Canucks Q&A: Geoff Courtnall on current club: 'They can go as far as they believe they can'

[Sophomore Jinx]

Canucks Q&A: Geoff Courtnall on current club: 'They can go as far as they believe they can' 

 

Canucks Q&A: Geoff Courtnall on current club: 'They can go as far as they believe they can'

Story by Ben Kuzma

 

Head coach Rick Tocchet is the no-nonsense straw that stirs the commitment drink for the high-flying Canucks

 

They are talk of the town and the league — and sit atop the NHL heap.

For this crop of Vancouver Canucks to become true believers, they had to go where previous editions often feared to tread. Elite fitness had to become the focus, the roster required additions and deletions, and a push to put out and leave no doubt was imperative.

 

To reach first-overall status with a 23-9-3 record — including most goals, second fewest allowed, 20-0-0 mark when leading after 40 minutes, and four players in top 16 of scoring — it’s the culmination of commitment.

A collective understanding of immediate goals and the greater good allowed the Canucks to establish a club record with 20 wins in their first 30 games.

Rick Tocchet’s tough love and non-negotiable systems, structure and culture demands were the foundation. So was the bench boss getting general manager Patrik Allvin to address lineup deficiencies and not mortgage the future. And it was president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford gaining the ear of ownership — especially impatient managing director Francesco Aquilini.

Add it up and you get a plan, a purpose, a future focus and success.

“It was giving ownership confidence that decisions being made were the right decisions,” former Canucks winger Geoff Courtnall said Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, for the last five years every move backfired. Getting a new group in was what a lot of people talked to Francesco about for a long time — including myself — and it needed to happen.  

“He’s got to be happy now.”

 

Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller are trending toward career scoring seasons with the first-place Canucks.

 

 

Finally trending to end elusive and failed pursuits of a post-season position has revved up the hype meter here for good reason.

“They can go as far as they believe they can — they have all the pieces,” said Courtnall. “They’ve got the goaltending to go far in the playoffs and you have to play physical. They keep playing like this, anything can happen.”

 

The 1992-93 Canucks were a high-octane bunch, but missed their only chance to move into first overall on Jan. 19, 1993 at the Pacific Coliseum. They had won 11 of 15, but surrendered three goals in less than eight minutes of the opening period, including the opener at 2:23 by Tocchet, and fell 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Whether we were tired, or just took it lightly, it was corrected,” recalled Courtnall. “That was one of the great things with Pat (late coach and GM Quinn) “Only a few times he would come into the room and lose it. And that was one after the first period.”

Here’s more Courtnall in our latest Canucks Q&A:

Q. Tocchet got the buy-in from J.T. Miller. How crucial was it?

A. That’s why we were so successful in ’92-’93. Pat let us play. We frustrated him defensively, but we had such a good offensive group (team record 346 goals) that we gave ourselves a chance. J.T. is one of the most competitive guys I’ve seen in a long time.

 

Great skill and wants everybody to play hard and maybe to a fault, but he’s a good leader. Rick was one of the toughest guys I played against.  

Q. Pavel Bure had 60 goals in ’92-’93. Brock Boeser’s ceiling?

A. Scoring in the NHL is not easy (Boeser has 24 in 35 games). When they’re not going in, you lose confidence and start to fight your stick. And when they go in, you believe every shot has a chance. That’s where he’s at. He’s playing fantastic and in the system. When you play good team defence, and are aggressive on the puck, you get great scoring chances.

Q. Do you see Dakota Joshua as a Sergio Mommesso clone?

A. Yeah. Nobody expected Dakota to gain confidence (tough love, healthy scratch). He has a chance to score every game and that line (Joshua has nine goals and five in his last six with Conor Garland and Teddy Blueger) has been fantastic. Sergio was good for us in ’92-’93 with 18 goals.

 

Q. What’s the unexpected secret sauce to get to playoffs?

A. Pat instilled confidence. And that (’92-’93) year, Petr Nedved was 20 and scored 38 goals and had a 15-game points streak. It was his best year with us (71 points). We had an amazing PP, but we had a lot of young guys who really played well (Bure, 21, Trevor Linden, 22).

