Ray_Cathode

Teves is probably Utica's best defensive D-man - he is really solid, Rafferty is their best offensive D-man (and that includes the injured Juolevi). Rafferty might also be their best all round D. One of the reasons he may be in Utica is because he is a risk taker, sometimes gets caught, but then makes great athletic recoveries. NHL coaches tend not to like heart attacks, so they frown on guys that need to be making a lot of highlight reel recoveries. Still, he does make those recoveries... He is also a very confident guy with a high hockey IQ - especially on the attack. In his two NHL games last year, his confidence and adjustment to the speed of the game (especially to the high level processing of NHL players) was dramatic. In his second game, when paired with Hughes in the third period, and they were out with the Pettersson line, it seemed like they never gave up the puck in the O-zone - he fit right in.

Yep, the fans in Colorado are suffering from anoxia due to the elevation.

I think OJ caught fragility from Salo. I wish he’d caught Sami’s shot instead.

The spectre behind the curtain that makes NHL players out of prospects carries a dull sickle: injury.

Not much to disagree with except Rathbone might be good enough to make the leap if there is an injury to one our D that persists - and looking at the injury history of our crew in Vancouver that is distinctly possible.

They have a very smart GM - Burnaby Joe - he's damn near as clever as a GM as he was as a player. I wonder how Toronto is doing with Barrie and how much Colorado appreciates Kadri (15 pts in 20 games as a checking centre you hate to play against). Colorado might also be able to turn that third round pick into an asset as well. Especially since Barrie was an expensive luxury with Makar in the kitchen and Byram in the oven.

Tryamkin spent most of his time with the Canucks as a right D even though he shoots left. When I saw those two great 150 foot passes from Rathbone in his last game, he made them from the right side boards at his goal line to the opposite side of the opposition's blue line - he also played RD at the summer training camp a couple of years ago - I think he's like Hughes in that his skating is so strong that the side doesn't matter.

Why not throw in Luongo's contract while you have the Devils charmed into paying out our bad contracts and giving us their cap space. Be sure to smile when you close this deal.

Man, Rathbone came out of nowhere to join that rush - the kid can fly - really powerful strides.

Yeah, I moved my hopes for next good Canuck defender to Rathbone last year. I also like Teves and Rafferty - Rafferty for his all round play (Utica’s top D scorer), Teves for his strong defence.

Well, thank you. Yeah, when I compare hurt feelings and whining with death and maiming and no complaint - it just seems like an entirely misplaced outrage.

Don’t egg me on...

Taking face offs is only a small part of playing centre, it also has defensive responsibilities that define the difference between those who can play centre and those, lacking those skills, are forced to play wing.

If you are not smart enough to invest your own money, you should at least be smart enough to identify a sound financial advisor. But if you are not smart enough to invest your own money, how will you identify a sound advisor?

I have. My dilemma was that he was a combination of good and bad, had he been all alcoholic with no virtues, it would actually have been easier as a child - it is the virtues that draw you close enough as a child for the vices to hurt you, then, as an adult I could begin to appreciate the brutal childhood that he survived, and the horrifying consequences of even living through a war where most of your cohort did not survive. Then, as an immigrant, to arrive in Canada, desperately needing work - my parents were only allowed to bring a hundred pounds out of England because of post war currency controls - and the signs hung on the outside of places of employment said, “Men wanted, Englishmen need not apply.” This was because of what was called, ‘Remittance Men’ - the children of the wealthy and the connected that fled to Canada to avoid the war and who survived on remittances sent from British parents to young men avoiding service while the Canadian boys were sent to Britain to fight, risk maiming or death while the rich and connected Remittance Men sat it out. Later, he would see the refugees from other nations well treated - it had an effect. I guess everyone has their stories of unequal treatment - that affected my father, so I learned from observing him to never become dependent on booze or drugs, to be involved in my children’s lives, and to never allow other people’s opinions of me to ever affect me.

I watched those games and Lind’s play was fine, but he has little help in terms of finishing - he has been more of a playmaker than finisher so far in Utica, but he is generating chances.

Elite scorers are often very selfish players, that's one reason they become elite scorers... they love having the puck on their stick near the goal and they feel they can beat anybody, they feel that they want to be the guy taking the shot because they are good at it... of course there are lots of selfish players that aren't elite scorers too... a pain to play with because they have an acute lack of self-perception.

I watched those games, and Lind is very visible... don't know who you watched. They really miss Teves, the guy is a rock defensively.

I really don’t think reminding people to get a poppy really expresses what Don felt was the felt was the lack of regard and appreciation for those who gave their lives in the most excruciating ways possible - and I see in you that same lack of comprehension. I am an immigrant, but none of the prejudice I experienced as a child is even a flyspeck on the experience of what that under-appreciated generation went through. Being called names is not on the same scale as going down in flames fighting for your country and future citizens that don’t give a crap.

Yeah, my dad told me, he was in bomber command in ww2, but he had six brothers, 2 were in the army in North Africa, another in the army In Burma, one was in the navy, one in the merchant marine, one too young. The brothers in North Africa fought with the Sihks - they terrified the Germans. Dad never talked much about the war, I wanted to find out about him but his records were lost until just a year ago. He was a flight engineer in bomber command for three tours. A tour, I understand, was 30 missions. From what I understand, the survival rate for a tour was about fifty percent - so by all rights he should have died once and a half. There Lancaster was shot up so bad by flack that they limped back to Britain and put it down in a field - everybody survived. The second time they put down in the English Channel and the tail gunner didn’t make it out. I can’t imagine what they went through watching their buddies go down in flames or explode or break apart in the air, dumping the crew terrified into the night. He was an alcoholic who could get nasty, but when he was sober, and I was young in the early fifties in Prince George, he would sit beside me on my bed and recite heroic poems he learned as a boy in school - Abu Ben Aden, The Death of Arthur, The Charge of the Light Brigade, If, the Greeks that held the pass against the Persians - tales of heroics, of courage, of bravery, of standing your ground when others would flee... he was a helluva baritone, and he was a bigot that grew worse with age. So, I have to balance those things to understand what he was - courageous and deplorable, he had a great practical intelligence and a despicable prejudice. He was not unlike many men of his age. I think not many would be brave enough or brainwashed enough to fight the war that he fought in... I think that like the draft dodgers of the 70s, even more of the population would flee rather than fight, or even surrender rather than resist a brutal enemy. So yeah, I may not be a hundred percent fan of Don Cherry, but I understand the generation he came from, and I find despicable the lack of appreciation of more recent generations for the freedoms that his generation most certainly preserved for us. But yes, I understand Don Cherry.

You should take the schedule into account. The Canucks have played 7 home games (two of which were singles dropped into the middle of a long road trip) and 11 away games). Practice time is hard to get on the road mixed in with travel. The test is now that they are in the middle of a home stand to improve their game - if not, then yeah, it’s the coaches - strategically, but as for work effort, Green is successful in getting the maximum effort out of his charges.

Rathbone: 2gp 2g 3a 5pts, but the stretch passes on two of those assists were amazing - one from near his goal line to the opposite blue line, across the ice to the far wing for the breakaway with seconds left in the period. Wow!

Wow. We have the fourth best GA in the league, Myers is half of our top unit, and you are bitching about his play? Give your head a shake.

This what happens when the disaster that's been predicted forever doesn't come about. The true believers just make up new excuses, and the non-believers just watch you fade into irrelevance.

His play will determine who he is behind, and right now he is outplaying all of them defensively.