DownUndaCanuck Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Volpatti and Pinizotto are options on our 4th line. Sadly that's not the biggest issue of our team. We've fixed our 4th line woes and are now struggling with our top-6 and defence. Burrows no longer fits with the Sedins. He didn't do much with the twins, and they were still scoring at a point-a-game somehow against the best defence and goalie in the world. The twins deserve a bigger, better linemate but more importantly they just need a change. Kesler was IMO our worst forward over the last 20 Canuck games. He needs to be better, simple - stop being so selfish and playing hurt because its cost the team 2 seasons in a row now. Kesler, Booth and Higgins could be our best line when they're all healthy and together, and are built for the playoffs, so lets stop dropping Higgins to the 3rd line and load up. We need more size in our lineup full stop. Look at the Devils and Kings - they have giants on each of their 4 lines (King, Kopitar, Penner, Carter etc.) as do New Jersey (Kovalchuk, Zubrus, Ponikarovsky) who are all several inches taller than the Canucks average. We have one guy at 6'4" or over - Bitz - and he's in the press box. AV needs to use our size better next season. Jensen, Kassian and Bitz are giants compared to the average Canuck forward so they should be worked into the lineup. Their young legs and size are exactly what playoff-built teams are made of because they can stand the grind whereas guys like Kesler play well for a series or two and burn out, so we can't keep relying on him. Just like the Kings rode Brown in the first two series, he is clearly now injured (as is Kovalchuk) and so other players are stepping in to take the reins. This is where big tertiary scorers come in. Then there's the woes on defence. We will never win a cup with a tiny, puck moving defence. Boston had a shutdown defence, the Kings have a shutdown defence and New Jersey play a tight defensive style. Defence wins championships, not offensive gamblers on the blueline. All of these last 3 successful playoff teams have had 1 or 2 offensive defencemen at the most (Chara-Kaberle, Zidlicky-Salvador, Doughty-Voynov) - the rest of their defencemen are all giant physical shutdown guys (Matt Greene, Willie Mitchell, Tallinder, Volchenkov, Seidenberg, Ference, McQuaid etc.). What we need to do is keep Edler and Bieksa as our only 2 offensive defencemen, keep Hamhuis as 1 of our shutdown guys and fill the other 3 spots with physical defencemen. Tanev, Salo and Ballard are not big physical defencemen. Honestly I'd rather see Alberts out there in front of our own net, grinding down opposing teams forwards over a playoff series than Tanev getting outmuscled. Sure, Tanev is better during the regular season, but Alberts' game is built for the playoffs which is what we need to start striving for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpt Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Are you serious... His contracts over so he'll probably get $6M plus. Not to mention now with NJ in the Stanley Cup finals there's no way he leaves NJ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 He was talking about Reinprecht you goof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pears Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 his is only 2.005 vs malhotras which is 2.25million which isn't that much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 My ideal/realistic 4th line: Moen-Lapierre-Bitz/Weise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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