[PGT] Vancouver Canucks at Buffalo Sabres | Nov. 15, 2022

[FaninMex]

5 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

Last year isn't this year - unfortunately.     He's getting old and worse.....  Facts are facts!  Pearson's still the  722nd worst +/- player in the entire National Hockey League out of 736 active players according to official NHL Stats - as of tonight.  

And where does your posting rank?

[N4ZZY]

1 hour ago, JamesB said:

Some late comments.

 

1. Even though I want the Canucks to do a real rebuild I was relieved and glad to see the win, especially for Bruce and also for some of the other guys.

 

2. The Horvat line (with Miller and Garland) was great. If Miller played like this every night he might be worth an 8 million cap hit. That line had the primary shutdown duty against the Thompson line and still completely dominated. Those three guys all had an even strength expected goals for percentage of about 70%, which would be great even against a 4th line and is remarkable against Buffalo's top line. 

 

3. Speaking of 4th lines, the line of Aman, Joshua, and Lockwood was also good. And they had a reasonable share of tough minutes. Great to see Lockwood finally get his first NHL point.

 

4. Petey was, as usual,very good. And he needed to be to make up for Kuzmenko's  defensive flaws.

 

5. The Dries line (with Boeser and Hogz) was terrible. Dries had an expected goals percentage of 29%, and Boeser and Hogz were even worse. None of those guys can play defence and none of them can drive offense. Boeser and Hogz can be good complimentary players. If they played on a line with Petey they might be ok. I predicted at one point that the Canucks would let Boeser walk. I like Boeser but I am sorry that I turned out to be wrong.

 

6. As for the D, Schenn had the toughest minutes, playing more than anyone else against the Thompson line, although Hughes was with him most of the time.  But the guy with the best numbers was Ethan Bear. He also scored a nice goal. It is pretty obvious that Bear and OEL are a better pairing than Myers and OEL. Bear looked good out there tonight. Myers just has me frustrated. Most of the times he handles the puck we end up with a change of possession. He looks almost as a bad as Gudbranson did on this dimension.

 

7. Spencer Martin was pretty good -- good enough to "give the team a chance to win", and this time they actually did. But he just can't seem to get his save percentage up to good level.

 

Enjoyed the win overall. Hoping for wins against LA and Vegas.

 

 

I'm relieved that they won as well. But I'm still not confident that goaltending will hold up. Not sure what's wrong with Demko, but I suspect that he has a nagging injury that hasn't been publicly disclosed and he's playing through it. 

 

Martin seems like he played well tonight. At least, well enough for the team to have held on to win. 

 

[N4ZZY]

1 hour ago, J-23 said:

Well, if it makes you feel better we didn't choke a lead again, but we were very close to. 

I guess I wouldn't have been surprised if we had lost tonight. 

 

And based off the score, we almost did. 

 

I wonder if the rumours about Tocchet being hired by the end of the week is true. Would he be a better coach that could get more out of this group than Boudreau did? 

 

[RU SERIOUS]

4 hours ago, vancan2233 said:

Facts ( with the actually full story)

• 11 players with the same - 9 
• 11 players with -8
• 15  with -7
• 20 with -6

You get the picture -9 to -6, can change a great deal in one game. Boeser is the same -9, and Miller is -8. Josi top ten defenceman is a -9. Letang is a -10, Kyrou a -17. Teams are not playing well. I too would like Perason off the team but this +/- proves nothing. Him taking stupid lazy penalties does. 

Thanks for pointing out how bad Miller and Boeser;s +/-  are too - which I also noted while checking the official stats - but purposely did not mention as i did not want to muddy the discussion at hand of "How Bad Pearson Really is" by only mentioning the fact that Pearson's is the  722nd worst +/- player in the entire National Hockey League out of 736 active players according to official NHL Stats - as of tonight.

Edited November 16, 2022 by RU SERIOUS

[J-23]

46 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

I guess I wouldn't have been surprised if we had lost tonight. 

 

And based off the score, we almost did. 

 

I wonder if the rumours about Tocchet being hired by the end of the week is true. Would he be a better coach that could get more out of this group than Boudreau did? 

 

What? Wild if they do this.

 

Another coaching bump to just miss the Playoffs and repeat everything for another season. Then next season we will be talking about Fire Tocchet.

[theochar]

Is "I wanna dance with somebody" by Whitney Buffalo's actual goal song?

Jesus Wept!

Edited November 16, 2022 by theochar
spelling

[-Vintage Canuck-]

 

[MikeyD]

9 hours ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

 

Bruce finally using his head a bit tonight and giving ice time to the best players that night.

 

Coincidence we win? Doubtful. 

