How does this team stack up compared to previous ones?

[IBatch]

Hi CDC.  Don’t often make thread but thought this would be a fun discussion.  Just curious how other super fans (anyone who’s on here most days are nuts about the Canucks) feel this playoffs and this team stacks up to ones in the past.   Personally it has an early 90’s vibe to me.   Vegas series has shades of both the Luongo/Turco battle (Demko/Lehner) and the St Louis one a little like 89 vs Calgary with a much different outcome.

 

Im super proud of all the players, and know good things are coming.   Going to start by saying this - only the Linden teams offered a similar window.   The Sedins burned the brightest but also only had one run and not for a decade after getting drafted.   The Linden teams seemed like an automatic bye to the second round most years.  
 

Horvat is the same age as Ronning was compared to Horvat and EP, and Ronning and Linden.   Bure a year younger then Linden just like QHs is to EP.  

 

Are we on the edge of greatness or did we just get lucky?   Personally I think this teams core is so good we have a shot at doing that only CAR (Staal and Ward), PIT (Crosby and Malkin), CHI (Toews and Kane) have managed to do since the cap came in.  That is compete for a cup when their core is this young.   EP, QHs, BB and Horvat clearly drove the bus for us, and that’s extremely rare.  Usually have to wait until the cores in their mid-late twenties for that.  

[NewbieCanuckFan]

Those early 90s teams you couldn’t push around.  If you went into dark back alley, with guys like Gino, Momesso, Diduck, Dirk, etc., you wouldn’t have a care in the world.  Guys like Reaves would be urinating in the corner.

[khay]

Bit of 2006-07 team vibe as well.

 

We were overmatched and ultimately lost to the Ducks in 5, who went on to win it all.

 

We lost to Vegas in 7, who are a favorite to win it all. If it were a normal year with regular rest between playoff games, we might have been able to pull off an upset. So in that sense, this team did better than 2006-07 team although both teams failed to advance to WCF.

 

Both teams trying to build on speed and skill.

 

Great goaltending Luongo vs Markstron/Demko.

 

Star players about couple years before they hit their prime in Sedins vs EP/Hughes.

 

Engine of the team in Kesler vs Horvat. Kesler is more feisty and played agitator role with little offence to start his career whereas Bo brought more consistent offence from start of his career. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin Biestra]

1989.  Parts of a young core with a young Reinhart instead of an old one.  Something like Linden, something like McLean.  Petterson could be something like a counterpart to Bure who arrives shortly.

 

Still missing lots of stuff that hopefully will be added to match the early-mid 90s teams.  Babych, Momesso, Craven, Courtnall, Ronning, etc.

 

[Maniwaki Canuck]

This team has the heart and killer instinct of the 1994 team, but not the size, meanness and quality depth.  The current top-end talent is close to as good as we've ever had, and getting better.  Not a lock that we're finally going to win a cup in the next five years, but the wave is building and we're going to have a good shot at it. 

[Johnny Torts]

Highest skilled team that has a few players who need to fill their frame. Skill alone brought them to almost the conference finals, the extra size will do absolute wonders. 

 

 

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Kevin Biestra said:

1989.  Parts of a young core with a young Reinhart instead of an old one.  Something like Linden, something like McLean.  Petterson could be something like a counterpart to Bure who arrives shortly.

 

Still missing lots of stuff that hopefully will be added to match the early-mid 90s teams.  Babych, Momesso, Craven, Courtnall, Ronning, etc.

 

Adams, Diduck, Lumme ... plus a bunch of truculence in Hunter, Odjick, Antoski later.  Murzyn, Nedved for a bit then Brown and Hedican... that said see some similar themes as in the young core at least once so far, was a driver in the playoffs.  Only other team I’ve seen do that.  Naslund was 27, the Sedins a little older when they peaked.   

[IBatch]

2 hours ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Those early 90s teams you couldn’t push around.  If you went into dark back alley, with guys like Gino, Momesso, Diduck, Dirk, etc., you wouldn’t have a care in the world.  Guys like Reaves would be urinating in the corner.

In his pants. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

2 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

1989.  Parts of a young core with a young Reinhart instead of an old one.  Something like Linden, something like McLean.  Petterson could be something like a counterpart to Bure who arrives shortly.

 

Still missing lots of stuff that hopefully will be added to match the early-mid 90s teams.  Babych, Momesso, Craven, Courtnall, Ronning, etc.

 

Even a very old and playing with a gas tank near empty Reinhart pretty much helped carry the team into the post-season.  If not for Otto scoring an ILLEGAL goal in game 7, we could've advanced (that was the season the Flamers won their only Cup).

Edited September 9, 2020 by NewbieCanuckFan

[Nuxfanabroad]

This team had the overall swankiness & panache of the '73 California Golden Seals..obviously.

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Nuxfanabroad said:

This team had the overall swankiness & panache of the '73 California Golden Seals..obviously.

Joking aside I did appreciate the announcers bringing up a 2009 CHI vibe with these guys.  Not to jinx it but at some point I hope the lessons learned from this team will be similar to the ones the Oilers learned in the early 80’s, a five game series against the still great MTL team is often brought up as a pivotal one early on - making a statement that they wouldn’t let Robinson intimidate them.   Dare I say that was our St. Louis series? Sure hope so.   Both recent champs at the time. 

