★[PGT] Vancouver Canucks vs Florida Panthers • Dec 14, 2023 • (Roberto Luongo Night ROH Induction)★

[Crimson JH]

1 minute ago, I.AM.THE.WALRUS said:

We just gotta keep winning… don’t be focusing on our enemies

Can’t really help it and I live in Vegas…  

[48MPHSlapshot]

3 hours ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

 

It's gonna be nice when he hits 30, if for no other reason than the big-brains going "Well akshully" whenever someone calls Brock a 30 goal scorer.

[JamesB]

Very late comments tonight after a holiday party before watching. (Don't know I how I managed before PVR.)

 

1. It just keeps getting better. The 4th win in a row, all against good teams, with the best team (Florida) tonight. The Canucks are now 2nd in the NHL in total points (although "only" 4th in winning percentage) and first in goal differential, which a lot of people take as a better indicator of performance. Their PDO still suggests that some "regression" can be expected but, after 30 games, the Canucks have to be regarded as legitimately good.

 

2. All 4 games were similar with the Canucks playing two periods of hard-fought hockey and taking the lead largely on the basis of having the better goalie, but also with some very good play in other areas, then locking things down in the 3rd period. Once again, the Canucks were badly outshot in the third but they were keeping shots to the outside and, with a 4-goal lead, just never gave Florida a chance to actually get in the game. Talk about night and day relative to the start of last season when no lead was safe.

 

3. Not about the star players tonight (apart from Demko, who was great). The best Canuck skaters on the ice were Garland and Joshua --two guys who have really embraced Tocchey (Tocchet hockey). Garland was unlucky to only get one point tonight but he was +3 in plus/minus. Also great to see Kuzy score another really nice goal. And Suter looks good, handling some of the tough defensive minutes. If Kuzy finds his game, a line of Kuzy, Suter, and PDG could be a heck of a 4th line. And the third line of Blueger, Joshua and Garland has been playing great for a while.

 

4. We could be in a weird situation where we hope top two lines play more or less even against opposing top lines and leave it to the bottom six to provide the winning margin.

 

5. I have mentioned a Juulsen a lot recently. At 16 and a half minutes I think he had his highest ice time yet. And both Hronek and Hughes were under 20 minutes, which is very rare and very valuable given how important rest is.

 

6. Confirming the above points, the Statcard advanced stats had Garland, Joshua, and Kuzy at the top. And Juulsen does pretty well. The Natural Stat Trick (NTS) expected goals number is a bit different, although Garland and Kuzy were near the top and Juulsen looked good. Joshua dropped a bit. One reason for the difference is that a "lucky bounce" (giveaway by the goalie) that led to Joshua's second goal gets more credit in the Statcards than in NTS.

 

7. Could not ask for a better homestand. Now we have  a road back-to-back coming up and that is always tough.

 

[Elias Pettersson]

Vancouver Canucks record after 30 games:

 

2023-2024: 20-9-1 = 41 points

 

2010-2011: 18-9-3 = 39 points 

[Elias Pettersson]

Not sure if anyone has looked at the schedule, but we have a crazy road trip in January and a smaller one in February. But after February 22, we don’t leave the westcoast until the last game of the year.  And in March we have a 9 game home stand.

 

So, I would say that if we can get out of January and mid February and we are in a similar position as we are in now, then we have a legit shot at being the top team in the Western Conference.  That 9 game home stand in March could shoot us over the top.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Elias Pettersson

[I.AM.THE.WALRUS]

1 hour ago, Crimson JH said:

Can’t really help it and I live in Vegas…  

[I.AM.THE.WALRUS]

3 hours ago, Goal_thecup said:

And that's more fun too; at least, that's what she said.

[I.AM.THE.WALRUS]

3 hours ago, -dlc- said:

That game was SO fun. Start to finish, an electric atmosphere.

 

Clocked myself in the face with my cowbell...only a little blood. Was lucky I didn't knock a tooth out. I took one for my team (was trying to high five my friend beside me and I had the cowbell lanyard wrapped around my wrist....shot it back at me like a slingshot). Took one for the team.

 

They looked great. Super happy they got the shut out for Demko.

 

Floriduh? Not so much....they were quite awful. Oh Bob, thanks for the goal!

