"Locked on Kings" discuss Canucks

[Googlie]

"Locked on Kings" host discusses Canucks  - you can skip to the 2 min mark if you want to miss his intro ...

 

 

 

[70seven]

Pk Subban take is awful.  He’s too focused on life outside hockey imo.  
 

Although I like what Calgary has done, I think it’ll take them some time to adjust… slow start here….  Where in Van, last years slow start destroyed the season, they won’t let that happen again.  I know our D corpse is thin, but it’s not light years away from EDM, and we have better goaltending. I see all of OEL, Garland, Petterson, Podkolzin taking steps forward.  Kuzmenko will hit offensively scoring 50-60 points. The group is faster, deeper, more mature and I think it’ll be better than how they finished under coach b. Also bet on Rathbone making a splash when called upon. 
 

Pacific prediction: 4 in the playoffs

Edm 

Van 

LA

Cgy 

—-

Vegas

Ana

Sea

SJ

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by 70seven

[nuckin_futz]

1 hour ago, 70seven said:

Pk Subban take is awful.  He’s too focused on life outside hockey imo.  
 

Although I like what Calgary has done, I think it’ll take them some time to adjust… slow start here….  Where in Van, last years slow start destroyed the season, they won’t let that happen again.  I know our D corpse is thin, but it’s not light years away from EDM, and we have better goaltending. I see all of OEL, Garland, Petterson, Podkolzin taking steps forward.  Kuzmenko will hit offensively scoring 50-60 points. The group is faster, deeper, more mature and I think it’ll be better than how they finished under coach b. Also bet on Rathbone making a splash when called upon. 
 

Pacific prediction: 4 in the playoffs

Edm 

Van 

LA

Cgy 

—-

Vegas

Ana

Sea

SJ

 

Can't tell if this was a typo or not?

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by nuckin_futz

[DownUndaCanuck]

Edmonton will be the same, Calgary will be similar if not a tiny bit worse (only owing to their D and Marky getting older), LA will be MUCH better (young D and goalie get better, Kempe and Byfield make their top 6 much better), Vegas will be much worse, Anaheim will be a tiny bit better but San Jose will be the same.

 

As for the Canucks, right now we're better offensively by a long way (two new top wingers, Petey hopefully good from the get-go), the same if not worse defensively (no new blood and old guys will only get slower) but in goal we'll be much better (Spencer will steal some games and keep Demko rested).

 

That being said I think Edmonton will win the division, LA a solid 2nd and the Canucks and Flames will duke it out for 3rd but hopefully we can snag a wild card spot at the least.

[Warhippy]

1 hour ago, 70seven said:

Pk Subban take is awful.  He’s too focused on life outside hockey imo.  
 

Although I like what Calgary has done, I think it’ll take them some time to adjust… slow start here….  Where in Van, last years slow start destroyed the season, they won’t let that happen again.  I know our D corpse is thin, but it’s not light years away from EDM, and we have better goaltending. I see all of OEL, Garland, Petterson, Podkolzin taking steps forward.  Kuzmenko will hit offensively scoring 50-60 points. The group is faster, deeper, more mature and I think it’ll be better than how they finished under coach b. Also bet on Rathbone making a splash when called upon. 
 

Pacific prediction: 4 in the playoffs

Edm 

Van 

LA

Cgy 

—-

Vegas

Ana

Sea

SJ

 

One injury to our blue line and we're done.  Edmonton has had a consistently injured top 4 defenseman for a few seasons.  If Edmonton loses Drasiatl they have McJesus.  if Edmonton loses mcJesus they have Draisatl.  If we lose Horvat, Pettersson, Miller, Myers, Hughes, OEL or Demko that's it.  That's our season.

 

Kuzmenko at 60 points stepping in to the league would have been good for 4th on our team for scoring.  

We are so tight to the cap if we sneeze we'll go over it.

 

I just don't get why people think we're going to challenge in our division without making the major changes we needed to.  

 

PK Subban at league minimum is still a 20-30 point RHD that isn't entirely awful defensively and would provide depth.  Not a terrible take at all, much spoken of in fact

[Gurn]

2 minutes ago, Warhippy said:

I just don't get why people think we're going to challenge in our division without making the major changes we needed to.  

Too many people have over rated the team's performance under BB.

As has been mentioned, a few time, but mostly ignored- the team had the 8th best record under BB- if you don't count the first 6 games of new coach bump.

This while playing with little pressure for most of those games, as they were so far out of a play off spot.

Then when they did finally get close to a spot, they would lose the games that mattered.

All while riding the back of a Vezina calibre season by Demko, and facing a whole pile of back up goalies.

[HorvatToBaertschi]

9 minutes ago, Warhippy said:

One injury to our blue line and we're done.  Edmonton has had a consistently injured top 4 defenseman for a few seasons.  If Edmonton loses Drasiatl they have McJesus.  if Edmonton loses mcJesus they have Draisatl.  If we lose Horvat, Pettersson, Miller, Myers, Hughes, OEL or Demko that's it.  That's our season.

