[GDT] Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers, Oct 2, 2019, 7 PM

[Grape]

2 minutes ago, EddieVedder said:

Been saying this for quite some time.  Hes a smooth skater but hes no faster than most nhl players.  His lack of size and inability to outmuscle players the way a defender is supposed to is going to cost us a lot of goals against.   He will be a good power play guy for us, but the fans have vastly overrated him if they think he will be a number 1 dman.   This is why its crucial to keep developing a Joulevi and Woo.  They have the frame and build to one day potentially be number one or twos.

First bolded point: this is very false.

 

Second bolded point: Are you really implying Juolevi and Woo are better prospects than Hughes is?

[oldnews]

8 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

Each team has four lines.  Maybe Green should be sheltering Hughes by not playing him against other teams' top players just yet.

?

Do you believe a coach can dictate every situational matchup - including those on the road?  I don't think you have a realistic concept of "sheltering".

 

 

[brownky]

16 minutes ago, Grape said:

I think you're either judging him way too harshly, or you're just the type to focus on defense much more than offense. 

 

Most fans seem to think Hughes was quite impressive tonight. I thought so as well. The offense he brings is absolutely paramount to a team that 1. struggles to score. 2. struggles to create offense on the back end.

 

As it is right now, taking his offense AND defense into account, I think he's already the at least our 2nd or 3rd best defenseman. I get where you're coming from when you say he could work on his defense in the AHL, but the NHL is the best place place to work on being an NHL defender. He can work through his mistakes as of now and we can cut him some slack, but only because he is a major positive factor offensively. 

I'll stop you at the bolded part. 

 

 "Fans" deriding Tyler Myers for being terrible and completely overpaid. Same Fans who said "Roussel is overpaid what a terrible deal" only to flip flop on that one too. 

 

Tyler Myers who *actually* generated offense tonight. I'm becoming quite certain that many fans' opinions are typically stoked by a total lack of experience playing any sort of hockey past 'chel or Peewee/bantam (if that) and "whatever some idiot on a podcast says"

 

Good defense leads directly to good offense. Chances intercepted, cut off, saved, etc all lead to breakouts and the play going the other way. Fancy stickwork in the offensive zone looks good, but ask Nikolay Goldobin how that works out when the stickwork leads to no actual offense generated. 

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by brownky

[brownky]

26 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

Each team has four lines.  Maybe Green should be sheltering Hughes by not playing him against other teams' top players just yet.

When the opposing team has last change (road game) you don't always get that luxury. 

 

And if you can't count on him do to the job, he shouldn't be out there. That's my argument, sheltered or not. I know it's an unpopular opinion, but objectively comparing the play of Hughes in the preseason and tonight to Pouliot last year, they're damn near identical. 

[oldnews]

20 minutes ago, brownky said:

He also got out of the way (2 strides skaters' left) of Mcdavid about 2 seconds prior. Had he remained in position he'd have had a much better stick check rather than the weak sweeper back to Mcdavid's forehand.

 

Sutter made a piss poor play no doubt. But that wasn't the only bad play Hughes made tonight, that was just the most 'obvious' and costly one.

 

 

This "got out of the way" of McDavid about 2 seconds prior story is nonsense wadr.  Watch the replay again.  Hughes gets hit in the back by McDavid a 'few secons prior' - the only thing you cuold micro-criticize is his pivot at the point he realizes he's in better position than Tanev (in spite of Kassian on the RW - being the 2nd man in).

 

Sutter's "piss poor play" actually hit the linesman - again the shizz goggles define that as "piss poor" - it  happens - and was laying  on a platter for Edmonton to transition.

 

This kind of micro-armchair-dwelling on has little to do with whether or not Hughes is NHL ready.

[Roger Neilsons Towel]

 

[-DLC-]

9 hours ago, EddieVedder said:

Been saying this for quite some time.  Hes a smooth skater but hes no faster than most nhl players.  His lack of size and inability to outmuscle players the way a defender is supposed to is going to cost us a lot of goals against.   He will be a good power play guy for us, but the fans have vastly overrated him if they think he will be a number 1 dman.   This is why its crucial to keep developing a Joulevi and Woo.  They have the frame and build to one day potentially be number one or twos.

It's not about flat out "speed"...it's agility.  If you don't see his ability to cut on his edges to elude opponents and keep the puck in his possession, you're not looking hard enough.  

 

And then he dishes the puck off quite nicely.  Puck possession is important...you don't always have to use "muscle" and he's really crafty and slick at how he can use his stick to strip the puck, lift others' sticks, etc.  The game is changing and it isn't all muscle and brawn.  Sure, in those instances, he may lose  the battles (we saw a few times as he was manhandle)...but, like Stech, I think the fact that they have other attributes that make up for their size can offset things.

 

It's the goaltender's job to stop the "goals against".  And Quinn gives us a good chance at getting the puck out of our end...can't fault him too much when the other team is gifted with a golden opportunity by Sutter.

 

Woops...see this was locked.  Sorry mods.