[Patel Bure]

Tough to really say given the different eras, but I think we are in the similar position to where we were in 2006-2007.    2000-2002 where we lost in the first round to the Avs and Wings are also good comparables in my opinion.    Although we are a good team trending in the right direction, we still have a few holes that need to be addressed before we can play with the big boys.   Progression isn’t a completely linear process and so we might even regress for one year either next season or the season after next (before truly joining the elite ranks).   This is one reason why I like the 2006-2007 comparability.  If you recall, we regressed in 2007-2008 after having made the 2nd round (2008 = missed playoffs).

 

As far as styles go, I saw a lot of 1994 determination and heart.    We aren’t as tough as those early 90’s teams or those WCE era teams, but we aren’t pushovers like those exceptionally talented 2008-2013 Canucks either.

 

I also love that 1989 comparison (I.e.  pushing to a game 7 against a vastly superior opponent)

Edited September 10, 2020 by DarkIndianRises

[Crabcakes]

I think that Benning is going to be continuing the trend he has started by adding size and grit to the line up.  He's not afraid to have smaller highly skilled players but the supporting cast are going to be tough to play against.  So, early 90's but with more high end skill.

[Dumb Nuck]

Somewhere along the lines of when we got the Sedins we developed a turn the other cheek wimp a$$ attitude and every coach since (apart from Torts) has perpetuated that. It was a great strategy for doing well during the regular season but it does not win cups. Sadly that attitude is still with us and as fun as it was to see another playoff run we are a million miles away from a cup.

 

If I had to compare them to past teams:

 

2011: Nowhere near the skill.

1994: Nowhere near the toughness.

1982: Nowhere near the heart.
 

If we want a cup we need the best of all three.

[IBatch]

10 hours ago, Dumb Nuck said:

Somewhere along the lines of when we got the Sedins we developed a turn the other cheek wimp a$$ attitude and every coach since (apart from Torts) has perpetuated that. It was a great strategy for doing well during the regular season but it does not win cups. Sadly that attitude is still with us and as fun as it was to see another playoff run we are a million miles away from a cup.

 

If I had to compare them to past teams:

 

2011: Nowhere near the skill.

1994: Nowhere near the toughness.

1982: Nowhere near the heart.
 

If we want a cup we need the best of all three.

1994 and 1982 there isn’t enough toughness in the entire league to stack up against either of those teams.   All that matter is how we stack up against the rest of the league and in that area we are at least middle of the row if not in the top third.   As far as heart goes this team did show a lot of heart.   Several guys were playing through injuries including Markstrom, TT, QHs and Myers that we know of.   Also I’m not sure why you’d pick 82 over 94 for heart.   2011...well the Sedins didn’t score at the same pace as EP did ... overall I’d give that to you on defense although QHs says hello with his new record setting playoffs (both all-time everyone for a rookie and for passing Brown in a lot less games).  
 

Don’t think your giving this team enough credit.  First crack at it we passed whatever the WCE era teams could do and all of the Sedin teams but one year.   They only won a round twice.  The rest of the times were first round exits.   Linden teams stack up well as far as early success goes.   Which is why I’d say we stack up well against the early 90’s teams.    As far as goaltending goes we stack up well against both the Linden and the Sedins best seasons too.  
 

Nowwhere close to a clue at what current events in the league are like IMO.  
 

Name some players in the league right now that would stack up well against Antoski, Odjick, Momessso, even Murzyn.   They simply don’t exist anymore with no apologies to Reaves and Wilson, and Boychuk and Gudbranson.   Hunter would feed them their lunch too.   Heck Courtnall would probably do it too.  And nobody but Chara could compare to Babych as far as strength goes.  Diduck would also give most forward anxiety.   Dirk ha ha a mule.   Then there’s Sandlak.   A completely different time.

 

Times definitely changed.   This team played 17 games .... fourth best in our history ... maybe your “nowhere like” comments come with a little prejudice or preference no?   We just made some club history and some records.   In case you didn’t notice. 
 

And as the cherry on top.   Listen I’m old school and loved hockey I grew up with.   From the early days when PHI was winning cups based on skill and toughness to the MTL/NYI/EDM dynasties.   I also think enforcers added both value to their stars and a whole lot of entertainment for the fans and hate that they are gone.   My favourite non-Canuck team to go to the final the past 30 years was ANA’s second crack at it.  But I’m not so dense to realize players aren’t like that anymore and that tough guy hockey is gone.   It left a decade ago really and given millennials and gen Z’ now rule the roost it’s not coming back anytime soon.   It’s not the coaching.   It’s the players.   Willie D tried by showing Tree videos of Pronger and he ran away as fast as he could. 

Edited September 10, 2020 by IBatch

[IBatch]

16 hours ago, Crabcakes said:

I think that Benning is going to be continuing the trend he has started by adding size and grit to the line up.  He's not afraid to have smaller highly skilled players but the supporting cast are going to be tough to play against.  So, early 90's but with more high end skill.

Crabcakes believe you nailed it.   Yes we still have work to do - Vegas isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and likely we’d have to go through them or St Louis again to make it to the final.  COL doesn’t worry me much in the least as far as getting beat up - Dallas’s window is closing fast.   Win now or looking at Heiskanen in his late 20’s early 30’s before they will get another chance.