Patience: Gillis is doing the right thing.

[wienerdog]

It won't bother the guys in the room as much as many may think.

Unless, of course, the douchbag press in this town has its way.

I CAN HEAR A CERTAIN SOMEONE BRAYING ON AND ON ABOUT IT NOW.

(am i doing it rite?)

[Hockey Widow]

Here is the problem. Luongo is a notorious slow starter. So he stays, he has his typical start but we all forget that this is typical for him so we blame it on the two goalie situation. That is how it will unfold if he stays.

Of course he could have the best start of his career and then we will all want Cory traded...

I think once the Doan situation is resolved the Luongo situation will also be resolved, or not. I really could see both goalies start the season and I would be fine with that. Who wouldn't want the best 1-2 tandem in the league for one more year?

[Fred]

I'm just assuming the need to pick up Luongo is being delayed in part by the desire to pick him up as late as possible before or even better after the CBA problems are resolved

[RoyalDude]

It won't bother the guys in the room as much as many may think.

Unless, of course, the douchbag press in this town has its way.

I CAN HEAR A CERTAIN SOMEONE BRAYING ON AND ON ABOUT IT NOW.

(am i doing it rite?)

And here we have it friends, Gillis Apologist no. 1 - weinerdog

You'd have to be a moron not to realize that it would not be peachy environment if Lou was still in the picture come next season, not when you peel away all that thin layer of professionalism and phoney talk with the media. Lou wants out people, wants to move on, a fresh start, a new beginning. He will put on that prototypical brave face and small talk but beneath all that, his heart left this city when he was benched for Ginger in the L.A. playoff series. Do you want that negativeness in the room? How happy will he be, donning a jersey he knows that eventually he won't be wearing anymore while that lame ass Gillis is working the phones trying to trade him. I will commend that brave face that Lou will put on if he is still around cause ya know he will for he is a class act, but beneath all that, he won't be happy.

[ESQ]

I know the big fan club of Gillis here will get their back ups as I say this - 'the Luongo situation is just another classic example of a mishandled situation by Gillis. I am really looking forward to seeing the pressure really finally start showing its ugly face on Schneider in the goalie graveyard of the NHL. The fans here are legendary for turning on their players. We have always had this love affair for our backups like Essensa, Hedberg blah, blah when really this love was more of just adding a little more salt in the wound of our disliking of our starting goaltender. I've said it before, Luongo will go down as one of this teams best goalies in handling the pressure cooker environment along with Kirk MacLean. I really am having a hard time believing that Ginger will handle this well when adversity finally sets in, cause trust me, it will. Ginger has had the luxury to sit in the background while Luongo bears it all from fans and media.

I agree with this! Although the rumours were there from the start of the season that this would be Luongo's last year as a Canuck due to his family sitution and his wife moving back to Florida, I place the blame for the mess at Luongo's feet - dude shouldn't have signed a contract like that if his family/personal situation wouldn't let him fulfill it (that's also hard for me to say, as I am one of the biggest Luongo apologist fans on the board)

Best case scenario is Schneider ends up being as good a goalie as Luongo, and one year (soon) all the pieces fall into place, the team stays healthy, and we win a Cup.

[wafflecombine]

I strongly disagree with you ESQ. In 2010 when the Lou deal got done it looked to benefit BOTH parties as Lou got paid and we locked up our franchise goaltender. The family issues you speak of, didn't come up until after that. Then Cory started playing like a maniac, etc..etc. and here we are.

Shit happens. You adapt and move on.

Funny thing is, if Lou does have to stay until say the All-Star break or the trade deadline and Cory takes most of the October starts that Lou is usually slow on, Lou could have absolutely stellar stats when the time does come. It only helps his value. Sure it might only be 20 starts but when have we ever let a little thing like a small number of starts ever cloud our thinking of stat totals and a players value?

Either way, Lou will go when the time is right. Go-Preds-Go!!!

[the Dogsalmon]

giving Gillis his contract extention may be the biggest mistake the Canucks make this season...he is doing nothing about our situation...if he signs Doan then we have a chance...if that boat sails we is sunked...

[Zedlee]

giving Gillis his contract extention may be the biggest mistake the Canucks make this season...he is doing nothing about our situation...if he signs Doan then we have a chance...if that boat sails we is sunked...

