Post-Game Talk: It's not Millertime: 5-4 Canucks

[DL44]

Jesus Christ...just finished watching on PVR where the last 2 minutes were cut off.... Took a deeeep breath and opened the iPad to find out the final score and.... jubilation.. Take the 2 and run..
Skaters looked great.. Loosely goosey in our zone.

Crazy game... Miller has to shine his horseshoes... Brutal Gordon goal. He'll come around.

oh.. And I think Horvat needs to get down to Jr. here... He's simply not NHL caliber yet.

We're somehow 13-6 with a negative goal differential. There are reasons the team is being questioned.

Our record isn't sustainable without an improvement in play moving forward.

I like to think our average goal differential isnt sustainable if we keep winning.

But really.. I'm not concerned about the differential when you consider the two games that are swinging the stat.

 

[keslerbomb]

we need to bring back bubongo

 

[BeardedCanuck]

Not a pretty win at all but I'd rather barely beat the Oilers and have Oilers management employed so the Oilers are always horrible.

 

[Barney Gumble]

Yes, obviously. But I think we all know the player he was last year isn't the player he truly is.

Last year was hardly the only season where he had played awful defensively. Could overlook those deficiences when he was putting up strong offensive numbers.

 

[Wilch]

But really.. I'm not concerned about the differential when you consider the two games that are swinging the stat.

Good teams will have good goal differentials.

They minimize the number of blowouts against, and maximize the number of blowouts for.

Playoff teams will generally sport a +20 differential over 82 games, and high end contenders will be anywhere from +40 to +60.

 

[Edo]

Only to Canuck fans does Bieksa really have value at this point.

Kevin Bieksa definitely has value. We'd get a first + prospect/picks for him. We've seen him enough over the years to realize how frustrating it would be to play against the guy. Clearly, he's frustrating to watch on your own team, but the positives outweigh any negatives.

We need more Bieksa's on the back-end. It would be the most vanilla defensive unit hockey has ever seen.

 

[Bleach Clean]

We're somehow 13-6 with a negative goal differential. There are reasons the team is being questioned.

Our record isn't sustainable without an improvement in play moving forward.

That's what people are saying. It's not that they haven't started well. They clearly have. But people are trying to read the tea leaves to see if it will continue... That's the critique. Based on what we've seen, if they don't improve defensively, we should expect a dip in performance.

And really, caution should be on the forefront for this team. They were 8th overall in the league by game 43~ last year. Then the wheels fell off. How can one not be cautious? It's called having a long-term memory.

Still, I'm glad they are pushing for the playoffs. That's what I want.

 

[IntangiBo]

https://twitter.com/OilCountryD

The fact that half of these so far are against us makes me so happy.

Swarm!!

 

[Rotting Corpse*]

Kevin Bieksa definitely has value. We'd get a first + prospect/picks for him.

Based on what?

Name me a comparable trade where this has happened.

 

[Pip]

Kevin Bieksa definitely has value. We'd get a first + prospect/picks for him. We've seen him enough over the years to realize how frustrating it would be to play against the guy. Clearly, he's frustrating to watch on your own team, but the positives outweigh any negatives.

We need more Bieksa's on the back-end. It would be the most vanilla defensive unit hockey has ever seen.

Bieksa has been a bit better lately, but had been absolute trash for most of this season. He has no value

 

[Shareefruck]

Kevin Bieksa definitely has value. We'd get a first + prospect/picks for him. We've seen him enough over the years to realize how frustrating it would be to play against the guy. Clearly, he's frustrating to watch on your own team, but the positives outweigh any negatives.

We need more Bieksa's on the back-end. It would be the most vanilla defensive unit hockey has ever seen.

Bieksa can fight and puts a tough snarl on his face, but in terms of on ice play, he's pretty vanilla himself. This seems to be a pretty common misconception of him, IMO. Even at the best of times, when he's making smart aggressive pinches, playing well defensively, standing up for guys and showing heart/clutchness, he's never shown signs of being a physical/mean, crease-clearing defenseman or anything like that.

He can be a solid player, but we definitely do not need MORE Bieksa's on this team, IMO. In fact, I think I would rather have more of anyone else besides Sbisa.

 

[IntangiBo]

We're somehow 13-6 with a negative goal differential. There are reasons the team is being questioned.

Our record isn't sustainable without an improvement in play moving forward.

The 'somehow' isn't actually all that difficult to get.

 

[IntangiBo]

Good teams will have good goal differentials.

Like the Ducks! And Sharks, Avs and Stars, all teams better than the Canucks.

 

[Orca Smash]

The reason they've been entertaining is because the defense has been so lousy. This sort of fire wagon hockey is definitely more exciting but probably won't lead to long term success in this league.

Oh yeah, and:



Enjoy.

Well also the fact we have been scoring in most games.

Our D was dreadful last year and it was pretty tough to watch when we also could not score last season.

 

[Ernie]

The +2 includes shootout wins, so they're actually even overall in terms of GF/GA which is 16th in the league. At 5-on-5 they're a -9 which is 4th worst in the league.

That's mostly just bad luck / bad goaltending. Possession numbers are just a nudge above 50%.

