Mondi wrote:Not asking for you to engage, just responding to the people (HOMERS) around here that refuse to admit the team is backsliding.
I don't think anyone isn't willing to admit that the Canucks will take a bit of a slide but over the past 3 seasons we have a Cup appearance, two Presidents trophies oh and we've won the Northwest the past five straight years.
It's not hard to fall back from that success. I think what most are saying is that there really isn't any reason to spread doom and gloom. We will have a bit of cap space this year to make more acquisitions throughout the season, we have healthy players coming back and some decent young kids that may make an impact sooner rather than later.
We are likely still a top 10 team in the league as opposed to possible Cup favorites like we've been for the past 3 seasons.
Mondi wrote:I put this question to anyone out there: Have the last 25 months in Canuck's history been an example of strong management of an NHL hockey club?
Yes.
How can you say anything less than that when looking at our overall success. Sure Gillis has made some moves that haven't panned out, so has every GM if we examine each and every move to the nth detail. We look at the Canucks through a microscope because they are the team we follow. It's easy to find the warts and forget about the success we've been witness to.
We are going to see a differently coached team for the first time in seven years, and we're likely to see some some new young Canucks draft picks play a more prominent role for the team this year.
Changes are happening and hopefully for the better. We saw over the past 2 seasons that something had to be done as the team has gotten stale and easy to predict and defend against.
The benefit the Canucks have is they are permitted by ownership to operate right at the cap (even exceed it), which allows them to bring in and keep talent. The problem this year the Canucks have is they are permitted by ownership to operate right at the cap. This is terrible when the cap artificially goes down and really hamstrings teams that are always at the cap.
I'm not sure what you expected the Canucks to do exactly, the league (and NHLPA for that matter) has made it very tough for the Canucks to do anything this offseason. Especially when you change the rules and make what was a perfectly acceptable (and approved) contract for a superstar goaltender now have severe consequences under certain circumstances. Which has clearly made this player next to completely immovable.
Things will be much tougher for the Canucks this year, no one is denying that. We still have a strong talent base, some young blood and hopefully with a new coach we can have some decent success. We have the ability to improve throughout the season and then who knows what can happen come playoff time!