I heard Thursday or Friday once the CBA is ratified
Posted via RS Mobile

There was a lot of concern with the shortened NBA season causing injuries. It will be interesting to see how the NHL season plays out. Already seeing a lot of tweets from media about players looking out of shape which is a big concern that could equate to injuries.

Luongo HAS to be traded.

Getting a NHL caliber back-up goalie is not a difficult task. However, getting a 2nd/3rd line center to replace Kesler, getting a depth defenseman, and maybe another quality forward (Because Booth sucks, and although I like Higgins he's not great offensively) is. There's no way Luongo doesn't get traded because of the holes in the lineup.

And I forgot to add, this season's not gonna be like last year's NBA season. For the NBA, they managed to squeeze 65 games into a schedule that supported 50 games or so. Some teams had stretches of 9 games in 12 days. It's not gonna be like that in this year's NHL season so there's no reason to keep Luongo around.

Quoting in case you wonder why you are about to be buried in fails

https://twitter.com/mirtle/status/288314425461575681

Ouch, this could fuck the Canucks. From what that means, seems like the team that originally signed these long term "cap circumventing" contracts will be stuck with some dead cap space hit until the contract ends, even if the player retires before contract ends. Question now is, if Canucks will be hit with the full $5.3 cap space hit in Lu's retirement years or will it be a portion based on a formula.

i thought the fail was for comparing nba schedule to nhls

Any team willing to make those deals deserves it. Fuck them.

Yes, even the Canucks. Criticising the home team, I know :heckno:

Trade Lu to get Bozak, that will replace Kesler

Booth was considered to be an upper echelon top 6 forward and he's fucking garbage, not many players just hop into a new team and perform.
Posted via RS Mobile

Goalies are scarce, and with the shortened season, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. As long as Luongo continues to be a leader in the room, then its just a media distraction.

Booth may be garbage, but at this time, is Lu worth some garbage leaf for 6months?

My Bozak comment was sarcasm
Posted via RS Mobile

Elliot Friedman states that there may be no out-of-conference travel in this shortened season. So a 48-game schedule may look like this:

-Three games against the 10 teams not in your division.
-Within the division, you play two of them five times each (three at home, two on the road against one and vice versa with the other)
-The other two four times each.

That's 30 non-divisional games and 18 internal ones.

Thoughts? The Canucks division did get better than last year, but this may help the Canucks secure a higher spot in the conference.

Calgary Flames
Colorado Avalanche
Edmonton Oilers
Minnesota Wild
Vancouver Canucks

The NW Division has been an automatic President's Trophy for the Canucks, and I don't see that changing this year. At least it'll be an easy playoff birth

So having a good back-up is a higher priority than having some quality forwards? Right now, with Kesler out for the foreseeable future, the second line is a mess:

Booth - Schroeder/Lapierre??? - Higgins

And I don't care about fails. I'm just saying that having better forwards is more important than having 2 starter goalies. This is true especially in a shortened season where Kesler's out. Imagine if one of the Sedins or Burrow gets hurt... no ones gonna be able to pick up the slack. Luongo would bring help in this area.

automatic division title ya mean... though the wild have a way better chance this season..

should know by now president's trophy doesn't mean much at this point lol.

Considering they will be playing way more often per week than usual, yes. Having a "1a and 1b" is probably the best situation a team could have.

However as we all know, Lu is hardly worthy of a "1b" designation in the first 20 games or so...

Yup the only thing it really does is set expectations too high. But being a good team in a shit division has done that for the Canucks several times now.

It hasn't been mentioned anywhere that they will be playing way more often per week.

I can't understand why Luongo isn't getting traded sooner rather than later. From both Gillis and Lu's pov, the bigger the delay, the worse it is for both of them. The Canucks will be hamstrung by Lu's gigantic salary cap and limited in everything they do from trading to payroll. Lu will see his market value drop, not to mention the skills deterioation when he stays out of the game.

Hmm they haven't confirmed it I guess, I'm sure I read that it would be a tighter schedule. If I was wrong, I stand corrected.

source to them playing "way more often per week"?
Posted via RS Mobile

Andrew Gross
‏@AGrossRecord
Torts says Gaborik is good to go from Day 1 of Training Camp. "He'll be fine, he's been fine."

things look good for NYR :thumbs: as long as siging Del Zotto goes smoothly

I see it completely opposite of what you are saying. Purely speculative to say that a delay in trading Luongo would make the Canucks worse off and Luongo would see his market value drop and his skills deteriorate barring he "stays out of the game."

To add to this speculative notion, if Roberto and Cory get a similar number of games and the team wins the majority of their games (as they should, being a favorite), Luongo's value and that of Cory's should go up.

Now, a team that doesn't have a 1A and 1B, but has one "proven" goaltender on a team that is suppose to make the playoffs or do damage in the playoffs falters out of the gate. Do you not think Luongo's value is going to be high knowing he could be moved for the right price. Delaying could even create a bidding war for Luongo, making the Leafs move more than they want to. Again, this is all speculative.

In a shortened season, anything can happen. Teams that aren't suppose to make the playoffs could string a run of winning 8 of their last 10. Adding a goalie like Luongo half way thru could solidify a playoff birth and make up for lost revenue to an owner. If Luongo has a decent to good start, his value goes up especially if goalies on other teams shit the bed in the beginning.

Was going to start a new thread titled, "The Official 2013 Canucks Season", but realized this is the official thread.

Anyway, looking forward to the schedule. Hockey every second night (average), from what I've heard.

As usual, just going to enjoy watching the hockey. No fun in overanalyzing this and analyzing that. Just watch and root for the home team, one game at a time. The 15th (or 19th) can't come soon enough.

Go, Canucks, GO!!!!!!!!

Mr. Biggs,

I agree that everything is purely speculative at this point, and I see the rationale behind your argument as well.

For me, I see 2 big if's for Lu this season:

1) is he even going to play for the Canucks?
2) assuming that he plays, is he going to play well?

#1 is worth considering because with Lu openly indicating that he would like to be traded, I really question whether Gillis would still want to play him at all. Yes, he is costing the club big bucks, so why not play him, right? But would that kind of sentiments be right for the locker room? I would not be surprised if Lu still gets played, but I find it somewhat more likely that Lu will just get benched.

#2 comes from the fact that Lu tends to play better when he gets played in a lot of games. And when he is hot, he stays hot for a LONG time. With a shortened season and the loss of the starting goalie status, I really wonder how well Lu is going to perform if he finds himself playing.

I respect and thank Lu for all that he has done for the Canucks. But I really think it is time for him to move on. I guess we'll find out what happens when the games are on their way.

Case in point, if Cory shits the opener and you go with Lu who is LIGHTS OUT the 2nd game,
what do you do