Sedintwinpowersactivate Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Huge surprise for me! The Nucks have gotten points 9 out of 11 games. The 2 losses were by a single goal each to St. Louis and Washington. The team has a nice blend of vets and youth. They are in every game and play hard for each other. I haven't agreed with all of WD decisions, protecting leads and 3 on 3 lines. But nobody can deny that WD has the dressing room as the team works hard for him. Is this just a good start or can they maintain this pace? Do you think they will eventually figure out the 3 on 3? Will the Canucks defense break down over the year? Will Miller maintain his play? How many kids will stick with the team? Does Higgins get moved when healthy?I feel that the team has had great starts to the last couple of seasons because the Canucks players make training a priority and always show up in shape. Are teams underestimating the Canucks? Will teams like Anaheim or Calgary start to catch fire and catch the Canucks? Will Anaheim be this seasons's LA Kings and miss the playoffs?What are your thoughts on this years version of the Canucks? And where they finish in the standings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stierlitz Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Jeff Paterson @patersonjeff 16h16 hours ago Old habits. Canucks lead Pacific Division. #shame #shame #shame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck Surfer Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Short answer > yes they are!The three main reasons?Hutton! The Canucks so desperately needed a guy who could competently move and handle the puck. I knew this was in his skill set. But I di not expect him to be so ready. As reports in college questioned his positioning & defensive game. But he remains so composed. What a treat!McCann! Nuf said...Miller! Miller was stellar against Montreal and in several other games. He looks so quick. That was missing at the end of last year. I cheer regardless of whether we win or loose. But playing fast and hard is fun!Projections? Lets just say adding a right handed D like Hutton would make us seriously dangerous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixteen W's Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 As a Canucks fan, I'm less surprised than people that don't really pay attention to the team except the names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanTSN Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 While this season has been entertaining so far and it has met everyone's expectations, I've always wondered why fans create a 'definitive thread' after every win and every loss, considering there will be wins and losses all season long? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DollarAndADream Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I thought we might be doing worse this early on, but it's still early, so who's to know what's coming? Either way, there have been some great surprises.Ben Hutton: This guy has been amazing. Defensively sound and can move the puck. What a luxury that he can step into the league right away and look like a veteran.Jared McCann: Although I wasn't expected him to be bad, I also wasn't expecting 5 goals from him this early. Considering he's on pace for 40+, that's a little crazy for a rookie on the Canucks. I would assume most people would expect him not to keep that pace, and that would be smart. Hopefully he can pot 20+ goals, but I would think that he'll start getting assists as well.Jake Virtanen: He has been a huge physical force out on the ice. This is the benefit of having a player like him step up early. You don't always need a guy like him to be scoring to be considered successful in his first NHL games. He has been a stud so far and has had his chances as well.Brendan Gaunce: While only 2 games played, he has looked very strong out there. I need not realize how strong of a frame he has until now. Poor Virtanen doesn't have a goal yet and is watching all the other rookies get one before him. Mind you, we are only 11 games into the season. Things have looked pretty good so far, and at least better than it could have been. It makes me wonder how we would be doing with say, Zack Kassian still on the team. Chris Higgins will be a huge plus once he's healthy also.Probably safe to assume that McCann is staying on the team, since he's hit his 9 games and has been one of our most productive players. Virtanen still has 1 more game to play for his 9, and I'm not 100% sure if he'll be sticking around like Hutton or McCann. Hutton is obviously staying with the team since he's at 11 games and has been one of the best defensemen on the roster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatedkid666 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Knew the Canucks were a solid deep team, we are the same team as last year. What scared everyone was how much better everyone got around us. If the canucks were in the eastern conference we would be top-4 team easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Personally, I predicted they would be good BUT when I saw how many rookies we were inducting I backed off a bit and just hoped that we didn't collapse. When you play so many young players, you can't expect them to play the same mins. (unless you want to unravel them) so the remainder of the team has to play more mins and that is where the fatigue can set in when the 3rd period comes around.The main thing for me is the exciting hockey we play. I watch a lot of other team's games and we definitely seem to have a bit more jump and a bit more speed and intensity. Our problem (and I put this down to the rookies settling in) is we find it difficult to maintain for 60mins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thema Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Glass half full; we have points in 9 out of 11 games... in October. Miller is playing as good as ever and the kids are shining. We are leading the division. We ended the Habs win streak. Glass half empty: we have 4 wins and 6 losses which would mean we would be golfing if it were May. Miller is 35 and if we try to get 75 games out of him it is almost guaranteed he will get hurt. It is very likely that at least some of our kids will hit the wall and then the vets will have to be a lot better than they are right now. We will see won't we. That's why we watch the games, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BananaMash Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 The way they're getting points by ending up in overtime doesn't seem really sustainable. The start has been better than I expected though, personally.McCann has impressed me the most of the youngsters. Hutton has been the bigger surprise. It's fun to watch the kids, even if I don't agree with their deployment sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jam126 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 I'm not really surprised, a mix of youth and vets is key to a good team. This year's Canucks are also faster than last year's which is great. But they could've been better if they