The Score craps on the Canucks playoffs chances

[RU SERIOUS]

13 hours ago, NUCKER67 said:

Wow that guy sounds like he has a lot of resentment towards VAN. Maybe some hot BC girl once broke his heart lol

...when you find a "HOT" BC girl let us all know because I can count on one hand the number of so called HOT girls I've ever seen in Vancouver in decades.  This isn't Montreal you know,

[RU SERIOUS]

12 hours ago, Patel Bure said:

It’s a fair enough criticism, but I think he’s underestimating what OEL will be like in a new environment with new motivation.  Myers is overpaid, but can still hang in the #4 spot if need be and can carry a 3rd pairing.  Hamonic is a #4, not a 3rd pairing guy, and Quinn Hughes should be a little better than last season playing alongside one of Hamonic or Poolman in a 2nd pairing role just as he was in 19/20 (something that the author forgot to mention in his analysis).

 

Lastly, the influence of Brad Shaw, combined with the addition of two-way forwards such as Dickinson, Garland, and Podkolzin (who have replaced “defense only” forwards such as Beagle, Roussel, and Player Name), should make it far likelier that we maintain much better puck possession (that, plus the fact that we will have TWO elite PMD’s on the back end in OEL and Hughes.....and Rathbone to a certain extent when he gets called up).

 

Unlike past years, our 2nd line should pose far more of an offensive threat.  In 2019 for instance, Player Name was on the Pearson/Horvat line and so the line operated as more of a shut down line.  Last year, as we all know, we almost had nothing outside of Hoglander-Miller-Boeser once Petey went down with injury.  This season however, any combination of Miller, Pettersson, Boeser, Horvat, Hoglander, Garland, and Podkolzin should give us some considerable offensive options.

 

I don’t mind the author’s analysis as he’s probably an outsider analyzing the Canucks, but I think the Canucks are a little further ahead than he believes.

 

To his point however, our top two RD’s will need to be corrected.  Poolman on a top pairing is highly risky while you can’t play Schenn or Bowey with Hughes.  Try and trade for Mark Psysk if Hamonic can’t start the season.  See what Buffalo’s asking price is.

 

This Canucks team is a 4th place divisional / 8th place conference calibre team that will lose in the first round of the playoffs.  An improvement from years past and trending in the right direction, but with more work needed to be done.

I tend to agree with most of what you've said but the originator is correct that we have some serious short comings on defence that will impede our success.   However, I do think the D-core will be slightly better than last year and i would expect that we would certainly make the playoffs with some of the forwards and the disposal of some of the baggage players like Lazy Jake "the Ripper", Beagle, Roussel, Lucky loui and all those plugs that Uncle jim brought in late in the season.    So things should be better for sure.

[StanleyCupOneDay]

How I view this season and our playoff chances: it all depends on injuries.

 

If we’re healthy we’re in no problem.

 

If we’ve got a couple guys out here and there we just sneak in.

 

If we lose two or three of our top players for significant time to injuries we’re out.

 

We don’t yet have the depth to adequately replace any of our top 9 guys or top 6 D, so just gotta hope the injury list isn’t long this year if we want to make postseason.

[Alflives]

31 minutes ago, StanleyCupOneDay said:

How I view this season and our playoff chances: it all depends on injuries.

 

If we’re healthy we’re in no problem.

 

If we’ve got a couple guys out here and there we just sneak in.

 

If we lose two or three of our top players for significant time to injuries we’re out.

 

We don’t yet have the depth to adequately replace any of our top 9 guys or top 6 D, so just gotta hope the injury list isn’t long this year if we want to make postseason.

Actually teams like the LOSER LEAFS who grossly overpay their top guys are in far worse circumstances if those top guys get injured.  Those top guys eat up so much cap there is zero depth.  We have depth in both experienced guys and with youth.  

[bishopshodan]

2 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

...when you find a "HOT" BC girl let us all know because I can count on one hand the number of so called HOT girls I've ever seen in Vancouver in decades.  This isn't Montreal you know,

Two words...Kits Beach. 

