OOTS 11/12 playoff edition

[Cookie La Rue]

Not knocking Bourdon, who I'm sure would have been a great guy to have on the team, but I still think we should have picked Kopitar.

At these times i was all in for Anze just because of national similarities but i didn't expect him to be sooo good.
Rip Luc.
Imagine, the cup would be ours 2 times in the last 3 years.

[Mondi]

NJ is not a very good hockey team.

[SKYO]

Well at least we can say we got knocked out by the best...once again.

[Island Nucklehead]

Well at least we can say we got knocked out by the best...once again.

I think the 2010-2011 Canucks were a better team than the 2011-2012 Kings.

Just my opinion. Name on the Cup = All that matters.

[okcanuck]

So happy for Willie Mitchell
Can someone please explain to me why we let him go? A B.C. player who is an absolute horse out there for the Kings (another 26 min tonight). I'm not a Gillis-hater, but I think that is his worst move ever.

[Island Nucklehead]

So happy for Willie Mitchell
Can someone please explain to me why we let him go? A B.C. player who is an absolute horse out there for the Kings (another 26 min tonight). I'm not a Gillis-hater, but I think that is his worst move ever.

Well he bashed his brain pretty good. Also, Ballard and Hamhuis made that an easier decision.

Hamhuis @ 4.5 > Mitchell @ 3.5, which is what he got from the Kings after his brains were scrambled here.

Mitchell is sure looking good with the Kings (who isn't on that team right now?), but I think the Canucks did the right thing at the time.

[okcanuck]

So happy for Willie Mitchell
Can someone please explain to me why we let him go? A B.C. player who is an absolute horse out there for the Kings (another 26 min tonight). I'm not a Gillis-hater, but I think that is his worst move ever.

Well he bashed his brain pretty good. Also, Ballard and Hamhuis made that an easier decision.

Hamhuis @ 4.5 > Mitchell @ 3.5, which is what he got from the Kings after his brains were scrambled here.

Mitchell is sure looking good with the Kings (who isn't on that team right now?), but I think the Canucks did the right thing at the time.

The way Mitchell is playing right now is the same way he played pre-concussion.
I wonder if we had him instead of Ballard we could have beaten the Kings.

[SKYO]

The way Mitchell is playing right now is the same way he played pre-concussion.
I wonder if we had him instead of Ballard we could have beaten the Kings.

If we had Danny from game 1 we could have taken them, I think we gave the Kings the most trouble after we got Danny got back, as they were getting dizzy from the uber twins playmaking wizardry. That and if Kesler was in Nashville series form, instead of him having injury problems.

I think it's best anyways we got knocked out, as Vancouver locks up and gives jail time to all the looters and rioters from last year, so it doesn't happen again IF we ever get another chance at the ever elusive Lord Stanley that area code 604 has never seen ever.

[Arachnid]

Go Kings Go! Willie deserves it if just for the Canucks treating him like shit (I am on record that was the worst move, we coulda had him for cheap and protected us from any future concussions) and the fans being just as crap about it...

It will look so damn good on MG and AV to see him hoist it...(and I like MG almost as much as Dude )

[Farhan Lalji]

I think the 2010-2011 Canucks were a better team than the 2011-2012 Kings.

More talented? Probably. Better in terms of playoff hockey? I'm not so sure.

There's a complete world of difference in the mental toughness between the Vancouver Canucks (even last year) and the LA Kings. The Canucks last year, as talented as they were, wasted a lot of time and ended up exerting more energy than they should have.........due to their penchant for "breathers" and not effectively finishing teams off. As a result, they were too banged up when it mattered most.

Chicago should have been done in 4, and Nashville should have been done in 4 or 5. Period. The Kings are basically doing what the Canucks should have done last year up to this point. San Jose was the only team that the Canucks effectively put away..........since the Sharks are even more mentally fragile than the Canucks are.

I wonder if the Kings will lose 8-1 to the Devils in games 3 like we did. After all - the series is 2-0.............it's in the bag right? The Kings can mail in the effort next game?

[SKYO]

If the Devils had an old school coach they'd go after Brown hardcore as apparently he has a injured shoulder, take him down and the Devils - those evil guys - might have a chance at a turnaround/comeback!!! And make this series much more interesting.

This is what everyone is having a problem with, their center depth, solid d corps with a blend of offense and solid defense while playing in front of a uber hot goalie.


#23 Dustin Brown ‘C’ - #11 Anze Kopitar ‘A’ - #14 Justin Williams
#25 Dustin Penner - #10 Mike Richards - #77 Jeff Carter
#74 Dwight King - #28 Jarret Stoll - #22 Trevor Lewis
#15 Brad Richardson - #24 Colin Fraser - #71 Jordan Nolan


#7 Rob Scuderi - #8 Drew Doughty
#33 Willie Mitchell - #26 Slava Voynov
#27 Alec Martinez - #2 Matt Greene‘A’

quick

Stoll is going to be rich this offseason, Colin Fraser will get paid, Gagne will play somewhere.

Willie and Scuderi are really helping to lock down the front of the net for Quick to do his job, something this team is lacking as we have too many two way players, and no pure tough hardcore defensive dmen to help our goalies.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

I couldn't help thinking, why couldn't the Canucks make the finals this year instead? Instead of facing those stupid bruins, we would of taken the Devils or Rangers no prob.

[Puck]

If I recall, letting Willie go was more about not over-paying for shutdown defencemen. It's the Ken Holland stance: you should not pay big bucks to D-men that don't provide offense. At the time, Willie was good not great, and his health was in question. LA signed him because they didn't have any(much) D back then. The bad news for the Canucks is that Willie seems to have progressed a bit over the last couple years.

[Jovocop]

If I recall, letting Willie go was more about not over-paying for shutdown defencemen. It's the Ken Holland stance: you should not pay big bucks to D-men that don't provide offense. At the time, Willie was good not great, and his health was in question. LA signed him because they didn't have any(much) D back then. The bad news for the Canucks is that Willie seems to have progressed a bit over the last couple years.

Is Willie getting better or simply is the NHL going backwards which allows slower but bigger players to excel??

[dbr]

Yeah I don't think Willie had even started skating yet when the Canucks replaced him by acquiring Ballard and Hamhuis, I think they did offer him a one year deal at a lower cap hit but obviously LA beat their offer (and took on a substantial risk in doing so).

But we've seen the big minute players on the Canucks defense get substantially more mobile and better at moving the puck quickly in Mike Gillis' time here, so seeing Willie treated like a second rate defenseman is no big surprise.

It would've been nice to keep him here somehow, but given the circumstances and the general direction of the team I don't see how it would have worked.