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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
I feel like they should have done this in the offseason if he was on that short of a leash.
THIS. Simply because the personnel available was much better. Some of the media guys predict the GM is next to go. This flyers team has too much drama and something needs to be done Posted via RS Mobile
Nice win last night, showed some fight to come back and take the lead even though they gave up a late goal. The atmosphere must be a little different with tort int he locker room.
Nice win last night, showed some fight to come back and take the lead even though they gave up a late goal. The atmosphere must be a little different with tort int he locker room.
You know a message is sent when the twins are separated
You know a message is sent when the twins are separated
I've been waiting for that to happen for YEARS.
Not necessarily to keep them apart all the time, but to separate the Sedins at times you increase your second and third line depth and give them a chance to play with other line mates. Separating the Sedins has to be challenging to defend against, since it hasn't really happened in the past and there's no tape on how they play with others.
Great win for Lack though. He needed to get his first win done to build that confidence.
And look what happens they get separated and each of them generate a goal... Tort's is doing the right things so early in the season and showing the players hes not scared to make changes and it doesn't matter who it is. They have been so missing that for years!!
Garrison is looking great as well getting tons of ice and it's great seeing him put the points up in the first 3 games.
THIS. Simply because the personnel available was much better. Some of the media guys predict the GM is next to go. This flyers team has too much drama and something needs to be done Posted via RS Mobile
Too much drama and still not enough goaltending. And we complain Vancouver is a goalie graveyard...
EDMONTON — The goaltending drama became so overdone, so excessive in Vancouver last season, the Canucks instituted a new rule for media covering the team: For the first time in National Hockey League history, there would be no access to the backup on game days. While it’s customary around the league for starters not to speak at morning skates, with the Roberto and Cory show it was the other who went silent on game days. It was a protocol that was an outcome, not a symptom, of the madness that was the Canucks goaltending soap opera.
Another, more desired result is 27-year-old Cory Schneider; wise beyond his games played, whose time in the Vancouver frying pan makes him the perfect candidate for the fire of succeeding Martin Brodeur in New Jersey. He is poised, mature, and handles himself admirably in front of a bank of microphones. And he believes he learned from the hurricane that was playing in Vancouver last season. “It’s something we were forced to deal with. That’s just life playing hockey in Canadian cities,” Schneider said Sunday afternoon in Edmonton, where he will watch Martin Brodeur face the Oilers on Monday before getting the start against the Canucks on Tuesday in Vancouver.
Brodeur was actually sitting with friend and then backup Johan Hedberg at the draft when Lamoriello unloaded the ninth overall pick to Vancouver for Schneider. “I was thinking, ‘okay, how is this working here…,’” Brodeur said. “I looked at (Hedberg) and you could tell right away. He knew. What could you say to the guy?” So, instead of “The Moose” facing his old team Tuesday—he was released from a tryout with the New York Rangers in September—it’s Schneider, a return that will have the media Richter Scale off the charts on the lower mainland. But Schneider can handle it.
For a goalie who will notch career game No. 100 Tuesday, Schneider has reams of experience, graduating from one Canadian Olympic goalie to another. By osmosis, he has learned to carry himself with the confidence of an elite goaltender. “They’ve both been through a lot, seen every circumstance, been through every situation. They’re kind of unflappable,” he said. “I learned a lot from Roberto. The way he dealt with some situations there that were fair, or unfair. He’d put on a smile and do what was best for the team. That’s not easy to do—especially for a guy who has accomplished as much as he has, and has as much pride as he has.”
Before Schneider tugged on his new Devils jersey, he had relieved one Olympian of his starting NHL job. Then, as if the culture shock of going from Vancouver to Newark wasn’t enough, he became the successor to the next, a walk-in Hall of Famer to boot. “He’s our future,” Brodeur said. “I won’t play forever.”
The Devils have a stunning 22 sets of back-to-back games this season, and, at age 41, Brodeur doesn’t do both ends anymore. So it plays to script to have Schneider go Tuesday, but it will be a media frenzy regardless. Yet Schneider appears prepared. “We’re there less than 24 hours,” he said. “Gotta play a game, gotta win a game. I’m not going to get all nostalgic.”
Although he’s never had to do it himself, to Brodeur—and Devils head coach Pete DeBoer—starting Schneider versus the Canucks was obvious. “They made him No. 1 and they traded him,” Brodeur said. “I’m sure in the back of his head it’s like, ‘C’mon. We’re all went through that circus, and I’m the one leaving?’”
