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-AJ-

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Everything posted by -AJ-

  1. It's called nuance. I think they are extremely similar, but I'm not so hyperbolic as to deny any differences whatsoever. The numbers 4500 and 4501 are different and I could explain how they are different, but they are also very similar. Make sense? Try avoiding snarky comments and you may enjoy summertime on CDC a bit more.
  2. One thing to note is that his shooting percentage was very high at 18.9%. Normally, I'd suggest he'll fall back down to his mean, but amazingly, he was even higher in 2020-21 at 19.8%. Might just be the case that he's a pure sniper.
  3. Not the kind of guy who actually attends games, but the lower cost of Abbotsford games, while still allowing for a close connection to the Vancouver Canucks has made me split an 18-ticket flex pack with my best friend, so I'll be going to nine games this year! Excited to actually get to know the Abby boys better this year. In case anyone still doubted that a team in Abbotsford could work if they were a Vancouver affiliate instead of a Calgary one, I'm exhibit A. Pretty sure I only attended two or three Heat games in their entire tenure.
  4. I don't totally disagree, but here are my thoughts: 1. On the face-offs, I do agree, though the sample size is fairly small for both guys, so we'll see how that plays out in the future. 2. On offense, you're correct, though MacEwen did score 6 points in 17 games with Vancouver in 2019-20, though 17 games is a small sample. If we're looking at 2021-22 alone, Joshua was almost certainly the better player offensively. 3. Both hits per game amounts are very high, so I don't think that points out too much of a difference, though it is still clear that Joshua hits more. MacEwen was actually used in a more defensive role in Philadelphia than Joshua in St. Louis, getting only 35.5% oZS, whereas Joshua saw average usage with 49.1%. Both players had acceptable CORSI levels given their usage. Neither play spent any significant time on the PK. Another notable difference is that Joshua doesn't take as many penalties as MacEwen, which could be good or bad depending on your perspective. MacEwen had 12 major penalties last year, most of which I'm assuming were fights. Joshua (30 games vs 75 games) had 2 major penalties. If you like fights, then you will prefer MacEwen here. However, on the other hand, MacEwen also took 20 minor penalties in 75 games. Joshua was much more responsible, only taking 3 minor penalties in his 30 games. If you want a big hitter who doesn't cross the line, Joshua is your guy. If you're out for blood no matter the cost, MacEwen is your man. I have no issue with Joshua and love the addition, but I'm irked when fans immediately turn on a player as soon as he leaves the team, suddenly realizing all their faults. I had no issue with him being risked on waivers and while a little disappointed, was not crushed when he was claimed, but that still doesn't mean I need to defend our guys over him to the death.
  5. Very interesting. Will be a steal if he can continue to put up 30+ goals, though his assist totals are lacking.
  6. How do you find them to be different? They are about a month apart in age, both play centre, both play less than 10 minutes a game, and both have a notable physical element to their game.
  7. I liked MacEwen, but as others have mentioned, even though he played more games in Philly, his minutes were extremely limited and Philly wasn't exactly a great team. He's 13th forward on most teams, and Joshua fits that role in probably the exact same way. They are nearly identical players, though Joshua has less experience so far.
  8. Roger Takahashi was our strength and conditioning coach for many years if I recall, but I think he was let go.
  9. 7th on the team in blocked shots, but 1st of all Bruins forwards, like I said. Usually, both hits and blocks are pretty highly correlated with poor possession numbers, which is why it is good to look at a more complete picture when assessing stats, but Lazar's possession metrics are still pretty solid. There's no doubt his competition level wasn't overly impressive, given his minutes, but it does seem like he played pretty well as a 4th line guy last year. That said, I said similar things of Dickinson from his last year in Dallas and for whatever reason, his play completely evaporated when he arrived in Vancouver, so we can only hope the same doesn't happen to Lazar.
  10. Actually such a beautiful goal. Definitely agree with the top comment on the video: "If Auston Matthews did this, Sportsnet would use a different superlative than 'nifty'."
  11. Yeah Bertuzzi and Bure was instantly my thought. Basically Mario Lemieux. Another good one would be Willie Mitchell or Mattias Ohlund and Quinn Hughes.
  12. Top early to tell. If Miller is gone, I'd say our chances are definitely sub 50%, but with him here, it's probably around 55-60% I'd say.
  13. It's hard to be certain, but Miller had more than double the number of short-handed faceoffs as the next highest player (Horvat), so it's likely he was playing C in that role on the PK. The next highest minute forward on the PK was Tyler Motte, so they were likely a pair until Motte left and seems to probably have been replaced by either Lammikko or Dickinson, though I can't actually recall the lines from watching games.
