Hockey's not too complicated. It's not the NFL. There aren't massive amounts of schemes and data you can ream from them.
The Vancouver Canucks finished 23rd in scoring.
Doesn't get much more complicated than that.
They were shutout I think 9 or 10 times in 82 games. I'm not looking it up. I don't care. They led the league this year in being shutout as they did last year and the year before.
They can't score goals.
Why?
Centers. It's not complicated.
They don't have any.
There's a lot of bullshit from dorks in the social sphere and analytic dorks saying that their prized young blueliner Quinton Hughes will change that because of the power play.
To which I say: "Oh bullshit."
Hughes has a muffin of a shot. He's a defensive liability. Won't be near the power play as time goes on and I think he'll be headed towards Utica as will young Elias Pettersson, who weirdly, won the Calder Trophy, despite having 2 even strength goals in his final 28 games. No one in Sweden thought he was a center... thus, he played WING.
Look, centers drive offense.
And you can't rebuild until you get the big center iceman.
They ain't got it.
Take a gander at the roster.
What do you got at center?
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That's right a giant blank.
Bo Horvat? Winger. Third line center at best. Can't drive offense.
He hit his high water mark this year - 34 assists. That's, ummm, laughable as a "1st line center"
Elias Pettersson? 38 assists. That's, ummm, laughable as a "2nd / 1st line center"
Horvat is a winger. Pettersson is a winger who should be in the AHL and I expect will be sent down when it's apparent that NHL goalies have still got his number as they did in the final 30 games of the year.
Then what?
Brendan Sutter? Winger.
JT Miller? Winger.
Adam Gaudette? He's a center, for sure, but he hasn't played a year in the NHL. Can he carry the Canucks? I'm not sure he's ready or coach Travis Green is for that matter. I'd do it. But Green won't.
Jake Virtanen? A natural center but wasted under Green at any position.
Jay Beagle? lol. Ummm, a nice guy, as all of these people on the team are. There's no issues with these players not being really really nice people. They're just not centers.
So as you look at the team and say, Okay, where's the Brendan Morrison? Where's the Henrik Sedin (at 33)? And the answer you get is... there isn't one.
It's not a coincidence that the more they've depended on Horvat the more the team has failed.
That's not Horvat's fault. He's a very nice person. He's just not a center. He doesn't hit, doesn't fight, doesn't add much to an offense given his enormous ice time.
It is what it is.
Then you compound that with the glut of 4th line wingers they've signed and you just look at the team and shake your head.
If they had signed a Jason Spezza (even at his age) and made a play for another center... Okay, I might buy the playoff thing.
But folks, honestly, who are you or they kidding if you think they have a legitimate NHL roster here? Someone has to drive the offensive bus.
Ryan O'Reilly in St. Louis had 50 assists... and he wasn't considered a Top 10 center.
So are you thinking Horvat and Pettersson can each hit 60 assists? You think they can double their offensive output? That's what you're thinking?
Really? When was the last time you saw any athlete in any sport just "double" their offensive output. I'm sure it happens. Alex Burrows with the Sedins doubled his output. But man, you're really smoking some heavy pot if you think that happens everyday. Think about that for just a second.
You want Elias Pettersson and Bo Horvat to be 60 assist centers... Pettersson had 66 points in total. Horvat had 61 points.
WOW. Just WOW.
You're thinking they can each pop up to 85 point players eh? Just snap their fingers and become point per game players, just like that?
Hell, Horvat's been in the NHL for 6 years... he is what he is at this point. And Pettersson... the NHL figured this guy out. You're asking a lot for him to try and improve when he'll just be fighting to stay in the NHL.
They have a center in Gaudette.
Can some other players step in and "fill in admirably"? Sure. Pettersson can play there and add 25-30 assists, so can Horvat. But that's just so far off the mark of what an actual 1st line center can do it leaves them outgunned in every game.
Last year their 3rd and 4th lines were so abysmal it's hard to imagine it could get worse. I think it was marginally improved.
But wingers without centers are like tits on a bull. Sure, they're neat to look at -- but who's going to try and milk them?
The team as I see it
Brock Boeser - 1st line player.
So... that leaves about 5 spots open on the top 2 lines that you have to fill.
There's really only one way you address this issue - you get in the NHL draft in a big way.
You make a commitment to getting that 1st overall pick and getting that franchise center that you need to make a Stanley Cup happen.
Sure, you can get a 6' 230 pound consistent 40 goal scorer in Tarasenko in St. Louis and a red hot goalie and a giant of a team - as I said in my book you could -- and win a Stanley Cup but the surefire way is to get that big center and then build around it. And you don't have to get a red hot goalie to do it.
But right now this is a team just farting in the wind.
I like that they're bigger, and possibly tougher, but you start by drafting that, you don't sign that.
All the free agent signings said was, "I'm Jim Benning, and I can't draft."
The Millers and the kid from Calgary, whatever the hell his name was, you draft that.
And if Rod Brindamour says you suck, that means you don't sign that player. But Benning did... to a 4 year deal. I probably would have respected Brindamour.
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BC Lions
How many times have you seen a quarterback playing behind a terrific offensive line go somewhere else and stink?
Well, you're seeing it in BC with Mike Reilly that's for sure.
The guy stinks.
He's done. Fork him.
Maybe the worst starting quarterback for the BC Lions in 40+ years.
Travis Lulay on one knee was better than this Reilly kid.
Man does he hang on to the fucking ball too long. Then when he throws it - he's colour blind.
The guy sucks.
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Vancouver Whitecaps.
Bob
Des
Santos
or whatever the fuck his name is has no clue what he's doing.
If that wasn't obvious at his first press conference going 0 for July and being the worst team in a franchise history sure cinches it.
Did you check to see if the guy had any experience building a team with no money?
My understanding is he came from LA.
Wasn't LA a high-spending team?
So who the fuck hired this boner?
Carl Robinson is available from what I hear.
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