Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Maniwaki Canuck

Members
  • Posts

    3,900
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Maniwaki Canuck

  1. Fair comment: I am assuming he'll do well in the dot, and yes, that's unproven. Still, even in the Arizona game you mention he was 2nd best after Bonino, albeit at 40%. Fact is nearly all of our centres have been abysmal in the dot so far, which makes Horvat relatively better, even when he's bad in absolute terms. Faceoffs are starting to look like an achille's heel for us, and are going to affect the team's game pretty negatively if they don't improve soon.
  2. I was skeptical about Horvat lasting beyond 9 games, but after the Canucks' terrible performance on faceoffs last night, it's hard to see him getting sent down. With him in the lineup, there are 3 credible guys on the draw and platoon possibilities between Vey, Matthais and Bonino to keep them all on their strong side when taking draws. So I'm won over to Bo as 4C for the year and am looking forward to watching him find his feet in the league.
  3. Whether or not Bo sticks beyond 9 games likely has to do with how the other centres perform in the dot. If Bonino, Vey and Matthais are at 50% or close on draws, that's probably good enough given the other things they contribute. If they are 45% or lower, that's a real concern, and makes Horvat look more necessary. On the other hand, if we have no secondary scoring early on, it's more likely bo goes down and Jensen or Shinkaruk come back up. Whatever happens will be about the team's needs, and rightly so.
  4. An AHL conditioning stint would be ideal for him at this point. Remember how long Salo was burried on one during the beginning of 2011? We did some fine cap chicanery with our D that year. No reason why we can't bend some other rules this year!
  5. And that's a huge concern that goes well beyond this particular pick. This is the neanderthal version of the "Boston model", a prejudice against skill that means you don't even consider certain players because they're not big and violent. Sorry, but I'm not interested in that kind of hockey.
  6. You could well be right, and if so, I don't like it, but it is looking that way.
  7. Wrong, he absolutely would have to clear waivers, and wouldn't. It's a huge dilemma, and a big part of the reason Florida was willing to give him up.
  8. I am fine with it personally, but it's pretty clear from what we got back in the Kesler deal that Benning is trying to compete next year. If so, he will probably try to land a UFA starter. But I hope Edmonton and others outbid him for Hiller, Miller, etc. Lack was really good for most of last year, and wasn't responsible single-handedly for more than a couple of losses. He'll be better this year. We can't send Markstrom down without passing through waivers and losing him, so either we keep him up or move him for very little. I'd prefer to keep and develop him under Melanson. If we get a UFA starter, the other alternative is to move Lack, which will get a better return, but still not a good one. Either way, we lose big on the asset management front. And there's always Eriksson in Utica if Lack and Markstrom can't get the job done. I'd rather let our 3 top prospects in goal sort it out next year, and as a worst case scenario, take the chance on sucking in a good draft year.
  9. Totally with you on this, Absent, but we're going to have to get over it and move on.
  10. Hate this pick but I hope he proves me wrong. I'm not sure that hockey IQ is something you can learn, but we better hope so in this case. Winnipeg and Toronto can't believe their luck, and it's hard to blame them.
  11. Completely agree. I wonder what the cost to move up to 2nd or 3rd overall would be, since we might very well get Reinhart there. If it's something like 6th and 36th overall, that might be worth it, especially if we end up with some later 1st round picks from the Kesler deal.
  12. Shinkaruk + 6th (Ehlers, Nylander, Ritchie, hell, even Virtanen) >>> Reinhart. Who is going to score for us? All the pressure falls on Jensen, and while I like him, I don't think he can carry the full load.
  13. Umm, you might want to actually read the article, which strongly argues for Ehlers over Virtanen.
  14. Not out of the question if the other pieces going to Florida aren't too significant.
  15. This doesn't get said enough: the guy works his tail off, is totally single-minded about what it takes to win, and is plenty smart too. All the ignorant comments about coat-tailing on Drouin are well, ignorant.
  16. Good article for sure. I particularly like that it used Virtanen as a foil for Ehlers, since that contrast has pretty much been the litmus test for forward vs. backward thinking on these boards. Interesting how it makes the same points using analytics that many of us have made using the eye-test. Ehlers is going to be the real deal and for me, the only question is whether he's still available at 6.
  17. Personally I'd like to see us use the cap space from the contracts of Booth and Kesler to (1) resign Santorelli, (2) sign a center like Grabovski, ROR or Stasny, (3) make a smart bargain-basement forward signing.
  18. This can only mean they are optimistic about getting something done with a free agent or two, which is great. If they can move Kesler for high-end picks and prospect, and backfill with a quality free agent, we're well ahead of the rebuild game.
  19. Mine too. Ehlers has that rare combination of high-end skill and high-end speed we haven't had since Bure. I hope we keep the 6th pick and don't package it with Horvat or something stupid like that to move up for Reinhart, who is good, but not that good. Unless I miss my guess, though, Nylander is going to go top 5, which will bump a safer prospect than Ehlers down to #6. I still hope we go for the home run with Ehlers, but won't be shocked if we don't. This team desperately needs offensive skill right now and it would be stupid to waste a high pick on a safe 2-way player when we already have several of them coming up.
  20. Absolutely so. Putting players in a position to succeed has not been our trademark, to put it kindly.
  21. Lol. So what's Virtanen's, Dumb and Dumber?
  22. When Julien mentioned "Boston Strong" he must have meant the reek coming out of Lucic's cave.
×
×
  • Create New...