Sitting in the stands at Rexall Place watching DeBoer run his charges through their paces, wily general manager Lou Lamoriello smiles the wide grin of a man who couldn’t believe his luck when the goalie he’d sought for years suddenly became available at the draft in Newark. Edmonton offered a better package—the seventh overall pick plus another asset—but Canucks GM Mike Gillis knew better than to arm the Oilers at a key position. So he sent Schneider far, far away.
Replacing Brodeur had gnawed at Lamoriello—he’d been mulling over the move for most of the past three years. He had the luxury of patience, though. Every time he thought it was going to become a necessity, Brodeur would defy his age and play like he was 10 years younger. And Lamoriello knew he needed a special netminder, one with a similar makeup to Brodeur. “Our team is used to a goaltender who doesn’t get rattled, doesn’t blame people, and is as low maintenance as you could possibly get,” he said.
And as competitive.
When asked about facing their former team in front of their former fans, most goalies would toss out the predictable platitudes about playing within themselves and how they’re facing the shooters, not the goalie. Not Schneider, he can’t wait to face down Luongo. “Sure I am,” he said when asked if he was looking to make statement.
On Paul Kariya, post retirement, concussions and relationship with the Ducks
He kept the building full when the novelty disappeared. He gave the Ducks points when games seemed pointless. He was the face of the franchise when no one was using that tiresome phrase, although he was really the legs.
Then came the Cup and the Twins and the Hall of Fame defensemen and the annual playoff trips. Kariya missed all of that.
He retired in 2011, on terms dictated by the elbows of others. He is neither gone nor forgotten, but the essential Duck is now invisible.
Oh, you can catch him at a beach now and then, surfing. The concussions that robbed Kariya of a proper goodbye do not keep him out of the water. Scott Niedermayer joins him sometimes, watches him prepare and practice as if he were facing the Red Wings again.
“He has his little warmup, he works hard out on the water,” Niedermayer said. “For someone who isn’t a lifelong surfer, I would find it hard to believe someone could be better. He loves it. It’s fun to see. He’s having a lot of fun.”
“He reads the books about how to surf, he watches surfing videos,” Teemu Selanne said. “He wants to be as good as he can be. He’s out there every day. And he told me that once I’m done playing, we’ll play golf once a week.”
But Kariya will not ride a wave or a car or any other mode of transportation into Honda Center, and not because of any particular antipathy toward the Ducks, who have changed mightily since he left after the run to Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final.
“He’s generous with the kids, and I was there one day when he gave away 10 pairs of skates and some sticks,” Selanne said. “I need to talk to him, find some way to get him back with the Ducks’ family. Obviously he was the No. 1 star here. He has a lot to give to this organization.
“They should retire his number. Absolutely. But he says, no, don’t ever talk to him about that. He’s still a little humble about that, for sure.”
Selanne senses Kariya is “bitter” about the way it all ended, about the fact that Kariya’s head became a piņata, and nobody seemed to care.
In 1997 he got his first concussion, from Montreal’s Mathieu Schneider. In 1998 he was pole-axed by Chicago’s Gary Suter and missed 28 games and the Nagano Olympics, where he would have been Canada’s best shootout weapon against Dominik Hasek.
In 2003 he took a head shot from New Jersey’s Scott Stevens in Game 6 of the Final. Carried off, he skated back and produced the most electric moment in 20 years of Ducks hockey: a massive slapper that zinged past Martin Brodeur.
In 2009, playing for St. Louis, Kariya came out of the penalty box just in time to take an elbow to the head from Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta.
Suter got a four-game suspension. Stevens and Kaleta were not suspended.
Doctors told Kariya his career was over in the summer of 2011, just as the Ducks, at Selanne’s urging, were trying to sign him.
Kariya suggested at the time that general managers should be fined and coaches suspended over illegal head shots.
“With a concussion, you walk into the dressing room and they say, ‘How are you doing? Are you OK to go tomorrow?’” Kariya said. “It’s totally backward. I’ve had two hip reconstructions and I’ll take that any day over a concussion.”
Niedermayer was on the ice when Stevens caught Kariya.
“The game was good to him but in other ways it was tough on him,” Niedermayer said. “We’re still learning about concussions but we’re much more aware of them now than 20 years ago. I’m sure he was expected to do things that wouldn’t happen today. That day he made a decision to come back. We’re entitled to that, as athletes. Everyone respected that.