 

Oh also...that call on Miller was horsepoop....if anything, they both should have gone. 

[spook007]

 

Posted 11 hours ago

   11 hours ago,  spook007 said: 

I'm with you on this one... He bend Canucks over, so for him to come waltzing in and pretend too be a hero of Vancouver... 

I haven't forgotten his crap, My contract sucks... and his nice little gesture to Panthers, thus screwing us over... as if the NHL screwing wasn't enough.

 

Its definitely with mixed emotions I'll see him tonight... 

 

@Haddy

 

Nobody forced management to offer him a monster contract. Nobody knew there'd be such a stuff cap penalty at the time of signing.. and the guy had to retire because he gave his body for this sport and it caught up to him. Played with his heart on his sleeve here.

 

Today's huge for the organization, appreciating the best goaltender to ever play for us. Maybe you guys could suck it up, get over it, and enjoy the induction like the rest of us.

-------

Had to copy paste to answer this one as comments section is closed...

 

Who says he wasn't the best goal keeper to play for this organisation?

 

As for retiring because his body gave up... He could have gone to LTIR for the rest of his contract, and Canucks wouldn't have gotten the recap penalty. However, he chose to retire and get 'another' job within the Panthers organisation, so they got of the hook and we carried his cap.

Also, Luongo was the player stating his contract sucked, not Canucks... He never had any problems, when he signed it...

So before we decide, how he gave his body to the sport, I think there's a lot to be said about who came first for Luongo.

 

What there is no debate about is, that he is by far the best goalie to play for Canucks, and his records speaks for themselves...

 

And as for management being forced, there were no reasons to not give him a contract like that. It was until afterwards, the rules were changed and Vancouver got shafted...again.

[spook007]

So is it time to blow it all up and start afresh?........................../s

 

Great game by the Canucks, and Demko having a shut out on Luongo night was very fitting salute to Bobby LU.

 

And man is it great to see us have a defence, that can actually hurt other teams... Cole, Zadorov, Juulsen and Myers all have it in them, and still Soucy to come back. It's been a long time since we looked this strong on the back end. 

 

3rd period the boys took it easy... 

 

Fun to see 2/3 of our top line to start the season playing on the 4th line... talk about depth... 

And Kuz is smiling again. Man, this winning thing is fun....

[DrJockitch]

First game have missed this year. 
I like putting Kuz with Garland. He needs to finish and Garland needs a finisher. 
Good to see us rolling again.  

[CanucksJay]

Having 8 coaches is paying off. 

I've never seen the canucks play so well in the details of the game. 

For example, battling along the boards. I was amazed they are now using better body positioning to get leverage and then using and timing their stick movements to get their stick freed up and come out with the puck. 

Also puck pursuit. They are taking the right lanes but not only that, their sticks are in the right position to take away or deter a pass /make the pass a lot harder for opposing players. 

Unpopular but I believe JV got screwed with poor coaching and development. Sometimes I wondered what the hell he was doing on forecheck and puck pursuit when he was taking super inefficient routes. 

I think he could have been a monster under RT. 

Ofcourse we'd need his buy in and work ethic but if anyone could have gotten in his head, it might have been RT. Everyone else was too soft or stupid to change Jake and his lazy ways. 

Watching the evolution of Boeser, Hogz, Joshua, Miller made me realize that even at an NHL level, all these things can be taught and it's not too late for a player who is weak without the puck to become really good at it. 

I have high hopes for Podz, Raty and the remaining prospects to be developed the right way and be major assets for this organization. 

[CanucksJay]

3 hours ago, JamesB said:

 

4. We could be in a weird situation where we hope top two lines play more or less even against opposing top lines and leave it to the bottom six to provide the winning margin.

 

5. I have mentioned a Juulsen a lot recently. At 16 and a half minutes I think he had his highest ice time yet. And both Hronek and Hughes were under 20 minutes, which is very rare and very valuable given how important rest is.

 

 

 

 

As always great post. 

 

I was thinking about points 4 and 5. 

 

I don't remember our bottom 6 ever being this good. Not that we would be doing it intentionally but I see our top lines feasting on weaker opposition while we probably play to more of a "tie" against contenders and they can try to pick up their points on the PP. Our bottom 6 can then outplay their bottom 6 and hopefully, that's enough to come out with a W. 

