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Ray_Cathode

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Everything posted by Ray_Cathode

  1. If we sign Toffoli and retain Virtanen and if Big Mac steps up it would leave us with a tremendous asset to move - the kind of asset that can bring back a really valuable piece - or Virtanen moves to the left side - which he preferred in junior - and Podkolzin is just a year or so away and Hoglander right behind him. We could have a very interesting set of forwards.
  2. Yes - defensively - but according to Brackett he also has a canon for a shot and I posted a couple of months ago a couple of 150 foot laser passes from behind his goal line in the right corner (he is a left hand shot) right onto the stick of the left winder at the opposite blue line for breakaway assists for his teammate - good as Hamhuis was - he never had that in his arsenal. But if Rathbone turned into a young version of Hamhuis, I would definitely take that! A guy who could put up nearly forty points in his best years and be that good in his own end would be a blessing to darn near any team. Now if we could just find another Bieksa... course I'd ONLY want another Bieksa for his sense of humour...
  3. Absolutely, I posted on here nearly a year ago a report from his coach - he had started last year paired with Fox and Rathbone had a very hot offensive start, but the team was suffering from weak defensive play, so he moved Rathbone to the second unit and used him to neutralize other teams' offence - which is why Rathbone went into a period of low offence for about a quarter of last season till he had adjusted to his new role and added offence back into his game. This year he inherited Fox's role as number one and did it all for the team. In that context reports of his D being deficient and needing improvement strike me as a bit jarring. I believe the same article from last year pointed out that Rathbone was a workout nut and had increased his size to 5'11 and 190 pounds - not that the workouts improved his height, of course!
  4. He should come up when his play proves he deserves to come up - right now in Utica Rafferty is better offensively and over all and a Brisebois is better defensively - if they have played better, don’t they deserve that opportunity first? He has to prove that he deserves that shot by outplaying the guys in Utica, and now that Tryamkin wants to return, Tryamkin - and there are a couple of other guys that have been establishing a claim - Rathbone and Woo.
  5. A massive number of injuries or a virus outbreak?
  6. No. I have been very tough on Juolevi in this thread, but I still remember what I saw of him in the Finnish league and in the world juniors, and I remember him being walked repeatedly in the Youngstars and in his first year in Utica - what was exposed was his pivot - especially to the left attempting to turn with guys going down the boards, and his gap was off (maybe an adjustment to the smaller rink - but the he played junior in the OHL). This year many of those things were cleared up - notably his pivot - but he seemed slow. Injuries can prevent a player getting the best out of himself - especially injuries that affect your training - but Juolevi has a chance to fix that now - and I see that as possible (depending on how injuries have degraded his upside). His greatest virtues are that he is very intelligent (crucial for a D that you want in your top four), he sees the ice very well, he is strong advancing the puck. If his negatives can be cleared up, and he is still young, he could still become that top four guy that almost every team needs - I see him fitting into a good team as a three or four - much like Hamhuis - IF.........
  7. Podkolzin will be well prepared to play in the NHL by the time he arrives - I really expect a lot out of this kid.
  8. Tryamkin is a left shot and can and has played either side for the Canucks in his time here - that could mean replacing Benn or Fantenburg and that could be a major upgrade.
  9. Destined for Utica - good thing, too, we need some actual Canuck centres down there.
  10. He has a long way to go, he’ll have to outplay Rafferty, Rathbone, Brisebois, and maybe Tryamkin - cuz that is who he is behind right now.
