Post-Game Talk: Vancouver Millionaires vs. Detroit Winged Wheelers - We Still Suck

[jigsaw99]

tanev-ballard was so good..

**** AV

 

[keslerburrows]

We are 2 points from being in 9th. Yeah.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Hamhuis - Garrison
Edler - Bieksa (Give it time)
Ballard - Tanev

Powerplay

Sedin - Sedin - Kassian/Higgins
Edler/Tanev - Garrison

Is it really that hard, AV?

 

[biturbo19]

Based on what? Garrison and Hamhuis were out for one lucky goal against out there today in that 1st period. Edler played with Bieksa and that was horrible. Tanev with Alberts the same. Bieksa was on the ice for 3GA, he should be sheltered right now rather than shutting guys down with Hamhuis.

Ballard - Tanev is a whatever pairing. They can mop up the super easy minutes but that's a misuse of Tanev's talents while putting the other 4 guys in an unnecessarily tough position. They also don't generate any offense despite playing those easy minutes which is a major downside.

If you can move Tanev into Top 4 and use Bieksa to generate offense ala Ehrhoff in 09-10 then you do it.

It's about getting the most out of the unit as a whole.

Hamhuis-Garrison has been okay, yes. But we've seen time and again that Bieksa is a trainwreck without the right partner. And he's absolutely nothing like Ehrhoff in terms of generating offense like that. If you put Bieksa out there and ask him to play an 'offensive role like Ehrhoff' he's going to go off the rails completely defensively, and he just doesn't have the natural offensive/puck moving gifts that a guy like Ehrhoff does.

Edler-Tanev has looked okay-ish as well, but it's asking a lot of Tanev at this point to play those minutes every night, and even with Tanev, Edler has still been largely a mess and Tanev has started to show signs of struggling a bit when burdened with that load. Why not use our $4.6M 'defensive rock' and veteran that we splurged on in the offseason to play the role?

Alternatively, you put people with the players they've shown chemistry with, find out if your '2nd pairing' guys can play together...and if they can, you get 1)a top pairing with HamJuice that has shown great chemistry and when clicking, is easily superior to Hamhuis-Garrison. 2)a way of getting Edler to look like a $5M defenceman and maximize the value we get out of our 'steadying influence' acquisition. 3)a 3rd pairing that you don't have to worry about.

It makes massively more sense to go with the potential of 3 solid pairings, as opposed to 2 'okay' pairings and a cluster**** of leftovers for the bottom group. You can swap Ballard/Barker/Alberts/Bieksa around all you want on that bottom-pairing...but every single combination thereof is likely to be a disaster...and we've seen evidence of a lot of those combinations sucking already this year. And it's pretty clear that Edler+Bieksa isn't a viable pairing.

 

[me2]

So you think Visnosky and a Goc/Talbot or Boyle would be cheap?

Compared to Ribiero, Roy, Pominville or Gaborik.

 

[Grumbler]

Why does Bieksa still thinks they played well in the post game interview...

 

[Samzilla]

At least the Whitecaps look like a real good team this year.

 

[orcatown]

It's funny...after all these years of ridiculing the Flames and watching them flounder around with no quality depth down the middle, you'd think Canucks fans would recognize how extremely important that position is in having a successful team.

We have a 1st line Center and a 4th line Center...absolutely nothing in between right now. You can't just ignore the fact our middle-6 is absolutely neutered by lack of quality natural centers.


We can blame AV all we want (and he certainly deserves a significant heap of the blame for the way this team is playing, particularly the PP and some of the personnel decisions like the d-pairings)...but ultimately, our roster is just garbage right now. All the great complementary wingers in the world don't mean much when you have no 2nd or 3rd line center to anchor those lines.

This is the gist of it. don't know if I would say we are garbage but having good centers is critical and we just don't. Agree that what have is a 1st and 4th. Kesler has got banged up, Malhotra ultimately was a bust after the eye injury and this screwed up what Gillis had tired to put together. Bad luck as much as bad planning

 

[vanuck]

It was nice to see them win 7-4 against the Preds, but for me this was the real test of whether they'd gotten back to playing well. DET is just a superior team when you consider coaching.

 

[BoHorvatFan]

It was nice to see them win 7-4 against the Preds, but for me this was the real test of whether they'd gotten back to playing well. DET is just a superior team when you consider coaching.

Some of us were concerned with the fact we almost blew that game against the Preds and let them within 1 goal with 4 minutes left. We almost lost that lead and possibly that game, even when we score 7 goals and win there are still issues with this team.

