iceman64

lmao! it wasn't written by Vancouver media at all.. YOU don't give up do you, go have a look at hockeydb and a ton of others are too professional to be written in Vancouver by the bush league media and I'd never quote ANYTHING written by them! but nice try though. So again, how long have you known him? Have you followed him a long time before he showed up in Van? Or do you refuse to answer that question still?

So you knew him all his life and those were just rumours made up from some schmuck from hockey db and other sites who professionally write?

Do you even read about incoming players and their traits? it's well known he has a temper problem. That's a mind issue (lack of maturity) that needs to be addressed but let's hope it gets taken care of and it helps him along. We can't afford another JV..

no no, just Canadian fans...

I wouldn't be so sure... he's got lots of talent BUT he's like JV and needs to tame his mind first and if he does, he'll be a better than average player in the NHL but if not, another JV...

We could use a Bure right now, speaking of generational talent that was a threat to score almost every time his skates hit the ice and an elbow that made hockey news for a reason... I saw that game, it sent a pretty strong message that you don't mess with the lil Russian rocket built like a tank and skate like the wind itself almost making it look effortless and looking like a kid walking into his first candy store with his pockets filled with money! That kid loved to score! and so much fun watching him turn top dmen inside out and goalies looking embarrassed the way he made them look.

I'm not sure about the momentum loss will make that much of a difference, seems like everyone is in a good confident mood but I'll guess we'll soon see..

I'd rather have him out against the right guys who need to be shut down, when he's on his game he's THAT guy when it's more important he helps keep the puck out of Demko's net against the leagues top players, it'd be a bonus to have him score more but it'll happen as it's not for lack of effort ala "unnamed player" (I still hate that guy) lol and probably always will but like motte, he's got a motor and then some.. I still wonder if motte's scoring touch went on strike or something, misses the net by rushing a shot when he has time to shoot.. don't know what that's about, I'd say rust but he's been back for awhile... idk .

He still needs to improve his reads but he's gotten noticably better but that will come with time. The only other thing I can think of is his passing choices, sometimes does longer higher risk passes when shorter low risk passes move the puck out safer but the rest of the D has struggled there too with the same thing and missing stretch passes more often than not but overall it's getting there as well and thennnnn there's our boy Demko being there game in game out but we can't keep depending on him standing on his head all the time. D has to get better along with a 200 ft game by everyone. How long will it take to get there? now there's a good question. Meh.. anyway, Hughie is still young and will get better. Have no doubt he's nowhere close to his end potential.

Well we need tougher competition to show where we are as a team, i.e. Tampa Colorado etc.. making the playoffs with a team with little to no depth would get anything but wear and tear because obviously we're not a cup contender without upgrades that may or may not be available to us for awhile.

I disagree, we saw some mistakes from the team being switched to new systems and practicing would clean that up.. make us better..

I hope it gives the Ref's time to practice too, because they SUCK!!!

meh we're 6 games into a 57 game win streak, we got this!

Well IF the team isn't practicing then yes it could be a set back but if we're holding full practices I think it do nothing but good, with so many players in and out through the last few seasons including this one, we needed the time to practice more anyway. This could be a total blessing in disguise. (However I need hockey!!!) Withdrawals are a biotch!

worse has been seeing hockey games with fans with no masks on at all, nor anyone policing it obviously, but you'd think it would be strict to show the organization is doing there best to comply so the government doesn't shut it down completely or at least give it a hard second thought before deciding on a verdict to shut it down or not...

I'm just happy we have any hockey at all...

an ex vez at 30 years old, for 1-1.5? ummm probably not, and that's still in him, when a guy like that comes back to life it can be golden IF it works out and it didn't except to help Demko on his game.. Demko acknowledged that on interview so if that helped Demko in any way to who he is today then it was worth it... That guy is rockin the show...

Ok and I'd fire whoever made that mistake especially short and long term faces at that moment, Hughes and Alien needed signing, what amount was unknown, Demko too, Bo and Brock to follow and upgrade D and Forward but needing a guy over 30 and banged up, with a potential top 6 breaking out closing in on 20 goals and some muscle and size at less money and fail that a blue chip prospect in Podz and fail that, making a trade for OEL but Garland in case something goes wrong with Podz so a safe bet to take a gamble on instead of 2 older beat up D as much as we all love them and despise them in a flamers jersey it was the right move especially with Hughes making huge steps and Demko and Holts/Halak are cheaper either way, so he let them go. With no 10 mil more cap space, I certainly hope that Bo and Brock don't price themselves out of our roster since there's only so much cap and we can only dump so much to get them to fit without sacrifice somewhere else, there was a lot to it but it for sure got us in the right direction but if we toughen up our team and get our D sorted then we can actually take on teams like Colorado, FLA etc and have at least a fighting chance albeit and outside one not to get laughed out of the rink with a 7-1 score.. No JB didn't do some things right I agree but at least we're not far off.. P.S. Luongo 3.3 mil gone at seasons end! We will definately need every penny!

