PGT- Vancouver 1 - 2 Dallas

[Silfverberg Snipes]

So much hate on Booth tonight and on the secondary scorers. How about The Sedins on a 2 on 1 in a perfect position for a shot/rebound and instead make a blind behind the back pass to a Dallas player? OR when Danny passes to Henrik in the seam who is behind the Dallas D man and Hank passes off to the boards to start the cycle? I've seen this same play from the twins numerous times this season and it is ridiculous. It's like they're allergic to the slot! WE had 43 shots tonight and the only forward I recall actually coming off the side boards to drive into the slot was Burrows.

This team either lacks the talent to get into good scoring positions, or it lacks the commitment to do it. Torts needs to read the riot act to the Sedins that if they want to keep getting top minutes as our offensive line, they bloody well better change things up. Those who keep saying "it's only a four game scoring drought" are kidding themselves (or pacifying themselves). This "drought" has been going on for 3 years when it matters. An inability to generate offense/and or capitalize on chances leaves the Nucks vulnerable to bad bounces and bad calls (like tonight) and place far too much strain on their goalies d zone coverage. It's as if they have developed a mindset that all games are going to be close and so they play accordingly. Teams like Chicago, SJS etc, play with the expectation that they are going to out-score their opponents by a 2-1 or 3-1 margin and do.

Ay the end of the day the Sedin's have been cycling wingers every other game. If Burrows becomes a fixture again I have full faith in them to start producing. You can't teach their talent to players like Booth, Santorelli, Higgins, and Hansen. With those type of players the only way they are effective is through grinding. And quite frankly, the only player I can say who has produces consistently at the rate expected of themselves is Hansen.

[gradin123]

So the Canucks are playing solid defense but have no secondary scoring. Who could have saw that coming?

Deniro you are right on this occassion. The Canucks are playing fundamentally well but they just don`t get a lot of chances from the dirty areas.

Puck possession and shots from the outside doesn`t automatically translate into goal scoring. Especially, when you don`t have people who thrive at putting the puck in the net. Booth should have been bought out before this season but the team just couldn`t quite admit that he was a bust yet and the owners didn`t want to use a lot of buyouts. The Canucks have a lot of players who seem to doing ok, like Higgins,Santorelli,Kassian but the botttom line is none of those guys can contribute offensively more than in brief spurts nor will they ever.

In the end the Canucks are who we thought they were. A offensively challenged team in a much tougher division and conference this year. There are no moral victories only real ones. It seems the ultimate sign of mediocrity is starting to set in and that is justifying losing by saying they played well enough to win.

[DeNiro]

It's interesting and cool that Henrik was saying how much more they are battling as a group in comparison to the past and how they are blocking shots and sticking up for each other etc etc. Its interesting that he emphasizes that he likes that they are sticking up for each other.

I think they're playing a style of game that is much more suited to playoff hockey, which is great.

Unfortunately there's no playoffs if you can't win games. And you can't win games with lack of scoring.

We may light up Florida on Tuesday, and everything will feel awesome again. But that's not a team that we have to worry about scoring against. It's teams like LA, San Jose, and Anaheim that we gotta score on. So far this season we've struggled. Hopefully we can figure it out.

[Tangelos]

I would try to move Edler ASAP. I know he has a NTC (what else is new), but man is his stock plummeting and that contract is just scary. There are always teams out there that get hardons for big defenseman who aren't all that good. I'm sure we can get a top-6 forward for him.

[Blömqvist]

I would try to move Edler ASAP. I know he has a NTC (what else is new), but man is his stock plummeting and that contract is just scary. There are always teams out there that get hardons for big defenseman who aren't all that good. I'm sure we can get a top-6 forward for him.

Philadelphia. Voracek and Simmonds for Edler and Hansen

Dan - Hank - Simmonds

Burrows - Kesler - Voracek

Higgins - Santorelli - Kassian

Booth - Richardson - Weise/Archibald

Hamhuis - Tanev

Stanton - Bieksa

Garrison - Corrado

then next year:

Dan - Hank - Simmonds

Kassian - Horvat - Voracek

Gaunce - Kesler - Burrows

Higgins - Richardson - Weise/Archibald

[DeNiro]

Philadelphia. Voracek and Simmonds for Edler and Hansen

Dan - Hank - Simmonds

Burrows - Kesler - Voracek

Higgins - Santorelli - Kassian

Booth - Richardson - Weise/Archibald

Hamhuis - Tanev

Stanton - Bieksa

Garrison - Corrado

then next year:

Dan - Hank - Simmonds

Kassian - Horvat - Voracek

Gaunce - Kesler - Burrows

Higgins - Richardson - Weise/Archibald

We have 19 million dollars tied up in our top 4 D-men.

Edler and Hamhuis make almost 10 mil combined, and have less points than Tanev and Stanton.

