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Ray_Cathode

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Everything posted by Ray_Cathode

  1. If the Sedins had collected the minuses due for each time they coughed up the puck in the offensive zone and gave up odd man advantages while they floated back to the bench, delivering the minus to the guys jumping on behind the play, they'd have been minus 50. So yeah the rules of +/- did treat them unjustly... unjustly in their favour.
  2. Oh, useless in his open end... like the Sedins? Henrik was -29 last year, Goldobin was +1.
  3. It is if your only talent is on offence.
  4. Del Zero is -6 in four games, at that rate he could be -120 by season end - a mathematically prodigious season in anyone's measure.
  5. Well, that's a plus. Still rather have an offensive defenceman who can make the team right away. But probability is that even if we are bad enough to finish last, the earliest we'll pick is fourth - I believe that was written into the NHL charter by Bettman along with his instructions to the supervisor of officials. No, I am not paranoid, I only have a single noid.
  6. Maybe this team should sit a Sedin that is no help on defence either, and play a guy that might score and won't be any worse defensively.
  7. Will he go whining back to Russia if he doesn't get 59 minutes of ice per game?
  8. The Sedins need Hansen or a young Malhotra, someone who can carry them to the bank with their big, heavy pay checks.
  9. With a good playmaker on his line, he could do that - he has the speed to get around people, he has a very good shot, he is strong enough to assert himself around the net,and he can bounce defencemen off the puck - with a wee more experience he might make an interesting penalty killer, too - the strength to pull past a defender on a turnover, and the speed to not see him again.
  10. Funny, isn't it, some people just hate seeing others succeed. It reminds me of a lot of people's politics - they'd rather have the country go to hell than have someone else do better than them. The Age of Envy.
  11. Rick Girard was close. Second round pick had 71 goals and 141 points. Never played a game with the Canucks, but did have a long career in Europe. Moe Lemay, a 5th rounder, had 138, including 68 goals. He played parts of 6 seasons with the Canucks - had 21 goals one year.
  12. You do know that while Boeser is the top preseason scorer in the NHL with 6 points in three games, Chatfield is fifth with 5 points - in TWO games. http://www.foxsports.com/nhl/stats?category=SCORING
  13. Actually, that should be a 'farmed' salmon.
  14. Seems like Jake is making history, an eighteen year old doesn't stick with the team right away... his career must be over!!! Only two guys have not made the team right away and made the team again later!!!! The sky is falling!!! Okay, he might NOT make the team, but this is just ridiculous, it is way, way too early to tell. Virtanen's problem the first year, was the guy who got fired, plus the fact that he left Vancouver with No idea what kind of player he was supposed to be. That seems to be a problem for young guys with size that come to Vancouver... cough (Tryamkin). Oh yeah, we didn't like Neely, either, well at least not enough to keep him over a guy with a tumor on his arm the size of an apple.
  15. Our problem next year is going to be places available in the top six, even in the top nine - unless a couple of the young guys step up and make the selection obvious - if they do, that would give us assets to move that may have value. It looks like Baertschi, Horvat, D. Sedin, H. Sedin, Granlund, and Sutter are there and that the young guys have to play well enough to take their jobs and push them out of the top six: candidates for that are Boeser, Goldobin, Rodin, possibly Virtanen (because he brings a needed ingredient that the others don't possess), Boucher?, and our first pick (we may have an u Canuck-like good fortune and get Patrick (who might be ready)). I'd love to think Dahlin is ready, but that was not the top tier of hockey in Sweden that he was playing. Sadly, unless our first pick is a wondrous anomaly, we will be very weak in the middle). The reason I say they have to push the existing forwards out of the top six spots is because we just are not good enough at the top of the lineup - and we won't get anywhere other than the bottom of the league until we improve at the positions that consume the greatest portion of the ice time. After a year like this, no veteran player should think he has a secure job,not the Sedins, not even Horvat. What to do with Erickson? Is the problem that he had no-one to play with? That seems to have been the problem with Vrbata - who scored again once he changed teams. Or was that also coaching? With the decline of the Sedins to the point where they were almost entirely incapable of getting out of their own zone, too slow in transition, incapable of puck recovery in the offensive zone, and no longer capable of handling the puck or completing a pass, we have really been left without a creative centre (I don't think that is Horvat's forte - he doesn't seem to be a great playmaker - Sutter certainly is not About the only thing that improved this year was faceoffs and goal tending - I guess that means Malhotra and Cloutier should keep their jobs - and maybe Jarvis - because puck recovery is part of winning faceoffs. I will be going to the Penticton tournament again this fall, it was very revealing last fall - the dearth of prospects available to move up was ominous (pretty much the available prospect was Stetcher). I'd love to see more surprises there again this year (and I think we are very likely to), especially if Boeser, Goldobin, and our first pick are there. Last year, Stetcher, Juolevi, and especially McEneny really stole the show on D. Of the forwards, only Valk (again), and Carcone were really surprises (Carcone did pick it up at the end of the year in Utica). It would be interesting if Benning can find another defensive surprise out of college - like Stetcher (or like Gillis found in Tanev) - we could sure use the help. Other prospects for the fall camp to measure the progress of, will be Brisebois, Neill, Olson, Zhukenov and McKenzie.