 

Kuzmenko at 60 points stepping in to the league would have been good for 4th on our team for scoring.  

We are so tight to the cap if we sneeze we'll go over it.

 

I just don't get why people think we're going to challenge in our division without making the major changes we needed to.  

 

PK Subban at league minimum is still a 20-30 point RHD that isn't entirely awful defensively and would provide depth.  Not a terrible take at all, much spoken of in fact

We missed the playoffs last year because our PK was an NHL worst (in history) for close to half of the season. We went out and got the best PK forward in the league. That's the most major change we needed to address and we did. RHD don't fall on trees, be patient. Our defense (thanks to Demko sure) was top 3 in 5on5 last year. That's nothing to scoff at. 

[Warhippy]

7 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

We missed the playoffs last year because our PK was an NHL worst (in history) for close to half of the season. We went out and got the best PK forward in the league. That's the most major change we needed to address and we did. RHD don't fall on trees, be patient. Our defense (thanks to Demko sure) was top 3 in 5on5 last year. That's nothing to scoff at. 

Our knock on the Oilers is no secondary scoring.  Miller had 30+ more points than his next closest team mate.  We were like 4-24-3 when Miller didn't score. We also had/have those issues

 

Our PK was only a slight part of the puzzle.  It may have gotten better, but then it may not; we don't know yet.

 

Our defense was.  May be again.  But that's also not a guarantee.  It runs through Hughes.  Then OEL.  Then Myers.  Any bump or knock to any one of them and we're hoping Rathbone is our guy

 

Suggesting we're somehow going to be a top 3 finisher in our division is at this point a stretch because the areas we improved on, others in our division improved upon as well.

 

At best we're going to see a wildcard spot.  Most likely, the division shake out very much the same way with Vegas and Anaheim as the biggest wildcards

Edited August 23, 2022 by Warhippy

[HorvatToBaertschi]

1 hour ago, Warhippy said:

Our knock on the Oilers is no secondary scoring.  Miller had 30+ more points than his next closest team mate.  We were like 4-24-3 when Miller didn't score. We also had/have those issues

 

Our PK was only a slight part of the puzzle.  It may have gotten better, but then it may not; we don't know yet.

 

Our defense was.  May be again.  But that's also not a guarantee.  It runs through Hughes.  Then OEL.  Then Myers.  Any bump or knock to any one of them and we're hoping Rathbone is our guy

 

Suggesting we're somehow going to be a top 3 finisher in our division is at this point a stretch because the areas we improved on, others in our division improved upon as well.

 

At best we're going to see a wildcard spot.  Most likely, the division shake out very much the same way with Vegas and Anaheim as the biggest wildcards

Nothing is a guarantee. No team in the league is gifted a spot and injuries and bad things can happen to any team. We're not the only ones that might have to face adversity. 

Edmonton can't afford an injury either, I mean, what team other than maybe Tampa and Colorado can? 

It's all doom and gloom for us but every other team is gonna breeze into the playoffs? I don't buy it. 

One injury to Calgary, Edmonton, and LA and it's the exact same situation as us. 

 

Yes, Miller scored an insane amount of points but we had 3 30 goal scorers. That's more than Edmonton. We also had an injured Pettersson, a battered Boeser, and unseasoned players in Podz and Hogz. Our secondary scoring isn't an issue, I'd argue it never was. It's been offense from the defense, and adding Rathbone could help. 

 

So we've added offensive depth, better offense from the defense, and the best penalty kill forward in the league. But every other team is doing more than us? Bull. 

[Warhippy]

10 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

Nothing is a guarantee. No team in the league is gifted a spot and injuries and bad things can happen to any team. We're not the only ones that might have to face adversity. 

Edmonton can't afford an injury either, I mean, what team other than maybe Tampa and Colorado can? 

It's all doom and gloom for us but every other team is gonna breeze into the playoffs? I don't buy it. 

One injury to Calgary, Edmonton, and LA and it's the exact same situation as us. 

 

Yes, Miller scored an insane amount of points but we had 3 30 goal scorers. That's more than Edmonton. We also had an injured Pettersson, a battered Boeser, and unseasoned players in Podz and Hogz. Our secondary scoring isn't an issue, I'd argue it never was. It's been offense from the defense, and adding Rathbone could help. 

 

So we've added offensive depth, better offense from the defense, and the best penalty kill forward in the league. But every other team is doing more than us? Bull. 

Edmonton without Draisatl is still McDavid.  Without McDavid is still Draisatl.  They've played with an injured top 4 for over 2 seasons.  They got better where they are/were weak.  Calgary has a ton of depth barring the goaltending position  and can outscore or out grind any loss with that depth.  LA has the deepest prospect pool in the league at all positions.  Played an average of 27+ games without Doughty, edler and another defenceman last year and still beat us for a playoff spot and added Fiala for that scoring depth.

