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Post-Game Talk: Oilers def. Canucks in season opener, 5-3 (Pettersson, Miller, Kuzmenko)

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Peen said:
I say this in a nice way but the problem for most people is that they can’t assess their own teams with the same objectivity they assess others with. That’s how every fanbase talks themselves into their team doing better than what they usually do. Hell, if you look at the perceived pessimistic HFVan regular season projections, the team has consistently underperformed them for the past seven years sans 19-20 when they finished as a bubble team (17th) and met expectations.

Huberdeau and Kadri probably won’t repeat their production, no. But they’ve added Weegar and still have an elite goaltender and good depth at goalie.

The canucks weren’t good at getting the puck quick up the ice last year under BB. Rutherford has commented as such.

I don’t agree that Vegas defense is worse than ours. I think that’s a really bad take. Obviously there are some large variables in terms of what their winger depth and how Thompson can produce. If he’s below average, you wonder if they’ll be able to outscore teams consistently.

With Edmonton, again, you’re talking about a forward group that outperformed ours and still added Holloway and Kane since the start of last year. Their PP will be better with 97 than ours - I think that is indisputable. I think Campbell is a horribly risky bet. He seems fragile, and I think Edmonton media believes his lowest of lows will be less frequent & not as low as Smith’s but Smith was quietly consistently average last season. Campbell had some BAD stretches. And yeah, the awful defense.

Anyways, I think you’re still also mishearing what Drance has said. like when you say “you don’t think they are far off x and y” - Drance agrees with you. I don’t think any media member thinks this division has a Colorado. I think most really like Calgary, but after that, the disparity on paper between EDM/VGK/VAN/LA seems to be relatively minimal. Also have to keep in mind that there are also 5 teams in the central div that think they’re making the playoffs and that means the wildcard spots will be a dogfight.

Like when I see people say that Van is comfortably better than x and will finish in y, usually that’s some sort of combination of belief that a lot of the following will go right in no order

1. OEL-Myers having their best individual/pairing output seasons in years will sustain
2. Schenn will sustain his play
(these are all 30+ D with a lot of miles)
3. Hughes makes another leap
4. Depth is better
5. Demko will be vezina tier or top five at worst.
6. Boeser will bounce back
7. Petey is getting ~100 points
8. Miller continues to be above PPG
9. PP operates around a top five level
10. Hog/Podz make leaps.
11. Kuzmenko surprises (although expectations are now high)
12. Garland adds more consistency to his game
13. Pearson plays like he did last year instead of continuing his previous 3-5 year trend where he plays well for a long stretch and then looks awful for other long stretches.
14. Mikheyev continues to offer offensive production close to his outputs from last year and that his lines don’t tank offensively with him (as has historically been the case).
15. PK isn’t historically bad.
16. Health
17. BB continues to be one of the best regular season coaches in the NHL
18. Team culture on/off the ice improves
19. Ryp is the goodest of boys (confirmed, can mark this one off the list)

Reality is that not everything will go the way people sell themselves on it going. Usually it’s somewhere in the middle. Some people stagnate, some people improve, some get worse, some injuries happen, some pucks bounce the way you want them to.

Is there a world where we win the division after CGY and the other teams have some of the above go against them and we hit on a majority? Sure. I just wouldn’t bet on that being likely.

I think we’ll be in that 14-19 range.
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See I like well thought out posts like this :)

When I say "better" I should've clarified that their D did not improve, thus I am not sure you can say they have a better D.

Rutherford spoke about structure, but was very comfortable with the D itself, just needed more structure. "But Rutherford is also confident that, if every single thing goes their way, the blue line is secure enough to make it into May. “If Poolman stays healthy and our defence stays healthy, I believe the defence we have can get the job done to be a playoff team.”"

canucksarmy.com

Jim Rutherford on fixing the right side defence, Horvat contract talks, and setting a new course for the franchise

Canucks President of Hockey Ops Jim Rutherford is no rookie when it co...
canucksarmy.com canucksarmy.com

The Canucks depth, should Mikeyev, and Kuzmenko produce as expected, while improvements from Boeser and Podz seem likely because of natural progression, injuries aside, gives them as much depth as any in the division.