  16. A goal and assist tonight, in a Comets' 5-2 win. This guy is legit. He's been effective on the PP for the past few games, too. He has obviously gained the confidence of the coaches, expect to see him get a long look this fall when we likely lose a defenceman in the expansion draft.
  17. Salo was 215 pounds quite a bit bigger than Juolevi, I just hope Juolevi is as smart - and I hope Juolevi is luckier health-wise!
  18. I saw him (Juolevi) this fall in Penticton. He is a very smart player, great positionally, great outlet pass, he'll be a guy with lots of 'third' assists' on great breakouts - if he gets strong enough. The second best Canuck defenceman in Penticton, was McEneny - he is already big and strong enough, and has a very good shot. Utica plays him in the last minute of each period, first unit on the PK, and last minute of the game on a team laden with experienced defensemen. Hopefully, one day our next Willie MItchell, but who can shoot the puck.
  19. Looks like the coach is not arguing with you, he is out there at the end of each period and in the last minute of games, as well as first unit on the PK. When I watched the Canucks propects last fall, he was the best defenseman after Stetcher - even though McEneny only played one game. He is a big guy and a strong skater. His positioning is very good, and his gap control, excellent (best of all the prospects, actually). He reads the attack very well and is rarely out of position. It took several games before he broke the Comets lineup, but after that he just kept getting more and more time. He also plays either side very well. For Green to use a 22 year old defenseman the way he does, really says a lot about McEneny - Green uses a lot of veterans on D. McEneny a great year in the ECHL last year, and he used that as a spring board to crack the Comets line-up this year - Canucks D prospects should keep that in mind next year if they don't make the Comets. It will be crowded on the back end in Utica next year - and Green has a habit of relying on vets. McEneny is showing that some time in the ECHL to get up to speed playing D in pro hockey is not necessarily a bad thing.
  20. He has another good reason to rave about Green, Green plays him - WD benches him. He has rewarded Green with 4 goals in his last 8 games.
  21. How about we actually let Jake play, and keep Boeser.
  22. That would probably be a guy we don't have yet - Patrick Nolan sounds like a good fit - unless, of course, the NHL decides that the Western Canadian teams and only the Western Canadian teams, should all be bumped down like in the last draft lottery. No wonder they didn't hold the draw in public, but only announced the results.
  23. If Boeser is to play on the Canucks we need a play making centre - don't mention the word Sedin. The Sedins are now so slow that their speed is measured in millimetres per hour - and that goes for Erickson, too. Painful to watch. No wonder they can't start shifts in their own zone.
  24. I disagree with you. The skill involved in getting a shot through also involves seeing the play not from where your eyes are, but projecting where the gaps are from the location of the puck on your stick, it also requires moving and processing the visual field in front of you for an opening from the location of the puck on your stick to the net, through numerous players. The same thing plays when in close to the net - picture the openings from where the puck is on your stick, not from the perspective of your eyes. If you are a player, try it - if you are a left hand shot, there is a lot more room on the goalie's stick side than you think there is - your eyes tell you there is nothing there, but from the location of your stick - several feet to the left, if you are a left shot, there is an entirely different angle. This was Morrison's, Messier's, and Coffey's favourite shot coming in off the right wing - left hand shot, low stick side goal - on a goalie with a left hand glove. High skilled players have automatized that thinking method, so that it is an automatic, subconscious process, guys like Edler don't do it at all, which is why most of his shots hit someone's pads and too large a percentage of those cough back out behind him - so that we have the pleasure of watching him stumble as he tries to turn and chase. Sadly, it's a teachable skill, too bad nobody bothered. That skill has to be combined with walking the line, to change the angles, and to find a lane to shoot through. If you don't think those aren't high hockey IQ plays, why don't more players do it?
  25. Well, either we drafted badly or developed badly - either way, it sticks on management.
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