[GDT/PGT] Vancouver Canucks @ Toronto Maple Laffs | February 6, 2021 | 4 p.m. PT | NHLN, CBC, TVAS, SN, CITY

[Hairy Kneel]

We're lucky our stars are so young, our window is just starting. If Hughes is hurt he should sit. I've read on these boards its a possible groin strain he's dealing with?

Plus finishing low gets us a good draft pick. We'll shed a lot of cap and have room to add players. Be nice to go after ufa's like Landeskog or Lowry. (Probably lose Holtby or OJ in the ED.)

Waive Louie and play the kids, Gauds and Mac. Chatter should go back to the taxi squad.

Edited February 7, 2021 by Hairy Kneel

[DownUndaCanuck]

By the sounds of all the post game interviews, the players don't know what's wrong. They're playing hard, trying hard, but aren't getting results. Obviously we lose some quality personnel in Marky, Toffoli and Tanev, but don't forget we played most of last season without Toff and were fine. We replace him with a very good Hoglander and improved Boeser, replace Tanev with Schmidt, replace Stecher with Hamonic, throw a better Chatfield and Juolevi into the mix, and replace Marky with Holtby and what should be an improved Demko coming off a historic playoffs.

 

On paper, we should be the same if not better. On the ice, Holtby and Demko have been exposed by a leaky defence, Schmidt looks lost, Hamonic injured, Chatfield a -4 and getting little protection now.

 

We're scoring goals, that's not an issue, but averaging 4 GAA now which is embarassing. 

 

Theoretically our system shouldn't have changed much from last season, we always used to pinch and run and gun but for some reason our defencemen are struggling with it this year.

 

My big concern is that we're in a 4 game losong streak and if you take away the cheap 3 Ottawa wins, have basically been in a losing streak all season, yet we're still icing the same forwards, the same defensive pairs and the same systems. The PP and PK have been average which is good for this team. The goalies have been average which is made worse by exposing them with our leaky defence.

 

The question is, when does Green try and make some big systemic changes, or does JB make a coaching change first? This season is very salvagable, but if they just continue at this rate they'll be picking top 3. Repitition is insanity etc. and Green and Baumer haven't changed this defence one bit all season which astounds me. At least try and shuffle D partners, it's not that hard and the worst coaches will try that during a season. All he's done is about 20 minutes of Petey and Bo being swapped, and changing our 4th liners by bringing Eriksson and Bailey in for Virtanen and Gaudette who basically don't influence the game.

 

I want big changes - change the system, play defensive-minded boring hockey with both D back, 1 forechecker, clog up the neutral zone. Sort out our defence, score opportunistic goals (we have the skill for it), and play much closer together to support the puck up the ice. Don't care if we dump and chase most of the game, I'd rather try and eek out 2-1 wins than lose 7-3 over and over again. 

 

On D, Hughes and Benn is a carnival, why are we pairing our best skating offensive defenceman with a sluggish slow 7th defenceman? These guys end up on the ice against top pairings and they're getting savaged. Play Hughes with Schmidt or Myers, Hughes and Myers were solid last season, why change that? Chatfield looks done out there as well, why not rotate and bring Juolevi in for a bit?

 

Lots of changes need to be made and if Green doesn't have the guts to do little changes like that, JB's going to have to have the balls to change systems by changing coaches.

[RU SERIOUS]

2 hours ago, Rick_theRyper said:

I think keeping Tanev alone would have helped a lot

Keeping Toffoli was more important.  A player like that only comes along every 8-9 years and JB let him slip right out of his hands.  That is the biggest blunder he's done since signing L.E.

[cuporbust]

17 minutes ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

Wow. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by cuporbust

[DownUndaCanuck]

1 minute ago, RU SERIOUS said:

Keeping Toffoli was more important.  A player like that only comes along every 8-9 years and JB let him slip right out of his hands.  That is the biggest blunder he's done since signing L.E.

Agreed, a top line 30-40 goal scoring winger for 4M x 4 is a bargain. Problem is I don't think scoring an extra few goals here and there would save this team, we're 3.4 GF per game and 4GAA average, we need to defend better. Would have been nice, sure, but I think we'd still be losing these games.

[Dumb Nuck]

9 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said:

Oh they're tired.  Trust me...and it shows.  They're not skating hard at all...in spurts only.

There’s 19 teams with a higher average age, why are we so tired?

[RU SERIOUS]

2 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

Holtby & Virtanen for Koskinen & Puljujarvi

I'm good with that. Lazy Jake IS DONE in this city and HOLE-tby can't seem to stop pucks and is alot worse than anyone envisioned.  So, both can go and I bet those other two would be welcomed additions.