  14. Here are my two cents: 1. Bo is the only one that has, uh, consistently played center in the NHL. JT has mostly not, hopefully Petey eventually will. All this goes to show is that he's most used as a centre, not that he's the best. 2. Bo has been relegated to "shutdown centre" duties because he is the only one that CAN play that role. Bo is the only one that plays as a true 200 ft center, Petey likely will eventually, JT will not. Doesn't mean Bo is not a top line center. When given the chance (as JT was) he will dominate on a top line. I would tend to disagree with this notion. Miller played more PK time than any other forward on the team and his PP GA/60 was better than Horvat's. Although Pettersson didn't start out playing on the PK, he did by the end of the year and he had very impressive results, with an insanely low PP GA/60 of 3.63 (for reference, Miller's is 8.61 and Horvat's is 10.89). The one place you have some degree of a case is that Horvat appears to be used more defensively in 5v5 situations than either Pettersson or Miller, with a 43.4% OZ%. Still, overall, Miller blocks more shots than Horvat and both Miller and Pettersson have more takeaways than Horvat. Horvat is a face-off legend at this point, though Miller also holds very impressive faceoff numbers. Pettersson has a lot of space to grow there. 3. Bo scored the same amount of goals last year, while being utilized in a defensive role with offensively inferior partners. JT and Petey generally play with our most prolific goal scorers (including each other). JT crushed the assists and deserves credit for beautiful playmaking last year, but it should be obvious that it's hard to rack up assists when consistently paired with non-goal scorers. I would contend that Horvat was our best goal-scorer last year, on pace for 36 goals. His goals-per-game was the highest of any Canuck (min 30 games/season) since Brock Boeser in his rookie year. I would agree with you on the goal aspect, but I do think assists are still a valuable stat and he didn't get as many of those. There is a chance that, as you mentioned, line mates played a role here. 4. JT and Petey often play (and are at their best) on the same line. How does that work for centers? Sometimes Petey will be "playing center" while JT takes the faceoffs. So, for a fair comparison to Bo, JT and Petey would have to make a baby together, and hope that he becomes a pure center of Bo's caliber that can do it all. Don't fully understand this point, so I can't really comment. 5. Consistency. Comparing by age (first year in the league, second, etc), Bo has consistently outperformed JT in the NHL, while playing for a horrible team. Petey blows them away for early years. While this is mostly true, it falls apart starting this year. Bo Horvat just played his 8th season this year and had 52 points in 70 games. In Miller's 8th season, he scored over a point-per-game in his first year as a Canuck with 72 points in 69 games, a level Horvat has never been very close to. Additionally, this completely ignores the expected future results of Horvat as he plays more years. Do we expect Horvat to break out like Miller and begin scoring a point-per-game and even above? I think it is probably unrealistic to expect as much and thus, this point somewhat falls short due the current differences in length of their careers. 6. Handsome-ness. This one is tough. Petey could be seen as pretty-but not handsome-while Bo and JT are both dreamy in a rugged, farmboy kind of way. I give JT a slight edge here. No argument here.
  15. Love the poise from Hughes. So fun to have a defenseman like him on our team.
  16. I maintain that he's a pretty underrated defenseman, but regardless, he's not worth $9.5M, so his value is probably negative to almost every team, despite his value as a player alone (outside of salary cap implications). If he were to be traded at full cap hit, he would be negative value. It's possible that the Hawks just add a bunch of assets to fully lose his contract, but it would be more likely that they retain a couple million or so, making his value closer to fair.
  17. if Demko ties his number of wins last year (33 wins), he'll launch from 7th to 5th (one win ahead of Markstrom) amongst Canuck goaltenders and get to exactly 100 wins as a Canuck. Jumping to 4th would require another 9 wins and would involve him passing Dan Cloutier's 109 wins, but that would require a herculean 42-win season from Demko, which isn't entirely impossible, but very unlikely.
  18. To be fair, they were pretty exciting in 1974-75. It wasn't totally unreasonable that they would follow in the steps of the Sabres and Flyers.
  19. I would like nothing more than for him to show growth and make a big comeback.
  20. I've found that I was in the minority that really liked the Reebok designs.
  21. Reminds me of when Gretzky called the Devils a "Mickey Mouse Organization". I wonder if the Coyotes could ever see that sort of turnaround?
  22. Is a buyout mutual? I figured the Canucks made the decision, not the two of them together.
  23. Wonder who will replace them. CCM is the logical choice--I'm not sure if there other good options out there. Adidas sold CCM in 2017, so I think they're independent now.
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