GDT: Vancouver has the Blues - 7pm Snet

[Cornuck]

you think me chasing AV down robson street with an axe would work? cuz i'm getting close to doing it

I think it's worth the attempt

[the toucan kid]

Oh brother!

They don't win enough games, what a bunch of fat cat millionaires pissing on poor me the working class stiff who scrapes his knuckles to a bloody pulp just to raise barely enough hard earned cash to watch them play! And at this time of year too! Maybe if they had to work for a living they would appreciate how lucky they have it and never, EVER, lose to a bad team again.

Only thing to be done at this point if you're MG is to hope the club figures it out. Rash personnel dumps to placate the guy responsible for the previous paragraph aren't worth doing, and if you think about moving a core piece just to mix up the locker room, you're almost certainly going to end up with an inferior team. Now is the team good enough that the sole problem is related to locker room chemistry, are we sure there even are chemistry issues? The cost-benefit equation of throwing away an asset to possibly improve a POSSIBLY fractured room doesn't pan out. Quit bitching, you survived an eleven game losing streak last year and you (mostly) all went on and on in the same way, looked pretty stupid a couple weeks later too I might add.

I think that the team should spend some time with an ECHL team during a break.

Don't we worry, in the off-season, about the team's image league wide in terms of attracting UFAs? I think it's a stupid thread of logic in most cases, but that would, in a heartbeat, make the Canucks a pariah for talent. The most you would get out of that would be a vaguely humorous (vaguely) news piece on the HNIC pre-show.

Maybe they are starting to believe their own press and figure they're an 'elite' team and don't have to work as hard.

Maybe it's us (well you anyway ) who are believing THE press who put elite expectations on a team that isn't that good.

The way the Canucks played against the Caps and the way they can play I believe they are a elite team.

Well if you're going to base the quality of team they are on whichever game they played last... must be a long year for you.

But you have to be more consistent which the Canucks are not.

Consistent doesn't have an automatic positive connotation - you're essentially saying they can suck as long as they always suck (well, Cornuck actually IS saying that ). You guys mean they have to be better in more games, to which I suggest they would need a better team.

I'm not oblivious to the fact that sometimes off-ice issues can corrode a team's performance. However, cite the case of any abnormal distraction, or personnel issues that would make a firing or a reactionary trade a logical step? The problem is on the ice and if this continues over the course of the season the fault lies with MG for assembling a mediocre team (and possibly whoever inflated the hopes of the fans).

[Island Nucklehead]

Oh brother!

They don't win enough games, what a bunch of fat cat millionaires pissing on poor me the working class stiff who scrapes his knuckles to a bloody pulp just to raise barely enough hard earned cash to watch them play! And at this time of year too! Maybe if they had to work for a living they would appreciate how lucky they have it and never, EVER, lose to a bad team again.

Nice.

Don't we worry, in the off-season, about the team's image league wide in terms of attracting UFAs? I think it's a stupid thread of logic in most cases, but that would, in a heartbeat, make the Canucks a pariah for talent. The most you would get out of that would be a vaguely humorous (vaguely) news piece on the HNIC pre-show.

I don't think he was necessarily serious about the Canucks joining the Salmon Kings on a run through the states... Just the notion that these guys aren't really paying the price to win. The seem capable of getting up for good teams, and then bending over and being bum-raped by bad teams.

Consistent doesn't have an automatic connotation - you're essentially saying they can suck as long as they always suck (well, Cornuck actually IS saying that ). You guys mean they have to be better in more games, to which I suggest they would need a better team.

The problem is on the ice and if this continues over the course of the season the fault lies with MG for assembling a mediocre team (and possibly whoever inflated the hopes of the fans).

Well it's not like we have a team full of Kyle Wellwood's here, who is not as good as he advertised last season. This team certainly has many of the pieces required for a talented team. The frustrating part is their inability to put this together over good stretches. They don't seem to have trouble putting on offensively dominant shows (5-1, 8-2, 7-3, 4-1 ect.) over teams above them in the standings (Los Angeles, Colorado, New Jersey) I'm not sure if it's motivational or what, but this team is good enough... they just have to maintain the work ethic required to win games against any opponent.

[Cornuck]

Don't we worry, in the off-season, about the team's image league wide in terms of attracting UFAs? I think it's a stupid thread of logic in most cases, but that would, in a heartbeat, make the Canucks a pariah for talent. The most you would get out of that would be a vaguely humorous (vaguely) news piece on the HNIC pre-show.

I don't think he was necessarily serious about the Canucks joining the Salmon Kings on a run through the states... Just the notion that these guys aren't really paying the price to win. The seem capable of getting up for good teams, and then bending over and being bum-raped by bad teams.

I'm glad somebody got it.

[the toucan kid]

I'm glad somebody got it.

Oh come on, I knew you were half serious. Thus the business about the HNIC pre-show. I was just co-opting your post for my tirade.

Well it's not like we have a team full of Kyle Wellwood's here, who is not as good as he advertised last season. This team certainly has many of the pieces required for a talented team. The frustrating part is their inability to put this together over good stretches. They don't seem to have trouble putting on offensively dominant shows (5-1, 8-2, 7-3, 4-1 ect.) over teams above them in the standings (Los Angeles, Colorado, New Jersey) I'm not sure if it's motivational or what, but this team is good enough... they just have to maintain the work ethic required to win games against any opponent.

They're a good team, which to me means 40 odd wins. That leaves a tonne of room for losses of all kinds. If they were putting together constant runs of success, they would be an elite team winning 50 or 60 games. Every team is going to have great efforts, often against better teams, in the course of a season. That doesn't mean they're one of the best teams in the league. They beat the Caps, how do we know the Caps were at their best, would their fans not be frothing about the effort they put forth against an inferior team?

It's a good team, but that means they're going to lose a good share of games. We ended up winning 45 last year think about what that means in terms of our consistency.

[Cornuck]

You know Touc, it's really weird when you're the only ray of sunshine on this board.

I think an average team wins 40 - that's .500 hockey.

A good team should be able to get about 100 points.

An elite team (to me) is a team that can get to the top of their division early in the season and stay there. We are not even close to being an elite team. We're a team that's playing just over .500 hockey. Considering injuries slowed us down a bit to start the season, we could have a few more points. I think we're capable of playing like a 'good' team.

If the playoffs started tomorrow, I would not like our chances. Thankfully it's a long season and we still have time to make a run like we did last year.

My only real bitch about this team is that they aren't playing a full 60 on many nights.

[woodhog]

My only real bitch about this team is that they aren't playing a full 60 on many nights.

And if they did play a full 60 most nights they would be a very good, if not elite team.

On nights when they put in a full effort they are hard to beat. Especially when Luongo is standing on his head to make up for some of the defenses brain farts.

That is what's frustrating to me, the fact that they ARE a good team with the potential to be an excellent team if they were motivated to work hard game in game out.

I realize that in an 82 game season you are going to have the odd bad game because of travel, injuries, back to backs etc. but this team really has no good excuses for the poor effort on many nights.

The Canucks can be a really hard team to play ... and some nights they can be a push over.

[LotusBlossom]

I found it very difficult to gage the 'effort' level of the Canucks due to really crappy officiating. Anyway that non-counted goal by Burrows sticks in my head and could have changed to 'momentum' of the game.

Needless to say...the Preds got theirs last night , mind you, I was at la Bodega partying it up with my sister for her birthday! So I got to see clips