Canucks or Wild?

[Patel Bure]

1 hour ago, Brock Botanen said:

This is true, but Hischier was never hyped like Lefreniere. Hughes was hyped, but idk if he was ever hyped like this guy. I just feel if we get Lefreniere we are destined to have a cup in Vancouver sooner than later. He is legit imho

It’s possible, but it’s also possible that he ends up being Alexander Daigle.   The bottom line is that you never know with prospects.   Focus on doing the best you can, and let the chips falls where they may.   Edmonton and Buffalo alone should prove that hoping and tanking isn’t necessarily a recipe for long term success.

[Gator]

21 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said:

You asked for people's opinions....not for us to support yours.  Right?  

 

Any team has a chance...momentum, goaltending, injuries/lack thereof.  So if you've already decided, shut it down and come back next year when we have a chance.  But I understand that the reason TO go into playoffs is because anything can happen and I don't predict what will happen, I enjoy it.  It's not "on paper"...it's a combination of a whole lot of things.  I'm tired of people doubting this team.

 

If you don't have faith in this group, that's your deal, not mine.  I do.

 

I think AF would be a great addition...I'm not holding my breath that we'll get him though.  And I'm focused on my team, not my imaginary team.  I think these guys are stoked and deserve our support.  I want to see how far THEY can go...I don't want to sacrifice that for something else.

 

I'm angry today, so my responses will likely reflect that.  I'm going to time myself out soon before i get into trouble.

I'm not disagreeing with you wanting us to go far this year. I'd love to see it too. What I dont want to see is a first round exit and the Wild get that pick. I'm a huge Canucks fan and nothing would make me happier than seeing them finally win a Cup. I just dont like being called a troll because I ask a legitimate question that a lot of fans have about their teams for this play in round. I'm just not that type of person to be politically correct all the time and speak like a robot. I speak my mind like everyone should wether it a popular or unpopular opinion.

 

Trust me I'm as big a Canuck fan as anyone on this forum. Anyone who knows me would tell u the same thing

[alt kilgore]

3 hours ago, Brock Botanen said:

I think the majority of Canuck fans secretly want to lose for a shot at Lefreniere.

That is absolute garbage.

 

Hey, if we "win" a shot at the #1 every year by missing the playoffs into perpetuity, we could be winners every season!  Why stop at this seasons draft?

I seriously cannot understand how any Canuck fan, any hockey fan for that matter, could even enjoy watching a game with that in the back of their mind

[fanfor42]

If the play in series takes place I think the Canucks dispatch Minny easily.  3 maybe 4 games. Vancouver has more talent.  Minnesota plays a system designed to frustrate but they need to be well into the season before they get the bugs worked out. I've watched them live many times and know this to be who they are.

 

Also, I think Minny at the top is more interested in losing to get a pick and a shot at the next 'kid'. Vancouver is closer to contending than Minnesota and will be more focused on winning at all costs than Minnesota will.

 

My two cents. Let's go!

 

 

 

 

[DeNiro]

6 minutes ago, fanfor42 said:

If the play in series takes place I think the Canucks dispatch Minny easily.  3 maybe 4 games. Vancouver has more talent.  Minnesota plays a system designed to frustrate but they need to be well into the season before they get the bugs worked out. I've watched them live many times and know this to be who they are.

 

Also, I think Minny at the top is more interested in losing to get a pick and a shot at the next 'kid'. Vancouver is closer to contending than Minnesota and will be more focused on winning at all costs than Minnesota will.

 

My two cents. Let's go!

 

 

 

 

All valid points.

 

On the flip side I think players like Suter, Staal, Parise, Koivu, and Zucarello will all be extra motivated as this may be their last kick at the can.

 

I would not take this series for granted. These guys are going to push hard and have much more experience than us. We have to be patient and not try to force things too much. That’s how that team takes advantage of you.

 

That all being said I think this series will come down to which goalie can find their game the fastest.

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by DeNiro

[mll]

3 hours ago, fanfor42 said:

If the play in series takes place I think the Canucks dispatch Minny easily.  3 maybe 4 games. Vancouver has more talent.  Minnesota plays a system designed to frustrate but they need to be well into the season before they get the bugs worked out. I've watched them live many times and know this to be who they are.

 

Also, I think Minny at the top is more interested in losing to get a pick and a shot at the next 'kid'. Vancouver is closer to contending than Minnesota and will be more focused on winning at all costs than Minnesota will.

 

My two cents. Let's go!