Q. Why did Kay Whitmore mesh so well with Kirk McLean?

A. It worked so well to have that guy back then (ahead of the management curve with McLean playing 54 games and Whitemore 31 in ’92-’93) and especially to go a long way in the playoffs. Great attitude and a great backup and Kirk felt confident. They had a great camaraderie. (Much like Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith).

Q. Game 7 of Cup final in ’94, but why a so-so regular season?

A. Hard to say. I didn’t understand why we struggled so much (41-40-3). We didn’t start to play our best until Game 5 of the playoffs against Calgary and facing elimination. We went further from the experience the year before (Round 2 exit) and adding Jeff Brown. The team was better than we played in the regular season.

 

 

 

Good article from Kuzma, with Q & A with Geoff Courtnall

[Captkirk888]

A lot of posters have mentioned, in various threads, the similarities of the current team with the group from 1994.

The quote “ they can go as far as they believe they can’ is not realistic but sounds good.

So many things have to go right for a cup win.
But I believe in this team and think they have a legitimate shot at the cup THIS year despite all the talk of missing pieces, still not a contender etc.

I don’t think many people thought the 94 Canucks would come within one game of winning it.

[Hogs and Podz]

28 minutes ago, Captkirk888 said:

A lot of posters have mentioned, in various threads, the similarities of the current team with the group from 1994.

The quote “ they can go as far as they believe they can’ is not realistic but sounds good.

So many things have to go right for a cup win.
But I believe in this team and think they have a legitimate shot at the cup THIS year despite all the talk of missing pieces, still not a contender etc.

I don’t think many people thought the 94 Canucks would come within one game of winning it.

You know... I completely agree with you feeling they very well might have a better shot at the cup this year. 

 

Due to the supporting players, that will become ufa by end of the year.  Playing at their, if not highest, very close to their peak performance, management is getting more for less.  That will not be the case next couple years.  

 

Because of Allvins and co's amazing trades and signings, they have a bit of cap space to add another depth forward or defencmen for the playoff run.

 

I my view, there is no, clear cut favorite this year. 

 

Rangers look really good... So maybe the best of the bunch?  Vegas is still great but may not be as good as last year.  Colorado isn't as deep as in the past.  Toronto, might be the best team out east if Woll comes back to form from injury... But they are the leafs.  Islanders are very disciplined but not enough fire power.  L.A. might be the biggest threat to us out west with Dallas a close second.  

 

Regardless, every team I mentioned has some flaws (remains to be seen with Rangers) or unproven so to me, this is the time to go all in.

 

Could you imagine a final between the Rangers and Canucks again?!!!

 

Edit: didn't mention Bruins because I think they're not deep enough to go far in the playoffs.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Hogs and Podz

[Sativika]

21 minutes ago, Captkirk888 said:

A lot of posters have mentioned, in various threads, the similarities of the current team with the group from 1994.

The quote “ they can go as far as they believe they can’ is not realistic but sounds good.

So many things have to go right for a cup win.
But I believe in this team and think they have a legitimate shot at the cup THIS year despite all the talk of missing pieces, still not a contender etc.

I don’t think many people thought the 94 Canucks would come within one game of winning it.

 

Great to see Canucks Alumni cheering for this lineup. It's encouraging for sure.

 

Yea. Okay. I guess I see similarities. That team's makeup was built by PQ to compete in the playoffs, much as our current team's built for the playoffs. The hockey 30 years ago was very different than it is now. Our current team is faster and more mobile. I would surmise that our current team would be all over the '94 team.

 

Back then at the time, I didn't really think we had a chance. When we defeated the Flames after being down three games to one, three straight all in OT? That's when I believed there was a chance. Of course, we all know what happened. A great run to be sure etched in my memories. One thing's for sure. That '94 team had heart up the ying yang in spades!

 

Yea. We're first overall and truthfully? It's nice. We're almost at the halfway point and it's a good position to be in. There's still a lot of hockey yet, and some of our biggest tests are yet to come. I'm still of the belief that we still need pieces to be contenders. It's my belief Management thinks the same. I mean they're happy with the success thus far, but they still have work to do. Not just to add pieces, but keeping current ones!

 

Uhhhhggg! Gotta wait till Thursday for Canucks hockey.

 

Go Canucks Go!

