What a year to not use your backup goaltender to guarantee 4th pick in the 2018 amateur NHL draft.
The reality is because Travis Green has been using a legitimate starting goaltender in Jakob Markstrom, who has no future with the Vancouver Canucks because of Thatcher Demko, and has no trade value, the Canucks have moved up to the 6th position in the draft.
What the 6th position guarantees the Canucks is falling 3 spots to the... number 9 drafting spot.
They'll have a 4% chance of getting First Overall - which means it's not happening. That's come and gone. Two weeks ago they were tied for last place - FIRST in the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes and guaranteed a really good player in 4th overall. They couldn't fall any further than 4th. That was wrapped up. But then... they ran the table with wins, and completed the most horrific season in the almost 50 years of franchise history. It couldn't have gone worse than this year. No, really, it couldn't have gone worse. They embarrassed themselves from the beginning to the end and their reward is -- no draft help!
They destroyed an entire year in the last 2 weeks of the season. They were going to get help in the NHL draft. They poured gas on that notion, lit the match, chucked it, stepped back, and laughed as the fire lit the sky.
This one's for you fans!
Travis Green played the living shit out of Markstrom and Edler (30 minutes per night).
Oh? You can't tell players to stop playing? Oh sure. You can't. I agree.
But you can play the backup goalie and ice the hot goalie.
And you can take your veteran Ds and park them. Play your rookies 20 minutes per night on forward and on D - dump those mistake laden rookies on the ice 30 minutes per night. Get the loss.
But that's not what Green did. He played the veterans. He wanted that win!!
And viola! No soup for you!
And the GM just stood by and watched the tire fire.
Picking 9.
This is how you end up with the 20 year hamster wheel plan.
This is how you get the Calgary Flames. Or the Montreal Canadiens.
The Canucks don't have enough talent in the talent pool to get them into the playoffs with a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
And the Canucks have too much young talent now to get any further help from the NHL draft.
It's not the lottery you game.
It's the GUARANTEED SPOT that you game.
That's all the NHL has left bad teams to do. Get your guaranteed 4th pick or 5th pick.
And you've got to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. And there's nothing you can do about it.
The odds are stacked against rebuilding teams.
So you see the same teams taking a run at the Stanley Cup year after year with one or two superstars.
And then you see the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Montreal Candiens and Carolina Hurricanes in the eternal hamster wheel of rebuilding.
Can't get low enough to get help.
Can't get into the playoffs.
Hockey doldrums. Sails slack. No wind. Just sitting there adrift in the Sea of Mediocrity.
The Canucks need help on the blueline.
They need help at center.
But they're not going to get it now.
Jim Benning had to tell Green that he was playing the backup Anders Nilsson. It was crucial the Canucks picked high this year. Absolutely critical. Because there's enough talent coming to bump them into the Hamster Wheel.
The Hockey Gods shined upon Vancouver in the year of Rasmus Dahlin. They sent injuries galore - they derailed the rebuild on the fly (for 3 years now) and said, nope, you finish as low as you can, and get help.
Forget the lottery. That's a fool's game.
But at the Number 4 spot - you could get a player.
At the Number 9 spot which is where the odds say Vancouver will pick - they're going to get a nothing burger.
They're easily going to pass Chicago and Montreal now and move into that Number 6 spot.
And so next year they could get real close to a playoff spot.
Boeser, Horvat and if Peterrson is as advertised, will be enough to get them real close.
But again, that leaves them on the hamster wheel.
Not good enough and no help coming. Nothing in the system.
As a management team you have to be SOOOOO careful to avoid what the Canucks just did.
They really needed another top 5 pick. And then hope and pray they turn out.
Now what happens is the young stars you have age out waiting for help... and it comes and goes.
So, you're looking at year 70 now for the Vancouver Canucks to take a run at the Stanley Cup.
They are solidly making a case as the Chicago Cubs of the NHL.
Loveable losers.
You can't help but laugh at these guys. They can't lose right. They can't win. They're just there like a bad fart in an elevator going up and down aimlessly through the night.
Want more common sense thoughts on hockey?
http://www.michaelmunro.ca/Hockey_Sucks.html
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