Van at Chicago - 5:30 PT on SNET-P and 1040

[Tiger]

Completely beaten in the second period.. Pisss poor backchecking and defensive play..
Schneider hung out to dry way too many times..
Missing Salo's steady defence but he is doing just fine in Tampa Bay and has a +11 .. and 7 points ..

Edler and Hamhuis not playing well... and in spite of the criticism of Garrison he is doing well defensively
and a healthy +6 ..
Kesler looks rusty defensively..
and Chicago had a great game

[RoyalDude]

That is my biggest complaint. Kesler gets back, and we need him, but the whole line up gets changed up, even things that were working, AV's patience disappears, and the juggling goes full throttle.

I really would put Kassian back with the twins because we need him contributing. We have too much talent to be running around headless like we were for most of last night. I suspect it will take a few games yet to get both Kesler and Booth settled into the line up. But it shouldn't take that long.

Defensively we are just so disorganized out there. Maybe time for a new defensive coach? Maybe the plan is to let Edler play the R side all season in hopes that come the playoffs he will have figured it out. Garrison, has gone the way of Ballard. It seems like new D to this team take a couple of seasons to figure it out with us. I don'n know why.


And RD, I like the new you. Hopefully we will get a glimpse of the old you every now and then to keep us all honest.

I'm trying, believe me, I'm tryting

yeah, we need Kesler to be a monster again. This team was at it's best when he was on, gave the other team fits in line matching. I have no problem with the Sedins game right now, although I don't think they are as dominant as they were a couple seasons ago in that Cup run season etc. It was a Kesler where it didn't matter who he was playing with, his line rolled but now, not sure if it's this seemingly problem of trying to find the right chemistry in line-mates for him to play with. Booth and Kesler do not click, there is no sustained pressure with those two, cause they can't seemingly sustain the play in the offensive zone, this may be due to Booth not being a puck possession player and all he wants to do is put the Taylor Hall blinders on and try to drive through 3 opposing players to the net. I think the 2nd line woes has more to do with Kesler than his linemates. Kes needs to get back on top of his game. He is paid too much and knows what to do to have to sit and wait for his arrival throwing the excuse book at him. The time is now!

Right now Garrison looks to be way overpaid! If you are making those kinds of bucks you best damn well start showing why you are being paid those kind of bucks. That's near elite player dough he is getting.

[rats19]

Booth 1 game
kesler - 2 games..tad early maybe for expectations to be high..i dunno thats my thought

[sagebrush]

Word is they are mixing up the D pairings for next game...

Hamhuis-Bieksa
Edler-Tanev
Garrison-Ballard

Local media has begun slighting Garrison like they did Ballard. Big contract + few points = fodder for controversy, & we know how they love controversy. Never mind that Garrison is getting used to a new system, doesn't get the same looks as Edler & Bieksa, yet has been better defensively. Talking heads may try to hang the Hossa (2nd) goal on him, in spite of the fact Garrison was boxed out by Shaw.

AV's D re-org may have more to do with Tanev's play, & putting Edler+Hamhuis on the left than Garrison's play. Time to root for the under dogs to excel. For Ballard & Garrison to make the talking heads eat crow. It’s gonna be tougher for Ballard on the right side though.

D +/-
Garrison +6
Bieksa +6
Ballard +4
Tanev +3
Edler -1
Hamhuis -2

[Meds]

I'm trying, believe me, I'm tryting

yeah, we need Kesler to be a monster again. This team was at it's best when he was on, gave the other team fits in line matching. I have no problem with the Sedins game right now, although I don't think they are as dominant as they were a couple seasons ago in that Cup run season etc. It was a Kesler where it didn't matter who he was playing with, his line rolled but now, not sure if it's this seemingly problem of trying to find the right chemistry in line-mates for him to play with. Booth and Kesler do not click, there is no sustained pressure with those two, cause they can't seemingly sustain the play in the offensive zone, this may be due to Booth not being a puck possession player and all he wants to do is put the Taylor Hall blinders on and try to drive through 3 opposing players to the net. I think the 2nd line woes has more to do with Kesler than his linemates. Kes needs to get back on top of his game. He is paid too much and knows what to do to have to sit and wait for his arrival throwing the excuse book at him. The time is now!