 

BTW, Mtl girls have beer guts. 

[stawns]

7 hours ago, Provost said:

It isn't just The Score. 

The Athletic model has us coming in 23rd place in the league and 5th in the division, well behind Seattle.

They aren't just crapping on the team, there are really good reasons for concern if you can look objectively at all.  We need a bunch of things to go really well to be a wildcard team... nothing is saying they will all go well.

We can hope Hoglander doesn't have a sophomore slump and that Podkolzin can step up immediately into a top 9 role and provide some secondary scoring. 
We can hope that Motte and Sutter come back to make a solid OK duo. 
We can hope that OEL regains a good portion of his prime form in a new environment. 
We can hope that our primary match up D pairing of Edler-Schmidt that left can have their tough minutes replaced by "someone". 
We can hope that Demko is at least as good this season as he was last season to make up for a weak defensive corps.
We can hope that Hughes cleans up the defensive side of his game to become at least average in that regard. 
We can hope that Hamonic comes back and plays (well). 
We can hope that the bet on a largely unproven Poolman being a steady top 4 D pays off. 
We can hope that other teams in our division are way worse than their projections or lose key players.

I hope enough of those things happen to make us a playoff team.  They might not.  If anyone is walking into this season thinking we are an easy lock for a playoff spot, they are wearing some serious homer glasses.  Our team is still flawed and requires some luck to have success.

Every teams success is built on exactly the same "hope".

[JM_]

1 hour ago, bishopshodan said:

Two words...Kits Beach. 

 

BTW, Mtl girls have beer guts. 

[-DLC-]

4 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

...when you find a "HOT" BC girl let us all know because I can count on one hand the number of so called HOT girls I've ever seen in Vancouver in decades.  This isn't Montreal you know,

You don't get out much do you?

 

I love when the "experts"  doubt our team....then try to back pedal as we beat out their lowly team(s).  Do they never learn?

[WeneedLumme]

4 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

...when you find a "HOT" BC girl let us all know because I can count on one hand the number of so called HOT girls I've ever seen in Vancouver in decades.  This isn't Montreal you know,

Sure. And the girls you do meet all tell you that they are lesbians, right? Imagine our surprise.

[rychicken]

4 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

...when you find a "HOT" BC girl let us all know because I can count on one hand the number of so called HOT girls I've ever seen in Vancouver in decades.  This isn't Montreal you know,

do you enjoy staying at the YMCA?

[kanucks25]

15 hours ago, Mustard Tiger said:

I love how the avs are a be all end all team... One that can't get out of the 2nd round. Same with oil or the leafs... 

There are a ton of questions around the Oil and Leafs... what are you even talking about lol.

 

You think the hockey world hasn't been laughing at the Leafs for not being able to do anything in the playoffs over the last several years with their new core?

 

Or the talk about how even McDavid hasn't been able to purify the waters in Edmonton?

 

What bubble are you living in?

 

Avs are talked up because they are built like a juggernaut, at least on paper, and anybody paying attention knows they aren't very far away from breaking through (who knows, maybe they never do, but it's clear they have all the pieces).

[thundernuts]

18 hours ago, grandmaster said:

https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/2197127

The full article link is above. Goes on about each teams chances of beating out the Golden Knights for the Pacific Division. This idiot couldn’t help himself. I hope the Canucks prove him wrong!

 

I didn’t copy and paste it all but I copied and pasted the part pertaining to the Canucks:

 

I don't want anything to do with the Canucks (+1400) this season. Their forwards are solid, and I love Thatcher Demko in goal, but I just can't look past their defense core. It is, in a word, horrible. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is a shell of his former self. Tyler Myers is overpaid and overused. Tucker Poolman, Travis Hamonic, and Luke Schenn are a third pairing at best. It's Quinn Hughes, who does have shortcomings defensively, and a bunch of "blah." This team is going to be in tough to make the playoffs, let alone contend for a division title.