 

Also Juulsen has really come on. He plays physical, and the stronger systems play by the entire team is masking his lack of speed as he is in the right place to get the puck and gives himself a little more time to make a play. 

 

That spinning pass yesterday caught me by surprise. I thought that was Hronek. 

 

Juulsen is at his best when the entire team is engaged and committed to the system like yesterday. When that breaks down, his deficiencies get exposed more. 

 

Amazing we didn't have to play Hughes Hronek 28m+  against a contending team. 

 

The emergence of Z and Myers pairing really helped that

 

If we can keep this up, they will be fresh for the playoffs

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by CanucksJay

[IBatch]

3 hours ago, JamesB said:

Very late comments tonight after a holiday party before watching. (Don't know I how I managed before PVR.)

 

1. It just keeps getting better. The 4th win in a row, all against good teams, with the best team (Florida) tonight. The Canucks are now 2nd in the NHL in total points (although "only" 4th in winning percentage) and first in goal differential, which a lot of people take as a better indicator of performance. Their PDO still suggests that some "regression" can be expected but, after 30 games, the Canucks have to be regarded as legitimately good.

 

2. All 4 games were similar with the Canucks playing two periods of hard-fought hockey and taking the lead largely on the basis of having the better goalie, but also with some very good play in other areas, then locking things down in the 3rd period. Once again, the Canucks were badly outshot in the third but they were keeping shots to the outside and, with a 4-goal lead, just never gave Florida a chance to actually get in the game. Talk about night and day relative to the start of last season when no lead was safe.

 

3. Not about the star players tonight (apart from Demko, who was great). The best Canuck skaters on the ice were Garland and Joshua --two guys who have really embraced Tocchey (Tocchet hockey). Garland was unlucky to only get one point tonight but he was +3 in plus/minus. Also great to see Kuzy score another really nice goal. And Suter looks good, handling some of the tough defensive minutes. If Kuzy finds his game, a line of Kuzy, Suter, and PDG could be a heck of a 4th line. And the third line of Blueger, Joshua and Garland has been playing great for a while.

 

4. We could be in a weird situation where we hope top two lines play more or less even against opposing top lines and leave it to the bottom six to provide the winning margin.

 

5. I have mentioned a Juulsen a lot recently. At 16 and a half minutes I think he had his highest ice time yet. And both Hronek and Hughes were under 20 minutes, which is very rare and very valuable given how important rest is.

 

6. Confirming the above points, the Statcard advanced stats had Garland, Joshua, and Kuzy at the top. And Juulsen does pretty well. The Natural Stat Trick (NTS) expected goals number is a bit different, although Garland and Kuzy were near the top and Juulsen looked good. Joshua dropped a bit. One reason for the difference is that a "lucky bounce" (giveaway by the goalie) that led to Joshua's second goal gets more credit in the Statcards than in NTS.

 

7. Could not ask for a better homestand. Now we have  a road back-to-back coming up and that is always tough.

 

As usual, a great analysis.   Really think the mods should start pinning your posts right after the PGT as well, when they come in.   

 

Thanks James B! 

[Silent Man]

4 hours ago, Crimson JH said:

That’s okay, and you are correct.  Sometimes I used the word “man” as an expression in a lesser profanity ways.  

For example:

“Aw man! I lost my keys again!”

 

 

Oh, thank you, I am glad, that my thoughts were correct- I got that feeling looking at your amazing art work for GDT

[Hairy Kneel]

7 hours ago, Hogs and Podz said:

Gargershua or Joshblueland? Lol!!!

The Labour Ready Line

"Work today, paid today".

[IBatch]

3 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Not sure if anyone has looked at the schedule, but we have a crazy road trip in January and a smaller one in February. But after February 22, we don’t leave the westcoast until the last game of the year.  And in March we have a 9 game home stand.

 

So, I would say that if we can get out of January and mid February and we are in a similar position as we are in now, then we have a legit shot at being the top team in the Western Conference.  That 9 game home stand in March could shoot us over the top.

For sure.   And those 4 games we play against LA over a few weeks,  starting in February, are going to be both very telling, but also could mean the difference between home ice advantage in the post season. 

