Post-Game Talk: Preseason GM05| Vancouver Canucks lose to Edmonton Oilers in Shootout | 2-3 (Bains & Smith)

[VanJack]

Almost impossible to overstate how important these exhibition games have been for the likes of Lekkerimaki, D-Petey and Kudryavtsev......they played a lot and gained a ton of valuable experience.

Not much question they'll all be in the NHL one day......just a question of 'how soon'.

 

[tantalum]

I think people are being too hard on EP2. For him to make this deep into camp is great progression. He wasn't expected to be anywhere close to being in the NHL yet with a whole 8 North American games under his belt coming into the year. As pointed out he gets caught puck watching and has some skating to work on but I think his camp has been fantastic.

 

[JT Milker]

I’m not sure I could think of a weirder comparison than Bains and Gaunce. Polar opposite players.

 

[tantalum]

I’m not sure I could think of a weirder comparison than Bains and Gaunce. Polar opposite players.

I'd agree. Gaunce from what I've seen is a composed if vanilla player. I'd liken him more to what Aman is. Bubble guy who won't hurt you.

The right words aren't coming to me for Bains...the best I can do is Bains is, I guess, a sloppy player all over the ice.

 

[Bankerguy]

A guy like Gadjovich, who looked far worse & slower than Bains has this preseason when he left us, has gone on to play 40 games three years in a row. And most recently on a cup winning team.

Last season was the first year Zac Dalpe didn’t play a game in the NHL.

Karlsson is another internal example of a player better than those two.

Sometimes it’s just opportunity, luck, timing is my point.

But, I do agree neither of them are there yet. And once they’re down, that’s probably it for Karlsson and he’ll head back to Sweden. And Bains is getting up there in age to where it won’t be long until he’s considered nothing more than a AHL guy.

Especially hard for them given Lekkerimaki will be given preference if a scorer goes down, and Raty/Sasson, potentially Aman if he goes down have center ice call up priority.

maybe i'm just expecting too much but i feel that Bains creates a lot of unforced errors. This isnt something that is actually tracked but i track it. pass hits bains stick and it kind of bobbles 2 feet in front of him, and he has to then catch up to it to then make a play, well guess what, that bobble killed all his time and space. When he goes to dump the puck around for the other winger on the far side but the dump in is too soft - possession lost. I think he does a lot of untracked (not specifically a turnover) type errors that NHL regulars shouldnt do.

I think Karlsson could have a very good career in the SHL. he could go on to play for 8 years or so, making 100k - 200k Euro's per year. it would be nice to see him get called up to the NHL before that and score at least 1 nhl goal, or maybe even an assist. It would be a nice puck to bring back to Sweden.

 

[Peen]

maybe i'm just expecting too much but i feel that Bains creates a lot of unforced errors. This isnt something that is actually tracked but i track it. pass hits bains stick and it kind of bobbles 2 feet in front of him, and he has to then catch up to it to then make a play, well guess what, that bobble killed all his time and space. When he goes to dump the puck around for the other winger on the far side but the dump in is too soft - possession lost. I think he does a lot of untracked (not specifically a turnover) type errors that NHL regulars shouldnt do.

I think Karlsson could have a very good career in the SHL. he could go on to play for 8 years or so, making 100k - 200k Euro's per year. it would be nice to see him get called up to the NHL before that and score at least 1 nhl goal, or maybe even an assist. It would be a nice puck to bring back to Sweden.

Oh I agree with all the Bains deficiencies. I think he’s looked faster this pre-season, but I also agree that he’s still too error prone at NHL game speed and once he’s behind the play, it never seems like he can catch up. He just chases, which is why I think his raw shot metrics were so bad at the NHL level.

But he’s also taken some pretty big leaps 3 years in a row, and the three biggest attribute deficiencies were speed, his shot, and his overall conditioning/strength. Haven’t seen him get into shooting spots much to see if it’s still a total muffin but he does look a bit quicker and a bit more conditioned and strong.

Could just be that he needs NHL reps somewhere else to put it together with a lot or growing pains. To me it doesn’t look like he has “it”. But you never know.