Did you have Fun this year?

[Alflives]

More fun coming this summer with big changes!  

Miller trade!

Garland gone!

Boeser out!

Oh boy!  Bring on the much needed changes!  Going to be exciting.  

 

Who will the coach be?  Maurice?

[DSVII]

It certainly wasn't a boring year 

 

 

[VegasCanuck]

Looking forward to see how this team looks next season, once the new management team has a chance to really put their stamp on it.

 

I expect changes, but those changes will be more about balancing lineup than about gutting the team.

 

We proved since BB took over, that we do have the pieces here that should make us a playoff team, now we just need the balance in the roster that will make us a real contender.

 

Should be fun to watch!

[BCNate]

The good outweighed the bad this year for sure:

The Good:

-EP was excellent down the stretch.  I think he is ready to really break out

-Demko shouldered a huge load and was excellent.

-Hughes was outstanding

-Podkolzin is the real deal

-Horvat took a step forward

-Miller was outstanding

-The team competed like crazy.  Missing by a few points will give them some fuel for next year

-Bourdreau was an amazing, knowledgeable and entertaining coach

-Lammikko, Highmore, Lockwood look to be a solid, cost effective 4th line

-Martin looks like a very good, cheap backup

-Myers earned his salary, and then some

-Our cheap "tweener" depth was amazing.  Hunt, Burroughs, Chiasson, Shenn, Richardson all were very good

 

The Bad:

-Boeser looks lost.   He is not the player he was in his first few years.  He is now a shooter, with an average shot/release

-Hoglander took a big step back.  Was it a sophomore slump, or was the rookie year an anomaly.

-Garland was good with possession, and skating really fast with the puck, but lacks a ton of finish.  I get his fancy stats and all of that, but his on ice play was disappointing to me.

-None of our prospects took hue steps forward

-I'm not sure how I feel about this management group.  Sometimes too many smart people try to hard to be smart.  I have a pit in my stomach that says Boudreau and Miller won't be back.  Bring back a similar team with a few tweaks and make a start on rebuilding the prospect pool.  We are a few solid moves away from being a force.

 

I'm overall pretty happy with the season.  The team played so hard since December and made it an interesting race.  A healthy Horvat and Pearson down the stretch may have been enough to get us in.  I don't think we would have beat Colorado, but would have been nice to have the chance to play in the playoffs. The team played some very good hockey, and played meaningful games late in the year.  I truly believe we are very close.

 

[Kuzy]

46 minutes ago, Alflives said:

More fun coming this summer with big changes!  

Miller trade!

Garland gone!

Boeser out!

Oh boy!  Bring on the much needed changes!  Going to be exciting.  

 

Who will the coach be?  Maurice?

Why don't you think Bruce will be back? All signs point to him being back next year.

[Gurn]

5 minutes ago, Stech said:

Why don't you think Bruce will be back? All signs point to him being back next year.

He has an opt out clause- so that is a sign he may choose to go elsewhere

He is 67, so old enough he may decide to retire

He has not been renewed as of yet.

 

so not all signs point to him being back

[diesel_3]

I absolutely did.

This year, personally, was a whirlwind! We had our 1st baby, so most of the games were watched late at night on PVR.

I love that I was able to watch Canucks hockey with my son, although he will not remember the product on the ice, I am glad that Boudreau really turned the excitement level up. It reminded me a lot of the WCE days. High flying offense, mobile defensemen, and defensive zone coverage that could be an adventure.

 

 

[CupIsComing]

Yes, I had fun.

But not enough to wash the disdain I have for this club for allowing Benning to mortgage the future for the sake of keeping his job...when all we had to do was endure ONE more season of cap-crippling contracts! Last summer set this club back years.

[thepress83]

I enjoyed the product on the ice after the coaching/management changes but I did not enjoy being a STH at all this year.  It cost me thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours trying to manage the games being rescheduled along with communicating with the buyers of the tickets I sold and re-sold over and over again who had questions due to the Canucks poor communication.  I'll be purchasing NHL Live next season and watching in 4K in the privacy of my own home drinking my own beer.

[grumpyone]

I wouldn't call it 'fun'.... more like aggravating. Just when you think they are going on a loonnnng winning streak they put up a couple of real stinkers. 

[StanleyCupOneDay]

We never should have had a shot at the playoffs after Green’s record. We played hard while battered, bruised and hobbled until the very bitter end when injuries finally crippled us. We had young guys growing and gaining valuable experience. We found money in some cheap contracts way outperforming their pay. 
 

