[PGT] Edmonton Oilers vs. Vancouver Canucks

[luckylager]

12 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Dorset has no hands.  His puck skill is almost nil.  He skates well, thinks the game well, and is as tough as they come.  If he had puck skills, he would not have to play the role he does to be an NHL player.  Hansen has better puck skills, and it’s not even close.

Dorsett's hands are perfectly shaped for hitting people with a stick and punching faces.

 

He chips in on the scoreboard sometimes too. But hands of stone bruise better than buttery little vaseline hands.

[CanuckleHorse]

5 minutes ago, luckylager said:

Dorsett's hands are perfectly shaped for hitting people with a stick and punching faces.

 

He chips in on the scoreboard sometimes too. But hands of stone bruise better than buttery little vaseline hands.

The reason Dorsett is playing that roll to perfection is because he knows if someone comes calling he has a bodyguard that could take care of most anyone in the league they all play a bit bigger with him in the lineup.

[CupIsComing]

The Coach.

New fast transition high tempo style, insistent on uncompromising work ethic and team first attitude, proper deployment of Sedins, redeployment of Dorsett away from a tough guy punching over his weight, sensible pregame roster decisions and in-game tactical changes, and so much more upside.

 

That alone is enough for me as far as required excitement for this season's expectations...and now add in the developing young talent!

 

I am in!☻

 

I will be changing my signature soon...I have found HOPE!

 

 

[grumpworsley]

3 hours ago, kilgore said:

Tryamkin is creating his own tragedy, and it would be sad to see him never play for the Canucks.  He had the potential to turn into one of the greatest and most popular Canucks in their sad long history. Sometimes I'd think "if he only knew how much fans liked him on the team" but I realized later that he doesn't give a crap. He really was a bit full of himself.

 

Think about it, if he had eaten the humble pie and gone down to Utica, despite his contract, he would have met and played for Travis Green for a number of weeks at least. Not only would Travis had been able to get to know and coach Nikita, but Nikita would have been able to begin his relationship with his future NHL coach early. An advantage that players that are acquired in trade or otherwise never played for Green would not have. It seemed pretty clear that he and Willie had an increasingly rough relationship. So if he would have also been patient at the end of the year he then would have found out Green was his new NHL coach as well. Which may have made a difference.

 

I wonder why he came over here at all. Was it just to prove to himself that he could play in the NHL? But it was never in his long term plans? That maybe he was just increasing his value for a new KHL contract?  He was by all accounts very nationalistic.  There was a report that he had chastised Goldobin for speaking to him in English instead of Russian in the locker room. Also the fact that he knew he wouldn't have a chance to play in the Olympics for Russia if he had stayed. He seemed more in line with Russia's hard stance on pot as well calling Vancouver a "junkie city". His wife, family and home country were more important it seems than playing in the best league in the world. Which is his choice, but sad for what might have been for our team.

It would have gone a long way for the organization to Hire an assistant for him and his wife who spoke the language and was familiar with customs. In any case I am over him I think he would have been a good fit but it looked right from the time he arrived it was doomed. 

[longsuffering]

18 hours ago, Harvey Spector said:

BO 1  McDavid 0

BO 2 McDavid -1

[luckylager]

7 minutes ago, CanuckleHorse said:

The reason Dorsett is playing that roll to perfection is because he knows if someone comes calling he has a bodyguard that could take care of most anyone in the league they all play a bit bigger with him in the lineup.

Dorsett's never been one to shy away. Definitely nice to have Guddy around for a lot of the guys, but Dors takes care of his own business.

 

He might not win, but he always lands a few. Don't care you are, getting punched hurts.

[Craig Ferguson]

This is what I saw differently from last season, A D core that was responsible, a goalie with some now good puck handling and passing ability to par with the uptempo play, a relentless forecheck including one man up front to pressure the defense into making mistakes (Sutter's goal from Dorsett's hit), a complete shutdown of top players for a good amount of time, and a variety of differences of the lines with the youth infusion adding speedy plays/charges to the net and the Sedin's passing game allowing for a dynamic difference. Wayyy too early to judge this team just yet, but the improvement of the build is noticeable.

[canuckledraggin]

 

[EastVanCanuck]

2 hours ago, alfstonker said:

"Stupid and unappraised" if that is an insult then I'll own it every time.

It's a pity your "standards" are not matched by 2/3 of these boards or do you only read my posts? I'm flattered.