[Hairy Kneel]

7 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

I hated the JT Miller trade at the time, so we all get things wrong haha

 

Man its so much fun right now, when the Canucks are good the sun is a tad brighter, beer tastes a tad better, games are alot more fun. Its been a long time coming. 

I didn't like the Hronek trade but man he's like flypaper on star forwards. 

You ever accidentally touch fly paper?

[tas]

3 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Vancouver Canucks record after 30 games:

 

2023-2024: 20-9-1 = 41 points

 

2010-2011: 18-9-3 = 39 points 

av's teams were notoriously better after Xmas. 

 

I doubt anyone remembers, but on December 20th, 2010 I posted a thread on cdc featuring a predictive model I devised based on the canucks improvement after Christmas under av. I arbitrarily chose dec. 20th as the fulcrum point, and worked out the average of the point percentage increase after that date in the seasons vigneault had coached, and then applied that average to the current (2010-11) season to predict the team's final point tally. 

 

it predicted 117 points. 

 

the same model, deployed the same way on Dec. 20th 2011 predicted 111 points for the 2011-12 season. 

 

I would have tried for 3 years in a row but the lockout happened and then AV got fired. 

[Sativika]

- Our bottom six, especially 3rd line, looked great.

- Having Suter back is a much needed aspect of our success.

- Juulsen is getting better. Perhaps playing himself into a full time roster spot??!?!?!?!???

- The Brockstar rocks on!

- Kuzy's post scoring enthusiasm never disappoints.

         

All around a triumphant win on Bobby Luuuuuuuuuooooooo induction eve. A short side note; We beat your Panthers. Roberto! (Beating my chest like a Silverback Gorilla!)

 

Seriously though. watching this eves Luooooo tribute brought back warm memories of that era. There were soooo many involving him. Good and bad; mostly good. Roberto single handedly removed the "Goalie Graveyard," culture infecting our 'Nucks post Captain Kirk. Back to the game..........

 

The 3rd period. I won't say they sucked. But they did seem to take their foot off the gas. Seemingly just enough to play sound, if you will,  to keep themselves from self destructing like they used to the past few seasons. However, Demmer was a factor of the highest magnitude in the 3rd for sure.

 

All in all an excellent showing the last few in this home stand. Love it!

 

Go Canucks Go!!!!!!!

[Hairy Kneel]

6 hours ago, I.AM.THE.WALRUS said:

And the Sedins  are in charge of something - the power-play maybe?

They're in charge of sedinery. Sprinkle that shii everywhere. 

[Bure10Kuzmenko96]

6 hours ago, Strawbone said:

 

The Garblujos line!

DaGarBlu

[Hogs and Podz]

7 minutes ago, tas said:

av's teams were notoriously better after Xmas. 

 

I doubt anyone remembers, but on December 20th, 2010 I posted a thread on cdc featuring a predictive model I devised based on the canucks improvement after Christmas under av. I arbitrarily chose dec. 20th as the fulcrum point, and worked out the average of the point percentage increase after that date in the seasons vigneault had coached, and then applied that average to the current (2010-11) season to predict the team's final point tally. 

 

it predicted 117 points. 

 

the same model, deployed the same way on Dec. 20th 2011 predicted 111 points for the 2011-12 season. 

 

I would have tried for 3 years in a row but the lockout happened and then AV got fired. 

Still got the formula (model)?  Try using it for this team.

[tas]

3 minutes ago, Hogs and Podz said:

Still got the formula (model)?  Try using it for this team.

it was pretty simple, just a lot of work. figure out point % each year before and after Dec. 20 and do some pretty basic math. the reality is it was horribly unscientific and shouldn't have worked but worked perfectly 2 years in a row. 

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Hogs and Podz said:

Still got the formula (model)?  Try using it for this team.

Hopefully, this year becomes a new predictive season, and the sample size in a few years, makes it very easy to predict.    As of right now, teams on pace for 112 and a bit points.  Without the benefit of loser points.   That's like 120 in the current system.   And like 110 before loser points were created.     An excellent season (90 used to be a good season, 100 excellent, 110 exceptional).  

 

Based on the schedule in Jan-Feb,  as long as the teams healthy, we shouldn't have a problem with 105 points.    We only need to win four more games, and the rest be .500, to hit 97....

Edited December 15, 2023 by IBatch