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Perspective 40+ years in

fanfor42

By fanfor42
in Canucks Talk

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fanfor42 Canucks Third-Line

fanfor42

Posted
Posted

For what it's worth..and I'm certain the more rabid CDC members will remind me that no one opinion is worth much, I'm going out on a limb to offer some thoughts  about the current state of the team from the perspective of 40 plus years as a fan. 

 

Benning. Not the best or worst gm. May yet prove to be the best at assessing raw talent that we've seen. Certainly Quinn set a stronger tone, Gillis presided over perhaps our most successful period. Lots of guys were worse than Benning though. Really, for you young fans we had some seriously challenged management back in the day. So cut your current gm some slack. He will bring us the best of what he's best at (assessing talent and drafting). The jury is out on what else he does better than past gms. (If anything).

 

Linden was a quality player in his day and still is a quality person. He was thrust into the president's role without experience - other than his fitness clubs and real estate. He will get better each year. He will become to Vancouver what Yzerman is to Tampa.

 You can each assess whether that is a good thing or not. But. He has some magic attached to him. So just let him have time before judging too harshly.

 

Willie is a nice guy. He wants to do well. He will be here a bit longer but is not the guy for the upswing. He cares a lot. Probably too much to effectively manage today's pros. He ranks lower than a lot of our past coaches on experience and upside.  He ranks high on honesty and caring. He's certainly better than our busts. Bill Laforge etc.

 

Our young group of players is exciting right now it's like a blender of talent but it's good. The upside will come. A couple more good picks and a couple moves and we will start to climb back up the standings. 

 

Love this team. Always have. Hang in there and you young fans will have the joy of having a team fall apart and rebuild to success.  You're gonna love that.

 

 

 

 

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Alflives Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Alflives

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, fanfor42 said:

For what it's worth..and I'm certain the more rabid CDC members will remind me that no one opinion is worth much, I'm going out on a limb to offer some thoughts  about the current state of the team from the perspective of 40 plus years as a fan. 

 

Benning. Not the best or worst gm. May yet prove to be the best at assessing raw talent that we've seen. Certainly Quinn set a stronger tone, Gillis presided over perhaps our most successful period. Lots of guys were worse than Benning though. Really, for you young fans we had some seriously challenged management back in the day. So cut your current gm some slack. He will bring us the best of what he's best at (assessing talent and drafting). The jury is out on what else he does better than past gms. (If anything).

 

Linden was a quality player in his day and still is a quality person. He was thrust into the president's role without experience - other than his fitness clubs and real estate. He will get better each year. He will become to Vancouver what Yzerman is to Tampa.

 You can each assess whether that is a good thing or not. But. He has some magic attached to him. So just let him have time before judging too harshly.

 

Willie is a nice guy. He wants to do well. He will be here a bit longer but is not the guy for the upswing. He cares a lot. Probably too much to effectively manage today's pros. He ranks lower than a lot of our past coaches on experience and upside.  He ranks high on honesty and caring. He's certainly better than our busts. Bill Laforge etc.

 

Our young group of players is exciting right now it's like a blender of talent but it's good. The upside will come. A couple more good picks and a couple moves and we will start to climb back up the standings. 

 

Love this team. Always have. Hang in there and you young fans will have the joy of having a team fall apart and rebuild to success.  You're gonna love that.

 

 

 

 

Hang in there for THIRTY plus more years, because that's how long we original fans had to wait to have a consistently good team.  :lol:.  

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cripplereh Canucks Star

cripplereh

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Willie will be difficult to keep in my over 40 years of being a fan.Gillis knew what he had when he came in and besides one good trade didn't do much but keep a great team together,but over paid and to many NTC so he wasn't as good as people give credit.Bennings plan will take time and think linden trusts him as he should so he will be a good GM for us long as he doesn't rush.

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Rocky Balboa Canucks Prospect

Rocky Balboa

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6 minutes ago, BowtieCanuck said:

I laugh when people think these are the darkest days of the Canucks. Fans for the first two decades know what pain is. IIRC the team didn't even make the playoffs for the first seven years.

The Canucks of the late 80s were pretty dark.  If it weren't for Pat Quinn this team would have moved in the early 90s.

 

I remember having entire SECTIONS of empty seats, not just rows.  

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Rick Blight Canucks Third-Line

Rick Blight

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Very well said Fanfor42.

 

I do somewhat disagree about Linden's lack of experience for the president position. I think he has a lot more relative experience than a lot of our previous team presidents. He has been a successful business man since retiring as a player, extensive experience with the NHLPA and knowledge of the inner workings of the team in his captaincy role. I remember many past presidents that had absolutely zero hockey related experience and it showed in their performance in the role.

 

Benning served his time as a scout and an Assistant GM and I think he is still trying to get comfortable in his current role. I expect very good things from him going forward but let's have some patience here. The present may be a little bleak but I think our future looks promising.

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homersexual Abbotsford Star

homersexual

Posted
Posted
37 minutes ago, Rick Blight said:

Hey, people are living longer these days. Hang in there.

Yep, in 30 years 87 could be just middle aged. They'll be able to 3D print a human heart for you, or any other body part you need. Or they could just take some of your skin tissue and grow whatever you need in a lab.