 

No doubt you will be plussed by all those who like to hand out the most unfair criticism of players like Dorsett and the recently fired coach etc 

Not at all bro.  Your comments are insightful however, they also come off as arrogant.  Maybe if you showed more consideration, your points would be taken more positively.  

 

None the less same team same team.  

[Nuxfanabroad]

6 hours ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

He was a punching bag. He was never that well-liked in the game, but I agree. He is a pretentious guy. 

Kypreos is trying to position himself to be Cherry's 'heir-apparent'. It pays well to blather on obnoxiously about sporting topics you're 30~40% well-informed upon. Then someone like Bubbles or Jian Ghomeshi(!) can play Ron MacLean...

[ArkDepot]

re: Tryamkin. I think some of you are giving him a bum wrap. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Botchford, but he nails it here:

http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/jason-botchford-defenceman-tryamkin-takes-offence-and-bolts-canucks-for-russia

(emphasis and comments added) 

 

Quote

It was Canucks general manager Jim Benning who chose Nikita Tryamkin. He was Benning’s guy, and the draft pick was a beauty.

Tryamkin is 6-foot-7 and graceful on skates. This isn’t easy. The Canucks, desperate for talent, landed a valuable one and did it in the third round. They got a player they could develop into something good, maybe more. Tryamkin could have been a game-changer for a franchise in desperate need of one or five.

With a high ceiling and mountainous size, Vancouver needed Tryamkin to succeed and instead he failed, and they failed him. For a team that needs a lot to go their way to accelerate the current rebuild, this one will hurt and that hurt will linger.

The official word from the Canucks is Tryamkin left for family reasons. This, of course, is part of the story. But, generally, when players choose to leave a postcard city and the luxurious, red-meat, Ritz-Carlton lifestyle of the NHL to return to a city in eastern Russia, the reasons are plenty and complex.

In Russian interviews after deciding to leave Vancouver, Tryamkin has made some things clear. He’s talked openly about his ice time, or lack thereof, which was limited, even though he clearly outperformed Luca Sbisa and arguably Ben Hutton, too.

 

He has expressed confusion about why the coaching staff in some games went to five defencemen late in third periods, keeping him on the bench. Some of us watching were confused, too.

He questioned why it took so long for him to play at the start of the season (10 games), knowing the only reason he did play that first game was an injury to Chris Tanev.

He seemed genuinely flummoxed as to why the Canucks asked him to go down to the AHL, when he was so adamant that he didn’t want to do this that he had a clause about it written into his contract.

It’s clear there was a breakdown in communication between the coaches and Tryamkin and, language barrier or not, that falls on the team.

Tryamkin did believe he was better than defencemen who were getting ice time in the first 10 games, when he wasn’t playing, and when he got his chance in the lineup he proved he was right.

Tryamkin has also publicly talked about coach Willie Desjardins, though he didn’t mention that time Desjardins called out his manhood, suggesting to the press that if Tryamkin “stepped-up” during some meaningless game against the Boston Bruins that the Canucks could have won. (* note: there were suggestions Tryamkin wasn't even on the ice against Marchand that game , or at least very minimally) 

Gimme a break.

Desjardins can be kind and caring, but that stunt was a low point, and plenty of players around the league were talking about it late in the season, including Russians.

There was a disconnect, and it was ongoing, between Tryamkin and the coaching staff, but his biggest issues about that staff were actually not with Desjardins. But even with a promised coaching change, a bad taste lingered, and it played a role in all of this.

Those coaches were bent on getting more aggression out of Tryamkin, which isn’t one of his strengths. This was talked about openly by the coaches and there were reports Thursday that staff showed Tryamkin videos of Chris Pronger, asking him basically to do the impossible, which is “be like Pronger.”

The irony is what hurt Tryamkin’s game the most this season was the penalties he took. Tryamkin was called for 27 minors. It was the most on the Canucks (no one else had more than 18) and it ranked 25th in the NHL. This for a player who missed 16 games.

The issue definitely wasn’t helped by urging him to be more aggressive. Without those penalties, and the negative drag they created, there was a case to be made Tryamkin was the Canucks’ third-most-effective defenceman behind Tanev and Troy Stecher.

Being mean and dirty, like Pronger, wasn’t one of Tryamkin’s best skills. Skating was. And the Canucks’ defence can actually use all the good skaters it can find.