I dunno...what else could Gillis have done? Garrison was a good pick up. Not sure there were any other guys out there that were worth the money they signed for.

[Jovocop]

giving Gillis his contract extention may be the biggest mistake the Canucks make this season...he is doing nothing about our situation...if he signs Doan then we have a chance...if that boat sails we is sunked...

I dunno...what else could Gillis have done? Garrison was a good pick up. Not sure there were any other guys out there that were worth the money they signed for.

Also, Luongo is still waiting to be traded.

[Fred]

I have no idea if Garrison is a good pick up or not ? time will tell. Remember a defenseman we got from Tallon before, the maidens pray answered....Ballard. Gillis I like but I'm thinking Tallon is better

[dbr]

We didn't get Garrison "from" Tallon.

giving Gillis his contract extention may be the biggest mistake the Canucks make this season...he is doing nothing about our situation...if he signs Doan then we have a chance...if that boat sails we is sunked...

I dunno...what else could Gillis have done? Garrison was a good pick up. Not sure there were any other guys out there that were worth the money they signed for.

As Jovocop says, the Luongo trade is still out there.

It will be interesting to see what Gillis can do with that particular sizeable trade asset and his remaining cap space.

I am hopeful he'll be able to pull off something very interesting (ideally, trading Luongo for a package of nice prospects and other young players and using the cap space to sign Doan) but if not for me the "what if" of this offseason would be the fact that Gillis was offered Luke Schenn for Luongo and that player was later dealt for James Van Riemsdyk.. who probably has a higher ceiling than most of the players (speculation from the peanut gallery indicates) Gillis is likely to get back in a trade.

But anyway this is further than I wish to get into humouring the pissing and moaning from the Dogsalmon, RD, or whoever at this time of the summer. We don't even know when the next hockey game is going to be played, let alone who will be in the lineup or what.

[Fred]

Technically correct, if you want to split hairs we paid a lot of money for a Tallon "reject." Time will tell if Tallon was right or if MG was correct. Lets hope he's better than the other Tallon "reject" Ballard. When it comes to Ballard looks like Tallons assesment of Ballard was better than MG. At best MG can come out 50-50

[dbr]

Jason Garrison was a Dale Tallon "reject," eh? Must be why they negotiated right up to the start of UFA, wily old Dale didn't want the rest of the league to know he'd rejected Garrison otherwise they might get the drop on his efforts to sign the vastly superior Filip fucking Kuba..

[Fred]

Jason Garrison was a Dale Tallon "reject," eh? Must be why they negotiated right up to the start of UFA, wily old Dale didn't want the rest of the league to know he'd rejected Garrison otherwise they might get the drop on his efforts to sign the vastly superior Filip fucking Kuba..

Reject of course, did I miss some thing and Florida signed him....your stretching credulity. When and how much Florida offered I'm not privy to......bottom line they didn't sign him and according to the reports I read he packed every thing up immediately at the end of the season despite wanting to re-sign there....and why not best numbers he's ever put up with his partner feeding him all game long. Tallon took a no hope team and did what BB couldn't do turn his team around...pretty dam quick and despite the screw up with registering players at Chicago he did manage to win a Cup there....or at least do all the heavy lifting. I've got no problem with Tallon he may not sound as polished as MG and appease the academic wanna be's but he knows his way around the NHL

[dbr]

I'm stretching credulity? I'm not the one calling the second or third most sought after defenseman a 'reject' when his former team clearly attempted to re-sign him and clearly went out and signed a (worse) replacement player at their price point after he moved on.

I have no problem with Dale Tallon either, he has his gaffes (the QO business in Chicago, he badly overpaid for a few unrestricted free agents on a couple of occasions, etc) but overall he's done well to put himself in situations where he has the mandate to completely remake an organization and he's done a pretty good job both times.

It doesn't mean everything he touches is gold and every player he can't sign is garbage; the fact is the Panthers have a bunch of bright young defensemen, a marquee player in Brian Campbell and cheaper role players than what Garrison would have cost them. Doesn't make him a bad player, it just means he's worth more to the best teams in the league than he is to a budget team..