I am looking at them in a very practical way. I don't look at the team with rose colored glasses. I do see the flaws in the team for sure. The rest of the division is just as flawed. IMHO, I can see Wolf stepping into the Cgy net honestly if there is an injury to Marky or Vladar. Edmonton should get some improvement on their back end from both Bouchard and Broberg. Absolutely must have that for success. To me the Knights, Flames and Kings take a step back, while the Oilers should win the division. I do think the Canucks can win it, and we should see more stability from the team over a regular schedule, non interrupted season which allows them to get in a rythym.
 
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I’ve maintained OEL is a massive injury risk that will probably blow-up at some point this season, but even I though he’d make it at least a bit further along than this.
 
Burke's Evil Spirit said:
Man...with the Canucks beat-up blueline, McDavid raring to go, and Harnaryan on the call, this has the ingredients to be a truly awful national broadcast.
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I don’t mind him, and I don’t mind him with Cassie Campbell. It sounds like a hockey nerd and a “don’tcha know” sounding kinda woman together. It’s pretty much exactly what I imagine Americans think of us. 😆
 
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theoriginalBCF said:
Missing Tyler Myers only... so beat up. The way most treat Myers you'd think this was a blessing instead.
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"Most" fans can't separate Myers from his contract. He's been a passable #3, and a solid #4 defenseman in his time as a Canuck.

Missing your 3rd and 4th defensemen (Dermott) when you're already thin on the blueline is a recipe for disaster.
 
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Vector said:
The good news is sometimes the Oilers, apart from McDavid and Draisaitl, just crap all over themselves and turn easily winnable games into losses. Maybe this is one of those games!
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mike smith isn't around any-- oh my god he is still playing for the oilers???????????
 
Burke's Evil Spirit said:
"Most" fans can't separate Myers from his contract. He's been a passable #3, and a solid #4 defenseman in his time as a Canuck.

Missing your 3rd and 4th defensemen (Dermott) when you're already thin on the blueline is a recipe for disaster.
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That’s just not true though. He’s only been a passable #3 in his most recent season. The two prior, it wasn’t good.

The Canucks ran Edler - Stecher / Hughes - Tanev / Fantenberg - Myers in year one. Myers played like a 4.5 that year. He had a terrible partner but he also looked awful in the bubble playoffs, by eye-test or analytics. That isn’t revisionist.

He was AWFUL all of the 2021 season. Edler - Schmidt / Hughes - Hamonic / revolving door - Myers. Again, played with a revolving door of garbage like Juolevi and Benn. But he played like a bottom pair defenseman.

2021-2022, he was pretty good for the majority of the season - close to the value of his contract. Didn’t seem to be getting beat as much, at times looked more competent defensively than OEL, and the pairing held up quite well in hard minutes - the hardest minutes Myers has played in a long ass time.

We can maybe look back at things now and say that a bad coach and bad partners influenced those defensive results he had previously, and I would probably agree, but that doesn’t change his previous performance
 
Burke's Evil Spirit said:
"Most" fans can't separate Myers from his contract. He's been a passable #3, and a solid #4 defenseman in his time as a Canuck.

Missing your 3rd and 4th defensemen (Dermott) when you're already thin on the blueline is a recipe for disaster.
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Dermott is the player I think could be the key to a successful 3rd pairing. I really do. Bottom line the Defense isn't as bad as you all makre it out to be. The Canucks top 3 lines should shred the Oilers bottom 2 pairings. Their D sucks
 
Myers tanks every pairing he's on. Everyone he's stuck with has to compromise their own play to make it work or the pairing becomes a trainwreck. Whatever you think he is, subtract a chunk from that for making the pairing less than the sum of its parts.

I would love to see OEL with an actually good partner who can play a stabilizing role for him instead of the opposite and getting Hutton'd for his entire time here.
 
Sportsnet panel ready to give Matt Murray the Vezina after 1 period. Oh hockey season - how I missed…..most of you. :laugh:

I have my son’s hockey practice I have to leave for pretty much right when the game starts, so I’ll be PVRing and watching when I get home. Go Canucks Go!
 
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