 

 

[stawns]

If every move in the last 5 years failed, why are most of the key guys players from that time frame?

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, Sativika said:

 

Great to see Canucks Alumni cheering for this lineup. It's encouraging for sure.

 

Yea. Okay. I guess I see similarities. That team's makeup was built by PQ to compete in the playoffs, much as our current team's built for the playoffs. The hockey 30 years ago was very different than it is now. Our current team is faster and more mobile. I would surmise that our current team would be all over the '94 team.

 

Back then at the time, I didn't really think we had a chance. When we defeated the Flames after being down three games to one, three straight all in OT? That's when I believed there was a chance. Of course, we all know what happened. A great run to be sure etched in my memories. One thing's for sure. That '94 team had heart up the ying yang in spades!

 

Yea. We're first overall and truthfully? It's nice. We're almost at the halfway point and it's a good position to be in. There's still a lot of hockey yet, and some of our biggest tests are yet to come. I'm still of the belief that we still need pieces to be contenders. It's my belief Management thinks the same. I mean they're happy with the success thus far, but they still have work to do. Not just to add pieces, but keeping current ones!

 

Uhhhhggg! Gotta wait till Thursday for Canucks hockey.

 

Go Canucks Go!

 

 

The ‘94 team was great. But it didn’t have Quinn Hughes. We’ve never had a generational D man. This club does. And it has a great number 2 D, a superstar number one C, a fantastic number two C, a terrific goal scoring winger, an elite goalie, and a lot of depth in the supporting cast. 
Cup for us! 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, stawns said:

If every move in the last 5 years failed, why are most of the key guys players from that time frame?

Alf accepts Benning, as terrible as he proved to be, was the GM who (minus Hronek) built this elite core. 

[Agkr3w]

32 minutes ago, stawns said:

If every move in the last 5 years failed, why are most of the key guys players from that time frame?

because they were doing too much, or put in positions to fail E.G trying to do to much. 

[Elias Pettersson]

1 hour ago, Captkirk888 said:

A lot of posters have mentioned, in various threads, the similarities of the current team with the group from 1994.

The quote “ they can go as far as they believe they can’ is not realistic but sounds good.

So many things have to go right for a cup win.
But I believe in this team and think they have a legitimate shot at the cup THIS year despite all the talk of missing pieces, still not a contender etc.

I don’t think many people thought the 94 Canucks would come within one game of winning it.

 

McLean - Demko

Whitmore - DeSmith

 

Lumme - Hughes

Hedican - Myers

Brown - Hronek

Babych - Zadorov

Diduck - Juulsen

Murzyn - Soucy

 

Bure - Petey

Craven - Mikheyev

Adams - Boeser

Linden - Miller

Lafayette - Hoglander

Courtnall - Kuzmenko

Momesso - Joshua

Ronning - Suter

Gelinas - Garland

Antonski - Lafferty

McIntyre - Blueger

Hunter - PDG

 

The similarities are quite scary actually.  We may have more talent this year than in 1994.  1994 was a much bigger and nastier team.  But in today's NHL, we don't need guys like Antonski and Hunter.  So our team in 2023-2024 is better built for today's NHL.

 

In 1994, we were barely a .500 team and then went all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.  This year we are the equivalent of the 2011 team, being in 1st place overall.  As Geoff Courtnall has said, we can go as far as we believe we can...

Edited December 27, 2023 by Elias Pettersson

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

McLean - Demko

Whitmore - DeSmith

 

Lumme - Hughes

Hedican - Myers

Brown - Hronek

Babych - Zadorov

Diduck - Juulsen

Murzyn - Soucy

 

Bure - Petey

Craven - Mikheyev

Adams - Boeser

Linden - Miller

Lafayette - Hoglander

Courtnall - Kuzmenko

Momesso - Joshua

Ronning - Suter

Gelinas - Garland

Antonski - Lafferty

McIntyre - Blueger

Hunter - PDG

 

The similarities are quite scary actually.  We may have more talent this year than in 1994.  1994 was a much bigger and nastier team.  But in today's NHL, we don't need guys like Antonski and Hunter.  So our team in 2023-2024 is better built for today's NHL.

