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Everything posted by Kevin Biestra
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2022 Frank J. Selke Trophy finalists unveiled
Kevin Biestra replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
Brodeur did set the NHL record for wins in a season that year. And led the league in shutouts and saves and played 78 games. He earned his Vezina that year. Luongo was deserving as well...he would have won it any other year had Brodeur not had the season he did. But that was literally Brodeur's best season ever for wins, shutouts, games and saves in his whole career. It wasn't really a reputation win. -
And I remember that during Ohlund's rookie year, the Canucks' marketing campaign was largely centered on Babych and Ohlund as the mentor and young buck. Then Keenan showed up and Babych didn't even finish the season as a Canuck...horse whipped out of town along with every other hero of 94.
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It got us a Cup final. It was very costly otherwise, and it was a very strange time for Canucks management to sell the future and go all in for the present...but it actually worked. The Canucks sure could have used Vaive's 50 goals and Derlago's 35 goals a season for the rest of the 80s though.
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Yeah I think his last playoff game of his career he scored the goal to send them to overtime before they got eliminated in OT. But Babych literally kept their season alive. Our homeboy needs to respect that veteran D leadership. Like Doug Lidster with his two Stanley Cups after being discarded by the Canucks like last week's prostitute.
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There were two seasons with Bure and Mogilny before Messier was brought in. In the first one, Bure played 15 games. They still made the playoffs and had a decent series against the eventual champs Colorado. This was with no Bure at all. The next season they made the big mistake of letting Cliff Ronning go. The opposite of needing change...they made detrimental change when they should have held fast. They missed the playoffs by one spot. Bure missed a quarter of the season and also had an off year. Babych was very good, 2nd on the team in D scoring and just barely behind Lumme. The team had a developing Naslund on his way up. They missed the playoffs by one spot with the worst Bure had ever played and losing Ronning. All they had to do was keep Ronning and they would have been in the playoffs. Instead they miss by one spot, Messier is brought in over the summer, and the rest is history. Your points about players not liking each other may be valid but Linden and Bure had always coexisted and it worked out like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It was the US vs. Canadian dollars in Bure's contract that seemed to be the issue that really soured him on everything. Anyway you are saying they were in desperate need of change. I think if they just keep Ronning and stay the course they would have been in pretty decent shape. They had new talent ascending in Naslund, Walker and Aucoin. I think it was looking pretty good. And that's not mentioning that coaching wasn't helping matters during these two seasons. One year was Rick Ley and the other was rookie Tom Renney.
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Don't disagree with you too often but not only am I not really embarrassed for Ottawa, but I would consider a banner in the rafters for the Vancouver Millionaires cup win. Not as an attempt to piggyback on them but just to honor the accomplishment of that team. It is a great achievement and where else would it be honored or how else would new generations be inspired to learn about that team or those players. And while I certainly can accept the Orca...I am ready to go back to the 94 jerseys permanently at the drop of a hat.
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I have seen everybody get traded over the years and had little problem with it and certainly no problem decades later. Tony Tanti, Richard Brodeur, Curt Fraser, Garth Butcher, Barry Pederson, Cam Neely, Patrik Sundstrom, Kevin Bieksa, Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Burrows, Roberto Luongo, Dennis Ververgaert, Don Lever, etc., etc. I have watched the team move on from Harold Snepsts, Stan Smyl, Markus Naslund, Thomas Gradin, Doug Lidster, Ron Sedlbauer, Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall, Rick Lanz, Doug Halward, Kevin McCarthy, Petri Skriko, Tiger Williams, etc., etc. I have never seen a roster get driven out of their own locker room like in the Messier-Keenan years at any other point in my life. And Babych had plenty of good hockey left. His career only ended when the Flyers or Kings doctors screwed up his foot. Also, you say the team certainly needed change. But it wasn't in dire need of change before the arrival of Messier.
