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Roenick Calls The Canucks A Sleeper In The West


IMyMeMine

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The reason JR's calling them a sleeper is because there has been 0 talk about them this season, not because of their place in the standings.

Think about it. Everybody's freaking out about the return of Sidney, the youthful Flyers, the rising Rangers, the Preds with their make-over, or St. Louis coming out of nowhere. In the stream chatboxes I see, the Canucks are written off as a bubble team by the majority of people there.

Relative to the amount of success they've had this season, they've had lower fanfare than any other team.

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It's a good thing that we've been flying under the radar most of the season. It's alot different then last season when everyone expected we would be in the finals. If a 1st place team is considered a darkhorse, that's a scary combination.

I think it's just a matter of analysts assuming we won't make it back to the finals because not many teams have been able to make it back-to-back seasons. The less focus on us the better though.

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I don't know if the word "sleeper" would be correct to use in this situation, but I think it's fair to say the Canucks have quietly put together another very strong season, despite all the moaning and groaning on CDC about this team.

Perhaps the term is "overlooked" or "underrated".

I generally consider sleeper teams to be low seeds who could potentially do a lot of damage in the playoffs and make it to the finals. A top seed could never be called a sleeper team. Most knowledgeable hockey fans would know what the Canucks are capable of.

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That's an interesting thing to say by Roenick. Even more interesting because admitted he knows it sounds ridiculous to call a first place team a sleeper, but he's doing it anyways. Any theories as to why we're flying under the radar? I have a couple.

-We're a Canadian team, so the US media doesn't give us much attention

-We've been a good team for a while, so we're not new and exciting like the Blues for example

-No one expects a team to make it to the Finals two years in a row.

I think it's better that we do fly under the radar. Less pressure and not as much attention. The team can quietly do their job without all the distractions from last year.

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Not many of our "star" players are having career years like they were having last season, so that might add to it. But I enjoy this flying under the radar approach for now. The more the media continues to talk about us, the more the fans here buy into it and start talking about all the "problems" the media has created for us to discuss.

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A 'sleeper' within regards to the NHL viewed by the U.S. Most focus is obviously on the the eastern powerhouses - Pit, NYR, Philly etc.

Canadian team, out west, just won't get the same coverage as those teams especially when it's American television.

I get what he's saying..but he's not talking to us, he's telling the US & of A folk.

JR = not the best hockey analyst.

Moving on!

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I dont think the Bruins can make it this year in the East, unless they get another lucky draw of easy teams like last season. There is a lot stiffer competition this go round for them, and potentially, for us as well. But, I have faith. If we play like we have lately, we should be on a good roll to start! Barring any other serious injuries...

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Taking comments from Roenick's article (which sums up a lot, very well surprisingly) He says the Canucka are;

a better all-round team despite the fact that Daniel and Henrik Sedin are below their average in production for a season.

I think we're a better team IN SPITE of the Twins being much more marginal, Kesler also... The reality is virtually everyone else has improved their play (Edler, Higgins, Hamhuis,Burrows, Salo, Bieksa, Schneider, Lapierre). Jury is out on Luongo, Manny gets a pass.

But what is most important is the physical side of the game. Where you could not say (some do, I dont) Booth's play is better than Samuelsson's; Booth is typical of the balance of our pick ups who play roles this year. Booth offers AV a card to play, where he is a bigger, faster, more physical guy to insert in the lineup than the guy he replaced. He creates a match up problem, where the predecessor could be offset by size or speed. Check Weise vs Glass, Kass vs Hodgson.

The balance of the team is better; now its time to see if the Twins, Kesler & to an extent Lou can turn it back on for the play off's!

I found this Roenick article about the Canucks today; I think this is his first article about our Canucks this season (I don't read every one of his blog post). I think it's a good thing the Canucks isn't getting as much media attention as last year, so they can just focus on their game. I think it has a lot to do with the Canucks blasting thru last season, winning the President's trophy by quite a large margin. This year, we're surrounded by a few other high-calibre teams, so we're not the sole focus in the league. Here's the link: http://www.nhl.com/i...ost.htm?id=8188. I searched for any existing threads on this, and there doesn't appear to be any. If there are, my bad~
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