[24K PureCool]

3 minutes ago, RU SERIOUS said:

Keeping Toffoli was more important.  A player like that only comes along every 8-9 years and JB let him slip right out of his hands.  That is the biggest blunder he's done since signing L.E.

Toffoli only scored almost all against us, not that big of a molehill really.

But still a terrible move nonetheless.

[Zhukini]

10 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said:

Oh they're tired.  Trust me...and it shows.  They're not skating hard at all...in spurts only.

Agree to disagree. 
 

When you’re winning you have legs. when you’re always down by one or two or five is them skating for a lose puck to maybe cut the defecit to 6 that important? Apparently not to them. 
 

I see the not skating hard. I just don’t think all of it Is due to fatigue. 

[canucks74sy]

It's our system. Teams have figured out our playbook. How many of teams see the dump and chase strategy? Or how about the cross pass to the Offence Dman (Hughes)? Green has to change the system but I don't see it. The new alignment where we play our Canadian brethren has it setup like playoff hockey where we play the divisional teams so many times, team figured us out. Plain and simple. 

 

They need to change the system or the results will be like this night after night.

Also doesn't hurt not to take so many dumb penalties. Its killing us.

[khay]

55 minutes ago, sockeye said:

I see what you are saying but, with our current roster, no coach is going to deliver.  This team is not built to play a hard, gritty defensive game.  Also, our team is not a fast team (we're quick but not fast) and we constantly get beat to the puck and we lose too many puck battles.  This Canadian Division is tough with the exception of Ottawa.

 

While everyone was singing the praises of the Canucks last year, not me.  We were just lucky last season and we had a Vezina quality goalie.  For the last couple of years, our shots against were atrocious but Marky kept us in the game.  Now, our chickens have come home to roost.  

 

I still think Green is a good coach but I realize his job is in jeopardy with how this season is going.  I agree that Gallant is a good coach too but I don't think he'd make a big difference in the win-loss column.  Maybe we might lose by a few less goals but there's no way this team, as currently structured, is making the playoffs this year.  We should have kept Toffoli, traded Boeser for a solid top 4 D or a skilled gritty forward, kept Tanev, Stecher and Leivo.  I loved Marky but not for 6 years at 6 mill per year (given his age).

If Gallant can do that, then let's fire Green and bring Gallant in now. I can't stand these blowout losses anymore. I'd rather see us lose 2-1 or 3-2 than 5-1.

 

The team is as good as its weakest link. We basically replaced Stecher with Chatfield and Tanev was not replaced, well Benn was promoted into Tanev's position. The outcome is two or three easy goals per night against the top teams in our division so we basically need to score 4 or 5 goals for us to win.

 

Now that I think about it... we went into the season with Chatfield as Stecher replacement and Benn as Tanev replacement. Schmidt replaces Fantenberg, which is an upgrade but Fatenberg is fine and he didn't really need to be replaced. In fact, Juolevi would have been a suitable replacement for Fantenberg.

 

Oh JB, what have you done... It's getting harder and harder to defend him as these blowout losses pile up.

 

[Dumb Nuck]

2 minutes ago, RU SERIOUS said:

I'm good with that. Lazy Jake IS DONE in this city and HOLE-tby can't seem to stop pucks and is alot worse than anyone envisioned.  So, both can go and I bet those other two would be welcomed additions.

I like Jake, just not sure with what’s wrong with him but he needs a change, either a new team or a new coach, then we’d know if he’s just lazy or just in an environment that doesn’t fit him.

[RU SERIOUS]

2 hours ago, Dogcrazy said:

Why was Chatfield even on the same ice as Matthews should be the question.  

Maybe the question should be: "Why were the Canucks on the same ice as the leafs should be the question".  They certainly didn't look anywhere ready to play tonight!

[TheFly]

5 hours ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Hopefully this ends the Benning era. 

It was right there when he passed on Tkachuk. Too bad we had to dream for 3 years to admit the obvious.

[ShawnAntoski]

15 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

By the sounds of all the post game interviews, the players don't know what's wrong. They're playing hard, trying hard, but aren't getting results. Obviously we lose some quality personnel in Marky, Toffoli and Tanev, but don't forget we played most of last season without Toff and were fine. We replace him with a very good Hoglander and improved Boeser, replace Tanev with Schmidt, replace Stecher with Hamonic, throw a better Chatfield and Juolevi into the mix, and replace Marky with Holtby and what should be an improved Demko coming off a historic playoffs.

 

On paper, we should be the same if not better. On the ice, Holtby and Demko have been exposed by a leaky defence, Schmidt looks lost, Hamonic injured, Chatfield a -4 and getting little protection now.

 

We're scoring goals, that's not an issue, but averaging 4 GAA now which is embarassing. 

 

Theoretically our system shouldn't have changed much from last season, we always used to pinch and run and gun but for some reason our defencemen are struggling with it this year.