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I don't have to get over it. I have never seen a more disgraceful treatment of a roster in all of my years of watching sports. I have never before or since seen a team eaten apart from inside like that. It wasn't just Linden. It was McLean, Odjick, Babych... As to how the blame should be apportioned between Keenan and Messier...I don't know. 50/50 is fine with me.
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I was fine with it. It made sense under the circumstances and the Canucks used a roster spot for it so it came at a cost.
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Yeah nothing has ever come close to as bad as the Messier years and the forced exodus of the actual Canucks roster. I figure that's what the Roman Empire must have been like under Commodus or Nero.
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Congrats to Gino! BC Sports Hall of Fame
Kevin Biestra replied to -DLC-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
I always liked Anderson but that would have been funny. It would have been like a bear mauling video. -
[Report] Jason Spezza announces retirement
Kevin Biestra replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
Great player but I wouldn't have him in the HOF, though he's not that far off. I have several players ahead of him who aren't in the HOF...Brian Propp, Bernie NIcholls, Pierre Turgeon, Jeremy Roenick, Dave Taylor, Rod Brind'Amour, Rick Middleton, John Tonelli, Steve Larmer, Bobby Smith, Reggie Leach, etc. Possibly Charlie Simmer, Rene Robert, Rick Martin, Tim Kerr, Kirk Muller and Pete Mahovlich. That's just forwards... -
2022 Jack Adams Award finalists unveiled
Kevin Biestra replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
Pretty sure it has never happened. But there is a pretty good case for Bruce this year anyway in my books. Wouldn't be surprised if it's revealed that he got a reasonable number of votes when it all shakes out. -
I prefer the first round exits. Except for 1982 that's what Canucks life was during the 70s and 80s and up to their division championship years in the 90s. An appetizer is better than starvation.
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2022 Frank J. Selke Trophy finalists unveiled
Kevin Biestra replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
I'm not saying those stats are the be all and end all but I thought it would be better than my saying "yeah he looks really good when he plays." -
2022 Frank J. Selke Trophy finalists unveiled
Kevin Biestra replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in General Hockey Discussion
His faceoff win% in each of the last two years has been 62%. His lowest faceoff win % in the last 12 years is 56.6%, which would be a career year for most centers. He has been +20 or better in +/- in 9 of the last 12 seasons and is +254 for his career (3rd among all active players). Guy is the real deal. -
Yeah this is a situation where I guess he could retire...but it would more or less be a Ray Bourque retirement where he was still right near the top of his game. That was damn near the only retirement I saw where there was absolutely minimal age related decline and certainly no signs that the decision was anywhere close to being made for him. Maybe him and Patrick Roy. There were retirements due to injuries still at their peaks like Bossy but that's a different thing. I guess Ken Dryden.
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To be fair to the Canucks, plenty of teams now have had most of their history with three point games where the Canucks did not. And much of the Canucks' existence was spent in the Smythe with Edmonton and Calgary. If I looked at the history in context I would say more than 2 teams are worse for sure...but the Canucks also don't have the greatest history of success.
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I hope so man. We could be on the precipice of greatness...or we could be where the Leafs are around 1982 with Vaive and Derlago and other stars on the rise before going nowhere, or in the 70s with Salming and Sittler seeming ready to lead the way to greatness like we hope from Pettersson and Hughes. We could be where the Wild were back when Parise and Suter seemed like perhaps their Pettersson and Hughes...ultimately bought out of their contracts after achieving nothing as a team.
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Hey the Leafs suck man. Their fans and media cram down our throats a team that hasn't been to the final in over half a century and not once since league only had six teams. The last time they made the final, the league only had six bloody teams. That's pathetic. The Canucks hadn't even joined the league yet. But the Canucks since 2012 are in a turtle derby for worst team in the league over the last decade...it's like we're a six hundred pound dude that can't get off his couch, the Leafs are a five hundred pound dude that can kind of roll his way to the bathroom, and we're on the couch laughing at the Leafs for waddling slowly down the hallways while we pee all over the couch because we can't stand up.