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Curmudgeon Canucks Regular

Curmudgeon

Posted
Posted

Great post OP. It's great to hear from long time fans who have the benefit of experience with this franchise. The truth is that the early teams were absolutely horrible, mainly because the expansion draft was full of bottom dwelling forwards and even worse forwards. Hal Laycoe was the most inept coach in franchise history. True story: the Canucks were completely crushed once by a Boston team that featured Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and the rest. Laycoe's explanation was that Vancouver should have won because they out chanced the Bruins. He was dead serious and dead wrong. Then there was the year that the draft order wasn't decided until the final game of the season. Vancouver met Detroit and all the Canucks had to do was lose the game and they would have secured second overall pick, but they won and moved a point ahead of Detroit, giving the Wings second overall. Montreal took Guy Lafleur, Detroit took Marcel Dionne and Vancouver ended up with Jocelyn Guevremont. The first two guys are Hall of Famers and Guevremont was not. That's the kind of history that eventually got Bud Poile fired and replaced by, wait for it, Hal Laycoe, who lasted half a season, to be replaced by Phil Maloney, a great star in the WHL minor pro league but with no management experience in the NHL. Then Jake Milford, whose claim to fame was trading Cam Neely to Boston. Then Harry Neale, who at least hired innovator Roger Neilson.

 

I could go on, but the point is Benning is Albert Einstein compared to the early GMs. Give GMJB at least three more seasons to build a contender, because a rebuild takes time. And above all, be patient you young whipper snappers. Improvement is a process, not an event and a marathon, not a sprint.

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Nuxfanabroad Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Nuxfanabroad

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1 hour ago, Curmudgeon said:

Great post OP. It's great to hear from long time fans who have the benefit of experience with this franchise. The truth is that the early teams were absolutely horrible, mainly because the expansion draft was full of bottom dwelling forwards and even worse forwards. Hal Laycoe was the most inept coach in franchise history. True story: the Canucks were completely crushed once by a Boston team that featured Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and the rest. Laycoe's explanation was that Vancouver should have won because they out chanced the Bruins. He was dead serious and dead wrong. Then there was the year that the draft order wasn't decided until the final game of the season. Vancouver met Detroit and all the Canucks had to do was lose the game and they would have secured second overall pick, but they won and moved a point ahead of Detroit, giving the Wings second overall. Montreal took Guy Lafleur, Detroit took Marcel Dionne and Vancouver ended up with Jocelyn Guevremont. The first two guys are Hall of Famers and Guevremont was not. That's the kind of history that eventually got Bud Poile fired and replaced by, wait for it, Hal Laycoe, who lasted half a season, to be replaced by Phil Maloney, a great star in the WHL minor pro league but with no management experience in the NHL. Then Jake Milford, whose claim to fame was trading Cam Neely to Boston. Then Harry Neale, who at least hired innovator Roger Neilson.

 

I could go on, but the point is Benning is Albert Einstein compared to the early GMs. Give GMJB at least three more seasons to build a contender, because a rebuild takes time. And above all, be patient you young whipper snappers. Improvement is a process, not an event and a marathon, not a sprint.

Confused with your bit on Milford. Neale succeeded him. Neely was dealt about six yrs later('84?). Can't see the connection?

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Boudrias Canucks All-Star

Boudrias

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Curmudgeon said:

Great post OP. It's great to hear from long time fans who have the benefit of experience with this franchise. The truth is that the early teams were absolutely horrible, mainly because the expansion draft was full of bottom dwelling forwards and even worse forwards. Hal Laycoe was the most inept coach in franchise history. True story: the Canucks were completely crushed once by a Boston team that featured Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and the rest. Laycoe's explanation was that Vancouver should have won because they out chanced the Bruins. He was dead serious and dead wrong. Then there was the year that the draft order wasn't decided until the final game of the season. Vancouver met Detroit and all the Canucks had to do was lose the game and they would have secured second overall pick, but they won and moved a point ahead of Detroit, giving the Wings second overall. Montreal took Guy Lafleur, Detroit took Marcel Dionne and Vancouver ended up with Jocelyn Guevremont. The first two guys are Hall of Famers and Guevremont was not. That's the kind of history that eventually got Bud Poile fired and replaced by, wait for it, Hal Laycoe, who lasted half a season, to be replaced by Phil Maloney, a great star in the WHL minor pro league but with no management experience in the NHL. Then Jake Milford, whose claim to fame was trading Cam Neely to Boston. Then Harry Neale, who at least hired innovator Roger Neilson.

 

I could go on, but the point is Benning is Albert Einstein compared to the early GMs. Give GMJB at least three more seasons to build a contender, because a rebuild takes time. And above all, be patient you young whipper snappers. Improvement is a process, not an event and a marathon, not a sprint.

What is it 46 years now since the Canucks came in? Wow! The only TV games I could get were the HNIC games on Saturday night.

Listened to a lot of Canuck radio broadcasts, cannot remember the station. Jim Robson of course.

 

As many have mentioned the Canuck fans today have no real idea of how bad it has been in the past. How many good prospects were thrown to the wolves because rosters were to weak to give them any development time. WE have two current management ex-players Linden and Benning who suffered very early pressure in their careers. If they are cautious with today's players there are no two guys who know what is going on better.  

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