Kragar

Is her name Blu Jin? Maybe they could go dancin' in the street, and bring that back into fashion?

Maybe he was under pressure?

Was looking something up on him and found a couple impressive things... he's tied (not sure if McD or someone else broke it since) Gretzky and Coffey's team record for 8 pts in a game, and then next game broke Gretzky's team record of consecutive points, at 11.

Makes sense. I can adjust my prediction above... if Brock finds his way back to form, that could balance things out and perhaps keep Kuzmenko under 50. Good news for the team if it happens.

Agreed! To add, we had 4 guys in top 50 scoring, 6 in the top 150 (7 if you count Horvat's Canuck points), so well better than average on that front, too. Offense wasn't the problem, looking at the season as a whole. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, but it is hard to do. They were quite high going into last year as I rode the Boudreau wave from the previous year, and while I feel better about Tocchet (despite not wanting him here to begin with), I will have that nagging worry that the team will let us down again... until they don't But, with just some minor improvements over last year (which it seems were/are being made), it's not unreasonable for Petey and Kuz each hitting 50 goals. If Kuz was a real sophomore, I could see decent odds of a slump, but since he's entering (in?) his prime years I'm not worried about him. More worried about what his output will do to his next contract, but that's far enough down the road for now. Damn I want hockey back (winning hockey). Been watching some highlights from last year over the last week or so to tide me through, including this one today:

Connor Bedard's Master Plan (work in progress) Step One: get out of Chicago

Well, that will give the sports media something new to talk about.

McD? If he left some on the table, it wasn't much. He made up almost 16% of the max cap when he signed at 12.5.

Well, he could have left a little money on the table to allow an upgrade. Oh, wait, this is the Oilers. Forget it

And now Detroit has Holl, so they can steal the Leafs secrets

Thanks for clarifying my 90% comment. That did seem high to me, but I had no idea how to confirm rather than going game by game, and that was a little too tedious for me, as I'm putting that detail level into getting ready for my football draft Sustainability is often a question. Even prior to Tocchet, our shorties rate seemed to improve after BB took over, putting Petey and other offensive talents on the PK. Now it seems we have a better system under Tocchet, and a better lineup to do it with. Does the improved roster remove the need/desire for Petey+ putting in the same PK time? If the team overall improves, and we aren't losing so often, does the game script suggest a defensive PK more often than we did last year? Just hoping for a far better season, all told. These past few years have been tough to take.

IIRC, we had the top (or near top) PK in the league... after BB was unceremoniously let go. Saw a post somewhere that after Tocchet came aboard and Demko was back, we had 90% PK rate. We were just in such a big hole from the first half that it was harder to see. Some of that might be due to the new coach bump, but since it is on the defensive side of the game, I think it could have better longevity than Bruce's impact. If it wasn't luck/adrenaline after all, and considering our new teammates, the PK could be one of the best in the league this year. Mikheyev's money covered Pearson and Sutter. He replaced two, not four. If he can stay healthy, he can produce more than either of them as well. Seems like a big "if", but it is what it is.

Hopefully good enough to be a bubble team for a few years, so they can get some mediocre draft slots. Solid D should keep them from completely crapping the bed, keeping them out of the running for a top-5 pick in the near future.

Thanks. I've never spent much time tracking juniors, so this is good info.

Thanks, been watching this, almost done. Decent documentary. Kinda funny to see Rupp involved in this, after seeing him so often on NHL Network.

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's a pretty fine line. But we don't need to come to any consensus here. Thanks for clarifying your point. I am curious what kind of impact this will have on the quality of players getting into the league. Will those from the Q be considered lacking toughness and be ill-prepared for the bigs, and need more seasoning in the AHL? Will they have longer careers, suffering less from concussions on average? Will they be targeted more often? Interesting experiment, at least. This news reminded me of an old joke, involving people marching in the shade. I won't take that any further here though, as it may not be widely appreciated

If you toss a player for fighting (your point #1), isn't that effectively a ban?

I can see them taking their time, and not correct it all at once, but IIRC, it's about the same start date as last year. There's still progress to be made. Get started earlier, and cut down on rhe amount of hockey in June already.

No lack of frustration there! Cheers.

Through his three years with the Canucks where he played over 50 games, Baer was 4th, 4th, and 5th in shot blocking for Canuck forwards. Of the 10 instances where another forward got more, 8 of them played more games than Baer. Not too much of a slouch there, IMO. He was a small player, so generally being on the lower end of hitting or fighting isn't much of a surprise. It seems that your opinion of one-dimensionality isn't shared by all here, perhaps not even by many. Baer wasn't a star, but he was good enough to make it in the door and keep a job. Just not sturdy (or lucky?) enough to keep it. Edit: meant to include a link to a cool stat site I hadn't used before - https://www.moneypuck.com/stats.htm

And, rather than start a new thread, I thought it best to ask here: when are they gonna get back in the normal schedule, where they start near the beginning of October? I know Covid messed things up (rightfully) for a couple years, but they should have at least been able to start on time now.

Does ESPN+ work up there? I've been happy with it, and IIRC it was 9 USD per month, and I still get the Canuck feed most of the time (typically not when they play a Cdn team).

Been trying to come up with something to express my disgust here. All I can do is shake my head and try to keep my dinner down. What a nutbag (her, not you of course)

They've been holding out hope for years he would unretire, and they finally gave up waiting