 

 

 

 

 

Guerin was on KFAN radio earlier this week and made it clear that they are in it to win.  Transcript from the NHL website:

 

"I think everybody thinks about it, but our job is to win hockey games and not to play for a first overall pick," Guerin told The Athletic in remarks published Friday. "We're going in to win. You can't do that. You can't do that. Like I said, these games are going to come fast and furious. We've got to be ready, and we're going in there to win, not play for a pick. You can't do that. You just don't do that."

 

Guerin traded 30-goal scorer Zucker while still demanding that they win games and saying that more changes were going to come if the guys sit back.  Boudreau's coaching contract was ending this season but Guerin explained that he wanted to give his team a chance to win so he didn't want to wait.  

 

Boudreau lost his job more for his approach than his record.  Guerin is looking for a coach that will play and manage the game the way he thinks it needs to be.  Boudreau was risk averse and they are more aggressive offensively under Evason.  He says he doesn't mind mistakes as long as they are offensive mistakes and not mistakes for sitting back.  Players interviewed like the changes and feel it suits them better.

 

[Kevin Biestra]

6 hours ago, kilgore said:

That is absolute garbage.

 

Hey, if we "win" a shot at the #1 every year by missing the playoffs into perpetuity, we could be winners every season!  Why stop at this seasons draft?

I seriously cannot understand how any Canuck fan, any hockey fan for that matter, could even enjoy watching a game with that in the back of their mind

 

It's not that ridiculous.  You need top picks to win Cups or get close.  If it were 1988, plenty of people would be wanting to win the final few games of the season when we were already mathematically out, even if it meant we lost the #2 pick and Linden.  We needed Linden.

 

Pretending somebody wants to finish last every year for eternity to get picks is the perfect example of a strawman.  We're a bubble team right now, after years of being a bottomfeeder.  I've seen this team cycle up and cycle down over decades.  I've seen how little the last few games of a playoff-missing regular season actually contribute to a player's or team's development, even though in the moment 70% of the fan base will be going on about how if we don't win those games at that moment then it will cripple the team's development and work ethic and so on.  How much do you care about the final five games of the 2017 season right now?

 

Anyway, we're in the quasi-playoffs right now, so I say go for it, and of course the team will.  But there were no regular season wins that were worth not getting Crosby, Malkin, Mario Lemieux, McDavid, Ovechkin, etc.  We're bloody lucky we hit home runs with a #5 and #7 pick...otherwise we would be the pre-McDavid Oilers ourselves.  Just wallowing in the mud with no idea how to climb out of it.

Edited July 5, 2020 by Kevin Biestra

[King Heffy]

28 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

It's not that ridiculous.  You need top picks to win Cups or get close.  If it were 1988, plenty of people would be wanting to win the final few games of the season when we were already mathematically out, even if it meant we lost the #2 pick and Linden.  We needed Linden.

 

But we aren't mathematically out. 

[Kevin Biestra]

4 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

But we aren't mathematically out. 

 

Yeah I wasn't saying tank this play in round.  I say go for the Cup.  But especially the last 5 years or 500 years or however long it is since we made the playoffs, we've been out of it with time to spare and most fans seem to convince themselves that Bo Horvat's entire career depends on the development he goes and the habits he develops in games 78-82 of 2018 or whatever.

 

Maybe I responded to a point or argument he wasn't making.  I'd have to go back and check.  But a lot of fans think the moment is more important than it is, when it's happening.

[Gawdzukes]

On 6/26/2020 at 7:34 PM, -AJ- said:

I find it absurd that anyone who called themselves a hockey fan and a fan of the Canucks could actually cheer for us to lose during that play-in. Clearly we have been outside of meaningful hockey for too long.

Goofs at best, lol

[alt kilgore]

11 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

It's not that ridiculous.  You need top picks to win Cups or get close.  If it were 1988, plenty of people would be wanting to win the final few games of the season when we were already mathematically out, even if it meant we lost the #2 pick and Linden.  We needed Linden.

 

Pretending somebody wants to finish last every year for eternity to get picks is the perfect example of a strawman.  We're a bubble team right now, after years of being a bottomfeeder.  I've seen this team cycle up and cycle down over decades.  I've seen how little the last few games of a playoff-missing regular season actually contribute to a player's or team's development, even though in the moment 70% of the fan base will be going on about how if we don't win those games at that moment then it will cripple the team's development and work ethic and so on.  How much do you care about the final five games of the 2017 season right now?

 

Anyway, we're in the quasi-playoffs right now, so I say go for it, and of course the team will.  But there were no regular season wins that were worth not getting Crosby, Malkin, Mario Lemieux, McDavid, Ovechkin, etc.  We're bloody lucky we hit home runs with a #5 and #7 pick...otherwise we would be the pre-McDavid Oilers ourselves.  Just wallowing in the mud with no idea how to climb out of it.