  11. Which talking point, exactly? Novel simply means ‘new’, it still exists within a class of viruses similar in many respects to influenza. One major issue here is lack of data gathered over a long enough time to determine actual death rates. As our experience with novel viruses accumulates, death rates drop significantly from initial measurements - which is why I said that the story on this virus will not be known for a considerable time. There are several factors here. At the onset of an outbreak many people get the virus but do not show significant symptoms and therefore don’t get included in the set of those infected. Secondly, initially only those showing significant symptoms get tested - so we don’t Know the denominator of the equation. Over time the death rate almost always drops significantly simply due to these measurement issues. Secondly, worst case estimates do not include what we do to ameliorate transmission, make treatment more effective (finding existing available treatments), developing new treatments, and developing vaccines. https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/16/lower-coronavirus-death-rate-estimates/
  12. Wow! So much nonsense in so little space. How one spends on rent has nothing to do with how much one spends on natural gas. The necessity of defence spending was and is already in existence; until a couple of months ago no-one even knew this virus existed - there are the possibility of billions of threats to respond to and we do not have infinite resources, so we can only respond to threats as they manifest themselves. Because there are virtually unlimited threats and limited resources we have to prioritize. We prioritize based on what we know. Human beings are not omniscient, we get to know something causally - through learning. Because we have to prioritize, we must allocate resources based on what we know - throwing away our resources before we know what we are dealing with is idiotic - they cannot be efficiently spent or allocated. Willy-billy spending is a great way to end up marching on your manly member. Since we cannot act without knowledge, we have gain knowledge before we are capable of effective action - we have already learned that chloroquine may be an effective treatment: https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/chloroquine Bayer has already donated three million doses to the US government. The firm can rapidly ramp up further production as needed. It is a 70 year old drug that is inexpensive to manufacture and already in extensive use in the third world as a malaria treatment. There is also some evidence that zinc lozenges may help (as they do with colds and the flu): https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/can-zinc-lozenges-help-coronavirus-infections The private sector is already testing vaccines: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/nih-clinical-trial-investigational-vaccine-covid-19-begins A simple search reveals many vaccines in development and some already being tested. The scientific process regarding this outbreak is well in hand with existing resources. The next problem is with testing, and the private sector is already on the move: https://time.com/5805953/home-covid-19-test-everlywell/ After that, the problem is with medical resources to treat the already ill: private companies are already re-purposing existing assets to produce necessary masks, hand sanitizers (many liquor manufacturers have already repurposed some of theirt facilities to make this - https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/litchfield-distillery-now-producing-hand-sanitizer/2241761/ , ventilators, etc. There is already a competition to design an inexpensive, easily made ventilator (one that would easily be made for use in the third world) - an initiative started in Montreal. And so on. Making commentary critical of the US response is ridiculous - this Wuhan China outbreak has been dealt with seriously from the very beginning. The real problem of this outbreak is the economic consequence of what may turn out to be, in retrospect, a massive over-reaction. Forty-two thousand people died of the flu last year in the US and that did not bring the world economy to a halt. We shall see whether this outbreak was unprecedented, whether it required this unpredicted response. It probably did, and from that we may very well learn something, after all, we are not omniscient - knowledge is gained causally, not automatically - perhaps the Chinese communist government will learn that open markets for the slaughter of exotic animals (the origin of SARS https://www.genengnews.com/news/coronavirus-evolved-naturally-and-is-not-a-laboratory-construct-genetic-study-shows/) and the likely origin of this latest epidemic). Now, after SARS, these markets had been closed, but pressures within China led to their re-opening... and this gift to the world. The Chinese people are NOT responsible for this, but their government is. Much like the Soviet example of Chernobyl, the secrecy and downward pressure to eliminate bad news and possible criticism is a feature of totalitarian regimes, not an accident.
  13. I believe so. Doesn’t he have a one way salary in the coming year?
  14. Being able to finish like that in the midst of all that traffic, for a smaller guy, is pretty amazing.
  15. Hamilton, Camper and Malone are not Canuck prospects, they are Utica signings. Canuck signings in Utica at the Center position are Graovac and Jasek. Graovac has spent most of the year injured. Since Gaudette made the Canucks, they are so weak at centre, with the combination of retreads, the perpetually injured, and simply inadequate that they had to reposition Jasek (which was a benefit for Jasek). But centre ice is definitely the weak spot on the team. That could improve dramatically if Karlsson makes the journey, but there is also the remote possibility that Focht or Costmar could make the team, or that the Canucks could pick up another free agent project such as MacEwen - or an unsigned college player that is closer to being ready to make the jump to minor pro.
  16. Shea Weber? Myers now in his twelfth season? Dustin Byfuglien fourteen seasons? Brent Burns sixteen years? I think you need to demonstrate your contention cuz there is a long history of big, physical defencemen with long careers just as there is a huge list of smaller defencemen with very short careers. The biassing factor may well be that teams have often chosen big skilled defencemen over smaller skilled defencemen and have been willing to accept a little les skill if the player has more size. Ceteris paribus size is a benefit for players that often gives them the ability to inflict more pain and injury than they receive.
  17. “In Russia, life is no laughing matter; death is no joke either.” The Assassination Bureau. ”in America you play hide and seek; in Russia you play hide and stay hidden.” Yakov Schmirnoff.
  18. We had two seventh round picks in 2019, the second was Aiden McDonough. Looks like he’s no slouch, either.
  19. Lind is a right shot that mostly plays RW, though is very good on the draw and takes most of the face offs when he is on the ice.
  20. Every time they have a team that starts a Almost every game like they have their skates encased in concrete.
  21. Remember the hit Bure put on Shane Chowderhead from Dallas - the thug that used to goon every talented guy in the league? Hoglander reminds me of him (Bure).
  22. We are one serious injury away from needing another centre.
  23. Yeah, he’s listed at 176, but I read last year that he is actually 5’11 and 190 which watching him play makes a lot more sense since he seems pretty robust.
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