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

Baggins

Members
  • Posts

    11,793
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

Everything posted by Baggins

  1. Petey, Miller, Horvat, Sutter, Beagle, Motte. There's six others already on the roster that play center. Although I agree Jake is more likely to be moved than Gauds, either could be expendable.
  2. The truth is most questions fans would want asked they wouldn't be willing to answer publicly anyway. Question: "What are you going to do about Louie"? Answer: "We'll being looking at our options on all our players moving forward". The media knows the questions they just won't answer. In a situation like this where they only get to ask one question they're not going to waste it asking a question they know won't be answered. No management team is going to lay out their entire strategy as it can affect contract negotiations and trade opportunities.
  3. I have previously given Jake credit for improved effort in his own end. But like most of his game, he's inconsistent there as well. My problem is after 5 NHL seasons the song remains the same: inconsistent play and effort. There's been improvement, but not enough considering how long he's had to buy in and round out his game. I agree the kid could be a great middle six player if he just bought in and made the effort. But how many years do you wait for that penny to drop?
  4. Nobody in management claimed we were a contender. That's the tanker crowd's false narrative. The only contending Linden and Benning ever mentioned was for a playoff spot saying if you get in anything can happen. As far as I'm concerned that should be the goal every season. I don't believe in setting your team up to lose before the season even starts. Why would I bother to buy a ticket to watch that? I wouldn't even go out of my way to watch that on TV. So far contracts have been manageable. Seriously, what valuable youth did we give up? As far as I'm concerned we're no longer rebuilding. We're in adjustment mode with a pretty decent prospect pool.
  5. I don't think you get it. Getting players to play a responsible two way game does come at the expense of some offense. But what's the point of having a 50 goal scorer if he's the reason you give up 100 goals? Why do you think Yzerman was cut from Team Canada in '87 & '91 despite being a 100+ point player? He didn't like playing the defensive side of the game. His production dropped when he finally did but Detroit also started winning cups and he went on to be considered one of the best centers in the league. Everybody wants to score, but floating defensively doesn't help you win.
  6. He had 3 great games after a pretty average season (.905 S% 3.06 GAA). I wouldn't be willing to hand over the reigns based on three games. I definitely wouldn't let our MVP walk for nothing if you don't have to. That's just plain stupid. Re-sign Marky and make a decision during the season at earliest. We've seen the value of a dynamic goalie duo before.
  7. I've been preaching patience for Jake since his first season but I'm at the point that he's expendable. First with Willie and now with Travis they've been trying to get him to play the way Motte does. That's five seasons now and he either lacks the smarts or lacks the commitment. Possibly both. Motte creates scoring opportunities by being hard on the forecheck, hard on the backcheck, and finishing checks. Motte's speed and aggressive style is part of what makes him a good PK'er. Plus he's good positionally, times his shot blocking well, and is good at the poke check. Jake just doesn't seem to have those skills. I honestly wasn't surprised to see Motte was getting more ES ice time than Jake in the playoffs. Despite a lesser shooting skill, he has that 100% commitment to playing hard that Jake seems to lack. I wouldn't put Jake on the PK either purely because he doesn't play in his own end well enough at ES to have any confidence he could do it well shorthanded.
  8. Rate the players since the play-ins: Pettersson: A+ - 100% effort with no fear. Miller: A - Leads by example. Hand injury hampered him against Vegas. Toffoli: B - Even injured makes an impact Horvat: A - Oh captain, my captain. Exceeded expectations Pearson: C+ - Constant two way effort but needed more results Boeser: C+ - Same as Pearson Roussel: C - Wasn't bad but a little disappointing Sutter: B - Delivered what's expected despite a wrist injury. Gaudette: D - Wasn't awful but no points in 10 games is a disappointment. Not good enough defensively to compensate production. Motte: A+ Plays the way you want in bottom six and contributed offensively Beagle: C - Hoped for more. Played well enough for his role. Virtanen: C - Scored a couple of timely goals. Has all the skills to play like Motte with more skill but lacks the commitment Macewen: C - Made mistakes but was decent for his role Edit to include this guy: Eriksson D - Doesn't hurt you defensively and good on the PK. Lacks physicality. Good D play alone is not enough. Hughes: A+ - An absolute star Tanev: A - Not flashy but absolutely solid at what he does best Edler: A - Did it all. Myers: B - Would get an A if it wasn't for some foolish penalties. But played solid. Stecher: B - Stecher is good but his size is often a problem. He's a warrior in effort though. Fanta: C+ - Surprised me all year. I expected a fringe D-man and he's a solid bottom pair player. Benn: C - Not a lot of games but held his own. Could have used his size more. Juolevi C+ - Sheltered minutes but didn't look out of place at all. Had some good breakouts and showed his passing skill. Markstrom: A - Our MVP delivered in playoffs Demko: A+ - Thought it was over with Marky injured. Demko swapped an average regular season for a superhuman playoff performance.
  9. So huge success after the first round. Now after eliminating the Blues and taking Vegas to game 7 in the second round I'm calling the season a massive success even if we lose tomorrow night.
  10. I'm thinking the guy has to have some pride after being scratched so often this year. And he can't possibly be deaf to all the talk about him. On the the flipside some care more about money than their pride. I do think he may retire and go back to Sweden to finish out his career. I wouldn't bet on it though.
  11. It was brought up in Sundays game. In that game Sutter took no faceoffs and Miller only one. Both are sporting hand/wrist injuries. Tuesday Miller took 11 faceoffs to Petey's 6 and Sutter 6 to Gaudette's 4.