“I can understand that he isn’t left with good memories. Hopefully over time he can focus on the good stuff. He told me he’s feeling good. That’s good, right? That’s what you hope for.”
Kariya turns 39 next month. With a clearer head, he could still be playing supersonic hockey with the 42-year-old Selanne, especially with the post-2006 rules against obstruction.
“It was magic when we played together,” said Selanne, who joined Kariya in February of 1996. “We didn’t have to look at each other to know where we were. Every day we practiced different things, and there was always a competition. Who could score more goals? That’s how we got better.
“Expectations were so high. He would make a bad pass and we’d go to the bench and I was just giving it to him so bad. Teammates would say, ‘Holy smokes, what’s he doing?’ He would do the same to me. Not very often can any player have that type of chemistry.”
Kariya scored 11 goals in 47 games his rookie year. The coaching staff told him to go home and work on his shot. “Pound the puck,” assistant coach Tim Army recalled. Kariya pounded the puck all summer. The next year he scored 50.
“What I remember is how he could accept the puck, no dribble or anything, and then buggy-whip it so fast,” said Army, now an assistant in Colorado. “You couldn’t hear the puck hit or leave the stick. Brett Hull could do that. Paul just did it through hard work.”
That’s how he gathered a rolling puck on slushy ice in Phoenix and fired an overtime goal to win Game 6 of the Ducks’ first playoff series, setting up a Game 7 victory.
Kariya skated against the best defenders every night. In ’97 he was plus-36 on a team that went 36-33-13. That was the year he led the NHL with 10 winning goals.
He ended his career with a symmetrical 989 points in 989 games, with 402 goals.
The rafters at Honda Center will never be complete without his No. 9. But first Kariya must emerge from the quiet room.
The way Gillis moved Schneider and how Luongo found out were probably not the best ways to do things. Bringing both to camp may have been ever more toxic. But it makes you think. Looking at what what happened with the Flyers firing their coach and not really having a solid goalie and the fact that the Oilers have no confidence in Duby, had Gillis stuck to his guns, could he have leveraged a strong deal now for one of Schneider or Luongo now?
Teams felt they had the leverage and cited Luongo's contract as a bad one. Now teams feel the pressure of the season, and not making the playoffs could be a reality if a month from now they are seeing the same results. You have to think a team would overpay for a number one goalie.
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"A chicken crossing the street is poultry in motion"
Not basing this off last night, but it's time the Sedins are split up. Go back to 09/10 when Daniel was injured and Henrik went on a tear. Posted via RS Mobile
The way Gillis moved Schneider and how Luongo found out were probably not the best ways to do things. Bringing both to camp may have been ever more toxic. But it makes you think. Looking at what what happened with the Flyers firing their coach and not really having a solid goalie and the fact that the Oilers have no confidence in Duby, had Gillis stuck to his guns, could he have leveraged a strong deal now for one of Schneider or Luongo now?
Teams felt they had the leverage and cited Luongo's contract as a bad one. Now teams feel the pressure of the season, and not making the playoffs could be a reality if a month from now they are seeing the same results. You have to think a team would overpay for a number one goalie.
That's what MG was banking on last season, except the only goalie he was willing to move was Lu. The shortened season worked against him severely with so many teams still feeling they were in contention and not willing to move their own pieces, combined with the compliance buyouts and the new cap structure. I still feel MG did the right thing to leverage as much out of Lu as possible, the guy was at one point the cornerstone which we built the franchise around.
My issue with how that was dealt with was surround Schneider. It's clear MG was forced into having to move him to get something of value back. Up til the draft, I believe Schneider was considered an untouchable. But he should have opened up the option of moving Schneider earlier to maximize return potential, and also so other teams knew that we didn't HAVE to trade Lu. Yeah it would have looked like a dick move after pretty much promising Schneider the starter's job and giving him a fair bridge contract, but such is the business and at the end of the day he ended up getting traded anyways.
Not basing this off last night, but it's time the Sedins are split up. Go back to 09/10 when Daniel was injured and Henrik went on a tear. Posted via RS Mobile
Same thing happened when Daniel got elbowed by Keith.
I think when they play together they worry about what the other is going to do next or even look for the pass instead of a shot which we see over and over. It’s like when they play separate they know the other isn’t there so the focus more on the puck rather than making the beauty pass? All I know is I’m really surprised AV didn’t do that all the much and it was so nice to see Torts splitting them up from the get go which turned into two quick goals and the Canucks coming back and winning the game.
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