didn't let go some of the 3rd period leads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesB Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Short answer > yes they are!The three main reasons?Hutton! The Canucks so desperately needed a guy who could competently move and handle the puck. I knew this was in his skill set. But I di not expect him to be so ready. As reports in college questioned his positioning & defensive game. But he remains so composed. What a treat!McCann! Nuf said...Miller! Miller was stellar against Montreal and in several other games. He looks so quick. That was missing at the end of last year. I cheer regardless of whether we win or loose. But playing fast and hard is fun!Projections? Lets just say adding a right handed D like Hutton would make us seriously dangerous!Good analysis. I have the same response. Yes, the Canucks are better than I expected so far. The biggest single reason is Miller. I expected him to be a slightly below average NHL starter. Instead he is probably in the top 25% of starters (i.e. in the top 7 or 8).The other big reason is Hutton. He is a legitimate top 4 D who literally came from nowhere. How often does that happen. Even with Tanev it took a couple of years after he first broke in before he could play top 4.I agree that McCann has done more than expected but I think Horvat and Virtanen and Baertschi have done less, so I view the young forwards as kind of a wash.Also, I don't think WD gets enough credit. I think he is actually a very good coach who has outperformed expectations at all levels, including with the Canucks last year and so far this year.The Canucks have also been helped by poor performances in their Division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MovesLikeDatsyuk Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 What a thought with a bit less out of the Sedins i expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honky Cat Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Exceeded my expectations without a doubt....Nobody saw Hutton and McCann coming along this quickly,especially Hutton (he has poise and dexterity along with good common sense).Its exciting to see all the rookies play.Team is definitely faster,which is great to watch (WD's style of hockey was a revelation compared to John Tortorella's)Only downsides so far are the defence,which is more mobile this year,but is still a bit suspect....Also,the inability to close out games.I dont care if we make the playoffs or not,I just want to see a top effort..and tangible results for a team in transformation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgarM Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Exactly where I thought they would be. I have been saying since last year when some were saying were are in a "rebuild" blah blah blah. The Torts year made everyone think this team all of a sudden became a not very good team. Well we can plainly see that year was the ONLY year we did not play like one of the TOP teams. JB addressed concerns from last year; character players, lack of speed and team toughness. All were addressed and that is why we are playing so well this year.A lot complained about Miller as well saying he was not worth his salary. Well he seems to be playing OK since he got here and he does not look like he is "Too Old" to be a good goalie in this league.We had a lot of "dead weight" last year which we seemed to have gotten rid of. Vey,Bonino,Matthias had to go and to a degree Bieksa had to go too. Weber is still here and I guess we can't have everything we wish for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-AJ- Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 They're capitalizing on the one thing that could make them compete this year -- youth. Given what we knew, I had low expectations, but I also knew that we had a lot of young guys that could make an impact, I just didn't want to count on it happening. As it turns out, the young guns have been performing, and as a result, we're exceeding expectations, even if only slightly. My expectations still aren't high, as it's just the beginning of the year, but I like what I'm seeing so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Industrious1 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Rookies are looking pretty good but I prefer not to make any sort of judgements on how good a team is until at least Christmas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks Curse Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Honestly - if we had1.A franchise D2. A top coachWe would be a cup contender. I feel we have a great team but the coaching is poor.Also, Miller has been really good, but man do I miss the days of Luongo and Schneider where they would steal like every 4th game for us. They had games where you were like "wow, I cannot believe we won that, our goaltending was epic." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ossi Vaananen Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Could be even better based on some of the coin flip games that end up in OT losses. IF we could have protected the lead against those teams, we'd have a comfortable position at the top of the division. I expected a good team heading in. I know there's a lot of people around CDC calling for a tank, but those people shouldn't consider themselves fans. With Benning, Willie and Linden there will always be a focus on winning and building a character culture. Sutter is looking like a great acquisition, Sbisa has taken huge strides this year, and the surprise showing of recent draft picks further solidifies this team's future. This can't be understated, as the rookies have beat guys like Vey, Kenins, Corrado and Weber out of regular jobs. They've replaced previous lethargic efforts with energy and optimism. I hope the Canucks can continue this effort to a playoff spot, and continue to focus on a winning atmosphere. It's the perfect time to be bringing young guys a long, as they can learn from the vets, and be promoted in the line up when the Twins/Burrows retire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgarM Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 They're capitalizing on the one thing that could make them compete this year -- youth. Given what we knew, I had low expectations, but I also knew that we had a lot of young guys that could make an impact, I just didn't want to count on it happening. As it turns out, the young guns have been performing, and as a result, we're exceeding expectations, even if only slightly. My expectations still aren't high, as it's just the beginning of the year, but I like what I'm seeing so far.What do the "young" guys bring? Speed and character and with Virt a little more toughness. We improved on D speed by getting rid of Bieksa and gaining Hutton and Barkowski. The slower and less enthusiastic Bonino and gained Sutter. More toughness with Prust. Very happy to see us rid of a lot of "plugs" and replaced with good quality rookies. This year will be good and next year will even be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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