What brand of hockey should this team play?

[Puckster]

Every line should be built around a philosophy that made the West Coast Express a force to be reconned with.

- A speedster with grit and skill (not necessarily a big guy)

- A winger that can skate but has a wicked wrist shot and tons of skill

- A Power forward , with some skill and speed and total Grit willing to crash the net and punish defenders and drop em when necessary

One of these guys are face off centermen and one a Puck distributer

build 3 lines with this kind of balance and a 3rd line for shutdown duties , these shutdown guys are the core for PK as well

We have too many journey men that do not fit the Power forward mold. We need three at a minimum. Kassian fits the bill for the second or 4th line. We need 2 more ( or maybe Kassian develops a wee bit more and finds some chemistry with the Twins)

a Hartnell type of Grit in-your-face kind of guy would be freaking awsome, trade schneider for him. that would be 2

Keep Lou if we can trade Scneider for that 2nd line power forward

I feel that our D is above average, so no real tweeking here unless a steal comes up.

Like some above we need a balance of speed, skill and size , but in my humble opinion, we need that on every line combination or there is a gaping hole.

[Henrik Kesler]

Watching Chicago and Detroit as well as the Pens/Isles series, I truly believe the BEST chance at a cup is recreating the 2011 team with a little bit bigger wingers and having a fourth line that can play 9-11 minutes of hockey in close games.

Having Booth and Kassian in the top 6 will go a long way toward fitting this model as well as getting a Manny Malhotra type 3C to play with Hansen and Higgins.

Yes Boston and LA are big and bad but that style of play depends far too much on the goalie IMO. Fans are quick to forget that Tim Thomas stood on his head (as well as getting every imaginable favorable bounce) in the SCF, hence why the team only scored 8 goals in 7 games.

I'd rather have a team that can go out and put up 4-5 goals in the majority of it games than one that hopes to score 3 and have the goalie win the game.

Also, none of this would be being discussed if the 2011 team that went to game 7 of the SCF hadn't been absolutely gutted by injuries by the time they made the finals.

[hockeywoot]

What brand of hockey? Effective hockey.

Good D, offence, and special teams.

About the size remark.

Its not about sacrificing skill for size.

Currently some of our skill guys, cannot "outskill" their softness. (Sedins, Edler)

If you have these kind of players, at least provide a good supporting cast.

Our plugs/tweeners are not very skilled, or very tough (Higgins/Raymond/Roy)

Or lack imposing size or strength (Kesler/Burrows/Hansen). **they play hard don't get me wrong

Some have size but aren't overly physical (Garrison, Edler)

[Alex Burrows 14]

Skill

[oldnews]

This kind.

The kind played by Linden, Smyl, Henrik, Ohlund, Gradin, Salo, Bure, Lumme, Naslund, Tanti, Hamhius, Bertuzzi, Daniel, McLean,Morrison, Brodeur, Burr, Mogilny, Luo, Snepsts, Mitchell, Gino Odjick!....

[canucklehead44]

Sedin Sedin Burrows

Higgins Kesler Hansen

Booth Schroeder Kassian

Torres Lapierre T. McGinn

Garrison Hamhuis

Meszaros Bieksa

Alberts Tanev

TRADE: Edler and Weise for Meszaros, McGinn and a 2nd round pick

SIGN: Raffi Torres

This team has a combination of size, skill, and youth. Bringing in Tye McGinn gives us a young player with size who can fight and score. Meszaros is an up and down player but has had a few solid seasons. Meszaros can skate well, move the puck up the ice and can play a shutdown role.

The Kesler line would check the other team's top lines, whereas the Booth line would act more as a 2nd scoring line. Kassian and Booth showed some chemistry last season (high corsi and a lot of hits). Schroeder would be a great fit since he can match Booth's speed and he would have two big bodies to feed the puck to.

The fourth line is rambunctious. We saw what Lapierre and Torres can do together. Adding Tye McGinn brings a young, skilled physical player to that line as well.

[SuperReverb2]

I would like to see the Canucks try and win their games next year instead of trying not to loose them. There's a HUGE difference in mind set and play when you think about it.

[Day one]

"Five years ago we came in here and reset this organization and it's time to do it again," Gillis said. "When I took this job we decided on a style of play [skill, speed, puck possession] that resulted in great success, and clearly the landscape has changed and we have to address those changes".

[DeNiro]

The one where Henrik puts up 10 points in 4 games.

It's clear that this teams strength needs to be it's powerplay like it was 2 years ago. The Sedins are dominant powerplay specialists, but they need the right D-man on the point, and a winger that can actually finish.

[Westcoasting]

The one where Henrik puts up 10 points in 4 games.

It's clear that this teams strength needs to be it's powerplay like it was 2 years ago. The Sedins are dominant powerplay specialists, but they need the right D-man on the point, and a winger that can actually finish.

[erkayloomeh]

If it aint broke dont fix it. What we had in 2011 worked. Like Ive said before if we were healthy we would have beaten the bruins. We definately needed to adress why we were so banged up (I really think the unecessary 3 games against the hawks in round 1 came back and bit us in the ass) IMO something about losing that series really killed the heart of our exisitng core and we need to do something to snap these guys out of it.....they currently just dont want to win bad enough. Our existing core is not to old to win it all. If we have a new coach who can inject some motivation into this crew and clean up the big question marks in this lineup (lou, ballard, booth) i think this crew can still do it. Also one big trade might shake these guys up (edler)

To answer the op question though, yes If gillis is going to go chasing after a difffernt style of play then that means different players altogether. he will find himself chasing his tail. If Detroit wins the cup, then what will he do?

