They were friggin terrible, I watched the oilers broadcast and he said the canucks stick pushed his foot in, but I watched the replay from multiple angles at 25% speed and it was an oilers stick that pushed him, also, he already started moving his foot before the stick even touched him so... WutFace

Taking my homer glasses off, it was a good goal.

Demko tried to setup a pick. He was well out of his crease and wasn't in a vulnerable position (with his back turned). IMO, that was just a bad play by Demko.

Unless I have the ruling completely wrong that goalies are supposed to be completely untouchable outside of the crease, but it was Demko that set that up on himself.

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Remember this thread a year ago? Rutherford ... Alvin ... Boudreau and the fanbase.

So far so good for the Canucks.

Big props to Coach Tocchet, and his assistants Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar for coaching the team with a new identity and new defensive system.

This Canucks team is hard to play against for just about any team now.

Opposing forwards have little space and time to skate with the puck in the neutral zone.

When the puck is in the Canucks zone, the D men and the forwards are playing well as a team to make the sure the puck gets out safely. Fewer turnovers in the defensive zone.

The players play with a different mindset compared to last season. When the team is trailing in the game. No problem. Just stick with their game plan.

Oilers lead 1-0 early in the game last night? No problem.

You can see the team play with confidence instead of going to panic mode when they are trailing in games.

-big difference in the team's mental strength compared to their fragile mental state from last season.

They beat a good team in Dallas that also play a tight defensive system. -also beat other good teams like Nashville.

The teams that they are supposed to beat like San Jose, they light up the opposition with their offence.

Their biggest test in terms of games will be if they can beat the defending champs, the Golden Knights.

also, if another skater did that, they would've been called for interference. so yea, demko fucked up.

if demko was making legit effort to get back into net, it could be argued that the opposing player prevented him from getting back, but he just stood there and stuck his leg out.

It's kind of complicated, cuz players are supposed to make an effort to avoid contact with goalies even outside the net... there's no "fair game" rule and they're not like other forwards or D out there... so the EDM player also did nothing to alter his course.

The next 3 games, Canucks play Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal. all 3 teams will be playing on the back end of their back-to-back games. then in the 2 weeks after, play the Sharks twice. Get ready for more goals

Ottawa hasn't been great so far this season. Toronto is top end heavy as usual so that game will have it's ups and downs. Montreal isn't a team to take lightly either. Eager to see how they come out of this next road trip!

Guess some of us have to eat our crow a bit here. I remember people saying why the fuck are we trading for players like Hronek, we should be rebuilding, not adding assets.

We were wrong, it seems like Hronek has been one of those missing pieces we've needed, Hughes and him are an offensive dynamo with each other.

^ I think the majority of the fanbase is eating crow.

The venom for Rutherford and Alvin was off the charts for a good long while. Lot of people criticized the Tocchet as the choice for coach and his focus on 'structure'.

Fanbase drank the 'Bruce, there it is!' coolaid

Fans liked Bruce because he was a lovable guy. It was clear he wasn't working out, but he was still fun to chant for.

Also the way the team handled him was awful, no matter how well the new guy ended up working out.

The team is still really shitty in many ways, not unlike the Oilers and Flames. They just happen to be on the up while the others are down.

This is part of why I advocate for cheering athletes over teams, once you have your favourite team established. Fans suck Kappa

Well. Sharks got their first win tonight vs Flyers. That's gotta be a shitty feeling for the flyers

I was hoping they would get their first win against the Oilers

If you look closely, Demko did set up a pick though. So it was really him that went "out of the way" to instigate that collision. It's subtle that it's not blatantly obvious, but I'm convinced Demko knew exactly what he was trying to do when he just stood there after he did the drop pass.

The Oiler player took a natural course to go around the net, without leaning in for a hit or anything like that.

I think the avoiding contact "rule" would be more like trying to line up the goalie and go for a bodycheck as you would against another skater.

So compared to last year and the years before from my eyes the team is
faster at decision making
more creative in plays
less puck chasing
more aggressive
better positioning
less standing around waiting for things to happen.

Rather than one big change it's a lot of small improvements. I felt that the team had it in them when we played the lockout playoffs. Last year Demko was also hurt and he's been lights out so far. All that combined it feels like the team has more confidence and also they won't get benched for a whole game because of a small mistake and there's buy in.

Yes lots of the bottom 6 has changed and we've swapped out OEL for Hronek which is a huge upgrade but the top lines are still the same. I remember watching Dakota Joshua last year at the Bieksa retirement game and I liked how he played and I'm glad he's still around.

hehehe, and Bo Horvat is gone...
Whether that has anything to do with anything. But JT Miller seemed to play a lot better after that trade.

Bo doesn't seem to be making that much of an impact with the Islanders either, so maybe we dodged a bullet letting that guy go.

It's early, but OEL is a -2, while Hronek is +12 :lol

They had to choose between JT and Bo; seems like they chose wisely

Linden throwing JB under the bus, rightfully so... Outside of Juolevi and Lockwood, I haven't heard a peep from the 2016 draft class since being drafted.

Hit or not at least there was some trade value out of the 2017 class.

Benning wanted Cody Glass. Thank fucking god for Linden.

More I saw on reddit:

"I wasn't happy with the way our process was in 2016, and that was the first year Judd had taken over the reigns -- and I did not like how our meetings went. So in 2017 i really pushed hard to have Judd really step up and really run a robust type meeting -- in that we can really put our thoughts and feelings on the table. I really pushed hard in that management group to have Judd and his guys make the pick. I give Judd ... and give Ronny Delorme a lot credit as well .. they love this guy. Jim wasn't sold ... if Jim had his choice -- he would have probably taken a different player. But I really pushed to have these guys that were banging their fists on the table ... lets have these conversations .. because i really think we didn't do a good job in 2016 and I think it cost us -- well I know it cost us."

Some other tidbits:

Talked about retro jerseys, loves the skate but says his personal fave is the "stick in rink" and that's what the team would wear if he owned it. When he was with the team wanted to standardize on it.

Says Alvin did a good job adding depth.

Said the team roster in 2014 was "barren, there was nothing".

Said Green was coaching well when he was let go, but the players couldn't put it together.

Said Bruce had a 'play any way you want" kind of game an "that doesn't get you very far".

Says the experience of Green and Bruce showed the players that having a system and competing properly helps you win. Touches on how Calgary and Edmonton don't have that buy in.

Says Pat Quinn taught him that good defence doesn't have to come at the expense of offence, and that it seems that's something these guys are buying into today.

Said he was the Canucks President because he wanted to be, he wasn't there because he needed a job and didn't ever want to do things just to keep his job. Wanted to do the right things.

I liked Bo (still have his jersey) but we definitely made the right decision in trading him instead of signing to $8.5M/yr.

side note: it's almost game time!

:fullofwin:

Oh shit, forgot it's an eastern game.

The Official 2023/2024 Canucks & NHL Thread
 

Ray Ferraro is the commentator for this game against Ottawa.

A welcome change from Tomlinson haha.


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listening to Ferraro makes it feel like i'm playing NHL