 

We played well above our weight but still barely finished .500 after the coaching change on the backs of career years from Miller, Demko, Horvat, Hughes and Pettersson in a division where we paced a Vegas team that was essentially injured the entire season as well.

 

I never said anything about every other team.  I spoke of our division.  We improved in areas?  Ok sure.  But so did other teams.  Those other teams are also still deeper than us and aside from Calgary and Vegas we're all within 5 months of each other on average age.

 

Everything is a crap shoot of course.  But banking on 50+ point seasons from Kuzmenko/Mikheyev and repeat career seasons from our core with no injuries; on a team that over the last 5 years is a top 10 for lost games is beyond dreaming. I stand by my statement; we'll see a similar result to last year.  if lucky some breaks go our way and we squeak in to the playoffs; if not we're 10th in the west

[JM_]

2 hours ago, gurn said:

Too many people have over rated the team's performance under BB.

As has been mentioned, a few time, but mostly ignored- the team had the 8th best record under BB- if you don't count the first 6 games of new coach bump.

This while playing with little pressure for most of those games, as they were so far out of a play off spot.

Then when they did finally get close to a spot, they would lose the games that mattered.

All while riding the back of a Vezina calibre season by Demko, and facing a whole pile of back up goalies.

good thing we won't have to rely on Dries, Hunt, Petan and Halak for regular minutes this year. 

[tas]

1 minute ago, JM_ said:

good thing we won't have to rely on Dries, Hunt, Petan and Halak for regular minutes this year. 

teams have to rely on replacement players playing regular minutes every year. 

[JM_]

Just now, tas said:

teams have to rely on replacement players playing regular minutes every year. 

sure. And we've upgraded significantly with Mikheyev, Lazar and Kuzmeko in the F group. 

[tas]

6 minutes ago, JM_ said:

sure. And we've upgraded significantly with Mikheyev, Lazar and Kuzmeko in the F group. 

how do you envision that helping in the case of injury call ups?

[JM_]

1 minute ago, tas said:

how do you envision that helping in the case of injury call ups?

how is better depth on the 23 man roster a bad thing? 

[Elias Pettersson]

2 hours ago, gurn said:

Too many people have over rated the team's performance under BB.

As has been mentioned, a few time, but mostly ignored- the team had the 8th best record under BB- if you don't count the first 6 games of new coach bump.

This while playing with little pressure for most of those games, as they were so far out of a play off spot.

Then when they did finally get close to a spot, they would lose the games that mattered.

All while riding the back of a Vezina calibre season by Demko, and facing a whole pile of back up goalies.

Why would you not count the first 6 games?  To make his record look worse? 

 

Why don't we count all of his games that he coached, if we did then we would be better than the 8th place team would we not?

 

What if Boudreau was the coach from the beginning of the season?  Are we not in a playoff hunt based on his 57 game record prorated to 82 games?

 

I guess we won't know exactly what this team is capable of over an entire season of Boudreau coaching until this coming year is completed.  I am thinking we will be a playoff team though...

Edited August 23, 2022 by Elias Pettersson

[tas]

33 minutes ago, JM_ said:

how is better depth on the 23 man roster a bad thing? 

who said or otherwise implied that it was? 

 

it's just not helpful when it comes to non-roster depth when call ups are needed, which is generally the reason replacement players have to be relied upon. 

[Gurn]

38 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Why would you not count the first 6 games?  To make his record look worse? 

Maybe, just maybe, because his first 6 games- winning every game is an unsustainable pace?

[JM_]

33 minutes ago, tas said:

who said or otherwise implied that it was? 

 

it's just not helpful when it comes to non-roster depth when call ups are needed, which is generally the reason replacement players have to be relied upon. 

trouble is we just had too much of that as part of our regular line up last year. 

 

I'm a glass half full person, I'm pretty excited by the new Russian additions as well as Lazar. We really needed more quality depth. 

 

I don't want to put too much pressure on Rathbone but if he shows well thats a nice boost too. 

[Elias Pettersson]

30 minutes ago, gurn said:

Maybe, just maybe, because his first 6 games- winning every game is an unsustainable pace?

Boudreau's first 9 games we went 7-1-1.  Boudreau's last 13 games we went 8-2-3.  Seems like our record in April was almost the same as it was in December.  In January the league got hit with COVID and we had to shut down for awhile and we couldn't even play any home games for awhile.  Also, our backup goalie was terrible and we had to rely on Demko more than we should have.

 

Lots of variables were in play last year, it wasn't just a Boudreau bump that affected our record.  It's not fair or accurate to simply take out the first 6 games and say this was our true record.  Also, some are using Boudreau's record alone and saying it still wasn't enough to make the playoffs because they are adding Green's 8-15-2 record into the equation, which again isn't fair.

 

At the end of the day the only way to accurately judge Boudreau's team is to look at the entire season as a body of work, which is what will happen this year.  That will give us a true and accurate picture of this team under Boudreau.