 

 

Sounds like a fair assessment to me.  The Canucks defense does look pretty horrible.  If you think about it, they're counting on OEL to return to form, Myers to improve, Poolman and Schenn to have career years, and who knows if Hamonic will even play.

 

I hope the defense does well.  I hope and pray that OEL can be a solid dman for us.  I will always hope that the Canucks do well.  Having said that, if you take an honest look at the d core, and their past performances, it does not look good.

[Rindiculous]

3 hours ago, bishopshodan said:

Two words...Kits Beach. 

 

BTW, Mtl girls have beer guts. 

Doesn’t compare to Calgary girls though.  Hate the city but damn the girls are all cute there…

 

and yes my wonderful Calgary girlfriend is holding me at knifepoint right now.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Rindiculous

[Locke Lamora]

You folks reacting precisely as The Score would want. 

[grandmaster]

55 minutes ago, thundernuts said:

Sounds like a fair assessment to me.  The Canucks defense does look pretty horrible.  If you think about it, they're counting on OEL to return to form, Myers to improve, Poolman and Schenn to have career years, and who knows if Hamonic will even play.

 

I hope the defense does well.  I hope and pray that OEL can be a solid dman for us.  I will always hope that the Canucks do well.  Having said that, if you take an honest look at the d core, and their past performances, it does not look good.

All indications are OEL will be very good based on the pre-season. He was also good in his final year with the Coyotes. He was trapped in a terrible organization and hated his coach. He wants to be here. There is no need to hope or pray. He will deliver.

[thundernuts]

13 minutes ago, grandmaster said:

All indications are OEL will be very good based on the pre-season. He was also good in his final year with the Coyotes. He was trapped in a terrible organization and hated his coach. He wants to be here. There is no need to hope or pray. He will deliver.

I like your optimism!  Steve Kariya was excellent player in the preseason too.  Obviously, not a great comparison as OEL has carved out a solid NHL career for himself.  My point is that the preseason means very little.  Time will tell if OEL can regain his form.  In the meantime, I'll continue to hope that he can.

[wai_lai416]

i don't disagree with their assessment of the defense but i think this team will prolly get 3rd or sneak into the playoff. the division is very weak and we'll be fighting for the spot right down to seasons end barring some major injury here and there. as much as people here thinks our defense is good enough. they are legitmately question marks everywhere in the most expensive defense in the league. Can OEL rebound in the regular season. Will Hamonic play and how much will he play? will Hughes be better defensively. Can Poolman all of a sudden going from a 4/5 defenseman to playing other teams top line and not get exposed. as much as you guys think of poolman as a top 4 defenseman.. he's going to be playing to top defense pairing role with OEL against other teams top line if that's the pairing. 

 

i still not a fan of Green's coaching style where we let the other team take lots of low danger perimeter shots against us. i think that put lots of stress on the defense and base on probability 1 out of every 11 shots will end up in the net just based on goalies avg save%. remember how many puck would bounce off our defenseman and in the net? 

 

if poolman can handle the role of top shutdown defenseman i think we'll make it. but if any of the top 4 defenseman go down i think we'll be in for a long season

[D.B Cooper]

I’ll take the heat for this one guys.  
Last time the guy who wrote this article was in Vancouver, I threw snowballs at him, then face washed him in the snowbank.  

[Chris12345]

2 hours ago, thundernuts said:

Sounds like a fair assessment to me.  The Canucks defense does look pretty horrible.  If you think about it, they're counting on OEL to return to form, Myers to improve, Poolman and Schenn to have career years, and who knows if Hamonic will even play.

 

I hope the defense does well.  I hope and pray that OEL can be a solid dman for us.  I will always hope that the Canucks do well.  Having said that, if you take an honest look at the d core, and their past performances, it does not look good.

I agree the right side will be a problem.

 

Having said that goaltending and forwards are good and the division sucks.

 

Third place looks achievable. Seattle the unknown they won't have stars but they'll be grindy.

[TheNewGM]

the team has not looked good so far.. but it hasnt been the team.. tonight is a good look at what our team might be