Kevin Bieksa you are really...

[CANUCKLELION]

She's the one with the diary and the nazis right?

Nope she was deaf dumb and blind, yet still managed to communicate. You are thinking of Anne Frank.

[hank&dan]

You have a lot of confidence in a guy who will when he returns, be playing his first meaningful hockey in almost a year.

I don't think that the 24 minutes/game that you don't believe Bieksa deserves, are going to be quite so easy to fill as you think.

A year? He got hurt in the summer...

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Nope she was deaf dumb and blind, yet still managed to communicate. You are thinking of Anne Frank.

Obvious joke wasn't so obvious to the slow minded.

[CANUCKLELION]

Obvious joke wasn't so obvious to the slow minded.

I'm just now back in Canada and still not fully adjusted to the time changes, that's my excuse for being slow today. Man am I excited to be able to watch my first full Nuck's game in 3 weeks tomorrow, even if Bieksa is still on the team.

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

I'm just now back in Canada and still not fully adjusted to the time changes, that's my excuse for being slow today. Man am I excited to be able to watch my first full Nuck's game in 3 weeks tomorrow, even if Bieksa is still on the team.

What was your excuse before the trip?

[CANUCKLELION]

What was your excuse before the trip?

I was possessed by a retarded ghost.

because my brain was full.

I was abducted by aliens. After being transported to the mother ship, the aliens decided to suck out my brains.

I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't seem to get my head that far up my butt.

[لني]

Nah, Bieksa was right there, you could've put a tent over the 3 players. If only there was a video.

It was like this:

very early in the game. You must be talking about some other play, I missed parts of the game.

The only play I have seen during this timeline that matches your description is similar to what SS described.

Luongo misplays the puck behind the net. Bieksa gets the puck in the corner to luongos glove side at 16:59. A blues player is at the slot hash marks to luongos glove side.

At 16:58 the blues player is now at the bottom of the circle to luongos glove side.

At 16:57 Bieksa plays the pucks around the boards with 3 Canucks at the slot hash marks on luongos blocker side.

Hamhuis get the puck at the board hash marks to luongos blocker side with a blues player bearing down on him and he turns towards the boards and around to skate back towards the goal line at 16:53.

Hamhuis is behind the net at 16:51 with a blues player at the goal line to luongos blocker side. A canuck is at the blue line glove side. The blues player then cuts through the crease to chase hamhuis as hamhuis come around the other side of the net at 16:50. At this time Bieksa and another Canuck at at the opposite boards at the goal line and Canuck from the glove side blue line is in the high slot glove side circle.

At 16:49 the blues player catches up to hamhuis enough to get his stick on hamhuis' stick. Hamhuis decides to do a sharp turn toward the rear boards and head back toward the back of the net. Player at the high slot is now at the glove side face off dot. Bieksa has now moved from the far boards goal line to behind the net. is behind the net and another Canuck remains at the far boards goal line.

At 16:48 bieksa backhand side of his stick makes contact with the puck which is now on the blues players stick. And it appears he's stripped the puck off the stick but the puck fires on into the slot. It doesn't appear to be an attempt at a pass at all.

This particular play was all Hamhuis.

At several points during those few second he had many outlets and did not use one.

He had an outlet:

at the opposite blue line as he goes around the net

at the opposite boards at the goal line as he goes around the net.

At the high slot as he comes around the net.

At the opposite boards goal line as he turn to go back the other way.

If Bieksa didn't strip that puck off the blues player the blues player walks out in front of luongo. The blues player had complete positions on hamhuis after stripping the puck off of him after he refused to use his outlets.

That play was all hamhuis.

at 16:46 blues player shoots from the high slot.

[Sharpshooter]

The only play I have seen during this timeline that matches your description is similar to what SS described.

Luongo misplays the puck behind the net. Bieksa gets the puck in the corner to luongos glove side at 16:59. A blues player is at the slot hash marks to luongos glove side.

At 16:58 the blues player is now at the bottom of the circle to luongos glove side.

At 16:57 Bieksa plays the pucks around the boards with 3 Canucks at the slot hash marks on luongos blocker side.

Hamhuis get the puck at the board hash marks to luongos blocker side with a blues player bearing down on him and he turns towards the boards and around to skate back towards the goal line at 16:53.

Hamhuis is behind the net at 16:51 with a blues player at the goal line to luongos blocker side. A canuck is at the blue line glove side. The blues player then cuts through the crease to chase hamhuis as hamhuis come around the other side of the net at 16:50. At this time Bieksa and another Canuck at at the opposite boards at the goal line and Canuck from the glove side blue line is in the high slot glove side circle.