 

[deadinthewater]

It was nice to see them win 7-4 against the Preds, but for me this was the real test of whether they'd gotten back to playing well. DET is just a superior team when you consider coaching.

Games like this just crush what little hope you hold onto for this team.

 

[vanuck]

Some of us were concerned with the fact we almost blew that game against the Preds and let them within 1 goal with 4 minutes left. We almost lost that lead and possibly that game, even when we score 7 goals and win there are still issues with this team.

Yep. It was fun to see those shots go in on Rinne but I wasn't convinced, especially after we let them make it 5-4. Which is why this game was so important. Alas...

Games like this just crush what little hope you hold onto for this team.

It's strange. I think we're a better team than them in terms of personnel. But the team play isn't there.

 

[deadinthewater]

It's strange. I think we're a better team than them in terms of personnel. But the team play isn't there.

Yeah. I don't think they were dominating the play by any stretch (Datsyuk aside) -- it was sort of meh on both sides, and then DET had some quick strikes in the third while Luongo didn't play very well. Our third line was a fourth line tonight, and Ebbett as a 2C is just comical at this point. I guess the only lines we can really critique are the first and second -- as they were the only ones we could expect or hope to score.

 

[WinterEmpire]

At least the Whitecaps look like a real good team this year.

Whitecaps, Lions, Mariners, Seahawks... everyone has more promise than the Canucks right now.

 

[604]

This game was very frustrating...really reminded me of the Boston SCF series. We got beat badly the last time we played and we come back with the exact same plan expecting a different result and get beat the exact same way again...very frustrating but that's really our coaches MO.

We need a scoring centre whether Kesler comes back at 100% or not, because we need a guy to run the 2nd PP. Might as well go get one. Give up whatever futures it takes to get Rebeiro or Roy and for god sakes five AV!

Games like this don't have me giving up on the team, it just makes it so clear where we need to improve and I don't want to be one of those dumb teams who refuse to pay what it costs to address their glaring need (we're like all the team's that refuse to pay a 1st + top prospect for a starting goalie except our issue is 2nd offensive centre).

 

[Grumbler]

Lets face it guys its time for rebuild. This team is done. 2011 was their best chance. I want to believe but now with the injuries...

 

[Canucks LB]

Lets face it guys its time for rebuild. This team is done. 2011 was their best chance. I want to believe but now with the injuries...

We have another 2 year window, when the sedins contract ends, so does our window.

 

[BoHorvatFan]

Lets face it guys its time for rebuild. This team is done. 2011 was their best chance. I want to believe but now with the injuries...

So who do we trade?

Burrows? can't he's here for life.

Sedins? no chance.

Kesler? Can't.

Raymond? Worth a late second as a rental?

Hansen? cheap and good all around player, need him going forward.

Higgins? might get a third round pick.

Booth? hurt, nobody would want him at that price?

Ballard? See Booth.

Hamhuis? We'd be crazy to trade him.

Bieksa? Our only toughness on D.

Garrison? sure I'd trade him.

Luongo? clearly cant get much for him.

Edler? hmmm for the right off I would.



So how do we rebuild with all these guys we can't trade or won't get anything for?

 

[VanCityCanuck]

Fire av

 

[Royal Canuck]

Kind of happy I missed the game now.

 

[Jack Tripper]

at least we have the inevitable game-changing adjustment of barker dressing for alberts to look forward to next game...might even see him on the 1st unit pp as coaching staff enters the 'throw **** at the wall and see what sticks' mode

 

[Johnny Canucker]

Honestly we look like a cry baby fan base blaming the refs for every marginal call.


Lets face it, this team is not very good. It's a 500 hockey club. No better no worse.

 

[King of Anarchy]

We are 2 points from being in 9th. Yeah.

...and it's going to get much worse without Booth and Kesler in the lineup.. AGAIN.

 

[Jyrki]

...and it's going to get much worse without Booth and Kesler in the lineup.. AGAIN.

8-2-2

we'll be fine if we can keep spanking our division

 

[Johnny Canucker]

We are 2 points from being in 9th. Yeah.

If we didn't "hang on and beat Columbus in a shootout" we would be out of the playoffs. Deservedly so.
This team is just junk. Literally not good. Bringing in a center or whoever won't make a deli deference. After losing to Boston in the SCF something happened to this team. Heavvvvy decline since that day.