Right now Garrison looks to be way overpaid! If you are making those kinds of bucks you best damn well start showing why you are being paid those kind of bucks. That's near elite player dough he is getting.

Ok, so I'm gonna trash a couple things to start.....just so things feel somewhat the same around here.

First off, harping on a lack of chemistry between Kesler and Booth after Booth's first game back would be bad enough. To do so after a game in which they weren't even on the same line is just retarded. Booth was on a line with Weise and Lapierre. So for Booth to be clicking with Kesler would take some incredible talent on both their parts.....something that far surpasses the Sedin's twin thing....

You are right about Garrison, but I think the majority of his problems are the fault of the coaching. He's not being used effectively on the PP, and the system that Vigneault coaches is night and day different than what he would have been used to in the East, especially on a team like the Panthers. He comes from a team that wheels and deals more, and has a more organic approach to their attack in the offensive zone. The Canucks are rigid and structured with their cycle game, and the defenseman don't create on their own, they pinch, but only down the wall, they aren't supposed to get open apparently, but rather stay at the point and wait for the Sedins to make up their mind what they want to do before hurrying a bad pass back to the point.

You are right about Kesler needing to be the monster we saw in 2011. But that won't happen until he is being used effectively. Kesler's "problem" is less due to chemistry than it is to being in the right role. Kesler needs to be the guy that is out there to shut down the opposing team's top line, to pressure on the forecheck and generate off of turnovers. He's the guy that needs to be disrupting the point men and rushing the puck on turnovers at our blueline. He can get extra points on the PP with the Sedins. After all, Kesler is a guy that had his best year points-wise the same year that he won the Selke. Since then Vigneault figures it is best to use him as the pivot on a second scoring unit. Not going to happen. I would love to see a line of Booth-Kesler-Burrows. It would give opponents fits. Bur and Kes already shutdown mots PP's when they are on their game together. Add Booth to help and to be a presence on a rush and I think all 3 of them have great years. I'm fairly confident that it would be a 90 goal line. This means Kassian back up with the Sedins though. So who knows if it will happen, and whoever pointed it out yesterday is right, the Sedins with Burrows have combined for 14 points in the last 3 games (or is it 4?). You don't really want to mess with that right now.

[KeyserSoze]

As per TSN, Hansen gets one game

What a wishy washy league this is.

Imagine how many games Hansen would have been suspended if he had smashed Hossa's head into the turnbuckle glass WWF Shea Weber style...

[Uncle dans leg]

The thing is...putting Kassian with the Twins is a different look that actually has worked. They generate offense in a whole new way that IMHO is what H+D need at this point in their careers. Teams like to play slick defensemen against them and a big body like Kass works very well in maintaining offensive zone possession while throwing something out there they haven't seen before. He also throws the physical element right into the forefront which is another improvement on a line that has been scouted into the ground for 4+ years now. I also find that Dan and Henrik are far more active and involved in recovery with ZK whereas Burrows generally tends to do all the puck recovery while the twins go to the same spots along the wall.

I know Burrows is a proven entity but as we have seen over the past number of years, when a good team scouts the Sedin/Burrows line, they are reading the tendencies way too easily and breaking up those little passes now with much more regularity.

If I could choose I'd go Kes/Burr/Raymond, H/D/Kass and Schroeder(until we get Weiss ) /Jank/Boothy. This roster and line cards have been pretty well intact since 2008 and team have all seen this movie enough to have effective defensive zone strategies that can shut us down. Time to shake it up.

[Meds]

As per TSN, Hansen gets one game

What a wishy washy league this is.

Imagine how many games Hansen would have been suspended if he had smashed Hossa's head into the turnbuckle glass WWF Shea Weber style...

Or pushed him into the "turnbuckle" Zdeno Chara on Max Pacioretty style.....