At 16:49 the blues player catches up to hamhuis enough to get his stick on hamhuis' stick. Hamhuis decides to do a sharp turn toward the rear boards and head back toward the back of the net. Player at the high slot is now at the glove side face off dot. Bieksa has now moved from the far boards goal line to behind the net. is behind the net and another Canuck remains at the far boards goal line.

At 16:48 bieksa backhand side of his stick makes contact with the puck which is now on the blues players stick. And it appears he's stripped the puck off the stick but the puck fires on into the slot. It doesn't appear to be an attempt at a pass at all.

This particular play was all Hamhuis.

At several points during those few second he had many outlets and did not use one.

He had an outlet:

at the opposite blue line as he goes around the net

at the opposite boards at the goal line as he goes around the net.

At the high slot as he comes around the net.

At the opposite boards goal line as he turn to go back the other way.

If Bieksa didn't strip that puck off the blues player the blues player walks out in front of luongo. The blues player had complete positions on hamhuis after stripping the puck off of him after he refused to use his outlets.

That play was all hamhuis.

at 16:46 blues player shoots from the high slot.

That's exactly what I was saying! More or less.

Bottom Line.... It was all Hammer Toes' fault on that one.

Another "It's Bieksa's fault" myth, debunked!

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

I was possessed by a retarded ghost.

because my brain was full.

I was abducted by aliens. After being transported to the mother ship, the aliens decided to suck out my brains.

I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't seem to get my head that far up my butt.

Well you would first have to pull it out of the collective arses of the staus quo.

That would be difficult given your attachment to the boo and the hoo.

[Sharpshooter]

A year? He got hurt in the summer...

He said almost a year. Salo's expected realistically in mid Jan...maybe begining of Feb....realistically, after all the conditioning, practicing and most likely stint in the AHL.

Salo's last game was April, 15th, 2010. If he comes back in mid Jan, which is reasonable. He'll be playing his first game in 9 months...which is 3 months short of a year....which is closer to being a year, hence "almost a year", than not.

Hurt in the summer? You're precious....don't ever change. You stay golden, ponyboy.

[RUPERTKBD]

Huh? Bieksa is filling the minutes that Salo was slated for prior to his achilles injury. It's obvious to most cdcer's that BXa is in way over his head while attempting to fill more than 12 - 15 mins a game.

At least we know Salo has the capability and talent to consistently contribute big minutes. IMO the Bieksa experiment as a top 4 Dman has failed and is over. The sooner he is gone the better the team will be.

"What's obvious to most CDCers" is irrelevant to me. As it obviously is to the Canucks' coach staff. As far as "your opinion" goes, I have about as much respect for it as I do hankanddan or Tomn8r. (In case you were wondering, that means zero)

Oh, and you forgot to end your post "lol"...

I have a lot of confidence that Salo is being brought along slowly and is being given a lot of time to recover and get into game shape. He is not being rushed and that will only help him.

Another advantage Salo has is that hockey smarts can help good players adjust their game as their physical situation changes. It is a reason why some players can be effective into their late 30's and why some players can always seem to come back even from serious injuries.

Even if Salo is not 100% the player he was before the injury, there is no reason at this point to believe he will not be just as effective. I will take hockey smarts and making the clam, safe play over high risk any day.

Replacing his 24 minutes between Salo and Ballard will likely be much easier than Bieksa fans want to believe.

Replacing his minutes? No argument. "Way better" defensively? I disagree. Possibly slightly better, based on how game-ready SS is. More likely, status quo. Of course this all presupposes that Sami doesn't suffer another injury.

But really, what are the chances of that?

A year? He got hurt in the summer...

Oh, I'm sorry, my bad. Was he playing hockey in the summer?

[Baggins]

Any dman can be better than any other on a given night (I'm still waiting for you to admit that Ballard was our best dman against Chicago and Bieksa was our worst). Bieksa did have a good game but was not very good defensively. Certainly not much better than every other dman on the team. Yes he scored a goal and hit a bit (although some of those hits took him out of position).

Holy contradictions!

I can see it now....AV: "Bieksa! You were our worst defenseman tonight. Good game! And the rest of you were worse!"

[wallstreetamigo]

Holy contradictions!

I can see it now....AV: "Bieksa! You were our worst defenseman tonight. Good game! And the rest of you were worse!"

Holy inability to comprehend what you read!

What contradiction?

He was easily our worst dman against Chicago and had a good game against St Louis (offensively and physically but not that great defensively). Overall against ST Louis he was good but not our best dman.

Unless Bieksa scored a goal against Chicago, it was pretty obvious I was talking about two different games there.

If you had read the post I was responding to as well, you probably would have understood what I was saying.

So epic fail on the response their buddy. Please try to keep up!

