srs lol i think theres less turnover in my beer league

It's risky tho, for short term success. However, the way the Canucks are playing against montreal, even markstrom wouldnt be able to do much. Maybe lose less on the score board lol. Benning would have had no problem giving Marky nmc and ntc if he decided to go with him over Demko, but it makes no sense with the window of our team. This season and next is whatever, but the following year after is when they'll have a legit chance of competing. Then we pray markstrom stays healthy and is still in his prime, cuz if he's injured again or starting to decline then the Canucks would be fucked with anchor goalie contract and gotta overpay fa goalie to not waste the prime window opportunity. Rather lose now then later when it matters. Not like the Canucks will genuinely have a chance to beat legit teams like tampa if they somehow made it through into the finals lmao

Petey and Hughes are both struggling, maybe it's a blessing in disguise for upcoming contract. They'll still be paid, but the rfa leverage on top of their current performances will definitely help the team more, probably slightly cheaper than barzals contract if they're going with a bridge deal.

This post was edited by Secksii on Feb 3 2021 07:01am

Just getting ugly.

As long as Benning sticks to his plan, idc if they suck shit this year and next. I expected them to be 6th, anything higher is a win imo. It's shitty the draft doesn't seem deep or high end this year.

Losing toffoli and him scoring against us 8 times sucks, but at the same time, we got Hoglander who is compared to some superstars in the league for the most assists resulting in goals, winning board battles, etc. As a damn rookie lol. He wouldn't be in the roster or be on a limited 3rd/4th line role holding back his development. Otherwise toffoli hasn't been that great against other teams, perhaps he would have about 5 goals or so with the canucks, but scoring goals isn't the problem atm. It's the insane amount of turnovers and gifting ez chances to other teams.

It's definitely an off year with jt Miller struggling to be the glue that he was last season, and Petey not being his usual self. Hughes is still racking up points, but he did that last season without as much turnovers. This season he's struggling hard and turning the puck over a lot. It's gonna be interesting if Benning decides to hire a different coach and not extend green, but I feel like it's more on the players rather than coaching. The amount of goals the Canucks scored are pretty similar to last seasons pace, however goaltending is the biggest difference as expected. The defense got a lot better on paper, but at the same time players aren't performing too well. I don't think having stecher would've made much difference. The team showed that they can be really good like last season, when they destroyed the Jets last week. So the talent and team is still there, but the players arent performing to their standards on most nights. I think it's also in part of not having enough time to practice like other teams, and new faces not adjusted yet. On top of the season being condensed. Other teams have had rests and time to practice etc. Like the Canucks had doubled amount of games played than the flames at one point lol. They're basically practicing in live games and it's definitely showing

I'm hoping Benning doesnt get desperate and make more mistakes for short term success from the negative pressure he gets from the media and fans. Be shitty now while it doesn't matter, and be good when the team should be set to be legit

This post was edited by Secksii on Feb 4 2021 10:57pm

boys got worked tnite eh

Matthews blowing by Miller made me sad.

Idk wtf is up with him this season.

He used to be one of the best 200 foot wingers in the league. Now he is getting tuned.

wish I could be as positive as you Secksii but this has all the makings of the same flash-in-the-pan the Oilers had in 2017. the team has no depth, coaching provides little structure, veterans who were brought to "lead" won't show up most games, most blueliners can't defend and goaltending is nowhere good enough to save the dogshit play most nights. oh, and doesn't help Virtanen has been a lost cause for years yet not traded when he had value. can't even focus on Gaudette also being a complete sieve.

Benning WILL get desperate because his ass is on the line - the losses are embarrassing enough that the slave-driving ownership will take note. He let core pieces walk after a good playoff run and now the team is primed for a Top 3 pick.

Drafting is not a problem but so many other things are.

Terrible contracts and poor asset management being at the top of the list. I like the building blocks this team has but at some point the pieces need to fit together.

I knew this year would be a sacrifice as the sins of some terrible contracts have to be paid for but this is more painful than I thought it would be.

The problem with Virtanen is his physical base and skating ability make it very difficult to give up on him.

The fact Hoglander fits in better in the top 6 at the age of 20 after just coming to North America shows how terrible Virtanens hockey IQ is.

I think that is the final straw for Virtanen. He has the size and speed but as I have said before he is dumb as rock in term of hockey IQ. He is just not going to get it, which is a real shame because it is such a waste of raw physical talent.


A good ownership group will fire a GM before he makes desperate moves to save his job. I don't think this ownership group is smart enough to do that.


I would like Benning to stay on because he is great at the drafting and development side of things but he is a shitty negotiator and has poor asset management skills.

That being said I still believe Benning was right to let Tanev, Markstrom, Stecher and Toffoli walk. What pisses me off is we would have been able to keep those players if it was not for a slough of other contractual blunders he made in the first place.

/e One thing you have to consider is Canadian markets are at a disadvantage signing free agents due to higher levels of taxation. It is not exactly a level playing field when B.C has a 20% tax rate on income over 200k and some states such as Florida have no state income tax.

In the long run I think that needs to be addressed. It is an unfair advantage in the cap era. I will give Benning a bit of leeway due to that. He is starting behind the eight ball in terms of contract negotiations are free agent signings.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Feb 4 2021 11:36pm

I gotta disagree, the vets are huge to this young team. Not comparable with the vets Oilers had.

Right now, the vets are carrying this team and doing their part. It's the players that we expected to improve aren't improving, rather regressed and just not their usual self.

Beagle has been phenomenal since day 1 of his contract, no doubt he's an overpaid 4c, but he has been playing like 3C since our depth doesn't have a good 3C to replace him. He was not brought into score 30pts, people need to understand this.
He is there to take the hard minutes whenever Horvat is resting, win faceoffs, PK, and he clicks well with Motte. He isn't going to outplay MacKinnon or McDavid, but he will tire them out after winning the faceoffs, even if they're being hemmed in their own zone. Opposed to Gaudette straight up losing the draw, and they are setting up to score against with full of stamina.

Sutter has been put back into 3C since Gaudette isn't ready to play in the NHL level with his 2 way game. The bottom 6 looked a lot more stable since, and surprisingly the bottom 6 are doing well opposed to the last seasons.

Edler & Schmidt is putting up great defensive stats despite how much of a shitshow our defense is. Myers is looking great point wise as people wanted, but his defensive stats are atrocious. Benn stablized the backend more, when Green gave into letting him play his off hand side.

Losing vets like tanev/marky are already huge part of calgary, hanafin putting up elite defensive numbers with tanev. Marky being god etc.

Right now, it's the young guys that are struggling the most. Imagine if the team didn't have these vets holding down the fort, instead MORE young guys like Gaudette, Virtanen, Juolevi, MacEwen, Rathbone, Chatfield etc. thrown in there instead. We'd be where Ottawa is at, probably a lot worse lol. That's more closer to the edmonton model

Coaching wise they could use a lot of work, but no one complained last season. Green can't force players to do their part, only guide them what they need to do to win. When they do it, they look strong and comeptitive like last season, Jets win was a great example. The problem is they don't show up consistently, especially when they make a bad turn over and start to panic, with "here we go again" mentality. Only Hoglander seems to be immune to it, he fights for the puck like his life depends on it, petey used to do this, but not this season for some reason.