It was Jake Virtanen's fault that the Canucks lost to Edmonton Sunday night (Dec. 1, 2019) at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
Yeah, why not? There was a second shooter that took out President Kennedy too. The moon walk was a hoax. Jason Kenney is intelligent. Justin Trudeau is not a racist. Alberta Separation will get more oil to the BC coast.
There's lots of idiotic statements in those first 2 paragraphs but while Kenny is an idiot Jake Virtanen is certainly NOT the Vancouver Canucks problem.
For some reason on the post-game show TSN1040 strayed into "blame Jake" territory to which any sane individual went... "But he didn't play!"
Virtanen played 12 minutes. Every 4th shift or so. No PP time. No PK time. Watched a dork from the AHL get PP time while he sat on the bench.
The only thing stupider in sports right now than the Vancouver Canucks and the circus that follows them is the Cleveland Brown. Which circus is more bizarre? I honestly don't know. Pick your poison.
Virtanen doesn't play - it's his fault they lose. That makes total sense in the Vancouver market somehow.
I watched a guy named Leon Draisatl for the Edmonton Oilers, who by the way leads the NHL in points, score 2 goals and play the EXACT SAME GAME as Virtanen.
Virtanen was drafted as a scorer. BUT Willy Desjardens and Travis Green have been attempting to turn a perfectly normal goal scorer into a plumber. Only in Vancouver could you get away with that where the media is as smart as a bag of pucks.
Virtanen was drafted as a sniper. That's what he is. He floats around to open ice and scores goals when fed the puck.
But the Canucks have tried to feature that from Virtanen for about 5 minutes in his 5 year career.
Insanity would definitely describe it.
Would Virtanen have more goals on the PP right now than Boeser or Petterssen if given the chance? Absolutely.
But then what would you do with Boeser and Petterssen? Turn them into 4th line bangers?
Do you think the Canucks might want to try playing Virtanen for a 1 month stretch at 22 minutes per night just to find out what they drafted at 6th overall?
No.
No they are determined to see if he can play on the 4th line.
You know who else couldn't play on the 4th line?
Todd Bertuzzi. Cam Neely. That's to name just 2 guys who playing in this market.
Tom Watt drove Neely out of town.
He didn't want the 50 goal scorer. Watt wanted a 4th line winger who could fight instead.
Yeah, why not eh? F__k goals. It's overrated. What we need is a grinder.
Who was the coach in New York who drove Bertuzzi off the Island? Wasn't it that Mike Milbury? Didn't Canucks coach Travis Green play for Milbury? I don't know... I'm just asking.
As for the last 2 games for the Canucks - Mike Smith (G) Edmonton Oilers stunk like 14 day old garbage in the Jamaican sun on Saturday.
On Sunday the Canucks played the Oiler's No. 1 goalie and lost.
That's it.
They played a NHL goalie - lost.
Petterssen, Boeser and Horvat were ineffective 5 on 5. They floated around did nothing in their 20 minutes of ice time while Virtanen watched.
A coach was fired in Calgary for abuse. But what about psychological abuse?
Isn't the treatment of Virtanen straying into psychological abuse here? I don't know. He's the only player on the team that has to "earn it". No one else does.
There's not a single player on the Canucks besides Jake Virtanen that has to earn ice time.
Everyone else was green lit.
Virtanen -- who leads the team in 5 on 5 goals -- has to "earn it".
There's zero correlation between Virtanen and whether the Canucks lose because he doesn't play for the Vancouver Canucks. He watches games for the Vancouver Canucks.
His job is to sit on the bench and watch the Vancouver Canucks.
That's what he does.
Call Neely. Call Bertuzzi.
Funny thing happened though when Neely and Bertuzzi got a chance to play. They became the best players in the NHL.
Funny how it works that way, isn't it?
A lot of what you see in the NFL is politics, say the CFL analysts. Lots of players in the CFL are good enough to play in the NFL but can't because they don't have anyone fighting for them to play. It's politics a lot of time. A GM is invested in someone they drafted.
You don't think that happens in the NHL too?
Green had Virtanen in the AHL and is determined to prove something about Virtanen.
Was Petterssen sent to the minors for his disastrous last 30 games last year? No. No, just Jake gets that treatment.
You know what I'd like to see? I'd like to see Petterssen play for 12 minutes/night on the 4th line for 3 years and see how he does.
Here kid - take a seat. Watch the game. Enjoy.
And when do we start ignoring the fact that Bo Horvat as a center stinks?
He gets beat every single night defensively. He's useless offensively.
And yet, there's Horvat! On the PP. Hell, they gave the guy the C for some bizarre reason.
At best Horvat was projected to be a 3rd line center.
Yet there he is -- OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS AGAIN!!
Is there any point at which the media might start looking at the guy wearing 53 and saying ... "you know... that Horvat guy has done a lot of losing..."
But no, it's Jake's fault.
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