spook007

Maybe so... Fact is, that when you have a management group of rookies, POH, GM, Coaches, ass. Coaches it will never work, if they can't see eye to eye... Whoever is at fault is speculation, but Lindens job was to lay the plan ahead... If Benning didn't follow it, he should have been sacked... Or Linden should have packed his bags... Again its easy to sit here and point fingers and make assumptions... but them's the fact. TBH we're going in circles here, so lets just drop it. I love Linden like everyone, and I felt he was being set up to take the flack.... That's not Bennings fault but on the owners.

Enjoy amigo and have a fab time... so flipping envious it hurts.... GCG

Exactly... and it was a disgrace, to Linden, to Benning, to the fans... etc... Its looks like he was put in a position to fail... not only that, it seems like there was a total disharmony, about how the club was going to be run... No way can a club be successful if the management team can't even agree amongst themselves... Linden seemed like a lamb to the slaughter...

My point was just that Linden was President of hockey operations.... If he felt, Benning didn't follow the laid out plan, it was Lindens job to stop him. As POH he is Bennings Boss... If Benning broke protocol and didn';t follow what was agreed, he should have been sacked at that point. Otherwise Linden was just a figurehead.... This is not about, whether I like Linden or not... Linden is always going to be a hero at this club for what he did as a player. But if Benning really went against, what they had agreed upon, then he should have been sacked. It does suggest that Linden and Benning didn't see head to head, and obviously somebody had to pay the price, which likely was the reason Linden left. Benning was running the entire operation almost on his own at the end, and that is simply not possible... Its like the captain of the ship explaining, he thought the mate was running the ship aground, but now he has made sure it won't happen again... That is all very good, but unfortunately there is now a hole in the bottom of the vessel. I'm sure the owners would say to the captain, he should have stopped the mate, before. he ran the ship aground... The mate may not be sacked, but it gives the taste of a rudderless ship, or at least a weak chain of command. Hence I've always stated Linden should not have been POH in the first place, it was unfair to him and it was unfair to Benning. The two persons in the top should be totally aligned, and any disagreements should be kept behind closed doors....forever.

sorry boys and girls... think I maybe went a little overboard... Just frustrating to think, that parts of this mess over the last 10 years could have been avoided, had everyone been in tune.

Well for starters we take away, that he did listen to his scouts.... I have zero idea, if Linden said everything. I am reacting to, what Linden did said. You are ahain speculating about what he didn't say. I'm saying Linden should have put his foot down, when they drafted OJ, if he thought Benning didn't follow the planned way. Can't have it both ways... In the end Benning was the GM that named both OJ and Petey as the Canucks picks, correct? To me it says far more about a totally disfunctional management from the very top and down.

Bro-mances are real things Yes winning is great amigo. Agree 100%

Linden saying he wasn't happy with the way it went forward in 2016, when they drafted OJ.... so why the hell did he not react then? He was the President for god sake, not just a hotdog vendor... And to say if Benning had his way, we might not have had Pettersson, so Benning did listen to his scouts after all? Benning never took credit for the Pettersson pick, but with fans always saying he didn't listen to his scouts, he obviously did... What this story tells more than anything, was the disharmony at the top of club, when Benning was in charge. Benning needed an experienced President to help him out... not an old hero, with no managerial experience, who seemingly didn't see eye to eye with Benning. Linden washing his hands on air doesn't sound good... to me at least. But at least now we know.... as for Judd Brackett.... it remains to be seen, if Benning really let go of a draft guru or not. PS. More than anything it also shows how lucky we are to have JR/PA running the show just now. Total alignment from top to bottom... Owners - POH - GM - Coach - Ass Coahes - Players...

Cheers amigo. Likewise

Aye it easier to be good, when you have most of the hard pieces to acquire... In saying that JR/PA has found good players to surround the team with and reasonable money, which mattered a lot... If Benning had had a President like JR to guide him a bit more in team building/pro scouting as well as (and maybe more importantly) choosing the right coaches, he might still have been in charge... a lot of ifs and but, but still.... JR/PA are doing fabulously and thankfully right away, so we don't waste any more time of Petey and QH as well as Demko and Miller.

i do get up during the night regularly, but also recently started to record the games, as I don't get to hear the results prior to watching them. But I do like to watch it live, and will be doing so tomorrow.... midnight puck drop. Love to watch the Canucks

Cheers, never knew... good observation/ memory Definitely not something you'd expect from your Captain....

