What is it that's bugging me about this season?

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MarkMM
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Post by MarkMM »

Harold wrote:
SRsez wrote:
Island Nucklehead wrote:The point was: Calgary's D is better than ours.
Since when? They have a better team defense (or at least did last season, this one remaining to be seen), but how is Mark Giordano or Andrei Zyuzin that much better than Kevin Bieksa? Phaneuf will be good, but he's no Matty Ohlund today. Regehr or Mitchell? Robyn's a pussy comparatively. What does that leave? Hamrlik & Ference? I'd rather have Salo.

But that's not really the point anyway, because Calgary's problem isn't defense, it's scoring with their pathetic forward corps.
Island Nucklehead wrote:I do think they are better off if their #1 goalie goes down.
Well, you're entitled to your opinion. To me what it means is mostly this: Is McLennan better than Sabourin or Flaherty?

By almost every measurable quantity the Flames suck.
They are smoke & mirrors, with almost all of their success of the past 2 seasons coming at the expense of the Canucks. Not this year.
I agree.
Vancouver has a superior top 3 (Ohlund, Salo, Mitchell) to Calgary, and the only question marks heading into the season was how Krajicek and Bieksa would do in spots #4 and 5. With their excellent play so far I think it is very clear that Vancouver's D is better than Calgary's.
Yup, not to mention that this is even with arguably the Canucks biggest disappointment so far being Bourdon's lack of readiness. I still think he's an elite prospect, and if he can find his feet this season (and it's too early to tell either way), then anything he brings just increases our lead over Calgary. If not and he's sent down, there's the possibility of using Bourdon's $850k cap hit to bring in some help.
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Island Nucklehead
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Post by Island Nucklehead »

I would take Phaneufs bone crushing hits, 4 Pts in 6 GP and staying on the Plus side of things on a low scoring flames team than Ohlund's 1 goal, and -1. He's been disapointing to say the least so far.

Mitchell is a solid shut down guy. But between him and Regehr it's basically a wash.

Salo has been our best defender by far, and if he stays healthy then we're alright.

Bieksa and Krajicek have been good, making Ohlunds mediocre start somewhat forgetable. If they go into a slump, I have serious doubts Rory or Luc can step up and play solid minutes.

After watching last nights game, I'm beginning to worry that our defensive depth is not the problem at all. Does it look to anyone else like (with a few notable exceptions) we are a team of 3/4 liners? Green (on the PP? for real?), Santala (what a penalty monster), Burrows should probably be playing in the minors. Kesler hasn't been showing much but his speed a la Brandon Reid. Cooke has been terrible, 1.5 million down the shitter there. Linden's more streaky than an icy hot back patch. Pyatt is so big but plays like he's 5'9 and sometimes I forget he's there. Bulis has shown he can dang but no finish. Morrison has been a waste of money and ice time. Without the Naslund line we're sunk.
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Post by westvandal »

Island Nucklehead wrote:I would take Phaneufs bone crushing hits, 4 Pts in 6 GP and staying on the Plus side of things on a low scoring flames team than Ohlund's 1 goal, and -1. He's been disapointing to say the least so far.

Mitchell is a solid shut down guy. But between him and Regehr it's basically a wash.

Salo has been our best defender by far, and if he stays healthy then we're alright.

Bieksa and Krajicek have been good, making Ohlunds mediocre start somewhat forgetable. If they go into a slump, I have serious doubts Rory or Luc can step up and play solid minutes.

After watching last nights game, I'm beginning to worry that our defensive depth is not the problem at all. Does it look to anyone else like (with a few notable exceptions) we are a team of 3/4 liners? Green (on the PP? for real?), Santala (what a penalty monster), Burrows should probably be playing in the minors. Kesler hasn't been showing much but his speed a la Brandon Reid. Cooke has been terrible, 1.5 million down the shitter there. Linden's more streaky than an icy hot back patch. Pyatt is so big but plays like he's 5'9 and sometimes I forget he's there. Bulis has shown he can dang but no finish. Morrison has been a waste of money and ice time. Without the Naslund line we're sunk.
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good call.
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sic puppy
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Post by sic puppy »

Island Nucklehead wrote: After watching last nights game, I'm beginning to worry that our defensive depth is not the problem at all. Does it look to anyone else like (with a few notable exceptions) we are a team of 3/4 liners? Green (on the PP? for real?), Santala (what a penalty monster), Burrows should probably be playing in the minors. Kesler hasn't been showing much but his speed a la Brandon Reid. Cooke has been terrible, 1.5 million down the shitter there. Linden's more streaky than an icy hot back patch. Pyatt is so big but plays like he's 5'9 and sometimes I forget he's there. Bulis has shown he can dang but no finish. Morrison has been a waste of money and ice time. Without the Naslund line we're sunk.
At this point of the schedule, after all the changes in personnel both on the ice and behind the bench, the numbers invited to training camp and an interesting road trip to start the season, I'm not surprised at the lack of chemistry on this team.

A number of posters starting with missing the playoffs last season wanted changes. Maybe not this many, however they were made. Anyone thinking that once the season started all these issues would magically disappear and the team would ride Luongo's status to a better start than what has transpired is smokin' some pretty good bc bud.

