Spock wrote:
STEP FOUR: SIGN MORE A$$HOLES
This team is just too nice. In today's NHL, skill is less valued than size and grit. It seems the game is being won in the trenches, not by finesse. Against the Sharks, the Canucks just didnt have the horse to get in the crease and be effective. When there were rebonunds off Niemi (and other goalies for much of the season), there were not enough Canucks ready to pounce on pucks and jam them home. The majority of goals I've seen in this years playoffs seem to be from scrums in front. The Canucks dont have nearly enough scrum lovers on offense.
Agre or disagree, thats fine. This Vulcan has been dealing with his wife's cancer, so has't been on much to post.
My thoughts are with u and your family.
Yeah, I agree with this point the most. We need more gritty guys. I don't mind if we lose to a better team in the playoffs, but I want them to pay for it. They should be worn down, bruised up, banged up, hurting all over and feeling like they just went through a war. Ever since we lost the final 2 games to the Bs, it seems like the other teams (Bs, kings and sharks) just cake walked all over us. Marleau and Thornton seemed like they felt bad for our guys in the handshake ceremony after we were knocked out. *LOL*
When MG first came here, he said he wanted our team to have more grit. For whatever reason he did kind of go away from it. He did bring in some guys like Bernier, Hornychuk, Glass to address the toughness issue, but they weren't very good, so he has got to be careful to not just pick up any slug. They have to be decent in skating, hockey smarts and skill set. I thought Torres and SOB (even Rome a bit) were some of his better pickups who had a lot of grit, but for whatever reason, he let them move on or traded them.
If the Nucks want to play a more physical brand of hockey, they'll probably need a new coach as well (a Don Cherry type who luvs that kind of style). I noticed that when AV plays his grinders and they get a penalty, he tends to bench them after. After that, our guys are scared to hit cuz they're worried they might get a penalty. Saw that a bit in Weise, LapDawg and Kass in the playoffs this year. I remember Bitz threw a big hit on a guy last year and got a penalty, AV never played him again. *LOL* The tragedy about that series was we need more guys like Bitz to battle vs the bigger Kings, but they were benched or scratched (ie - weise, rome). I recall a similar situation to Alberts as well when he first got here and he played in the playoffs, benched after a big hit from a penalty. Obviously we want our thugs to be disciplined and not take stupid penalties all nite, but if the nucks decide to play that way, we're going to get our fair share of penalties. Whoever is the coach is going to have to let dawgs loose and let them play their game and develop a top notch penalty killing unit to negate some of the penalties.
Speaking of assholes, there's one big bad hombre that I always wanted the Canucks to go after.... Buffy! I'd luv to see him play with the Sedins and let him park his ass in front of the crease for us. He's one guy that I'm willing to pay an arm and a leg for. I'd offer Edler, Schroeder and throw in a 1st round pick if neeed (they can have Booth and Ballard too if they want).