[thehamburglar]

Top guys we need heavy skill and I feel are okay there so far. Bottom, we have Hansen, Kassian and Lapierre that I would say we need to keep. Weise would be good too, Sestito, who cares. Ebbett's gone. Trade MayRay for a pick, I think is probably best bet. Our Bottom needs work.

[Ferlands_Head]

With the current roster we have now they should be playing a DEFENSE first style like New Jersey did when they were successful.

I see alot of similarities, great goaltending, deep D core (at least on paper) an average offense at best and plenty of 2-way forwards.

I know it's boring hockey but if that's what it takes for this team to be successful so be it. They cannot continue to play an offensive style with one line and 1/3 of a second line.

[madarak]

yes i would stay with skills/speed over black and blue.....of course i surely think we need to balance it out a little more but that said to go from skill/speed to gritty/size/power would in my opignion take couple years to rebuild from zero.So i would get a couple gritty winger to support our offence and cover our back end a little more...like a 2 way winger and a couple power forward would do

[Canuck Surfer]

Well yes, its about is skill first!

But where guys are not your top players, and not all guys can be a Patrick Kane, it is extremely possible to ice guys who have athelticism, size, speed and create match up problems of a different kind. Teams like Edmonton 6 or 8 years ago were an entire line up like that (plus Pronger and a hot goalie) and still made the finals. LA surrounded their top guys with Brown, Nolan... Chicago put Byfuglien in font of our net and there was nothing we can do and had waves to throw at teams. LA also punded Tanev and he had to be relinquished to a minor role. Size and atheleticism can certainly be utilized by a match up coach.

In most cases skill (see Sydney Crosby, Olympic Gold, Stanley Cup, Memorial Cup) is foremost. But if LA can ice several guys who play Sestito's role, but also have speed, I reckon we are missing the boat?

We need to play fast and skilled. Overwhelm teams with our speed, puck possession and transition game.

When the Sedins are the center of this team, you need to support them with players that play their style. That's why we've had our most success ever with players like Samuelsson, Ehrhoff, and Malhotra. It's all about getting the puck, keeping the puck, and moving it quickly up the ice.

The thought that skilled team can't win is wrong. Skilled teams can win, but you have to have enough skill, to counter other teams toughness. We had that winning formula 2 years ago, but ultimately injuries took their toll. At the end of the day, we didn't have enough depth believe it or not. One or two more depth guys, or one or two less injuries and the cup would have been ours.

To build a team of big tough grinders, we would have to blow up the team and start from scratch IMO. We need to just stick to the style that gives us the most success and not worry about what other teams are doing. Really, the league might switch back to rewarding skill next season for all we know. So why constantly change our roster? You don't see Detroit reacting every year to try and keep up. They build teams the way they always have. Because at the end of the day, there's no substitute for skill.

[kamaole]

If we keep AV, then the whole team needs overhauling. If you look into his coaching past, he actually likes tough teams. Gillis has dealt him a team that Gillis thinks is like Detroit (but we are not detroit). I think AV is just as frustrated as we fans are.

[AVS19]

NHL brand....

[rightasrain]

I want to play a fast. skilled type of game. Did you see San Jose beat LA. No team can win all the time. I just want a good product out there year after year. Playing with heart and integrity, giving it their all. Vancouver takes a lot of bull from the media, and fans that they don't deserve. I want the owners, and Gillis to tell everyone to take a leap, and put out a good team. I would rather see the Sedins score the way they do, then watch big face Lucic or byfuglien score by pushing the goalie into the net while he is covering the puck.

[LoganBattleaxe]

All this talk about skill vs grit when what this team needs is individual line identities.

Remember how successful our team was when each of our lines had an role?

The sedins scored because they were always in the offensive zone and were matched against weaker opponents.

Kes' line played a shut down role against the other teams top lines and provided offense on the pp.

Our third line was very fast but also had great puck possession. They could get the puck from our end to the opponents end on a rush and put it in once in a while.

Our fourth line was a mess but I think we need to make that a shut down line too.

Our offense disapears when we are not matching our lines.

Av seemed to have forgotten about line matchups and figured any line could play any other line. That system doesnt work.

This year our third line of raymond shroeder and hansen was very sucessful because they replicated the speed and possesion of the old torres malhotra hansen line.

Seems to me all gillis has to do is find a coach to use his players the way they were intended to be used.

In my opinion we need lines next year that look like this

Sedin Sedin Kassian

Gaunce Kesler Burrows

Jensen Cullen Hansen

higgins Gordon Weise

All that being said I don't think Gaunce is ready but we need someone similar to kes and burrows play style for a bargain price.

I also don't think Cullen is affordable but he is the type of third line center we need to make that third line effective.

That fourth line can score but most importantly they are skilled enough defensively to shut down a top line and send the puck into the attacking zone.

As much as I hated wellwood he might be an option for that third line.