  12. I'll be surprised if he doesn't retire after this season. After the 08/09 season Naslund retired with $3m still on the table after a 46 point season. He felt he wasn't performing to the level he thought he should. Considering how often Eriksson has been a healthy scratch this season, and his worst production since he was a rookie, one would think he'd have enough pride to just pack it in.
  13. The latest turn on Colorado’s goaltender carousel, once again, kept the Avs afloat. With Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz both listed “unfit to play,” Hutchinson made 31 saves in a 6-3 victory to force Game 6 on Wednesday in the Edmonton bubble. https://www.denverpost.com/2020/09/01/michael-hutchinson-avalanche-goalies-playoffs-francouz-stars/
  14. Sutter does too much right to take out barring injury. There's only two guys I'd even consider taking out to insert Mac - Gaudette and Virtanen. Given two of our centers are sporting hand/wrist injuries Virtanen is really the only choice.
  15. 9 NHL goalies have played played 76 or more games in a season. Fuhr played 79. Are goalies dainty flowers?
  16. When in a must win situation you go with your best not your backup.
  17. A lame excuse deflecting blame at this point. He's closing in on 300 NHL games and what's been asked of him hasn't changed during that time. The reason he doesn't have Greens trust is the only real consistent in his game is being inconsistent. They've tried for 5 years to get him to play like Motte. Hard on the forecheck, hard on the backcheck, finishing checks, and making life miserable for the opposition. Motte has double the points and almost twice as many shots as Jake in the playoffs. The way Motte plays causes opposition turnovers and scoring opportunities for himself and his line. As a result Motte is getting more ES ice time than Jake. It's entirely up to Jake to buy into what the coaches are telling him, as is the effort he puts into it. If you ask me confidence isn't his problem, commitment and effort is.
  18. I agree. I don't think any of our top six is poor at making that first pass or carrying the puck out. I love players willing to take the hit to make a play. But they had the time to look and find the play before getting hit. The Vegas speed and aggressive forecheck really limits that opportunity. You know they're doing a great job limiting time and space when Hughes starts making bad plays, as he's shown he's willing to take a hit to make a play. Unless we can do the same, and we did a good job limiting their time and space in game 2, the odds are in their favor. They've simply done a better job than us forcing mistakes with fast aggressive checking which leads to opportunity.
  19. The Clutch thread didn't become a laughing stock until Burrows was moved up to the Sedin line and he took off producing. Prior to that the argument was Burrows was a waste of a spot despite a bargain basement salary, who killed penalties, blocked shots, aggressively forechecked and backchecked, consistently threw hits, and agitated the opposition into stupid penalties. The knock was his production, ignoring all the things he did extremely well. I thought he was full value to be on the team for all the things he did right regardless of production even in 06/07 (9 pts in 81 games). The real rub was linemates Kesler and Pyatt only had 6 more points than Burrows that previous season 07/08. None of the three were quality 2nd liners. Were that the argument I would have agreed. But to say Burrows didn't belong in the league at all was stupid from the get go. The thing about the Clutch thread is it wasn't original. There was a couple the two seasons before calling him a waste of a spot. The Clutch thread was both foolish to start with and poorly timed. This thread failed miserably is declaring a player a bust after performing above expectations purely because he was injured. Something the GM has no control over at all. Would we have even been in playoff position without Toffoli while Boeser was out? Very different to the Burrows thread in the reasoning for declaring "bust" but this one was a fail from the get go just as Burrows thread was. Toffoli returning and immediately making an impact makes this OP's statement just as foolish as the Clutch thread. That's the comparison in this - a foolish opinion from the get go made completely laughable by the poor timing of the thread.
  20. As I said, comparing game one to game two explains Millers use on the PP. In game one neither Beagle or Sutter took a penalty and Miller only played 8 seconds on the PK. Obviously right at the end of a penalty for a faceoff. Beagle is obviously primary C and Sutter secondary on the PK. But Miller is the first alternative if any of the four primary killers is in the box as shown how PK time falls off a cliff after him. This explains his PK time when Eriksson is playing. So Miller having half the PK time of Eriksson is rather irrelevant to what Eriksson's biggest contribution is - the PK. Can they make do without him? You bet. But does having him in mean Miller can be used more offensively rather than deploying him defensively? You bet. Having Toffoli in the lineup rather negates that reason as he provides additional offense that Louie doesn't to compensate. Ideally it's better to have bottom six players on the PK and having your producers deployed more in the offensive offensive minutes. I could see Eriksson inserted back in if Jake or Gauds has a really poor game. Barring injury that's the only reason I can see to put him back in.
  21. PK ice per game is a more accurate assessment as Louie hasn't played every game. Beagle 3:54 Motte 3:47 Sutter 2:38 Eriksson 2:05 Miller 1:02 Pearson 0:07 Horvat 0:03 As you can see average PK time per game played falls off a cliff after Miller. In most games with Eriksson in Miller is only used on the PK if Sutter or Beagle is in the box or when there's a faceoff with just a few seconds remaining in the penalty. To illustrate: In game 2 Miller had 1:26 PK time and Pearson 1:14 while in game 1 with Eriksson playing 1:38 (matching Sutter) Miller had 8 seconds and Pearson no PK time. So with Eriksson out his PK time was split between Miller and Pearson. All that said I agree with scratching Eriksson once Toffoli was healthy. Whether he stays out depends entirely on how Virtanen and Gaudette play moving forward excluding injuries.
×
×
  • Create New...