 

In 1994, we were barely a .500 team and then went all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.  This year we are the equivalent of the 2011 team, being in 1st place overall.  As Geoff Courtnall has said, we can go as far as we believe we can...

Nicely done. Appreciate the work. The only difference I see, that’s actually extremely huge, is Quinn Hughes. The 94 team would have won the Cup with him. He’s the Brian Leach. Heck. Quinn is better. 
Quinn Hughes is the kind of player that only comes along once. And we have him. 
Three Cups for us during his reign. 

[Elias Pettersson]

42 minutes ago, stawns said:

If every move in the last 5 years failed, why are most of the key guys players from that time frame?

 

The drafting did not fail for the most part, which is where most of our key guys arrived.  Benning hit and missed on guys.  He drafted in the top 10 several times in order to get blue chip prospects.  He got lucky too.  Detroit passed on Hughes and took Zadina.  And he crapped the bed with Virtanen and Juolevi.  But he hit home runs too so you have to give Benning and his scouts credit for the drafting.  He made one really good trade too with Miller.  He made many, many shit trades too, but luckily we hit a home run with one of them.

 

As for the rest of the team, it has been built by JR/PA over the last 2 years.  Joshua, Blueger, Suter, Lafferty, Kuzmenko, Mikheyev, Aman, Hronek, Zadorov, Soucy, Cole, DeSmith.  These are key role players and one borderline core player that solidified our team and made us a top team in the NHL.  Benning wasn't able to get these types of players to support the core players, that is why we did not become an elite team until this year.

 

And finally, JR/PA fixed the coaching staff and even the front office and Abby too.  Lots of stuff in the background that we don't see is also key to our success.  

[Elias Pettersson]

5 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Nicely done. Appreciate the work. The only difference I see, that’s actually extremely huge, is Quinn Hughes. The 94 team would have won the Cup with him. He’s the Brian Leach. Heck. Quinn is better. 
Quinn Hughes is the kind of player that only comes along once. And we have him. 
Three Cups for us during his reign. 

 

I agree.  Hughes is a massive upgrade on Lumme.  He is the equivalent to Brian Leetch, who New York had in 1994 to win the cup.  You flip Lumme for Leetch and the Canucks easily beat the Rangers in the finals.  That is the biggest key difference of 1994 versus today...

[Dr. Crossbar]

10 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

McLean - Demko

Whitmore - DeSmith

 

Lumme - Hughes

Hedican - Myers

Brown - Hronek

Babych - Zadorov

Diduck - Juulsen

Murzyn - Soucy

 

Bure - Petey

Craven - Mikheyev

Adams - Boeser

Linden - Miller

Lafayette - Hoglander

Courtnall - Kuzmenko

Momesso - Joshua

Ronning - Suter

Gelinas - Garland

Antonski - Lafferty

McIntyre - Blueger

Hunter - PDG

 

The similarities are quite scary actually.  We may have more talent this year than in 1994.  1994 was a much bigger and nastier team.  But in today's NHL, we don't need guys like Antonski and Hunter.  So our team in 2023-2024 is better built for today's NHL.

 

In 1994, we were barely a .500 team and then went all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.  This year we are the equivalent of the 2011 team, being in 1st place overall.  As Geoff Courtnall has said, we can go as far as we believe we can...

 

Nice! Great job! Make sure to copy/paste/save ... it will be useful around here as this discussion continues throughout the season.

 

 

[stawns]

5 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

The drafting did not fail for the most part, which is where most of our key guys arrived.  Benning hit and missed on guys.  He drafted in the top 10 several times in order to get blue chip prospects.  He got lucky too.  Detroit passed on Hughes and took Zadina.  And he crapped the bed with Virtanen and Juolevi.  But he hit home runs too so you have to give Benning and his scouts credit for the drafting.  He made one really good trade too with Miller.  He made many, many shit trades too, but luckily we hit a home run with one of them.

 

As for the rest of the team, it has been built by JR/PA over the last 2 years.  Joshua, Blueger, Suter, Lafferty, Kuzmenko, Mikheyev, Aman, Hronek, Zadorov, Soucy, Cole, DeSmith.  These are key role players and one borderline core player that solidified our team and made us a top team in the NHL.  Benning wasn't able to get these types of players to support the core players, that is why we did not become an elite team until this year.