Bottom line is one of them has gotta go, and it should be Edler. I'm tired of us having one of the highest paid D cores in the league, and yet still having it meltdown in the playoffs.

I think Tortorella has shown he can get alot out of good defensive defensemen like Stanton. Ship Edler out for some top 6 help, and get another solid guy like Stanton and we'll be fine. Imagine what this roster could look like if we had the extra 9.2 mil that Edler and Booth are eating up? Lets not waste another season here.

[Mauii]

goaltender interference calls aren't reviewable. it's stupid, but that's the rule. It happens pretty often actually, it's not some conspiracy against the canucks.

they need to make those reviewable and give coaches challenges

Are you frickin kidding me. Where's the logic in that. ANY GOAL should be reviewable irrespective of circumstance as they decide the game. WTF is wrong with this league...seriously! !! Getting tired of these BS calls. What kind of frickin sports league is this....they're turning the NHL into some kind of bush league. Fans paying for their existence demand and deserve a fair and professionally run league with the utmost integrity as do the players!

Don't get on the Sedins for lack of scoring if the the NHL/refs are constantly taking the Sedins out of the game at pinnacle moments and taking away their goals...get on the refs/NHL for not allowing fair game! Pathetic and shady display of professionalism.

Here's my advice to the Sedins/Canucks...keep your eye on the prize. You'll come across haters that hate to see you succeed...it's water off your back and let it roll and keep going. Haters will be hating...but that's their issue not yours and just carry on...they can try to weaken our first line, so we'll roll our second line then our third line and just keep it coming and don't let up...

[SergioMomesso]

3 straight games of outplaying the opposition with 3 straight losses by scoring only one goal.

Simply put we need a legitimate game breaking sniper. And if that is going to cost us Edler and either Hansen or Burrows? So be it. I'm tired of watching guys miss the net or blasting it right into the goalies logo time and time again.

With the exceptional play of Stsnton. We can afford to dangle one of the other 3 LH dman for a top six forward. I think Edler is the guy who will fetch us the best return. With the other 2 guys being BC boys. It may be tough talking them into waiving their NTC. All the guys I would love to see in a Nuck uni are probably not going anywhere anytime soon. (Sharp, Skinner, Eberle, Neal)

[BI3KSA-]

I think they're playing a style of game that is much more suited to playoff hockey, which is great.

Unfortunately there's no playoffs if you can't win games. And you can't win games with lack of scoring.

We may light up Florida on Tuesday, and everything will feel awesome again. But that's not a team that we have to worry about scoring against. It's teams like LA, San Jose, and Anaheim that we gotta score on. So far this season we've struggled. Hopefully we can figure it out.

I guess one of the only positives that came out of the game tonight is that our PP looked the best it has all year. Finally we were getting to, and slamming in, some of the rebounds we have been getting on the PP. Imagine the difference a PP firing on all cylinders would do for this teams scoring drought. We need to have our PP running exceptionally well come playoff time.

[gradin123]

We have 19 million dollars tied up in our top 4 D-men.

Edler and Hamhuis make almost 10 mil combined, and have less points than Tanev and Stanton.

Bottom line is one of them has gotta go, and it should be Edler. I'm tired of us having one of the highest paid D cores in the league, and yet still having it meltdown in the playoffs.

I think Tortorella has shown he can get alot out of good defensive defensemen like Stanton. Ship Edler out for some top 6 help, and get another solid guy like Stanton and we'll be fine. Imagine what this roster could look like if we had the extra 9.2 mil that Edler and Booth are eating up? Lets not waste another season here.

Edler is definitely the guy to traded. The Canucks have depth on defense and need a new look offensively. I keep hearing, mostly from Botchford, that Edler was a great value signing yet all I see is play you should be able to get from a defenseman making half the amount of money Edler does. The AVs need a DMan. Edler and Richardson for O`Reilly.

[Tangelos]

We have 19 million dollars tied up in our top 4 D-men.

Edler and Hamhuis make almost 10 mil combined, and have less points than Tanev and Stanton.

Bottom line is one of them has gotta go, and it should be Edler. I'm tired of us having one of the highest paid D cores in the league, and yet still having it meltdown in the playoffs.

I think Tortorella has shown he can get alot out of good defensive defensemen like Stanton. Ship Edler out for some top 6 help, and get another solid guy like Stanton and we'll be fine. Imagine what this roster could look like if we had the extra 9.2 mil that Edler and Booth are eating up? Lets not waste another season here.

This is not the deniro I'm used to. Glad to see we're on the same page.

[BI3KSA-]

We have 19 million dollars tied up in our top 4 D-men.

Edler and Hamhuis make almost 10 mil combined, and have less points than Tanev and Stanton.

Bottom line is one of them has gotta go, and it should be Edler. I'm tired of us having one of the highest paid D cores in the league, and yet still having it meltdown in the playoffs.

