Canucks need to bring the moms to all the game. Love how everyone seemed to congratulating Miller's mom on the an apparent great save but then they after seeing the replay and they were all pointing over to Mrs. Biega. Can see how they are right into it. Funny that it's Dads that are always dissecting the game but often the Moms know more about what is going on. That's often been my experience in coaching.
Thought that Cracknell, Etem, Hutton (huge), the Sedins, Hansen, Hamhuis (beginning to think re-signing isn't the worst option), Miller and Bart were the pick of the Canucks.
Virtanen just abounds with potential. When he fills out he'll probably be in the 220 range and very strong. That speed and strength will be difficult to handle. Got nailed tonight and didn't seem to stop him. Had some problems getting the puck out of his zone and the coaches need to work on that. Needs a center who can feed him off the rush and not sure the team has that right now. However, McCann may have potential to be that.
On Sedins. Little use looking in the rear view. The Sedins, with no questions asked, have been great. The questions are about the future. the Canucks have a pretty decent core developing. The biggest concern IMO should be how do we add to that core. Certainly the draft is a key and thus all the legitimate consideration about tanking. The other alternative is to trade aging stars for future players. That's where the Sedins come in. I think you have to take the practical view that if they can get something important (and it needs to be something decisive) for the future and you have any concern the Sedins maybe fade (and you wonder about Henrik a bit) then you are doing less than due diligence if you ignore this avenue to improvement.
Sure there are other factors such as loyalty, leadership and whole bunch of like issues. However, if the play of the Sedins starts falling off badly next year (and they have never been the greatest skaters) and we are heading into cap hell. The next two years would be write offs IMO.
I know the argument can be made that the Sedins may well continue to play at the high level the team needs and that's important for creating a good environment for the younger players to develop in. And I know people don't want this discussion. But for any organization to be successful in sports or anything else hard decisions have to be made.
Again these need to balanced against the effect such decisions can have on morale and commitment of those in the organization. In the case of the Sedins this is a critical consideration. But saying there is nothing to consider here and to reject out of hand any suggestion that the Sedins be moved is ignoring the very difficult situation created when aging high end cap players begin to become liabilities. Lots of team have been caught in this predicament and isn't pretty (especially for the players). Knowing when to move players is hugely important for any GM.
Would a say that if the Canucks can keep up their present play and illustrate they are a legit playoff team any consideration of moving the Sedins is off the table. However, if the decision is reached that we are not, then everything needs to be on the table if it is in the long terms interests of the team.