 

And finally, JR/PA fixed the coaching staff and even the front office and Abby too.  Lots of stuff in the background that we don't see is also key to our success.  

Absolutely, no argument there.  But the article says every move in the last 5 years missed.  That's a ridiculous take when the entire core are guys from that era.  Like Gillis, PA gets the advantage of inheriting a team that has the core pieces in place.

[Alflives]

3 minutes ago, stawns said:

Absolutely, no argument there.  But the article says every move in the last 5 years missed.  That's a ridiculous take when the entire core are guys from that era.  Like Gillis, PA gets the advantage of inheriting a team that has the core pieces in place.

True. But then it’s the job of the next GM to built out a supporting cast that will help that core to be winners. Allvin (and his group) dumperood the Fat Wallet and added Hronek to complete our core. And while doing that they changed much of the supporting cast. 
yes, Benning was GM while we drafted Demko, Petey, Hughes, Boeser, and traded for Miller. But it took new management to finish the core and build a proper supporting cast. Benning was not capable of sitting back and allowing his scouted (a mature and professional) to do their jobs. That IMHAO was his flaw. Great guy (really likeable) but had an arrogant side too. 

[Elias Pettersson]

5 minutes ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

 

Nice! Great job! Make sure to copy/paste/save ... it will be useful around here as this discussion continues throughout the season.

 

 

 

Haha, I did that list in 5 minutes by memory.  I know the team from 1994 like the back of my hand.  I even added Murzyn even though I know he only played in the first round and was replaced by Brian Glynn.  But Murzyn played most of the year, so I put him in.  We traded Robert Dirk during the year as well.  And Hedican, Brown and Lafayette came in via the Nedved/Janney trade in March at the trade deadline, which I feel is when the team started to turn it around just in time for the playoffs...

[stawns]

13 minutes ago, Alflives said:

True. But then it’s the job of the next GM to built out a supporting cast that will help that core to be winners. Allvin (and his group) dumperood the Fat Wallet and added Hronek to complete our core. And while doing that they changed much of the supporting cast. 
yes, Benning was GM while we drafted Demko, Petey, Hughes, Boeser, and traded for Miller. But it took new management to finish the core and build a proper supporting cast. Benning was not capable of sitting back and allowing his scouted (a mature and professional) to do their jobs. That IMHAO was his flaw. Great guy (really likeable) but had an arrogant side too. 

 

Agreed, it doesnt take anything away from PA.  In fact, I said two season ago that Benning wouldn't be the one to take the team to the next step.  He did the same thing Nonis did, he built the foundation

[Tusk]

4 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

Haha, I did that list in 5 minutes by memory.  I know the team from 1994 like the back of my hand.  I even added Murzyn even though I know he only played in the first round and was replaced by Brian Glynn.  But Murzyn played most of the year, so I put him in.  We traded Robert Dirk during the year as well.  And Hedican, Brown and Lafayette came in via the Nedved/Janney trade in March at the trade deadline, which I feel is when the team started to turn it around just in time for the playoffs...

I think the biggest improvement here over 94 and 2011 is we have depth in abby as well. We are going to run out of Cap over the next bunch of signings that need to be done.... but we have some cheap guys who can come up.

I think we can do it this year.

But with the depth I think we can do it next year too! Then we got cap issues.

[Dr. Crossbar]

7 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

Haha, I did that list in 5 minutes by memory.  I know the team from 1994 like the back of my hand.  I even added Murzyn even though I know he only played in the first round and was replaced by Brian Glynn.  But Murzyn played most of the year, so I put him in.  We traded Robert Dirk during the year as well.  And Hedican, Brown and Lafayette came in via the Nedved/Janney trade in March at the trade deadline, which I feel is when the team started to turn it around just in time for the playoffs...

 

Haha ... I more meant so you don't have to write it all out again. But ... awesome memory! I lived it. Loved it. Was even at some of those 94 playoff games but I would've had to look some of that up. Nice job! 

[Elias Pettersson]

12 minutes ago, Tusk said:

I think the biggest improvement here over 94 and 2011 is we have depth in abby as well. We are going to run out of Cap over the next bunch of signings that need to be done.... but we have some cheap guys who can come up.

