The Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings 8-2 in their home opener at Rogers Arena Wednesday (Oct. 9).
And the only thing you can say about the win is Jonathon Quick, 2 time Stanley Cup winning goaltender for LA, is finished.
He was horrific.
LA outshot Vancouver 39-25 and had 24 Grade A scoring chances on Jakob Markstrom but they flubbed the puck on a repeated basis.
Yes LA played in Calgary Tuesday night but boy they were ridiculously bad all night long in terms of finishing their chances. They didn't resemble a NHL team last night.
And yes, LA was probably the worst team in the NHL last year.
And yes, you're excited if you're an LA Kings fan because it's a franchise that drafted Alex Turcotte at the No. 5 spot last year in the NHL draft and it would appear that they are taking another run at the 1st overall NHL pick.
They get it. You have to get that franchise player before you move forward.
But that being said - can you go through a season giving up 5 goals per night ?
Quick has a GAA of 7.00 right now. That's horrific.
What do you do with Quick?
For the rebuild it makes total sense to keep Quick and to keep playing him a lot and to get behind the tank. But Quick is also a player with the team that has value to the fan base and destroying his legacy as a terrific goaltender in this manner would be humiliating.
They can't trade him. Can they buy him out? Yes. Can they put him on waivers and send him to the AHL? Yes.
But I don't think you can do that to a guy who won 2 Stanley Cups for you.
If you're LA you keep playing him and A) he turns it around and that's good B) he doesn't turn it around that's good.
But when you let Canucks blueliner rookie blast a muffin past you from the blueline without a screen - you're in a lot of trouble, no disrespect intended to Hughes, but Hughes isn't Al MacInnis. That shot has to be stopped. And it was the first Canucks goal and it got worse from there.
As Norris Trophy winning LA D man Drew Doughty said after the game, "You don't lose to a team like that. No way."
And while I think Vancouver is better, they're not 8-2 better.
Vancouver's size was noticeable last night.
It's much better and that should help them weather the storm on the road. You have to be a big team to play in Vancouver because of the travel. There's no choice. And Vancouver is the tallest team in the NHL.
Tyler Myers is playing very well. He reminds one of Robert Dirk. He's steady. He has a little snarl (which showed up in Calgary) and he's Okay in his own zone.
Alexander Edler is just terrific. He is the perfect example of a late bloomer - much like Nik Lidstrom. You have to wonder why no other NHL GM realized Edler's worth and made an overture to his agent in the off-season that they would throw a 6 year / $60 million contract at him - and I think he's worth every penny of that.
If Edler is put with a normal D man, and he is right now, you can see just how terrific a D man he is. He's worthy of Norris Trophy consideration if he can stay healthy. Big hits, runs the PP, great passes, terrific defensively, understated blueliner, very much in the Lidstrom mold. Very underrated player.
As for the rest of the team's performance - you can't rate anything from it because Quick was so bad and LA in general was horrific.
Anyone who tries to extrapolate anything from that game is completely full of shit.
There's nothing to evaluate. You have to see another team show up to be able to criticize something and LA didn't show up.
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