What’s not to like? The only blight on this season is in the beginning where we obviously needed a change.
 

It’s been the best non-covid season we’ve had since the Sedins were still here. Lots of fun, beverages and/or smokes (depending on one’s personal preference of course ) had, excitements, disappointments, a true roller coaster ride until game 79 and entertaining as hell. Couldn’t ask for much better imo.
 

I feel hope and excitement for our team. Next season I think we’re finally going to have playoff hockey back in Vancouver and all because Bruce got players to believe in themselves again with them responding to that encouragement.

 

Side note that might be obvious: Keep Bruce.

 

Some off season moves to make with the cap crunch we face, but the future looks bright.

[CanuckFan1123]

I’ll be honest. I love watching the Canucks no matter where we are in the standings. Obviously it’s more fun to win, but I think in general it’s just very fun being able to see my team play. Even in our rough years a few years ago I still had fun turning the tv on every night and watching the guys play. Just so grateful to be a fan of this organization and always just happy to turn on Canucks hockey. I think some people maybe take it for granted how lucky we are to get to watch our team and maybe it sounds weird but I grew up living in LA in the 90s and Canucks games just weren’t televised in my area unless we were playing the Kings or Ducks. We didn’t have NHL network or NHL TV or other platforms during my childhood so I had to rely on newspaper score columns and the occasional sports center 30 seconds of hockey before they went back to sports they really cared about. I lost a lot of years of being able to watch my favorite team play games because we didn’t have the technology back then and I didn’t grow up in Canada so it was just not televised locally, so for me having gotten to watch about 65-70 games this year, and really every year the past several years now, is just really fun and exciting for me, regardless of the outcome. 
 

I think this year was very rough early on and I think the win streak when Bruce was hired was the most fun stretch of regular season hockey I’ve watched in quite some time. The journey to close in on a playoff spot despite ultimately missing the playoffs was a really incredible and exciting journey. Watching guys like Petey, Hughes, Miller, and Horvat turn their games up over the course of the season was super fun. We have a fun roster and a good group of guys. A couple minor moves and this team will be a playoff team, no doubt. Go Canucks Go! 

[bigbadcanucks]

14 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Yeah it was okay I guess.  Hopefully I can hit 70 points this year...   

For the kind of money you're being paid 70 points is a LOW STANDARD.  These low standards you have set for yourself will be a huge impediment from you becoming a bonafide star in this league.  It may have been good enough for the SHL, but if you're not striving for 100 while playing a 200' game, then you'll be just another skinny Swedish kid that never fulfilled his promise/potential.

 

Back to Buzzsaw's question...YES.  After the team fell into irrelevance under Benning and Green, it took a herculean effort by Bruce Boudreau and new hockey ops team to right the ship.  The team was undermanned for good portions of the season under Boudreau, but the boys gutted it out (thanks mainly to Demko's brilliance) and made hockey in 2022 a lot of fun.

 

Three things that I'll take away from this season - how hard it is to make the playoffs (and how meaningful regular season games, especially in October/November, are); that it took Boudreau's f-bombs to finally wake/shake up the leadership group to show up in the first period; and how important Demko is to the fortunes of the Canucks team.

 

Lots of great stuff to be excited about...Demko's brilliance, emergence of Miller as leader of the team, Horvat hitting 30 goals, Pettersson finding his stride in the final quarter/third of the season, Hughes controlling the pace of the game and playing soundly in his own end, PK finding its groove, PP finding its groove, emergence of Podkolzin as an important everyday player, and OEL re-finding his game.

 

Some things we can do without...Boeser the disappointment, Pettersson being a human zamboni for 60 games, Halak the sieve, Dickison's big talk about being a hard player to play against and having more to give offensively, Poolman's inability to swim in the deep end, Hoglander's brutal defensive game, Garland falling off the cliff after Boudreau's arrival, and relying on Hunt to be the number 6 guy on the depth chart.

[MattJVD]

Yep. The first couple months were painful but after that the games were a lot of fun.

[AV.]

No.

The effort with Boudreau was commendable, but after yet another short-sighted and horrendous off-season, the story had practically written itself for where this team would finish.  I said 3rd to 6th range was where they would finish, and lo and behold.

