by Island Nucklehead on Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:29 pm
Hamhuis needs to get back to being a stabilizer back there. To me, this was the most shocking thing about the first round. We have Edler, Bieksa and Ballard who all can carry the puck, but are prone to sometimes awful brain cramps. Tanev appears to have some chemistry with Ballard, and I think Ballard played a simple game and looked fine.
Salo is getting too old and slowing down considerably (not so much a knock on him, just a reality at his age). He simply cannot play the minutes required to "calm" the back end down. Nobody could cover some of the mistakes Edler made, but some of those mistakes certainly exposed Salo's lack of foot speed. He just couldn't cover ground. He's not a top-4, even strength guy any more imo.
Given all this, the Canucks would have to rely on the Bieksa/Hamhuis pairing to be their shut-down guys. Bieksa is never really a shut-down type, but him and Hamhuis played that role perfectly last playoffs. Bieksa could jump, make riskier plays (going for a hit/pinching) and Hamhuis would bail him out. This didn't happen enough this time around. Part of that is on Hamhuis, a lot on the forwards' lack of back pressure.
If the Canucks are going to go to a more "traditional" playoff team, they'll need less flash and dash on the back-end, and more guys that are more solid in their own zone. The Kings and Bruins have proved the Canucks "D" have trouble dealing with bigger forwards down low. Gillis has built a very mobile defence, but if (when) they get stuck in their own zone they're easily out-muscled.
You won't get as much offense from that "stabilizer" role. But if you brought in a guy like Zach Parise or Rick Nash up front, you'd expect your forwards to do more of the "traditional" lifting: scoring goals. IMO the biggest key will be getting Kesler and to a lesser degree Booth going. We could add Shea Weber to the back end, but if our second line isn't going we're screwed. Bring in a guy that can ignite the second line, and we won't miss 10-12 goals from the back end.
If I were to choose, I'd be dumping Ballard, and signing the "Barret Jackman" or "Bryan Allen" type. By removing Raymond, Ballard and Luongo MG has about $12M to play with. If Zach Parise will come here for $6.5M and your "Jackman/Allen" type for 4, you have a couple million left to find a third line C and a veteran backup for CS.
Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Parise-Kesler-Booth
Higgins-????-Hansen
Lapierre-Manny-Kassian
Bieksa-Hamhuis
Edler-"Jackman"
Tanev-Salo
CS
???