Uhm, how did you find a Canucks Army post before I did? Do you have a secret undisclosed crush on the team or do you really have the time to keep up to blogs on all 30 teams?
Anyways as always with them its a good read. The two most interesting quotes for me.
Quote:
Kevin Bieksa has had a Chris Higgins-esque bounceback campaign, after a litany of minor injuries really slowed him down last year. In one of the unlikeliest of events, he has formed a wildly successful partnership with newcomer Ryan Stanton. In 200 minutes of 5v5 play with the two of them on the ice, the Canucks have controlled 56.1% of all shot attempts, and 62.5% of all goals scored. Stanton has 10 points on the year, or as I like to call it 6 Fewer Points than Keith Ballard Had as a Canuck
which just reinforces my Stanton crush.
Quote:
As for Edler, he has been scrutinized heavily this year, and there have been question marks about his relationship with Tortorella.. yet he leads the team in ice-time by a fairly significant margin (24:03/game). He's also currently playing by far the toughest minutes of his career, which people seem to conveniently leave out of the discussion when wonder where his offense has went. You'd like to see more from him, certainly, but for whatever reason people seem to be wearing drunk goggles when evaluating his play. They're as irrational about him as I am about Garrison, just in the opposite way.
Didn't realize this, makes me wonder if I've allowed my own negative bias to creep in about him and now just focus on his mistakes. It's good to have objective metrics to remind me not to be a twit.
And my big reason for hope for serious improvement for the team is the PP, they've been okay without it, and it can't possibly stay that bad with the talent they have with the metrics they have.
Quote:
They're showing signs of life these days. The Canucks have now scored in 6 straight games with the man advantage, and are drawing penalties more frequently. Plus, they're 2nd - only behind the Sharks, whose PP dominance we're all too familiar with - in fenwick for/60, and actually lead the league in shots on goals/60, so there's reason to believe that they'll continue to make their way up towards an at least respectable conversion rate.
And this is pretty affirming of what I think of the team and why I felt Jyrki was wrong to consider them middle of the pack.
Quote:
Robert P from Jewels From The Crown (an LA Kings blog) had the following to say in his Pacific Division review from a few days ago:
Quote:
I think the Canucks will be a team the Kings will need to worry a lot more about as the season goes on. Their ability to drive play is starting to take off, but their down-trending percentages have made them look a little worse than they really are. Look for the division title to end up being a dog fight between the Sharks, Canucks and Kings.
He's right. Personally, I'd say that the Canucks are the 5th best team in the Western Conference at the moment. I'd have them behind the Blackhawks, Sharks, Blues, and Kings, but over the others. They currently sit 7th in the league in Fenwick Close % (controlling 52.8% of all unblocked shot attempts with the game up for grabs), whereas a team like the Avs are down at 49%, and the Coyotes at 48.3%. As Daniel Wagner astutely pointed out yesterday, they've got some similarities to the 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings in them, though they'll need to hit a home run with a trade in the coming weeks/months.
The Nucks are no longer elite but despite their points total should be considered in the 2nd tier behind SJ, Chi, LA and Pens.
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