ok back to square one, Holtby was on par with his teams declining D, not as good as it was, shots against went up but OV and co. matched and bettered shots for so they remained strong like you said BUT when shots against goes up and then the goalies numbers match then obviously it's less his fault and more on the team and on top of that, it's not like he didn't have a cup ring and a vezina under his belt but like you said, and we both agree upon that our D has been taking a beating waiting for an upgrade but seriously as much as I loved Tanev, Edler and Toffoli, all three were a step away from redundant which we still can't afford to this day. Oh and Markstrom too. And c'mon, for once in a LONG time of Tanev's career he manages not to have a year without a long layoff due to a injury or 3 has zero to do with style of play, and if you watched his comments on his injuries, a lot he chalked up to simple bad luck but even so he's beat up and has been for some time... taking out 4 years of a risk under those circumstances? not something I'd do. Yeah Jimbo made mistakes but that wasn't one of them... and Podz on his ELC is working out just fine so Toffi didn't need to be signed at all.

excuse me, actually Holtby did ok actually under the circumstances of the D needing major upgrades on 2 aging Dmen who could only be counted on when healthy and were injured a LOT.. Look no one would have let Toffi walk if they had the extra money to make it happen, I bet JB would have offered him 5 mil, exactly how much the cap should have rose but that AND not knowing what Petey and Hughie were going to be asking and on top of it wanting to go after OEL and Garland (in case JV or Podz didn't work out so can you sort of see the reasoning behind it? Plus give it another 2-3 seasons and a top pairing D will be a lot higher than OEL.. that's a given so at least JB had some method in his thinking that gave us a real top pairing D, not just a guy like Hughes who has the potential to be that..

Actually If that was true, we wouldn't see any top 3 picks become busts, not because of scientific reasons but emotional ones.. and you and I have both seen it in JV, he had all the tools and physicality to become a top tier top 6 player but not in the head which is pretty hard to judge with a 18 year old and for the record, I don't agree JB was some drafting Guru either, I doubt he'd even call himself that and all he'd say is some worked and some didn't... Any GM would say that because it's true.

well first let's use OEL as an example, he struggled before he got here.. but still a top pairing guy.. Holtby same thing as any player and any GM will tell you the exact same thing but they wouldn't have to but JB did that with Demko over Markstrom and it worked out great. You win some, you lose some.. I agree with your saying you can only do so much before throwing a player away but at the same time, when a player starts to turn the corner you might say alright, one more shot and that's the ONLY reason I'd do the same and I would have. And JB said he would have kept Toffoli if not for the cap remaining flat.. and I'd have let him go too knowing I had two shots at players who would have been signed for cheaper in JV and even cheaper in Podz on ELC.. All he was doing was trying to juggle cap until covid lifted and cap space raising and Roberto off the books.. you can see the logic in it even if you'd have done it a different way, I didn't like everything he did either but it wasn't all as bad as some made it out to be..

Sorry had to jump in on this, say Demko wouldn't have done as well? Holts is hardly just a 1B guy, on his game he could have easily stepped in for an entire season, Virtanen was someone we already had invested in and it was only covid that really ended up with us losing Toffi, well the majority of it, but the 5 mil + expected for cap raise before covid hit was the difference and JV had shown a lot better until his lack of maturity caught up with him but either way it's was a gamble that Podz would show up and take a roster spot on a ELC so we should have been sitting a lot better plus another 5 mil or more for the 2nd year which we never got and then getting dinged for Luongo's 3 mil until the end of the this season would have had money for better players at the end of this season even with Bo and Brock needing raises..

It wasn't a cop out question, I asked for exactly that answer, a lot of people are quick to say if this had been done or that had of been done or or or.. at the end of the day even the best GM's will say some of this comes down to a lot of educated guess work and even then there's a lot of risk in anything done. So as easily as some have said just do this or that, and not considering what goes into it as a whole and not see how insanely difficult it is. So a quick comment not aimed at you actually but to any ass clown who thinks it's just that easy and throw a jersey on the ice is nothing but low class and downright embarrassing as the riots were, it's sure going to do more to try and entice players to come here right? This is what has me the most pissed, especially since everything from the state of the team was when JB showed up to inherit one of the worst teams in the league that could be best to be described as broken and beyond any quick fix with that many players locked in and a portion of Luongo's cap retained on top of it and at least he had the balls to try and change a team that had done nothing but 2 Cinderella shows with no depth.. all JB got was a screwed team emotionally and contractually a sh_t show. Personally I would have turned down the offer even if I were thrown all the $ I wanted, no way! and especially Vancouver with the fan base and media... what a joke... So are we still going to settle for a mediocre/good regular season team that will never win a cup? Probably... it's exciting for 80 ish games and a quick bounce out in the first round as usual but that's nothing new..

With the contracts we still had on from 2012 which had next to zero depth to begin with would have been a challenge to anyone stepping in as GM after Gillis signed long term including Louie, and been paying that for years. So Benning wasn't perfect BUT I'd ask what you would have done in his position and taking into account that Canada is a second class destination to begin with opposed to LA NY etc.. Oh and for Tanev, 2 things, so if you go back and see how many seasons he had injury free in the last 10 years, I bet you find not one and on top of that, some seasons he had more than one... just because he had a year he was actually healthy for a change doesn't mean he's not beat up and aging, which equals a bigger risk and that goes for Edler as well.