I think we can do it this year.

But with the depth I think we can do it next year too! Then we got cap issues.

 

We can sort out the cap, but it will come with some tough decisions.  Most notably Boeser.  If he is looking in the $8 million+ plus range, then I feel it might be best to trade him for help on defence and then let Lekkerimaki take his place for $950k.  D-Petey and Willander will also come in a couple of years on cheap contracts, so that is why we don't really need to go out and spend millions on Dmen in free agency.  We just need some short term help until the young guys are ready.

 

The biggest issue that we have IMO is Demko.  We don't really have a replacement for him.  We have Silovs but he might take another 3-4 years to develop.  Remember Demko was in the AHL for 3 years and then was still a backup for 2 more years.  He didn't really become a legit starter until he was 26 years old.  Do we pay him $8.5 million for 7 years like Hellebuyck, or do we trade him?  That's gonna be a tough one...

Edited December 27, 2023 by Elias Pettersson

[Tusk]

3 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

We can sort out the cap, but it will come with some tough decisions.  Most notably Boeser.  If he is looking in the $8 million+ plus range, then I feel it might be best to trade him for help on defence and then let Lekkerimaki take his place for $950k.  D-Petey and Willander will also come in a couple of years on cheap contracts, so that is why we don't really need to go out and spend millions on Dmen in free agency.  We just need some short term help until the young guys are ready.

 

The biggest issue that we have IMO is Demko.  We don't really have a replacement for him.  We have Silovs but he might take another 3-4 years to develop.  Remember Demko was in the AHL for 3 years and then was still a backup for 2 more years.  He didn't really become a legit starter until he was 26 years old.  Do we pay him $8.5 million for 7 years like Hellebuyck, or do we trade him?  That's gonna be a tough one...

I think Boeser contract is still good, I think its Heronik who might want to much,we can drop Cole, and realistically Soucy. Demmers will want to stay and will likely be an ok contract after what happened with Luongo. If we win the cup this year, its more likely Peterson who we cant afford.

[Captkirk888]

1 hour ago, Sativika said:

 

Great to see Canucks Alumni cheering for this lineup. It's encouraging for sure.

 

Yea. Okay. I guess I see similarities. That team's makeup was built by PQ to compete in the playoffs, much as our current team's built for the playoffs. The hockey 30 years ago was very different than it is now. Our current team is faster and more mobile. I would surmise that our current team would be all over the '94 team.

 

Back then at the time, I didn't really think we had a chance. When we defeated the Flames after being down three games to one, three straight all in OT? That's when I believed there was a chance. Of course, we all know what happened. A great run to be sure etched in my memories. One thing's for sure. That '94 team had heart up the ying yang in spades!

 

Yea. We're first overall and truthfully? It's nice. We're almost at the halfway point and it's a good position to be in. There's still a lot of hockey yet, and some of our biggest tests are yet to come. I'm still of the belief that we still need pieces to be contenders. It's my belief Management thinks the same. I mean they're happy with the success thus far, but they still have work to do. Not just to add pieces, but keeping current ones!

 

Uhhhhggg! Gotta wait till Thursday for Canucks hockey.

 

Go Canucks Go!

 

 

Canucks/Rangers would be a great series.

But I think it would be fun if it were the Islanders. Playing against our former captain (and winning)!

[Alflives]

30 minutes ago, stawns said:

 

Agreed, it doesnt take anything away from PA.  In fact, I said two season ago that Benning wouldn't be the one to take the team to the next step.  He did the same thing Nonis did, he built the foundation

Yup. 100% agree. There are GMs who build the core (sometimes that’s two) and then there are those who finish. Allvin is a finisher. IMHAO this core, with Allvin finishing, will win multiple Cups. 

[Captkirk888]

1 hour ago, Elias Pettersson said:

 

McLean - Demko

Whitmore - DeSmith

 

Lumme - Hughes

Hedican - Myers

Brown - Hronek

Babych - Zadorov

Diduck - Juulsen

Murzyn - Soucy

 

Bure - Petey

Craven - Mikheyev

Adams - Boeser

Linden - Miller

Lafayette - Hoglander

Courtnall - Kuzmenko

Momesso - