khay

Can't reveal it yet. You'll find out soon enough

Games against Carolina has been really fun to watch. I foresee Canucks vs Hurricanes cup final in the near future. Gonna be a fun series.

Murph: Good luck (getting your a$$ kicked by EP).

If he joins, it would be great if he can join the team at least 10 games before the playoffs to learn the system. My prediction for the playoff matchup is Van (1st) vs Vegas (4th) and Oilers (2nd) vs Flames (3rd) in the first round. If we can beat Vegas, both the Flames and Oilers are beatable opponents and our road to WCF is wide open. Based on the games against the Vegas this season, we definitely need a lot of physicality in the lineup to beat them in a 7 game seres. Tryamkin would be a huge upgrade over Fatenberg/Stecher. Edler-Myers Hughes-Tanev Tryamkin-Stecher or Fanteberg-Tryamkin Benn

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know that if it hits the post, it resets. Interesting. Learned something today.

If we are losing, I'd be concerned. But because we are winning, not really. And the game was more or less even throughout, most of the shots came in the third period when NYI was trying to catch up.

I have a stupid question, how was Miller's goal unassisted? Hughes made a great play to draw two players to him, passed it to Tanev and Miller scored off of a rebound. Shouldn't it be Miller from Tanev and Hughes? Makar just picked up an assist on a goal scored off of a rebound so, I don't get it. I admit, I've only watched hockey only for a few decades so I don't quite understand how the experts at the NHL score the plays. And, to be honest, even if I watch hockey 5 more decades, I don't think I'll understand how it works exactly. Maybe the scoring guy decides it based on whether he can get an erection by watching the replay of the goal? Whenever he doesn't, no assists?

I thought Virtanen is finally reaching his potential. I think Virt > Toffoli as soon as next season if not already. Why are we a contender after these trades?

I would offer more than market value salary to keep him here. His salary doesn't even count against the cap. This is when you like having Acquillinis as owners, they care about the team and they are willing to spend.

FIRE THE COACH!!! New thread: We have 11 regulation wins in our 14 games. Just a fluke or something more?

0. I think. How is it possible that they have never even reached a SCF in 54 years? The amount of money that they've put into it, it feels like they should have had more success. If Canadiens are the Yankees of the NHL (most championships, monopolized many great Quebec players in the past). Toronto thinks that they are the Red Sox, a fierce rival of the evil empire but in reality, they are more like the Baltimore Orioles of the NHL.

He will be the best GM if 1. We win at least one cup and 2. Despite drafting in the late first year after year, he finds a way to infuse the team with quality youth, i.e., he continues to draft players of Boeser's quality in the late 1st round. Then the team will do #1 more frequently and he will be able to cement himself as the best GM in the league.

If you are right then eventually JV will see a decrease in production. It's not too late to change things up when that happens. So far, nucks are playing well and we are winning so why bother to change the lines?

Good post. I think there are quite a bit of similarities for sure. Only thing is that even with the season Miller is having, Hossa is at least one level above Miller. And I'd say that is a big difference between 2009-2015 Chicago team and Vancouver. Having possibly the most complete winger in the game, someone that can score 40 goals and 100points on their roster on top of Kane, Keith, Toewes... That was unfair that Chicago signed him to that cheating of a contract. Chicago should be punished via cap-recapture for cheating on Hossa's contract as they reaped 3 cups thanks to it.

I honestly don't think we have a cap problem. EP and QH are RFAs, not UFAs so team has a lot of control. I don't know why people think they will be signed for 15 million dollar contracts. Although there isn't a cap problem, there are some dead cap. Luongo + Baer = 6.5 mil. That's enough to sign a UFA top 4D or a top 6F next season to improve the team even further. Could be the difference between contending and winning the cup as soon as next season or having to wait a bit longer. Although Eriksson is playing well, if we can get back his cap as well, that's 12.5 mil. Given the make up of our team, adding a high caliber UFA can have similar effect as Chicago adding Hossa to their young team prior to 2009-2010 season.

