After 2 games it's hard to make full judgement on the 2019/20 team in Vancouver but a couple of things have come to light about this Canucks roster following a blanking by Calgary Flames in Calgary Saturday night.
1) They're really slow
2) They're weak at center ice
You can go through the Canucks roster and count on one hand the players with "very good" NHL speed.
1) Jake Virtanen
2) Bo Horvat (after 2 strides - Jake hits top speed with one stride effortlessly)
3) That's it. I can't think of anyone else with good speed on the Canucks roster. Tyler Myers maybe? In a straight line? He's not super quick but... he can get there?
Quinton Hughes, for all his media hype, is a pretty slow hockey player. He's easily caught in a straight line and is super easy to push off the puck or keep the puck away from.
Michael Ferland is average skater.
JT Miller isn't exactly fleet of foot.
Boeser is Okay, average.
Elias Pettersson looks to have lost a 1/2 step and he wasn't exactly a burner.
Sutter is slightly below average.
Troy Stecher is slightly above average.
Tyler Myers can go quickly but it takes awhile to get going. He looks nice skating though.
Beagle is average possibly.
Adam Gaudette is average.
Alexander Edler can get there - slightly above average. He's okay.
Jordie Benn - slightly below average, not bad for an old guy.
Chris Tanev - average.
Tanner Pearson - average.
Josh Leivo - gets there, not a burner, but average although looks laboured.
Tim Schaller - average.
Loui Eriksson - slightly below average.
So in short - there's a couple of guys with good speed on the roster.
Once again Jake Virtanen is looking at the guys around him and has to be laughing.
He's been on the team since 2015 and I'm pretty sure he thought he'd be surrounded by guys who could skate as good as him and play with him.
Nope.
If you're a Vancouver kid, drafted 6th overall by Vancouver, and you make the team as a 19 year old and light it up - then you get Willied not once but twice !! Then you see that game last night in Calgary he must just hang his head and cry.
There's Virtanen and some guys.
Oh sure, the coach will play Pettersson 20 minutes a night even though he's 32 games or something without an even strength goal - Horvat takes a twirl, no biggie, Quinton Hughes has done nothing is a -2 and gets on the top PP unit - why not? Brock Boeser is often injured and looks to have lost a step or two over the summer.
And Virtanen must look around at these clowns behind the bench, up in the management booth, and on the ice and on the bench, and just want to cry.
Virtanen wants to win a Stanley Cup in Vancouver.
But with what?
The clown behind the bench?
The clowns on the ice who were gifted ice time instead of earning it?
And now look at Pettersson. A complete disaster.
They're going to disaster Hughes next.
Both should have been in Utica.
It's Okay for Virtanen to go to Utica BUT NOT HUGHES OR PETTERSSON !!
It's a good old fashioned shit show.
A guy - Virtanen - drafted TO PLAY ON THE POWER PLAY !!
Never even given a chance.
What's Virtanen's big drafting piece?
What excited the scouts about Jake ?
HIS SHOT !!
Don't you think it might behoove someone in the organization after 5 years of him being in the organization to maybe feature the shot ?
TWO WORDS
Shit
Show
Shit Show
That's what's become apparent about this team.
Now for the CENTERS
That's easy.
There are none.
As I've said repeatedly Horvat is best suited on the wing or at best as a 3rd line center - a mucker and grinder - he's not a playmaker.
Pettersson is NOT a center - period, end of story, which is why he was drafted as a winger and used as a winger.
And so then what?
Miller ain't no center.
Beagle? Sutter sure as hell ain't a center.
Gaudette?
I've said this before and I'll say it again - you might as well put Jake at CENTER on the 1st line and let him go because you have nothing else there and nothing else to lose.
You've got Jake and some guys.
Boeser hopefully pulls out of his funk.
Boeser probably will put of the funk. But you'd like to see Jake with Boeser on one side and Horvat on the other.
LOAD UP A LINE!
You don't have 3 lines - you can try to forge one line featuring Jake.
That's about it.
Horvat and Virtanen give you some speed on the top line.
Scratch together a second line.
Put some guys on a 3rd line. (I'd call up Baertchi and Goldobin for the 3rd line - waive Erikkson and Sutter).
But that would cost a few bucks for the ownership and an admission they were a tad wrong on the team.
Not happening.
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