This team is a work in progress and it will take sometime for the machine to mesh (if in fact this current crop will). Having said that, I have been pleasantly surprised with the new look and effort so far. Good habits require time to mature. IMO they are.
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Post by Nanaimo_Nuck »

smalien wrote:
Island Nucklehead wrote: After watching last nights game, I'm beginning to worry that our defensive depth is not the problem at all. Does it look to anyone else like (with a few notable exceptions) we are a team of 3/4 liners? Green (on the PP? for real?), Santala (what a penalty monster), Burrows should probably be playing in the minors. Kesler hasn't been showing much but his speed a la Brandon Reid. Cooke has been terrible, 1.5 million down the shitter there. Linden's more streaky than an icy hot back patch. Pyatt is so big but plays like he's 5'9 and sometimes I forget he's there. Bulis has shown he can dang but no finish. Morrison has been a waste of money and ice time. Without the Naslund line we're sunk.
At this point of the schedule, after all the changes in personnel both on the ice and behind the bench, the numbers invited to training camp and an interesting road trip to start the season, I'm not surprised at the lack of chemistry on this team.

A number of posters starting with missing the playoffs last season wanted changes. Maybe not this many, however they were made. Anyone thinking that once the season started all these issues would magically disappear and the team would ride Luongo's status to a better start than what has transpired is smokin' some pretty good bc bud.

This team is a work in progress and it will take sometime for the machine to mesh (if in fact this current crop will). Having said that, I have been pleasantly surprised with the new look and effort so far. Good habits require time to mature. IMO they are.

I agree with your outlook. The Canucks have managed to stay in games which is key. Have you guys seen any team besides San Jose run away with it? 1 goal games pretty much. The Canucks are building chemistry and it needs time.
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Post by SRsez »

Nanaimo_Nuck wrote:The Canucks have managed to stay in games which is key.
What has been more pleasant than watching one goal games & realizing we have a great chance at winning?

Luongo is just getting warmed up & acclimated. He is already a leader on the team. He will be the best goalie in the league again this year.

That is part of why they have no identity yet, along with perhaps the only real knock on AV so far: holding too big of a camp.

I am also holding AV to account over continuing to keep Naslund with the twins, which makes us too one dimensional. Put Naslund back with Mo & then give Bulis a true test. Or Kesler. The twins can support any linemate. Half the time it looks as though there is no linemate anyway.

But in agreement, it's waaaaay too early to say anything conclusive about this team.
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Post by tuzzi44 »

Luongo has had a couple rough games were he hasnt been his best but he will be carrying this team. however, still waiting for that elusive SHUTOUT... cant really remembr what its like to celebrate one of those :lol: by far the best trade of the season. getting rid of Bertuzzi is goin to help some of the guys stay focused on just hockey. We need to assasinate AV if hes gona keep the sedins and naslund on the same line. SRsez is right.... keeping the team one dimensional (unless they score 5 goals a game) is makiing it so easy for the opposing team's defence to slow our scoring down. we could send the sedin's out there without a linemate and they would be fine. we need naslund to lead... help the young guys out, get on some different lines and try to get something going for everyone. However, im not opposed to putting the swede line back together when we need a quick goal in the 3rd if needed
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MarkMM
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Post by MarkMM »

I agree as well. While it generally makes sense not to fix something that isn't broken, while the Sedin line isn't broken, our team offense is. It's also bad policy to not fix a problem until it's glaringly bad, and that's why I think it's important to break up Naslund and the Sedins. The Sedins already have the chemistry they need to work with whatever player they're given, but might need some time to make him fit in, whereas we need to start NOW to figure out who that partner is, and who can fit with Morrison and Naslund, will it be Kesler with his speed and size, or do you use Pyatt there for the same reasons? How about Cooke, he had some chemistry back when Bert was suspended?

Either way, we'll need a few games to start fitting the new lines together, see what works and the like, and by the time we're losing games because they're smothering/beating up the Swedish Touch (it also worries me that we've put our stars/superstar on the same line without much physicality to protect them), going through growing pains then would bite the big one.
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Post by Meerschaum »

Yep, we are a one line team right now.

But break up the Sedins and Nazzy and guess what?

We become a zero line team.

With Luongo, AV's new defensive system and the Swedish Touch in place, I expect we'll keep our heads above water for the 10-20 or so games needed for the rest of this completely revamped squad to develop some chemistry.

When you retool a team, it's naive to expect every line will click from the get go. A slow start was anticipated. This will clearly be a second half team.

That having been said, I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the boys have played to date and how competitive they've been each and every game (with one exception). We're actually just a bounce or two away from a much better record. Those bounces will come as the guys get used to each other.

Patience folks.
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Post by Carl Yagro »

I think they've been in every game this season so far. Against SJ, they were in it for the most part but the 2 breakaway goals really deflated them.
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Post by Cookie La Rue »

Meerschaum wrote:We become a zero line team.........Patience folks.
Indeed, imo if you go through the players available there's just a handful who can move something, in my eyes it's just Nazzy, Daniel, Henrik, Salo and Ohlund, all others are far behind them, maybe Morrison is showing sometimes initiative but very unlucky. Even Mitchell, i'm not very impressed by him (at least yesterday), He's very steady defensivly but on the way ahead even worse than Ohlund.

But patience folks, let's see what the near future brings. :D
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