I think Tortorella has shown he can get alot out of good defensive defensemen like Stanton. Ship Edler out for some top 6 help, and get another solid guy like Stanton and we'll be fine. Imagine what this roster could look like if we had the extra 9.2 mil that Edler and Booth are eating up? Lets not waste another season here.

I completely agree. I think Corrado could step up to fill a role on the team. We need that money they are taking up and if the cap goes up next year we could have some serious money to play with and inject into our top 6 and/or a puck moving defensemen.

[DeNiro]

This is not the deniro I'm used to. Glad to see we're on the same page.

I've been waiting for Edler to put it all together and become that number 1 D-man we need, but I think it's pretty obvious it's not gonna happen.

He's shown he can be great offensively at the expense of his defensive game. And this season he's shown he can be good defensively at the expense of his offensive game. We need a number 1 D-man that can bring both. Until then he's just eating up valuable cap space that could be used on a legit second line winger or center.

The good thing is Edler would have alot of value to teams in a trade, but his value isn't gonna last forever. Good teams know when to cut their losses and get value while they can.

[Canada Hockey Place]

Play Weber.

[nuck nit]

The Canucks are coming in line with Nashville and Winnipeg in the goals against department.

Calgary ,Edmonton and Winnipeg are our company in the goals for department.

[Blömqvist]

I've been waiting for Edler to put it all together and become that number 1 D-man we need, but I think it's pretty obvious it's not gonna happen.

He's shown he can be great offensively at the expense of his defensive game. And this season he's shown he can be good defensively at the expense of his offensive game. We need a number 1 D-man that can bring both. Until then he's just eating up valuable cap space that could be used on a legit second line winger or center.

The good thing is Edler would have alot of value to teams in a trade, but his value isn't gonna last forever. Good teams know when to cut their losses and get value while they can.

Although I do think Edler can still realize his potential of all-around top-pairing defenseman, I have been on the "trade Edler" campaign since last season. I think our situation with too many overpriced defensemen and not enough top 6 scoring is like LA two seasons ago. Recall, LA was one of the worst teams heading into the trade deadline in terms of goals for. At the deadline they traded Jack Johnson to Columbus for Jeff Carter. Their reasoning was two-fold: 1) They needed help up front and wanted to bring in an impact player, and 2) they had depth on defence, and Johnson's role was replaced by up-and-coming defenseman Slava Voynov.

Looking at us, we are in the same conundrum. We have, as you said earlier, 19M tied up in our top 4 defensemen and not enough invested into our top 6 forwards. Edler is an expendable asset because we have Chris Tanev who can replace his minutes and provide a better defensive presence. We also have depth in Frank Corrado, who is like a Tanev doppleganger but better offensively and a bit more physical. Gillis needs to realize the weakness of this team and bring in an impact player, not project players or 3rd line players.

I firmly believe that Tortorella can work wonders with a d-group of Hamhuis, Tanev, Stanton, Bieksa, Garrison, and Corrado combined with a world-class goalie in Luongo. We haven't really been letting very many goals against, but we haven't been scoring either. Give Tortorella one more impact offensive player and maybe, just maybe, our Canucks can have another magical run.

[nuck nit]

Good teams know when to cut their losses and get value while they can.

Franchises are made and lost on continuously trading up and receiving equivalent or better value for your best players in trade.

Guess which category Gillis finds himself in since 2011?

[BI3KSA-]

Franchises are made and lost on continuously trading up and receiving equivalent or better value for your best players in trade.

Guess which category Gillis finds himself in since 2011?

Franchises are made on drafting these days, for the most part. Trades do help though.

[CrazyAL]

We have 19 million dollars tied up in our top 4 D-men.

Edler and Hamhuis make almost 10 mil combined, and have less points than Tanev and Stanton.

Bottom line is one of them has gotta go, and it should be Edler. I'm tired of us having one of the highest paid D cores in the league, and yet still having it meltdown in the playoffs.

I think Tortorella has shown he can get alot out of good defensive defensemen like Stanton. Ship Edler out for some top 6 help, and get another solid guy like Stanton and we'll be fine. Imagine what this roster could look like if we had the extra 9.2 mil that Edler and Booth are eating up? Lets not waste another season here.

Add me to the many that agree, way to much money tied up in that dcore.

[DarthNinja]

The Canucks obviously and seriously need a bonafide top6 scoring threat, with the trickle-effect of then making the bottom6 stronger with a player bump-down. Otherwise this is going to be a very long rest of the season.

The solution to this issue here in reality rests with David Booth. His cap hit is seriously hindering the team from being able to improve.

I have been a Gillis supporter and I still am when looking ta the bigger picture but my frustration is growing. The status-quo is obviously not going to cut down in the long-haul. The team needs help and Gillis needs to get them the help so that valuable prime-time for our core is not wasted.