The Manny Curse? The Canucks have tanked since Malhotra was placed on IR

[jono2009]

its a possibility

[ThaBestPlaceOnEarth]

No curse...Manny was a crucial part of this team and he is missed on the ice. Especially with Kesler hurt again, there is nobody to really rely on for key faceoffs, the PK is not what it was, defensively it's been a struggle. People really underrated the guy, he did a lot of important things that aren't being done anymore or at least not at that level.

[RUPERTKBD]

St Louis, Detroit, and Ottawa are all teams that could use him and where he might be a good fit. Teams have a compliance buyout in the summer so the risk is reduced if he does not work out. Sure it would cost some cash if they had to buy him out but the further one of those teams go in the playoffs the less the relative cost is of that scenario.

I think if they can get Ballard for cheap any one of those teams would take the chance on him. I have seen people suggest Ballard is untradable even for a late round pick. I call BS on that. I think it is more a case that Gillis will not accept less than a predetermined amount in any trade no matter the circumstances. If he was willing to cut his losses I think he would find a willing partner.

Gillis could probably have Komisarek for cheap......why not get him? He is better than Alberts for sure and brings more what the Canucks need on the 3rd pairing compared to Ballard. Yes, his salary is high. But with Ballard gone it doesn't matter much. Or Ian White from Detroit is another example of a guy who might be a better fit, though not a perfect one.

Just my opinion of course.

[Tortorella's Rant]

Scoring goals is the issue with this team more than anything. Manny did none of that. I fail to see a 'curse'.

[poetica]

The point you miss is if he had resigned Salo at $3.7mill plus he wouldn't have signed Garrison at $4.6, plus if Tanev played top 4 minutes we could sign the very position we are totally lacking a Centre ! Rather he let a good D and paid a lot more for his replacement. It has impacted on the overall roster. We have 2 centres plus a guy with one eye for the start of the season, now we have 2 centres. Salo is a free agent after next season, Garrison 5 years time. After next season Corrado should and likely will step in at Entry level contract...it's a win win. Memo to MG stop trading with Florida's Tallon has your number :-) ......please

[Ray_Cathode]

Kesler looked pretty mediocre when he was back. Kesler broke his foot his first game back. And let's not forget, he was pretty mediocre all of last season as well, so it's not really just the injury. He was injured all of last year. He still had not recovered from his hip injury completely, and he then got wrist and shoulder injuries. He doesn't put the effort or heart into his shifts that he use to. He can't, he is injured. He puts more of it into embellishment and trying to one man it up the ice and taking poro shots. When refs won't make calls on enough legitimate fouls, players embellish. He is, though, pretty much a one man band. All players that score take lots of shots, so did Kesler, and when he was healthy, he scored.

Our defense is always one injury away to looking like crap, regardless to where the injury happens. Not true, the only defencemen we truly miss are the top two - Bieksa and Hamhuis. People didn't even like Bieksa and he's been mediocre defensively but even when he's out we just look that much worse. The fact that the stupid didn't like Bieksa, is irrelevent to the quality and importance of the player. In fact, quite the opposite is often true since most people are clueless most of the time. Salo was our best defensemen by a mile last year, and you need no further proof than to look at how TERRIBLE Edler is without him. Salo was not our best defenceman last year - I'd love to see you support that opinion empirically, Bieksa was (second most even strength points in the entire NHL among defencemen. He had 44 points to Edler's 49 in less than half the PP time - and he was +12 playing against the league's best. Edler was +/- 0 - not against the league's best. Even Salo was only +7 - not matched against the other teams' top lines. And not only that, we lost Ehrhoff and replaced him with nothing. Yes, this did have an effect, diminishing us in the ability to skate the puck out of trouble from out own end, and in getting shots on net on the power play. His defence was sketchy, but it depends what you mean by "first pairing defender" - yes, he and Edler were okay out behind the Sedins, but our first 'defensive pairing' was Hamhuis and Bieksa against the other team's top line. Even with his sketchy defense he was still likely an easy first pairing defender here. Which really might not say much about the rest of our defense.. Nonsense. The big problem on our defence right now is our lack of defensively minded centres - ie Malhotra and Kesler - our poor down-low coverage is magnified by the lack of physically strong centres who can play defence. If Malhotra is replaced by a player who can fill his role, and if Kesler can come back and stay healthy, the apparent improvement in our defence will be huge. How often this year have we been out-manned in front of our net with a forward standing by taking no-one, or physically unable to take the loose player? Most of our goals against are like this. Even as good a player as Bieksa is, being strong and healthy through the middle again will have a greater effect than Bieksa's return. Strong means not having to use a winger, Schroeder, a smurf, or Lapierre as a centre on the top three lines.

[Ray_Cathode]

Scoring goals is the issue with this team more than anything. Manny did none of that. I fail to see a 'curse'.

[poetica]

Kesler broke his foot the first game back

[John.Tallhouse]

Manny' has been nothing but a blessing...

[Fred65]

You're right, we do have an issue with depth at center that needs to be address, just not at the expense of our D. And to be fair, we had 3 centers in addition to Manny at the start of the season: Hank, Lapierre, and Shcroeder/Ebbet. (Ebbet ain't spectacular by any stretch, but other than in faceoffs he's better than Manny. In his 6 games, he's a +/- 0 with 5 shots. Manny was a -3 with only 2 shots in 9 games.) If Kesler hadn't gotten hurt right away or if Schroeder had been able to improve his game, we would have been fine. Even still, we need to develop a center, not just buy one because we don't have a top 6 spot for a big name now, but would like to know we have a decent center waiting to take over top 6 duty down the line.

As for trading with Florida....I think we've done just fine. (Interesting article detailing the top 5 trades between the Canucks and Panthers.) Higgins is awesome, Booth's actually learning to pass and generally looking good this season, and Luo, despite the hatred for him around here, is the best goalie in franchise history. If anything, maybe we should be shopping in Florida's roster and finding some centers we want.

[poetica]

Oh, well, your superior research/half cocked opinion has convinced me. We should have 4 top 4 centers in the lineup and at least one on the Wolves in case of injury. We should cheap out on all other positions to ensure that limited position depth. And having enough D now means there will never be a spot for a new guy, even if said new guy has yet to even earn one. Oh, and MG makes nothing but mistakes (or at least those are the only things worth talking about.) Thanks for the education.

[theminister]

poetica, I think it is fair to say that if the management had reservations about Manny going into the season, and we knew Kes was coming off of injury, that centre would be an area that needed to be addressed. It would have been smart to add another player under these circumstances. I'm sure MG tried, probably assuming one could be garnered with a goalie trade.

As it is, with what we have, MG has to... absolutely has to... get another centre before the playoffs start.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Since this topic was created, the Canucks are 1-0-0.

[RUPERTKBD]

poetica, I think it is fair to say that if the management had reservations about Manny going into the season, and we knew Kes was coming off of injury, that centre would be an area that needed to be addressed. It would have been smart to add another player under these circumstances. I'm sure MG tried, probably assuming one could be garnered with a goalie trade.