I think reading the posts you are all talking past one another... McD is an amazing player, and as such will be vilified at any opportunity. However, he is not the strongest defensive player, as several has mentioned. Sid is probably still the best all round player in the league and McKinnon has also shown himself to be good. It would be the same as saying Capitals no. 8, isn't a world star, cause he only scores goals... Oilers have 2 superstars in McD and Drai, but until they start to improve their two way play, or the players around them get better, they'll struggle to win the Cup... McD's biggest issue just now, is, he doesn't carry his team, when they are floating/struggling. Or maybe he does carry them, but can't at the moment... If he stopped all his complaining to the refs none stop, he'd be respected more. Just now its too much fun taking the Micky, because he always complains... Things like his interview after their 8-1 dropping, where he was moaning in the press about changing goalie, and putting out their 2nd best PP etc...

No it's not..... (but get your point ) Keep it going... Sharks and Oilers can figure it out themselves...

While its correct regarding Petey, it has to be taken into consideration, that he has matured over the last couple of years... physically in particular... He is no longer constantly falling over.... But yes without shadow of a doubt he has taken massive strides...

There is a lot of speculation in amongst all of this.... none of us know, what info he got from his scouts and who he listened to... Most importantly he has a president with zero experience followed but no president... And yes he probably did get somewhat lost, because he tried to do too much himself..... that's where a President could have came in handedly.... I'm a huge Allvin fan for turning this team into something special... his group of coaches is exceptional, and he knew exactly the type of coach he wanted. If you compare the level of coaches at Canucks now, with the coaches under Benning it's night and day.... why is that? was it Benning didn't know any better? Was Lindens lack of knowledge reason for the Willie Desjardins hire or the Travis Green with Baumer as his assistant? Was it owners, who didn't want to spend on the coaching staff or Benning? Again a President could have helped with that instead of the defensive gong show under Baumgartner... There's a lot of speculation going on. Only thing that's a definite is, Canucks are doing much better now under JR/PA and the top coaches behind the bench and during training.

Don't think anyone doubt McDs ability... When you play the best player and get the upper hand, convincingly, you should enjoy it and the banter that comes along... part and parcel of fandom. Just ask the Sedins.....

You still going on about Bennings treatment of Dahlen? I hope not, cause if you think JR/PA would have treated him better, I think you'll be mistaken... If anything JR/PA are far more business like, and would dump anyone thy think doesn't fit in, regardless of ability, friendships etc... Benning had far less to do with, and as bad as his pro-scouting team did, the nucleus of the team we now have were all drafted or acquired by Benning bar Mike, Kuz, Hronek.... Benning made a lot of mistakes, but it was a bit like giving somebody a fork to eat soup... There are still lot of people, who think Mike Gillis was a bad GM despite getting us to within a game of winning the cup... They all have good sides as well as bad sides... Do I think Benning could have done, what JR/PA has done in this short span of time? No I don't, but don't need to kick a man laying down. I think Benning could have done a lot better, had he had a Jim Rutherford to help him...

They keep this kind of game going, I can also see the 1st being used in a trade for instant support.

When they bought out OEL last summer and added Hronek to the core, they put their cards on the table. There was zero doubt, that management wanted to push the agenda. On top of this, nobody knows if Petey will be here after next year, or even after this season, if they can't agree on a contract, so they are forcing the issue. Petey stating, he wants to win, also suggests they had to start pushing, so honestly don't understand anyone suggesting it should be blown up. It could be argued that this season has started above expectation for most, as the vast majority saw this team as a wild card'ish team.. As for taking up to 4 year before becoming legit, its understandable folks would suggest that, as it normally takes time, but again, what was the point in buying out OEL and saddle the team with cap penalty, if they weren't going draw the advantage of the extra cap space this season.... So it was quite obvious from the start that management was seeing this as an opportunity to at least make the play offs. On a side note, its still early days, but only few real optimistic fans would have thought we'd have a start like this.... after all its the best start in franchise history. For the record I thought they were pushing for it as soon as the OEL buy out happened, but expected the real push to be next season.... might still be. PS. Can I just mention @Elias Pettersson called for the buy out of OEL last spring, to get the flexibility to improve the team here and now, and got ridiculed for it... Looks like he had a point.

They did get the Miller signing right though.

Wet dream.... zero chance... Are there still folks wanting to trade Miller? He's the freaking heartbeat of this team. He is turning into Kesler+ infront of our eyes and scores for fun. Taking on half the Oilers team on his own was immense... He can talk the talk and walk the walk. On top of that he is more than a ppg players for us. I'd say he is close to a steal at his $8M contract. Will he always be like this? Unlikely, but until he starts to seriously decline, we should be so happy to have him on our team.

Sounds like a belter of a trip Jan. Trips like these with mates and fellow fans are absolutely gold... and when the team is on a roll its just magic.