It's been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs this season for the Vancouver Canucks. This stretch run of a four game losing streak could not come at a worse time. How did we get here?
The glaring holes in our defense has been made very apparent recently, as our division rivals are all gunning for the playoffs playing their best hockey of the year.
And why do we have these holes you ask? In Mirtle's blog he once posted about the amount of man games lost to injury, that's a pretty good answer in this case. I don't have the total numbers but I believe within the Northwest Division we have the most injuries on the blue line. We lost Salo and Bieksa early in the season, but we rallied from that and arguably played our best stretch of hockey in November.
Then we got Salo back and lost him again. He came back later and has his flashes of brilliance every so often, but I don't think we've seen a comfortable 100% injury free Salo this season.
The glaring holes in our defense has been made very apparent recently, as our division rivals are all gunning for the playoffs playing their best hockey of the year.
And why do we have these holes you ask? In Mirtle's blog he once posted about the amount of man games lost to injury, that's a pretty good answer in this case. I don't have the total numbers but I believe within the Northwest Division we have the most injuries on the blue line. We lost Salo and Bieksa early in the season, but we rallied from that and arguably played our best stretch of hockey in November.
Then we got Salo back and lost him again. He came back later and has his flashes of brilliance every so often, but I don't think we've seen a comfortable 100% injury free Salo this season.
Then we lost Krajicek.
Then we lost Mitchell for an extended period.
Then we lost Ohlund for the rest of the season.
I think you see the trend. On the bright side, we've seen the rise of Alex Edler, albeit lately I think the huge minutes are starting to wear on him.
So defensive woes are apparent. We also have offensive woes, rather than offensive "whoas" as well.
We lost Morrison earlier in the season to a wrist injury. Then we got him back, and our offense looked somewhat stabilized.
Then guess what happened? Torn ACL.
Our Iron Man ain't so iron no more.
We saw the rise of a promising young Mason Raymond as well. He's on the shelf too after a knee on knee against a Phoenix Coyotes player.
So to recap injuries have plagued us. But as many hockey teams state that is no excuse, and it really isn't. It's disappointing but as a fan I wouldn't care so much if I saw some more effort.
But lately it's like the Canucks are bipolar. They're as wishy washy as most of the bandwagon jumping fans here in Vancouver.
As Naslund likes to say, "choked". Yup. We're choking down the stretch. A week ago we were in contention for the Division title. Now we're in danger of missing the playoffs. We're tied with Nashville today with 86 points, but by virtue of the tie breaker they're in 8th. So with five games left, we don't even control our own destiny.
If they run the table they're in. If we run the table, we have to hope that someone comes along and plays spoiler.
Even if we make the playoffs we're squeaking in by the skin of our teeth. Then what? Bounced in the first round?
With the effort we've seen lately... absolutely. Remember last year?
I'm a Canucks fan through and through, but I'm also a hockey fan. And as a hockey fan, I don't want to see us make the playoffs because we don't deserve to make the playoffs. There are no more excuses to be made. I see it in the players and it's sad, they look defeated.
My mom once said that GM Place is cursed because it has bad Feng Shui. I think I'm starting to believe her.
But I don't want to end on a downer. So lets look at the positives.
We have a big off season ahead of us. Nonis has a lot of work to do. I'll touch more on this in a future post.
For the most part, I applaud Dave Nonis for the way he's handled the team this year. He couldn't have predicted the injury plague we've been hit with. He really should have addressed some of the secondary scoring issues last year, but his hands were tied a bit with the cap space and he wanted to leave room for the deadline.
I'm also extremely happy we didn't sell the farm for a Brad Richards at the deadline. For those of you who knock Nonis for having no balls, the ballsiest move he made at the deadline was doing nothing.
Where we need to improve is in our scouting. We need to draft better. I can't state this enough.
In the last few years we've found a few gems in the 2nd rounds or later, but we've also passed on some serious talent in our draft history. In this era of the NHL you need youth to chip in at a lower salary range if you want a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
Where we need to improve is in our scouting. We need to draft better. I can't state this enough.
In the last few years we've found a few gems in the 2nd rounds or later, but we've also passed on some serious talent in our draft history. In this era of the NHL you need youth to chip in at a lower salary range if you want a chance to win a Stanley Cup.
I look forward to the off season for a chance to refresh our team and really prove to Luongo and our other heart and soul players that we are committed to winning. This year had its lowlights but also some highlights as well.
Our youth is on the rise. We finally have some talent in the system which we shouldn't rush. Let them develop properly. Do you want to turn out like the Toronto Maple Leafs?
The rise of the youth on this team is encouraging. Kesler, Burrows, Edler, Raymond and Shannon will start to shift towards the core of the team. Our current core players will add veteran experience.
It's been a doozy of a post. My boss at work told me that the other posts were short. So K, here you go it's a longer one for you.
It's been a doozy of a post. My boss at work told me that the other posts were short. So K, here you go it's a longer one for you.
