[PGT] Minnesota Wild at Vancouver Canucks | Dec. 04, 2018

[PhillipBlunt]

2 minutes ago, chilliwiggins said:

I would be scared for EP out there.   that was a beat down of a series.

It was. Trotz and Gallant knew that it was going to be a battle. Both are well versed in managing physical rosters.

[TheGuardian_]

I have been posting about the effects of constant losing for at least last season and this one but last night was the first time that I saw a collective deflation or more players conserve themselves. "Dial it back"

The team played a more traditional defence limiting the dmen rushing

 

Sticks look to be squeezed into toothpicks, timing was off, still a lot of shots from low quality areas.

 

As bad as they looked, it was still only a one goal game, competitive. They will do their best, they will win, but as a suggestion if your comments are from anger or frustration or confusion maybe wait 24 hours. No one player makes a team. No one player is responsible.

[gizmo2337]

Here's my take on where we are at.

Goaltending: We have two ok to less than average backups. Would you not want Luongo back in a heartbeat, even at his age? Both play ok, and have streaks of brilliance, and then cough up and easy pizza once or twice a game. It's been *rare* to see a clean entire 60 minutes from either of them.

 

Defence: Do we even have one? The quality of chances on our goalies is too high. Too many poor pinch choices. Not enough keeping the shots to the outside. Our PK stinks. Heck, even Burrows could probably help on the PK right now. If that's where we are at, we really are that bad.

 

Forwards: Decent core, with more to come. Bo and Jake seem to be on the money lately. Boeser and Pettersson are a bit rusty. I noticed it at the skills competition with target shooting. They just have lost a bit of confidence and their shot and timing is a bit off. I'm not worried, this is a quality group of forwards, and the least of our worries.

 

Coaching: Green has been good. I hope we don't fire a guy just because of win/loss record. He is getting the best out of the team and making changes on the fly. Our power play has been terrible, but we don't have a QB either until Edler came back. Our PK is atrocious, but we don't have Hansen or Burrows anymore. I think we have players that can play that way, they just need to improve on the small things. If anything, maybe we need a change in the defensive side of coaching.

 

Management: Benning has been fine. Drafting has been a bright spot. He didn't nail them all, but we use to miss on pretty much every draft. He's made some trades to shake things up. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the FA signings.

 

Where does that leave us? We are probably 4 defense and a goalie away from making the playoffs. On the optimistic side (if all works out), we have Hughes, Juolevi, Tryamkin, Demko, DiPietro in the pipe. We are short a couple more defense and some depth. Of course, there's always the chance that some players don't work out. Hughes is probably the only "can't miss" player in that list. We aren't that far away from contending, despite our record right now. We are close to turning the corner.

[PhillipBlunt]

8 minutes ago, TheGuardian_ said:

I have been posting about the effects of constant losing for at least last season and this one but last night was the first time that I saw a collective deflation or more players conserve themselves. "Dial it back"

The team played a more traditional defence limiting the dmen rushing

 

Sticks look to be squeezed into toothpicks, timing was off, still a lot of shots from low quality areas.

 

As bad as they looked, it was still only a one goal game, competitive. They will do their best, they will win, but as a suggestion if your comments are from anger or frustration or confusion maybe wait 24 hours. No one player makes a team. No one player is responsible.

Overall, I noticed that players looked deflated too. It has an unavoidable effect. To the Canucks credit, they haven't really been blown out very often at all this season, which does speak to the team's ability to clamp down when necessary.

 

Only they know what it is that they need to do to turn some L's into W's. For their sake, I hope the figure it out.

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, chilliwiggins said:

they will never straight out say it of course but we are in full blown tank mode from day one.

Love to get Jack Hughes to go with his brother.  I know this is sinful, but then I would trade Bo for a top notch (younger) D man.  Much like what Columbus did to get Seth Jones.  I love Bo, but having EP 40 and JH would make Bo expendable, no?  

[Nucker 67]

If they all played with Motte's heart and fearlessness, they would be a really tough team to play against. I agree with The Big Luongo regarding Granlund. He's not very good. I'd rather give Gaunce another shot.   

[mll]

32 minutes ago, The Big Luongo said:

Worked late last night and just catching the game now looks like more of the same as usual.

 

Why Green has Granlund on the penalty kill after he's shown over and over every game how useless he is at it is beyond me and almost as useless Schaller as well.