[Hairy Kneel]

Bear and Burroughs 

these two need to play every game. Shot blocking, good defensive positioning, both shoot aggressively. Both play with a very good physical edge. 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by Hairy Kneel

[Plaguez]

We'll take a win but God was that ugly hockey.  Looked like a preseason game with all the terrible cross-ice passes, missed shots, flubbs and just the pace overall. 

 

Against 90% of the league, if we play like that we get slaughtered.  

 

Need to clean up a lot of our game if we want to compete. 

[86Viking]

The team got the victory to end the road trip! Good thing the Buffalo PP wasn't very good and ours was last night ended up being the difference maker in the end. We had the lead and bent but we didn't break! 

[86Viking]

1 hour ago, theochar said:

Is "I wanna dance with somebody" by Whitney Buffalo's actual goal song?

Jesus Wept!

I thought they had player goal songs like the Canucks did a few years back...glad that experiment is over with, although if nickelback is our new goal song I don't know what to think...music selection during the game hasn't been the best does the DJ  pick the goal song too or do the players have input...maybe the season ticket holders get to send in 3 songs each and the song with the most votes is the goal song for the year? But then people would blame the season ticket holders if they don't like the song...CAN'T Win! haha

[IBatch]

4 hours ago, EddieVedder said:

Everyone knows hes a 7 to 8 million dollar player.

Started this season as a 7 ... now he's an 8.   I don't know what he's been eating but i'd like some of that.  

 

Im still worried about him though.   Not sure how he's become a 50-60 goal scorer the past 50 or so games but he has.   Now i'm disappointed when he doesn't score a PPG lol.    Seems like every game he scores a goal.   

 

Yes our PK hasn't worked out.   And our number one goalie has crashed down to Earth (most fickle position, have been saying that since i joined the CDC...Elliot, Boucher, guy i forgot who came into Ottawa and didn't lose a game for 30 or something like that who got signed the following year disappeared ... called it on Murray also called it on Binnington.   Unless the goalie comes with a pedigree they usually don't work out.    Demko does to a degree so there is still hope.   Markstrom was supposed to be the next one but took six years to get there.   Guys like Helle in WNP, MAF,  Smith, even Anderson in Buff are rare rare rare...Vasilevsky is the only goalie on earth right now that could crack 400 wins under the old system (take the shoot-out wins and make them ties) that hasn't done it yet (MAF).   The days of guys taking over a number one spot at 18-22 is gone.   Vasilevsky.   Or super rare.  And that's pretty much what you have to do to get 400 wins.  

 

Anyways that's my rant for the day.   On the flip side ... Horvat passing Henrik Sedin and Kesler for the most PPG all-time as a primary center is amazing.    This is the best power play the teams ever had the last 50 or so games.   Crazy good.    It's nice to have all these forwards that's for sure.   And QHs is the best power play guy we've had since Brown or Reinhart, and going to be the best we've ever had by the time his contract is up, probably our leading scorer on D as well.   Some things aren't so bad with this team.    Said this is the deepest forward group we've had since the early 90's,  Linden, Nedved, Ronning, Bure, Adams, Courtnall, Craven, Gelinas, Momesso ... 

 

Its nice to have a bunch of guys who can score at any given time.   Adams and Courtnall were streaky too... Just like Brock.    The Sedins had a great rounded D but didn't have much after Burrows and Kesler ... poor Kesler played with support players at best.   

 

Miller, Horvat and EP all in at 8-9 would be fine.    That said how do we fix the D without a major trade?    Demko might be something to consider if we want to re-set ... teams would for sure take a stab at him still and the return wound the terrible (yet).    Horvat has more value re-signed.   But comes with risks too...guys having career years just before their legacy deal should make all of us nervous.  Skinner.     Okposo.   LE.   Even guys like Backes who were great reliable players eventually cratered.  

[EddieVedder]

1 hour ago, theochar said:

Is "I wanna dance with somebody" by Whitney Buffalo's actual goal song?

Jesus Wept!

Good song broski

[Boudrias]

4 hours ago, JamesB said:

Some late comments.

 

1. Even though I want the Canucks to do a real rebuild I was relieved and glad to see the win, especially for Bruce and also for some of the other guys.

 

2. The Horvat line (with Miller and Garland) was great. If Miller played like this every night he might be worth an 8 million cap hit. That line had the primary shutdown duty against the Thompson line and still completely dominated. Those three guys all had an even strength expected goals for percentage of about 70%, which would be great even against a 4th line and is remarkable against Buffalo's top line. 

 

3. Speaking of 4th lines, the line of Aman, Joshua, and Lockwood was also good. And they had a reasonable share of tough minutes. Great to see Lockwood finally get his first NHL point.