It's going to get worse before things get better, but the president of this team has tons of experience and he's hired many bright minds to work with him.  Let's see what happens in the off-season.

[-DLC-]

I did, I always do.

 

It's no secret that hockey is more than standings and results to me. It's life. It connects me to family and it's just always been there (until COVID threatened that and I learned to have a whole new appreciation for it).

 

I had a GREAT time with my friend who I attend most games with. She is the most amazing person ever. And we keep adding to that circle of friends, so the game's become fun before, in between and after game play as we go say our hellos and spend time with our "hockey family".  Vern, the usher who's the kindest man and who's been on board since the start. Always honoured to be graced by his presence. Last game I met up with Punch and his wife outside and had a chat for a bit...sunny day, all smiles and he's such a joker (he tried to troll me about the team).

 

I LOVE the atmosphere currently in the rink, I'm all about it. The chanting, the silliness...all in. Wasn't always that way.

 

I got to do a game with my brother (first ever) in the encore section (the food was amazing). That was pretty special for me...the fact that we got to spend that time together.

 

Games with my son are always the best...he's my hockey partner and it's been that way for years. I love when we do our annual couple of games together.

 

The team, itself, was iffy for awhile there....we all had our wtf moments. Petey in particular was a head scratcher but if this team's shown us anything, it's that we should believe in them. Have patience with them. 

 

Miller's been the highlight for me (duh), but that doesn't take away from every other player who brought it. Schenn's ranking pretty high up there. Bo is his solid self (although I do still wish he'd be a little more physical at times post whistle....not fight per se, but step in). Demko's brilliance is undeniable and we're so lucky to have him. Quinn too. I'm happy Brock is finding his touch again. Podz is a real treat to watch and he's currently capturing my attention as he is showing absolute power forward stuff (my favourite kind of player). We have some really great pieces in place.

 

I know things will change a bit....prepared for that. But those who don't give credit where it's due with this team are working on an agenda to prove something that's more about them than the team. That's how I feel. Not that it's perfected or done, but it also isn't a tear down or trash as some here would suggest.

 

I'm super happy with how it turned around and it could have been much different had Bruce not taken over. He better be back.

[higgyfan]

The second half was full of surprises and great games.  A lot of players played their best and put in

huge efforts and they finally learned to play as a team.  I found the number of times the team lost a 2 or

even 3 goal lead and even losing some of those games; very frustrating.

 

In the end, I think they played with a lot of heart and never gave up.  I think our boys learned an

awful lot about hockey and what it takes to be a consistently good team.

 

I am expecting an overall better performance next season.

[Guest]

I had a lot of fun this year.  I took some friends to a few games (2-1 record, projected to be 1st or 2nd in Pacific over an 82 game season, just saying). 

 

 

Favourite moments:  the belt handoff after each victory.  Really hoping to see two more handoffs and want the last one to go to Bruce.  Thinking he cracks open a beer, Stone Cold Austin style and they ride off in style. 

 

With exception of Hoggy, all of our young guys took significant steps forward. 

Watching Petey deal with so much adversity this year was pretty tough and frustrating, but he will be a better player/person for having gone through it. 

I am very happy that I was wrong on questioning Hughes in the off-season over him being just a rover.  His defensive game came back and he had a great season. 

Podkolzin has such a good base and fundamentals...  when you couple that with his positive attitude and good work ethic, the sky is the limit for this kid.  The cherry on top is that his game gets better when the occasion gets bigger. 

 

I wanna give a special little mention to all the players between the ages of 24 to 27 that we don't think of as "young guys" anymore but who absolutely have a lot of room for improvement.  Highmore, Burroughs, Lammikko, and Dermott are four players that don't have a lot of game time in the NHL and will be able to take another step next year.  

 

This was a fun year and I hope that our crowd gives a big thank you to the team in our last home game against LA.  Also a reminder that Abby Canucks are going to go deep in the Calder Cup chase, and that we should get behind them.  

[CanucksJay]

Fun season for sure. 

Love the new strategy and changes made by BB. 

Loved that our d is now stepping up into their blueline instead of giving up Our blueline. 

Loved seeing Petey and Hughes on the pk. 

Loved watching our guys forecheck hard and putting pressure on other team's dmen trying to create turnovers in their zone when same thing used to happen to us. 

We're playing fun hockey again. 

TG had a BMW and were driving it like an old Pinto. 

We're not quite a Ferrari yet but getting there.