But they're also 10th overall for possession in even strength score close situations.

The blowouts suck but it's not like the Canucks have been getting dominated on the ice. They're just a tiny bit above average this season.

If you want to see a really lucky team, bend your gaze to the Flames. The good news is they've probably played themselves out of McDavid / Eichel contention.

 

[Pip]

Our record is especially impressive considering that we are getting not so good goaltending

Pretty soft schedule (or at least it feels that way)

 

[MS]

The +2 includes shootout wins, so they're actually even overall in terms of GF/GA which is 16th in the league. At 5-on-5 they're a -9 which is 4th worst in the league.

Yeah, I was looking at numbers which didn't include tonight's game, which out us at -1. We're now even.

Based on what?

Name me a comparable trade where this has happened.

Bieksa has been a bit better lately, but had been absolute trash for most of this season. He has no value

I think you'd be shocked about Bieksa's trade value around the league. Rightly or wrongly, he has a big-time reputation as a character leader and a quality player, and is on a very friendly contract. I'd have little doubt we'd get back a #1 pick and a good prospect for him.

But I don't think he has any intention of leaving Vancouver and I don't think we have any intention of trading him. He's too important to the leadership group here and as much as I don't like his play this season I don't think moving him would be good for the franchise.

The 'somehow' isn't actually all that difficult to get.

Like the Ducks! And Sharks, Avs and Stars, all teams better than the Canucks.

Or like the 11-12 Wild or 13-14 Leafs?

Teams can get lucky and post a record exceeding their play for short stretches but over the long haul it evens out. And it will for us if we don't make improvements.

The good news is that this lucky stretch of results has put us in a good position to make the playoffs if we can build on it. Hopefully we get better.

 

[Zaddy91]

Bieksa's been more than casual this season

Bieskas done too slow.

Hes eating up tanevs money

 

[Addison Rae]

The Canucks are nothing like the 11/12 Wild or 13/14 Leafs. The Canucks are an above average possession team, those teams were god awful, I'm talking 08/09 Oilers bad.

What's the team PDO looking like?

 

[Pip]

I think the positive views regarding Bieksa around the league are mostly from fans and the media who don't see him much. But who knows, there's definitely GMs that overvalue grit and what not (probably our own). He's not exactly that young either.

His value to this team is worth whatever crap we would get in a trade from him.

 

[IntangiBo]

Or like the 11-12 Wild or 13-14 Leafs?

Teams can get lucky and post a record exceeding their play for short stretches but over the long haul it evens out. And it will for us if we don't make improvements.

For a team with as many personnel changes and a complete coaching/GM overhaul, the lucky factor you are touting doesn't mean much to me. Now if we'd won 10 games because of ridiculous goaltending you'd be onto something. Improvements are pretty much the mantra of every NHL team, nobody is all that excited about anything 20 games in. That of course is just the opinion of a non-GM.

 

[IntangiBo]

I think the positive views regarding Bieksa around the league are mostly from fans and the media who don't see him much. But who knows, there's definitely GMs that overvalue grit and what not (probably our own). He's not exactly that young either.

I have no idea why anyone thinks they know Bieksa's trade value unless it's based solely on Donald S Cherry touting Bieska as a superhero from small town Ontario. If it was Biesksov or LaBieksette, it would be a hilariously different story. Spot picking, undersized and inconsistent, right Grapes?

 

[MS]

The Canucks are nothing like the 11/12 Wild or 13/14 Leafs. The Canucks are an above average possession team, those teams were god awful, I'm talking 08/09 Oilers bad.

What's the team PDO looking like?

We're 10-0 in one-goal games (removing EN goals) and 4-0 in OT. We've dodged two bullets on late tying goals.

A quarter of the way through the season, we've lost only 5 man games to injury/suspension amongst our 11 most important players (top 6/top 4/#1).

If you think we haven't been lucky, your head is in the sand.

Out possession numbers are pretty solid but it's hard to get a read given some weird games like the Dallas game in particular. And we've also had a pretty damned soft schedule.

 

[Addison Rae]

We're 10-0 in one-goal games (removing EN goals) and 4-0 in OT. We've dodged two bullets on late tying goals.

A quarter of the way through the season, we've lost only 5 man games to injury/suspension amongst our 11 most important players (top 6/top 4/#1).

If you think we haven't been lucky, your head is in the sand.

Out possession numbers are pretty solid but it's hard to get a read given some weird games like the Dallas game in particular. And we've also had a pretty damned soft schedule.

Believe me I don't think we're as good as our record indicated either. All I suggested was that the Toronto and Minny comparison is ludicrous, we literally have nothing in common with those teams.

Analytically speaking the Canucks seem pretty sound right now.

 

[MS]

Believe me I don't think we're as good as our record indicated either. All I suggested was that the Toronto and Minny comparison is ludicrous, we literally have nothing in common with those teams.

Analytically speaking the Canucks seem pretty sound right now.

I recognize that it was a bit of an exaggerated comparison, but it was to make a point to someone who seemed completely unconcerned about our goal differential.

We should probably be a 10-9 or 11-8 team right now. 13-6 ... yeah, we haven't been that good.