 

4. Petey was, as usual,very good. And he needed to be to make up for Kuzmenko's  defensive flaws.

 

5. The Dries line (with Boeser and Hogz) was terrible. Dries had an expected goals percentage of 29%, and Boeser and Hogz were even worse. None of those guys can play defence and none of them can drive offense. Boeser and Hogz can be good complimentary players. If they played on a line with Petey they might be ok. I predicted at one point that the Canucks would let Boeser walk. I like Boeser but I am sorry that I turned out to be wrong.

 

6. As for the D, Schenn had the toughest minutes, playing more than anyone else against the Thompson line, although Hughes was with him most of the time.  But the guy with the best numbers was Ethan Bear. He also scored a nice goal. It is pretty obvious that Bear and OEL are a better pairing than Myers and OEL. Bear looked good out there tonight. Myers just has me frustrated. Most of the times he handles the puck we end up with a change of possession. He looks almost as a bad as Gudbranson did on this dimension.

 

7. Spencer Martin was pretty good -- good enough to "give the team a chance to win", and this time they actually did. But he just can't seem to get his save percentage up to good level.

 

Enjoyed the win overall. Hoping for wins against LA and Vegas.

 

 

Nice post. Agree with everything.

1) Garland's ability to recover pucks and then make plays is very superior. You have to enjoy watching him.

2) The 4th line was very solid. Joshua? This guy was making a lot of nice passes! Boudreau had them out late in the game. Good for them!

3) Sneaky Petey. He racks up the points in a almost quiet fashion. What has impressed me most about his game this year has been his d-side game. 

4) Bear was solid and Meyers wasn't. 

5) Burroughs: At 20 minutes TOI it is max for now. His game is still growing. Getting better with TOI. 

6) OEL: Boudreau had him at 17:40 which is where he should be these days. 

7) Boeser: I wanted this guy moved last year. Your point is well taken, he cannot carry a line. Take his PP time away and he played about 9:30 minutes. The only player that generates much of anything on that line is Hogs. If PA could get a 2nd for Boeser I'd take it. Hoping he can put a season together might increase his value but hard to watch.  

[Hairy Kneel]

Send Dries and/or Hogs down and bring up this kid. More grit, he's a dman but 8 minutes on the 4th line to bring energy and agitate. Stands up for his team mates. We need more of that.

 

[FaninMex]

9 minutes ago, Boudrias said:

Nice post. Agree with everything.

1) Garland's ability to recover pucks and then make plays is very superior. You have to enjoy watching him.

2) The 4th line was very solid. Joshua? This guy was making a lot of nice passes! Boudreau had them out late in the game. Good for them!

3) Sneaky Petey. He racks up the points in a almost quiet fashion. What has impressed me most about his game this year has been his d-side game. 

4) Bear was solid and Meyers wasn't. 

5) Burroughs: At 20 minutes TOI it is max for now. His game is still growing. Getting better with TOI. 

6) OEL: Boudreau had him at 17:40 which is where he should be these days. 

7) Boeser: I wanted this guy moved last year. Your point is well taken, he cannot carry a line. Take his PP time away and he played about 9:30 minutes. The only player that generates much of anything on that line is Hogs. If PA could get a 2nd for Boeser I'd take it. Hoping he can put a season together might increase his value but hard to watch.  

He also looked good with Myers. I saw Myers roaming more which is when he is playing his best.

[DrJockitch]

Being a fan of this team causes so much internal conflict. Not sure if feel better when win or lose, especially such an ugly error filled win against a mediocre team. 
‘Still think JR will move heaven and earth to make some ill advised deals to make a run at the 14-16th OA pick. 
‘Coach fired, some more B level young guys for pics.  A long-term screw job overall for the fans. 
Great draft year, little chance to make playoffs this year time to spend capital on Vey level prospects and try to decrease our chance of picking top 5. 
I don’t get why we fired Benning if we were just going to keep following his plan with a bigger front office. 
The quality of the on ice product reflected the quality of the front office. We completely rebuilt the front office but doubled down on the sub-par on ice product. It is just nonsensical. 

[tas]

4 hours ago, RU SERIOUS said:

Thanks for pointing out how bad Miller and Boeser;s +/-  are too - which I also noted while checking the official stats - but purposely did not mention as i did not want to muddy the discussion at hand of "How Bad Pearson Really is" by only mentioning the fact that Pearson's is the  722nd worst +/- player in the entire National Hockey League out of 736 active players according to official NHL Stats - as of tonight.

shouldn't he actually be 722nd BEST? 722nd worst implies there are 721 players worse than him. 

[chon derry]

1 hour ago, Hairy Kneel said:

Send Dries and/or Hogs down and bring up this kid. More grit, he's a dman but 8 minutes on the 4th line to bring energy and agitate. Stands up for his team mates. We need more of that.

 

He’s a brother as well  him and bear would be the first all native d pairing looks tough as hell too. 6’. 2”. Stands up for team mates.