs has been one of our better defensemen. I think this team would be in an even worse place with out Burr 2.0. Besides, isn't Burroughs a right hand shot, and Claque a lefty? I agree that it may be that its Hamonic that is on the block. If its STILL a vaccine issue with Hamonic not playing with the baby Canucks. I just assumed he has been. Sad if he was suckered into the fake news anti-vax cult, but if he was and still is, then see ya later. I'm tired of it all too. Trouble is, who would take him if he's still unvaxed?
  19. My choice? lol. That is Aqualini's choice. I don't own the team. We agree...that it's nonsense. Yeah! You are simply assuming that Aquaman, who has no hockey management expertise, can't possibly think that way himself. I do. I think he is a big part of the problem. JB is his yesman and deserves blame too, and is the one who can be let go. But we are stuck with this owner. I just hope some of his arrogance has worn off somewhat and will do the right thing and hire a good experienced POHO right away, to really evaluate the team in the next months, and only allow JB to make minor deals and movements, while he assesses the team from top to bottom, and that the Aquililnis are open to and willing to adhere to his advice. Which I hope is to replace the GM before the trade deadline. "You're just mad you didn't get your tank for 6 years rebuild." Well I preferred 4 or 5 but yeah, if by "tank" you mean draft and develop and we were back at the top of the league, by last year?....sure I'd take that. No one said every draft pick will be a star. Virtanen says nyet to that. But you do understand the concept of....the more you have, the more will actually be keepers right? Also, the more you have, the more trade pieces you have to acquire good veteran pieces when you need them? Or that the more you give a shot to players like McCann, or Forsling, Madden Dahlen....or even MacEwen, Gadjovich and Joulevi to develop maybe one or more will eventually catch fire? Especially if you let them go for mediocre "support" players that have such a limited shelf life, at least here on Jim's team. I wouldn't be surprised to see Dickenson being bought out too down the road.
  20. If by black and white, you mean I'm not all over the place as you seem to be.....thanks. But it seems like we agree on a lot. I have said I admire the gambling aspect of Jim Benning's strategy. You need that in a GM, the confidence to make "bold moves". I've said how LE MAY have worked. Gagner, Gudbranson...others too. But bottom line, they didn't. And my admiration of his gambling spirit still doesn't make everything all right, or excuse Jim. The buck stops with him, and he has to be prepared to pay for those risks if they don't work. That's just life. If you are of the belief we add those final pieces at the end of a rebuild, how do you defend JB's record of failed FAs and vet trades, and the cap hits he doles out so generously for them almost every off season no matter what? And just for the reason of as you believe, not contending to actually win anything, but squeaking into the playoffs for a learning experience? Aquilini said as recently as this September in his last interview on 650, how he was expecting us to get to the playoffs this year and that, like Montreal, anything can happen. That has been the Aqua plan for Jim's whole tenure here as a viable way to have a parade down Robson with them in the front float, heroes of the city. Mortgage another piece of the future for a run the next Spring, and then we will defy the odds and win the Cup. This season it was for sure for sure for sure, cross my fingers it would work. Dickenson was premier face off, third line center. Along with Dowling, Chaison, Lammikko, Hunt, Poolman... I appreciate a gambler in a GM and owner, but there is a limit. Especially when you double down on the same plan every dang off season. Why do you insist a rebuild is defined as only complete if you replace every player on the team? But also, every player on every team IS eventually replaced by a GM. There is rebuilding going on on every team, to a degree, every year. Or should be. So again, I don't understand your angle here. Not to mention JB HAS replaced every player now with Edler leaving...so in your mind the team is now "rebuilt"? You ask me for a number of years, which I threw out 5, as a ballpark. The Rangers are 14 - 4 - 3 after they gave their fans an honest letter on a rebuild just three years ago. Detroit has won their last 4 and look like they are on the upswing. Then there's Ottawa and Buffalo examples, so there's no guarantee. But yeah, I was expecting JB to have built a team that was past relying on the Sedins and that core by the time he was in his fifth season. If it was 6, fine, its not really about that number, its about seeing the team gain VALUE through the years. Value defined as a varying combination of, draft picks, which have been hit and miss, a stable of promising prospects, draft pick surplus, or value contracts for pro-scouted tradable veterans, or ones on the team, like Sutter, or Pearson, Russell, Gagner, LE, on the assumption they will play above their cap hit value, not below. We have some that are, Miller, Garland, Hogs, Motte. But not enough. And when a GM oversees such a loss of VALUE leaking out over time his hands become increasingly tied to even fix it. ie... instead of having a built up excess of cap, and picks or prospects or value veterans to go for someone like Eichel, we have to package up past bad contacts to trade for another risky contract for a OEL. that may not age well. I hope it does. Its just not sustainable way to run a franchise. This piecemeal approach to putting together a team every off season. Where players have to adjust to new team mates, and don't really have any identity built up from the previous season. Trading the future for another shot at grabbing the ring on the merry go round. For what?.....a learning experience? ....having a "winning culture"? You are okay with that being the goal? How'd that bubble playoff learning experience do for them? I don't understand what you are arguing TBO. Even if it works one time, how do you sustain that when you are continually trading your picks and prospects away with a new batch of support player vets each season? I guess we do disagree in that I think Aquilini has been actually under the fantastical belief that the way to the promised land is being overly optimistic, and that a viable plan is to barely get in, and then go on a run, and win it all. He's said as much. And his puppet GM is loyally facilitating that vision. Its been going on too long, repeated again and again, NOT to believe that IMO. But if you think this is some kind of 5 dimensional chess and that it only SEEMS like we are floundering, and that its all in the Grand Plan to build an actual contender...someday?..... then you're welcome to it. I'm done with JB. And this team will never move forward until he's gone.
  21. I'm not clear on your points here. How long did I expect a rebuild to take place? One that never really began? That's impossible to predict. I don't know if you are arguing against Benning or for him. I've seen you criticize him in other posts. I was hoping the team would be a consistent playoff team in the league again in say, five years from the hire of JB. Is that reasonable? With a good start to building a sustainable stable of good prospects. I've been waiting for a Cup in this cursed town since I've been watching Canucks now for 30 years. I can wait a long time for a rebuild to be successful...as long as its actually happening. The hard thing is waiting for a don't-use-the-word-rebuild rebuild. Because there is no beginning, and presumably no end either. How long do YOU expect it to take? Its been almost eight years with Jim. And we are at the bottom of the league. Maxed out cap, missing two recent 1st rounders, a few more prospects. Another year wasted for Petey and Quinn, as well as Miller, Bo, Boeser, Demko, who will be another year older. So how long is acceptable for you? 10 years? 15? Why would you even ask that question? Aren't you sick of waiting too? And JB didn't have to replace every player right away. Its a process as Green would say. Even though with the departure of Edler, he eventually did it anyways. Obviously you need to keep some veteran leadership. Depending on who you could trade. The Sedins may have been untradable even if they waived. But I think they'd have been good soldiers and worked with any new younger pool of players. Who knows? if JB had done it the right way at the start, the Sedins may have gotten onto the first year or two of a new younger playoff team again, if Jim's vaulted drafting was good as well. Even re-upped for a year or two. And do you really think JB and Aqualini put a distinction on making the playoffs and being a legit contender? If you make the playoffs you ARE a contender. As Francesco said as much, more than once. That's how I see their interpretation. Not yours or mine maybe. JB bragged about creating a "winning culture". He's failed at that spectacularly.
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