cyoung Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 Id rather have a first line with .65 ppg that can play at both ends then a guy at 1.0ppg whos a floater in his own end. points aren't everything but I do agree that our fans are spoiled sometimes for sure haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UFCanuck Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 I'd love to see any second line in the NHL pick apart the Blackhawks 4-on-4 like the Sedins did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesB Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 I think Higgins' contribution to the line is underrated and goes mostly unnoticed. Although he doesn't contribute much offensively, his excellent two-way play takes a lot of the defensive burden off of Vey and Vrbata so they can more easily go on the rush. And Higgins is also one of our best forecheckers. Bonino's better offensively, but his defence and physical game isn't that strong compared to Higgins and may decrease the line's overall effectiveness. I agree that Higgins is good defensively. But Bonino is not bad and has been valuable on the PK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesB Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 Good analysis by the OP. However, the goal is to be a Stanley Cup contender, so it's not enough to be average. However, it's a transition period for the team, as long as we're trending upwards I'm happy. Fair point. I am basically looking at how good we are relative to the median team. If we are above the median we make the playoffs, which is how the Canucks have tried to define "success" this year. And that would be good relative to last year and we would have to give players, including the Sedins, some credit for that if they make it. But that is not good enough to be a serious Stanley Cup contender. I am pretty sure that no one thinks the Canucks are serious Cup contenders right now. But, if we make the playoffs and our goalie get hot, who knows. It's a longshot but crazier things have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesB Posted February 15, 2015 Author Share Posted February 15, 2015 Id rather have a first line with .65 ppg that can play at both ends then a guy at 1.0ppg whos a floater in his own end. points aren't everything but I do agree that our fans are spoiled sometimes for sure haha Good point. I have only looked at scoring. Defense also matters but it takes a lot more work to properly deal with defense. Plus minus is a starting point but is far from ideal as it is necessary to adjust for the quality of teammates and the quality of opponents before it can be taken seriously. However, all the Canuck lines are decent from a defensive point of view, so I don't think there is anything misleading about looking at scoring. It is not like the Sedins are either very bad defensively or particularly good. So I think that, for the Canucks, defensive ability is probably close to neutral for assessing the lines. (I agree that some individual players are particularly good defensively, but they are distributed across the lines. For example, Burrows, Higgins, and Hansen are very good defensive players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toews Posted February 15, 2015 Share Posted February 15, 2015 You're the type of guy who reads only the headline and acts as if he is an expert on the contents of the article. He can't even stay on topic of the headline. Brings up the Sedins decline every chance gets. Yet despite their decline they still remain the best players on the team. You would think there were better topics to whine about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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