 

My big concern is that we're in a 4 game losong streak and if you take away the cheap 3 Ottawa wins, have basically been in a losing streak all season, yet we're still icing the same forwards, the same defensive pairs and the same systems. The PP and PK have been average which is good for this team. The goalies have been average which is made worse by exposing them with our leaky defence.

 

The question is, when does Green try and make some big systemic changes, or does JB make a coaching change first? This season is very salvagable, but if they just continue at this rate they'll be picking top 3. Repitition is insanity etc. and Green and Baumer haven't changed this defence one bit all season which astounds me. At least try and shuffle D partners, it's not that hard and the worst coaches will try that during a season. All he's done is about 20 minutes of Petey and Bo being swapped, and changing our 4th liners by bringing Eriksson and Bailey in for Virtanen and Gaudette who basically don't influence the game.

 

I want big changes - change the system, play defensive-minded boring hockey with both D back, 1 forechecker, clog up the neutral zone. Sort out our defence, score opportunistic goals (we have the skill for it), and play much closer together to support the puck up the ice. Don't care if we dump and chase most of the game, I'd rather try and eek out 2-1 wins than lose 7-3 over and over again. 

 

On D, Hughes and Benn is a carnival, why are we pairing our best skating offensive defenceman with a sluggish slow 7th defenceman? These guys end up on the ice against top pairings and they're getting savaged. Play Hughes with Schmidt or Myers, Hughes and Myers were solid last season, why change that? Chatfield looks done out there as well, why not rotate and bring Juolevi in for a bit?

 

Lots of changes need to be made and if Green doesn't have the guts to do little changes like that, JB's going to have to have the balls to change systems by changing coaches.

Yeah, something is going on internally and the players are showing it on the ice (?).   Would like to see OJ, Rafferty and etc... whats the worst that could happen that ain't happening now.  Its been the same lineup with the usual suspects getting benched.

[RU SERIOUS]

2 hours ago, Tom Sestito said:

It’s been dissected but your guys conclusions were always more “it’s going to work itself out trust me” rather than well thought out. 

 

I saw a lot of defending of management that followed the line of “Do you think you can do better? These guys obviously have a plan. Benning and now with Chris Gear they do this for a job. Have faith.”

 

They then said they had a plan to sign Tanev, Markstrom, and Toffoli and failed.

 

Then Benning runs out of time because they chase OEL and circle back trying to up their offers to all of them (as reported by Rick Dhaliwal) and it’s too late.

 

Before you ask, no I wouldn’t have matched Calgary’s offers. Has it been reported that they would have taken less from Vancouver? Yes. How much less? Who knows. IIRC, the last minute offers to Markstrom and Tanev were 5 and 3 years. Dhaliwal also said they felt disrespected and that their prices went up the further they went into the summer.

 

It showed that they can’t execute their plans. 

 

The have faith it’ll work out thing lost all credibility when Benning openly admitted they &^@#ed up. Numerous times.

 

Players are mad with management. 
 

In other news, players playing poorly because they are frustrated with management is disgusting. Motte, Beagle, Hoglander, Schmidt and the goalies are the only ones who get any free passes for me. 
 

Miller has actually been disgusting on the ice with the lack of effort level. It’s toxic and I’m happy Holtby got mad.

 

 

I agree 100%.  JB is a somewhat good scout of talent but when it comes to negotiating contracts and trades he fall flat on his face.   We all know how many guys he's let walk out of here for nothing rather than trade them for "anything/something".  When it comes to trades  & signings OMG !  From Gulbrandson to Loui Erikson and all the others in between he gets an "F" with loads of bad signings.

  If he was kept as a scout and we hired another GM I'd be doing cartwheels.  I suspect his biggest problem is his poor communication skills.

[b3.]

Anyone else reading about the speculation that Linden fired Weisbrod?

[ShawnAntoski]

3 minutes ago, RU SERIOUS said:

I agree 100%.  JB is a somewhat good scout of talent but when it comes to negotiating contracts and trades he fall flat on his face.   We all know how many guys he's let walk out of here for nothing rather than trade them for "anything/something".  When it comes to trades  & signings OMG !  From Gulbrandson to Loui Erikson and all the others in between he gets an "F" with loads of bad signings.

  If he was kept as a scout and we hired another GM I'd be doing cartwheels.  I suspect his biggest problem is his poor communication skills.

How does Weisbrod fit in this puzzle (perhaps lurking to be future GM (?))....

[ShawnAntoski]

6 minutes ago, b3. said:

Anyone else reading about the speculation that Linden fired Weisbrod?

You have a link ?

[RU SERIOUS]

1 hour ago, Dumb Nuck said:

Starts with an NHL caliber coach.

When do ya think we'll get one of those ????