I would be surprised if there weren't other teams involved. TBL wanted to move him so I'm sure they let every team in the NHL know about it. He is a legit top 6 winger at good cap who played smaller role only because TBL was stacked. I'm sure there were a bit of bidding war going on and JB stepped up and offered a 1st to get us that top 6 winger. I actually thought 1st was below market value for a top 6 winger in his prime. Honestly, I remember being a bit surprised by the reactions on here.

I agree completely. Eriksson has stabilized Bo's line. Bo is much more consistent in the way he attacks now and how that line as a whole translates from defence to offence has improved dramatically. I would make no move if I were JB. Initially, I think trading Tanev was in the cards to get a 1st rounder back since 2020 seems like a deep draft year. But with the team chasing playoffs, that would send a wrong message to the team and the fans. Even depth moves don't seem necessary unless they know for sure that Ferland and Leivo are out for the season. We have 7D and plenty of call up options in the AHL.

At this point, it would be crazy to take Eriksson off of Bo-Pearson line. Bo has been a different player since Eriksson was put on his wing. Before, Bo's line was matched up against the opposition's top lines and was almost always dominated. Now, they are dominating the opposition almost always. Eriksson has freed up Bo from taking on all of the defensive responsibilities, which allows Bo to focus on offence. I still can't believe I'm advocating for Eriksson on the 2nd line. I also like Boeser on the 3rd line with Gaud. He is trying to be the play driver on that line, which is something that he shied away from since playing with EP. Only thing is that Gaud, Roussel, and Virtanen had great chemistry. When Leivo returns, I'm not sure if he is going to replace anybody as long as Eriksson is playing as well as he is right now. When Ferland returns, assuming that he can play with the same level of tenacity that got him the 4 year deal, then he may replace Motte. Miller-EP-Virtanen Pearson-Bo-Eriksson Roussel-Gaud-Boeser Ferland-Beagle-Sutter Motte Leivo

if he comes back, he will replace Fantenberg or Stecher. With two giants in Tryamkin and Myers, our crease is going to be well cleared.

Initially, I didn't know where Sutter would fit. He made the fourth line one of the best in the league. That line is reliable defensively and forechecks very well. Canucks as a team are forechecking like they did in 2010. I feel like once we make the playoffs, reaching the WCF is not out of the possibility. Every team in Pacific that makes the playoffs can beat each other.

That Eriksson goal is typical of garbage goals that he used to score earlier in his career. I hope there's more coming. Get to 10+ goals while playing solid defence and supporting Bo and Pearson and I'm happy.

I think this is one aspect of OJ's game that he does that better than Hughes.

That's a nice wrister. The fact that he can score from that far out is going to generate a lot of scoring chances for our team on the rush. I think OJ already has an NHL offence. Looking forward to seeing him soon.

But agent fee is like 10%? 15%? More money by how much? No more than 10-10.5M per year I'd assume and by how many years more? 1 year? 2 years? that would take him to 38, 39 at the end of the deal. I'd say no ways Caps give him more than 5 years actually as we all know and I'm sure the Caps know that players performance dips after 35, even for elite players like Backstrom. I thought the Caps were already being generous by giving him 5 years, if they were playing hard ball with an agent, I'm sure they will bargain hard for a 3 year deal and maybe settle for 4 years. The agent can get you an additional 1M per year. But the fee you pay is going to be about 1M assuming 10% fee, giving Backstrom 9M per season so net income to Backstrom is going to be similar. If Backstrom hired an agent, the only party that loses is Washington as Backstrom will be signed at higher cap. Backstrom did the smart thing by bypassing an agent and I think Washington negotiated in good faith in return.

"Changed his game" sounds like it's by design. But maybe he had no choice but to change his game as he might have realized that he lost the heaviness in his shot due to his wrist. Just imagine him playing 200' and he still has his heavy shot. Yes, it's hard to score 40 goals but he was that guy. Him being a complete player is great but I wish he can re-discover his shot.