 

This guy is moving far too slow offers no pressure whatsoever giving the opposition all the time and space in the world. If I'm a skilled opposition forward I'd be drooling thinking about how soft slow and easy Granlund is guy is like playing against a woman basically it's so pathetic.

 

Seriously I have no idea where to find the stats but over these last dozen or so games we've been losing I wonder what the penalty kill % is when Granlunds on the ice seems like the other teams are scoring at a 50% rate it's so bad ff unbelievable.

 

Green keeps Granlund in there struggling like he kept Pouliot screwing the team over and over for far too long and useless Schaller on the team or PK or with Horvat for a stretch over someone who could actually help really questioning his lineup decisions especially when they're weaknesses that are making such a negative difference and the teams losing all these games.

 

Canucks have allowed the most PP goals against in the league with 28 and Granlund has been on the ice for close to 65% of them - he leads the league in PPGA with 18.

 

Green did say that they were going to try different units in case they took another penalty.

 

With both Beagle and Sutter out of the lineup - basically all of November and a few days in December - the Canucks had the worst PK in the league at 66%.  

['NucK™]

Just now, Alflives said:

Love to get Jack Hughes to go with his brother.  I know this is sinful, but then I would trade Bo for a top notch (younger) D man.  Much like what Columbus did to get Seth Jones.  I love Bo, but having EP 40 and JH would make Bo expendable, no?  

Rather trade Boes than Bo personally. It would hurt to see Horvat in another team's jersey ;'(

['NucK™]

1 minute ago, NUCKER67 said:

If they all played with Motte's heart and fearlessness, they would be a really tough team to play against. I agree with The Big Luongo regarding Granlund. He's not very good. I'd rather give Gaunce another shot.   

Compared to Shaller, Granlund looks like an all-star.. 

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, 'NucK™ said:

Rather trade Boes than Bo personally. It would hurt to see Horvat in another team's jersey ;'(

Only if we get Jack Hughes would I ever consider moving Bo.  Love Boeser too.  To get a Seth Jones type of D man, we would have to give up a lot, and Bo is a lot. 

[Silky mitts]

4 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Love to get Jack Hughes to go with his brother.  I know this is sinful, but then I would trade Bo for a top notch (younger) D man.  Much like what Columbus did to get Seth Jones.  I love Bo, but having EP 40 and JH would make Bo expendable, no?  

I disagree you win with horses like bo. Having hughes and ep together on a line is a blessing , not a problem . Hughes projects sort of as winger anyways many say he like Patrick Kane .  

 

And if if you don’t even want to put them together a Center depth of ep hughes and horvat is just insane .

[Alflives]

Just now, Silky mitts said:

I disagree you win with horses like bo. Having hughes and ep together on a line is a blessing , not a problem . Hughes projects sort of as winger anyways many say he like Patrick Kane .  

 

And if if you don’t even want to put them together a Center depth of ep hughes and horvat is just insane .

Good points.  Bo is a big boy, and we need that size and skill combo.  JB was saying he wanted to get younger, faster, and bigger.  

[Nucker 67]

Just now, 'NucK™ said:

Compared to Shaller, Granlund looks like an all-star.. 

lol, yes, I watched Schaller last night too, and he wasn't able to do anything. Just an extra body out there. Seems every time we play Minny, the other Granlund gets a few points. What's wrong with our Granlund? lol

 

Canucks play the Preds tomorrow night, and I'm not feeling overly confident about that one. Will be interesting to see what Benning does to improve the situation. If he does anything at all. The team started the regular season on fire, everyone was giving 100%, full effort every shift, seemed there was chemistry with the new guys, they were scoring and producing wins, and now, they look like they've regressed back to the preseason when they went 1-6.

[shazzam]

1 hour ago, N7Nucks said:

He needs to seek help. Something ain't right with the boy. 

Loui is doing just fine. He's swimming in millions and all he's doing is going for a skate around a rink surrounded by thousands of people that paid to watch.

He won. We lost.

[The Big Luongo]

9 minutes ago, mll said:

 

Canucks have allowed the most PP goals against in the league with 28 and Granlund has been on the ice for close to 65% of them - he leads the league in PPGA with 18.

 

Green did say that they were going to try different units in case they took another penalty.

 

With both Beagle and Sutter out of the lineup - basically all of November and a few days in December - the Canucks had the worst PK in the league at 66%.  

Wow ffs that's unbelievable! Thanks for finding that me man.