 

As Heffy said, this is different, we are not out.  But also, to address that point, no player, or coach, much to fans concerns about where the team lands on draft day, will "pull up" on the last days of the season even IF their team is mathematically out. Potentially cutting into their own personal seasonal stats when renegotiating a new contract, all for the sake of the team maybe drafting higher, and maybe getting a young star that will then replace them with a cheaper ELC.

 

Yeah, I admit it was a strawman argument, to make a point.  There obviously has to come a time when a team "goes for it".   The thing is, the Canucks management has made if very clear they are.  I was one of the harshest critics of Benning not using his first years, especially after the 2015 first round loss, to start to actually rebuild the team then.  But fortune favoured JB despite his mismanagement with the picks he (and Brackett) made.

 

The final "straw" was trading our #1 pick for Miller, which also worked out great for JB and the team. If we were "rebuilding on the fly" before, clearly we now were a new upcoming contender, even if young and inexperienced.  So I as a fan, I can only also jump on board and go all in.  It is what it is. No use in going backwards now, to a place we should have been in 2015 or 2016. That ship has sailed. For better or worse.

 

Now if we do fail to beat the Wild, then yeah, there is a silver lining.  But for me, I'm not going there yet.  As a long time Canucks fan, I have developed a well oiled pivot in my brain.  Well used.  If we are still playing, and in the playoffs ( and by all intents it starts with Minny ) I lock onto that. If we fail, I can swing around intermediately to looking at the position we have or can get to and adding new blood.

[-DLC-]

On 7/5/2020 at 12:31 AM, Kevin Biestra said:

 

Yeah I wasn't saying tank this play in round.  I say go for the Cup.  But especially the last 5 years or 500 years or however long it is since we made the playoffs, we've been out of it with time to spare and most fans seem to convince themselves that Bo Horvat's entire career depends on the development he goes and the habits he develops in games 78-82 of 2018 or whatever.

 

Maybe I responded to a point or argument he wasn't making.  I'd have to go back and check.  But a lot of fans think the moment is more important than it is, when it's happening.

And a lot of fans think a 1 in 8 chance of getting a #1 pick automatically means book it.  

 

I want a team that gives their all and competes to win not one that settles for not winning "because".  And that's what we have...winners.  Losing should never be an option. There are great consolation prizes to be awarded, sure.  But the aim is go as far as you can and then "settle" for whatever luck brings you in the way of a pick.  You don't focus on that prize as it's not a given.

[Sweathog]

The hockey gods would never grant us the first overall pick if we as Canuck fans violated the most sacred rule and cheered against our team. Canuck fans do not do that, we cheer on our team until the bitter end. 

 

Besides, we're taking the cup this year.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Sweathog

[shiznak]

People say, our young guys need playoff experience ...... well no. It wouldn’t even be an unauthentic playoff experience for our boys with no fans in the stands. Hockey players feed off the energy from the fans which is why hardest component in the playoffs, for a player, is to go into the opponent’s home court and play in front of their fans. With no fans, it just seem like an exhibition game, with the end goal being a participation trophy. What make matters even worst is there probably won’t even be a post celebration ceremony for the hockey players with their families on the ice, or a Stanley Cup parade for the winning city.

 

At this point, I honestly don’t even care if they win or lose. This season seem like a total wash. Worst than a shorten lockout season that they had in 2014. 

That being said, I don’t want them to just roll over and lose. Play hard and losing with dignity is the way to go out.

Edited July 7, 2020 by shiznak

[mll]

This is the Wild's roster.  

 

Teams are allowed 30 skaters and an unlimited number of goalies at camp.  They will only be allowed to bring 31 players in the bubble. 

 

Pateryn is out indefinitely with an upper body injury.  It looks like the rest of their roster is accounted for.  

 

Goalie Kakhonen will have an equal chance to be the Wild's starter per both Evason and Guerin. 

 

Luke Kunin has type I diabetes.  He has very intention to play but there is a clause that says players with pre-existing medical conditions who are at risk of developing a significant sickness from covid-19 could be prevented from participating.  McKenzie explained that they have to undergo more in-depth testing before being cleared to play.  

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by mll

[Hairy Kneel]

(7) Vancouver Canucks vs. (10) Minnesota Wild

• Sunday, August 2
• Tuesday, August 4
• Thursday, August 6
• Friday, August 7
• Sunday, August 9