Canucks News N Notes 2020-2021

[Cousin Strawberry]

Habs are fast up front and have a big strong defense. They have depth and maybe the best goalie in the league along with the Peg.

They also happened to have the best record against the canadian teams.

The basement will be Edmonton and Toronto

[Cherry Picker]

Defensively:

If the Habs focus on defense they should easily have the lowest GAA. They have a great goalie.

Winnipeg and Vancouver should be right behind them defensively. Winnipeg has the better goalie. Vancouver has good goalies and better defensemen.

Marky is going to get lit up because Calgary will take too many penalties. Too many top power plays in the division for a team built like Calgary to go unscathed in penalty filled games.
It will be a close race between the Oilers and Leaves to see who gives up more goals.
Ottawa will give up the most.

Offensively:

Any of the Oilers, Leaves, Jets, or Canucks could score the most goals in the division this season. It’s a toss up.
Ottawa might be the next best offensively, but they will give up so many it won’t matter.
Calgary is not what they were a couple seasons ago. Johnny Hockey wants out. They’ll struggle to score.
Montreal won’t score as much as the other teams with their young centres, but they will be playing tight games anyway.

Predicted standings:

So in my opinion, the top two teams should be the Jets and then the Canucks because they are the two teams with the best balance of offence and defense.
Montreal should be next if they play low scoring, tight defensive games.
Leaves probably fourth because they have slightly better defensemen than the Oilers.
I’d rather have the Oilers above the Leaves, but their defensemen and goalies are just not very good. Losing Klefbom really hurts them.
Ottawa will surprise and play enough tight games to just beat out the Flames.
I expect the Flames will play okay to start, but then discipline will kill them. Too many strong power plays in the division for them to take as many penalties as they likely will. Once they see themselves out of the top four, they’ll quit on each other and point fingers. Management will send out a few key players at the trade deadline and blow it up at the end of the season.

Of course all of these predictions are based on everyone staying healthy, which never happens. So if that’s the case, which ever team stays healthiest wins the division, pretty much just like every season.

[Hockey Widow]

Lets face it. Our biggest wild card is Demko. If he can start the season and show that the playoffs were not a fluke we should be alright. But if he struggles and if Holtby is just average we will fall behind in the standings early. Demko's history is slow starts to a new league and then he settles in and is lights out. I am hoping se saw his slow adjustment last season and he is ready to take charge.

[ESQ]

I happen to think that the Northern Division travel will be a non-factor for the western conference teams, but will be a major factor for the babies from the East.

One factor in Montreal's favour is they are a Jekyll-and-Hyde franchise - one good year, one bad year. Last year was an off-year, but they somehow made the playoffs as a .500 team. They had two 8-game losing streaks and one 5-game losing streak. They were 4-10 heading in to the shutdown, so they were dropping to lotto territory.

If they pull off their usual flip-flop, maybe they make the playoffs, but to me there isn't anything to get excited/worried about there. I suppose the Price vs the Canucks issue, but that's about it.

[Mickey107]

Vancouver #Canucks@Canucks
Canucks announce Jason King as an Assistant Coach and Chris Higgins as Skills and Development Coach.
Led by Head Coach Travis Green, Vancouver’s coaching staff includes Nolan Baumgartner, Newell Brown, Ian Clark, Darryl Seward, Jason King and Chris Higgins. Link
10:00 AM · Dec 23, 2020

Served in Utica as assistant coach for 5 years. Was originally drafted by the Canucks.

[Cousin Strawberry]

I happen to think that the Northern Division travel will be a non-factor for the western conference teams, but will be a major factor for the babies from the East.

Good point. If you listen carefully you can already hear them preemptively forming excuses

[Cherry Picker]

With all the firings at SN last year, current analysts are motivated to be popular in the Toronto area. This probably leads to a unrecognized bias on their part. Basically the Leaves are equivalent to a pump and dump stock. They get all the hype possible in the off-season, eventually fail, get shit on by everyone until the next FA Frenzy where they sign the next anyone and BOOM they are Stanley Cup favourites again...rinse and repeat. The same SN analysts will disregard the Jet’s potential if they know what’s good for them because the Jets are a TSN regional broadcast. All this makes for some pretty awful analysis.

[Megaterio Llamas]

[Mickey107]

Another link for games...Even Better yet LINK...

[rats19]

Injury riddled schedule

Depth=key

[Cousin Strawberry]

Tis every canadian hockey fans dream schedule right there. Holy fuck

Injuries and depth will obviously be key factors with all those 3 games in 4 night cycles. The other talking points are cardio and skating. The plodders will be exposed and exploited, this favours elite puck moving defenses like Vancouver now enjoys.

I have to say, this schedule and situation could be Jack Rathbone's dream scenario.

Moving the puck has never mattered more

[theman]

Injury riddled schedule

Depth=key

Yup

Why I would like to see one more d man brought in, we are okay up front I think, even with Ferland

[Mickey107]

Injury riddled schedule

Depth=key

Absolutely. Have to use the whole bench as much as possible. Simply no choice. Our young star Quinn can't be putting in 28-30 min. games.
Going to have to roll four and roll three, respectively.

[Cousin Strawberry]

It also means the guaranteed return of Loui Eriksson

[Megaterio Llamas]

Those guys are going to be in surly mood after a month or so in the Edmonton bubble if that's the way it ends up going in Canada. It will get nasty.

I believe we could see a bubble setup in Canada, likely in Edmonton, and free movement in the US. The players on the Canadian teams are going to be ticked if that happens haha.