The Canucks will qualify Tryamkin soon and can retain his rights until he’s 27 years old, which could take this to July 2022.

To me, Benning did his job here. He drafted a good player with loads of potential in a third round. Others let him down from there, and that’s why Tryamkin isn’t going to be where he should be this fall — playing regularly in the Canucks’ top four on defence.

 

[Trebreh]

does anybody have the video of our opening ceremony? 

[6string]

13 minutes ago, ArkDepot said:

re: Tryamkin. I think some of you are giving him a bum wrap. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Botchford, but he nails it here:

http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/jason-botchford-defenceman-tryamkin-takes-offence-and-bolts-canucks-for-russia

(emphasis and comments added) 

 

 

Just maybe Nikita loves his country and didn't like it here in N.America. Maybe he caught onto the Russian bashing narrative played out by lamestream media and he was either or both offended or confused. He may have been homesick or just prefered the travel in the KHL as opposed to here.

 

I've met many Russians in my travel, they are good people, well informed and proud just like Canadians.

 

I did not read the article, I've only reviewed some of the comments posted.

[ArkDepot]

3 minutes ago, 6string said:

Just maybe Nikita loves his country and didn't like it here in N.America. Maybe he caught onto the Russian bashing narrative played out by lamestream media and he was either or both offended or confused. He may have been homesick or just prefered the travel in the KHL as opposed to here.

 

I've met many Russians in my travel, they are good people, well informed and proud just like Canadians.

There are a lot of twitter posts in the Tryamkin thread going over what he's said about his time here. Feel free to check it out. Pretty informative.

One thing he did say though was that he was open to returning to the Canucks, but not before his current contract in the KHL is up. 

[Nuxfanabroad]

5 hours ago, Fantomex said:

Not only do we not have a legitimate first line, we don't have a true starter (on paper), nor do we have a legitimate #1 d-man. If we're going to push for a playoff spot this year, it's going to be done with (like you said) 4 lines that contribute each and every night. Is that achievable? Certainly. However, we're only an injury or two away from being in the running for the pole-position in the lottery. If they can bring the same effort we seen last night over the course of the next 81 games, we certainly could be pushing for a wildcard spot. Either way, the style in which they played last night has me excited for the year, regardless of where we finish.

Ironically Fanto, I'd suggest this current team is pretty well-positioned should they get a few injuries. Things seem fairly spread out, it's believable they could sustain with interchangeable parts.

 

What's cool is with all this young depth(& expiring vet deals), this should improve progressively over the next half-decade.

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, 6string said:

Just maybe Nikita loves his country and didn't like it here in N.America. Maybe he caught onto the Russian bashing narrative played out by lamestream media and he was either or both offended or confused. He may have been homesick or just prefered the travel in the KHL as opposed to here.

 

I've met many Russians in my travel, they are good people, well informed and proud just like Canadians.

 

I did not read the article, I've only reviewed some of the comments posted.

Really loved watching the big guy play.  I thought he was a beauty, and really smart on the ice too.  I think his new wife, who got pregnant, missed home.  He, as a husband and soon to be father, did the right thing.  He got his wife home, and close to familiar surroundings.  He gave up a lot (as the article points out) for his family.  I miss watching him play, but feel he's a man for other newly wed young men to emulate.  Always put your family first.

[CanuckleHorse]

49 minutes ago, luckylager said:

Dorsett's never been one to shy away. Definitely nice to have Guddy around for a lot of the guys, but Dors takes care of his own business.

 

He might not win, but he always lands a few. Don't care you are, getting punched hurts.

He would have had to fight 3 times if Gudbranson wasn’t in the lineup I’m not saying he wouldn’t have but having the big guy around you don’t have to worry about those big bullies jumping you because they will have to answer the bell with our bodyguard.

[Nuxfanabroad]

1 hour ago, Alflives said:

Didn’t we have Bill Laforge for a while?  

Imagine he & Willie D arguing about hockey in a donut shop.

 

There's the makings of a good hockey joke in this...

[Harvey Spector]

Travis and Ziggy taking a goal celebration to a whole new level...

 

[luckylager]

21 minutes ago, CanuckleHorse said:

He would have had to fight 3 times if Gudbranson wasn’t in the lineup I’m not saying he wouldn’t have but having the big guy around you don’t have to worry about those big bullies jumping you because they will have to answer the bell with our bodyguard.

Valid point.