About Last Night: October 30, 2015 vs Arizona

Jared McCann has continued to impress, which even saying that might be an understatement. Its still very early but so far he has done nothing but impress. Nice to see Gaunce grab his first NHL goal, even if it wasn't a pretty one. He was in the right place at the right time though, and that counts for something. I thought Bachman looked pretty good as well. I'm not going to jump on the Sbisa bashing bandwagon, but he was right out in front watching two of those go in, so the scoresheet says he gave up three, but he played better than that.

The team looked good as a whole, especially on back-to-back road games, plus Dallas and Phoenix aren't exactly close to one another. Back-to-backs are tough enough, but on the road they can be killers. This was also the first of 12 back-to-backs the Canucks have this season. Another advantage to having younger guys in the lineup. However, if you think I am going to be all compliments, you're dead wrong.

Once again a big lead withered away to (almost) nothing. One of my favorite things looking at my Twitter timeline last night were the "Where are all the Willie haters now?!" So having the ability to turn your three goal lead into a one goal lead should be applauded? What planet is this. Yes they won in regulation, but they also lead 3-0 at one point and won the game 4-3. This means from roughly nine minutes left in the first period until the final horn they scored once, while their opponent scored three times. This made people gloat?

As far as I am concerned this was the exact same game as in Dallas, They were just able to stop the bleeding sooner, most likely because Dallas is a more talented offensive team. But when it mattered most the defence wilted away and the opposition was able to claw back to make it a game. This trend continues to baffle me, and concern me quite frankly. Blowing leads at any time of the year is not a good trend, and winning despite blowing a lead means they think they're still on the right path.

Here We Go Again...Again...

(Richard Bachman)

Let me start by saying I have not had as much time this offseason to look into all the changes the Canucks have made. However, Twitter has kept me up to date. While that sounds ridiculous, its actually a fairly decent barometer for this type of stuff. Its a good way to understand the sentiment and then you have to do some extra work to find out why, and see the outrage is, as it always is on Twitter, a bit overboard.  This offseason doesn't seem to be a popular one though, and after last night its looking like the outrage is a bit justified.

I know the Flames had most of their NHL squad out there, and the Canucks rolled out mostly young guys, but the play was the real thing. I know everything moves faster at the NHL level, but did the squad they have on the ice hate Richard Bachman or something? They hung that poor bastard out to dry about a hundred times last night! How many times were they going to just watch rebounds instead of, oh I don't know, trying to clear them away from net?! Or maybe not continue to give up odd man rushes?!

This probably wouldn't have looked so bad if it wasn't coming off of being shutout at the hands of the Sharks, and an offseason that has been heavily criticized by the Canucks faithful. Fan favorites, and top performers, from last year were sent out of town for what appeared to be a fraction of their worth, leading to some harsh words and reactions from fans. Although, now they appear to be looking more accurate than just bad reactions. Zack Kassian (24) was shipped out of town for Brandon Prust (31) who produces less points and makes more money. Then statistically your best goalie from last year, Eddie Lack, gets dealt for a 3rd and 7th round pick, and a mega fan favorite, Kevin Bieksa goes to Anaheim for what will most likely be a late 2nd round pick. 

The oddest thing appears to be the Front Office's complete faith in the unproven, while dealing away proven pieces for little return. They admit to being in a rebuild/retool era, yet bring in bigger deals (Prust, Miller, Sbisa, Sutter) and get rid of guys making less, but producing. Nick Bonino gets dealt for Brandon Sutter, who gets a new contract before even playing one game. This would not be so absurd if they haven't been talking about Bo Horvat for second line Center duties. Ok then why did you trade a guy making $1.9M for a guy who you paid over double that to play Center on the second line? Bonino had a very good season for someone making under $2M (75GP, 15G, 24A), and you bring in a guy who had a similar offensive season (80GP, 21G, 12A) and is not even a full year younger. Oh and he makes more money. 

Same goes for the goalie situation. Lack is a UFA next summer, and Markstrom has two more years on his deal. Lack was great for a team which finished with 101 points and makes $300,000 less than Markstrom, who looked iffy at best in his few starts in the NHL last season. So according to the front office, a 3rd and 7th round pick are more valuable than a higher performing backup goalie in a contract year looking to prove himself? Deal Markstrom for a 5th round pick or higher even and play out Lack's deal, or if he is on fire, and you aren't going to pay him, trade him at the deadline for a bigger or similar return. If he is having a down year, then keep him and let him walk for nothing in return. How many teams looking to make a push trade for a goalie at the deadline?

I am finding it extremely hard to believe there was any logic behind these moves other than "We have to bring our own guys in," because breaking down most of these deals reveals very little logic if any. "Tanbir from Surrey" grilled Benning and Linden at the Summer Summit back in July, and said a lot of what Canucks fans were, and still are, thinking. I go into every season with hope of improving last season's finish, and after all this ranting, I will leave it up to the professionals and trust in their decisions. However, when they do things like this they leave very little room for error. If this team does not get off to a great start, its going to get real ugly by Spring.