[wallstreetamigo]

Replacing his minutes? No argument. "Way better" defensively? I disagree. Possibly slightly better, based on how game-ready SS is. More likely, status quo. Of course this all presupposes that Sami doesn't suffer another injury.

But really, what are the chances of that?

I have a lot of respect for you and most of the stuff you say is at least reasonable even if I don't agree, but to say Salo is slightly better defensively than Bieksa is like saying Crosby is only a little better than Samuelsson.

Despite his improvement this year, Bieksa still comes nowhere near Salo in terms of defensive play.

Salo ALWAYS brings a steady presence to the D and would instantly make any pairing better that having Bieksa there.

[CANUCKLELION]

I have a lot of respect for you and most of the stuff you say is at least reasonable even if I don't agree, but to say Salo is slightly better defensively than Bieksa is like saying Crosby is only a little better than Samuelsson.

Despite his improvement this year, Bieksa still comes nowhere near Salo in terms of defensive play.

Salo ALWAYS brings a steady presence to the D and would instantly make any pairing better that having Bieksa there.

+1 and Salo simply by the virtue of his considerably greater size, is much more difficult to play against than the 195 lb.

BXa. He doesn't have to rely solely on sneering to clear the crease.

Not to mention that Salo is a lower cap hit than Bieksa and with his Finnish MacInnis' slap shot, he is in a completely different league than Bieksa's pop gun excuse for a shot.

[Sharpshooter]

+1 and Salo simply by the virtue of his considerably greater size, is much more difficult to play against than the 195 lb.

BXa. He doesn't have to rely solely on sneering to clear the crease.

Not to mention that Salo is a lower cap hit than Bieksa and with his Finnish MacInnis' slap shot, he is in a completely different league than Bieksa's pop gun excuse for a shot.

You'd be the first to fear the sneer...tough guy.

[c0medyClub]

+1 and Salo simply by the virtue of his considerably greater size, is much more difficult to play against than the 195 lb.

BXa. He doesn't have to rely solely on sneering to clear the crease.

Not to mention that Salo is a lower cap hit than Bieksa and with his Finnish MacInnis' slap shot, he is in a completely different league than Bieksa's pop gun excuse for a shot.

An effective bomb from the point yet extremely reluctant to use it majority of the time. That defeats the purpose of even having it in your arsenal, doesn't it?

[RUPERTKBD]

I have a lot of respect for you and most of the stuff you say is at least reasonable even if I don't agree, but to say Salo is slightly better defensively than Bieksa is like saying Crosby is only a little better than Samuelsson.

Despite his improvement this year, Bieksa still comes nowhere near Salo in terms of defensive play.

Salo ALWAYS brings a steady presence to the D and would instantly make any pairing better that having Bieksa there.

Under normal circumstances I would agree. However, when Salo returns, it will hardly be under "normal" circumstances.

Remember how Sundin looked after missing half a season?

Edit:

BTW, I also disagree with your first sentence. All of the stuff I say is at least reasonable.

[wallstreetamigo]

Under normal circumstances I would agree. However, when Salo returns, it will hardly be under "normal" circumstances.

Remember how Sundin looked after missing half a season?

Those are a bit different circumstances though. Sundin was trying to decide whether he still wanted to play hockey for a ridiculous amount of money. That was a humming and hawing motivation issue more than anything else. Salo seems very motivated and determined to prove that he can come back and be an effective player for the team.

Honestly, I would NEVER bet against an effective comeback from Salo. He just always seems to get back in the swing of things quickly when he comes back. This is a more serious injury for sure but a mitigating factor is that he is not being rushed at all. They are making sure he has plenty of time to recuperate and get back into game shape.

Regarding your edit: let's not push things okay?

[RUPERTKBD]

Those are a bit different circumstances though. Sundin was trying to decide whether he still wanted to play hockey for a ridiculous amount of money. That was a humming and hawing motivation issue more than anything else. Salo seems very motivated and determined to prove that he can come back and be an effective player for the team.

Honestly, I would NEVER bet against an effective comeback from Salo. He just always seems to get back in the swing of things quickly when he comes back. This is a more serious injury for sure but a mitigating factor is that he is not being rushed at all. They are making sure he has plenty of time to recuperate and get back into game shape.

I admire your confidence and hope that you are correct, but I remain skeptical. I have seen too many players struggle to assimilate themselves into an NHL (or Junior for that matter) lineups after missing a significant amount of time.

As I said before, I agree the team is better off with Salo than KB, but I doubt it will be the huge improvement that you a CANUCKELION believe it will be.

Rest assured, I fervently hope that I'm wrong, because I believe as you do that Bieksa is the logical choice to be moved.