 

 I did know Granlund is horrible on the PK can't stand even watching him there at this point .

 

Like what could go wrong with a extremely soft and painfully slow player there basically standing still giving the other team top skilled players all the room in the world to maneuver and set up plays ugh.

 

Green has got to take some blame in some of this no matter how bad our injury luck or any luck for that matter is.

 

Never thought I would say this seeing Green do some things very well for this team so far but now I'm starting to think coach Q might he an Improvement we might have to take advantage of.

[GritGrinder]

Are the Canucks more competitive than last season as people keep saying? The record doesn't necessarily support this notion as the year over year comparison below indicates. They have 3 more one goal losses this season over last but also 3 more losses overall, if the Canucks of last season had lost 19 instead of 16 of their first 30 then a couple of more one goal losses is likely, plus i'm betting there was at least one ENG in the 3 2 goal losses they had. Canucks sweet spot over the last 2 seasons seems to be the 3 goal loss with 12 of the 35 losses being by 3. 20 of the 35 losses by 2 goals or more over the last 2 seasons.

 

2017-18 through 30 games

16 total losses

6 one goal losses

3 two goal losses

6 three goal losses

1 five goal loss

 

2018-19 through 30 games

19 total losses

9 one goal losses

1 two goal loss

6 three goal losses

2 four goal losses

1 five goal loss

 

[erkayloomeh]

4 hours ago, 189lb enforcers? said:

Just one? 

Not sure how fast Hughes will take to impact this team but preferably a high end ufa gets signed this summer.  Then if Hughes can impact right away .........imagine no more complaining about pouliot and del z 

I personally don't care for NT but if he can come back also and help the team then I'll put my feelings aside and be happy if it benefits our team 

[Sedinyoureyesontheprize]

13 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said:

 

 

Canucks play the Preds tomorrow night, and I'm not feeling overly confident about that one. Will be interesting to see what Benning does to improve the situation. If he does anything at all. The team started the regular season on fire, everyone was giving 100%, full effort every shift, seemed there was chemistry with the new guys, they were scoring and producing wins, and now, they look like they've regressed back to the preseason when they went 1-6.

Exactly no urgency in our game, not playing like a team that’s lost 12 of 13.

 

whered the team culture go? 

 

“There’s inherent risk in playing hockey, there’s inherent risk in getting into a fight,” Blashill said. “He was sticking up for (teammate Dylan) Larkin in that case, who got his head run against the boards. I know this, he’d do it again. And I’m good with him doing it again. I want him to do it again. 

“We want to make sure we’re sticking up for each other. You’re not going anywhere at any time if you’ve got a team that’s selfish and doesn’t care about each other — no chance. The best chance for us to have great success here is for us to make sure that we’re looking after each other at all times and sometimes these types of things are going to happen. That’s the reality of life. 

“It’s just like saying should you block shots. Of course you should block shots, that’s the sacrifice it takes to win. Every once in a while you’re going to get a broken bone because of it. Should you take a hit to make a play? Of course you should take a hit to make a play. Otherwise you’re never winning. Should you stick up for your teammates? Of course you should stick up for your teammates. Otherwise you’re never winning. That’s just the reality of it.”

[The Big Luongo]

1 hour ago, qwijibo said:

Career threatening play? Give it a rest. It was barely a penalty.  It wasn’t late. It wasn’t charging. Virtanen wasn’t even really in the danger zone a few feet away from the boards.  He just happened to be bent over when he got hit.  

I'd agree as much as I love Big Jake that hit wasn't deliberate or that bad.

 

Having said that after Edler's stupid penalty he definitely deserved the call against MDZ was extremely soft and definitely shouldn't be a call when a teams already down a man.

 

The first stupid deserved MDZ penalty and bad PK, often useless Edlers dumb penalty then the idiotic soft call against MDZ basically ended up costing the team the win.

 

Tough to say that the refs are basically against our team most nights but when you watch every game and evaluate their officiating with some common sense you'll definitely find that imo at least 75% of the games they favor the other team. When you're as injured as much as this team is, have no chemistry, have a few players killing the team and not getting much luck in any area these calls are killers and just another nail in the coffin on a nightly basis.

[Nucker 67]

They miss those clutch goals from the Sedins, and a starting goalie. Even when Demko joins the team, he won't be the starter for a while (1-2 years?). Is Benning going to rely on Markstrom or Nilsson to be the starter for the next two years? I'm curious what the goaltending plan is.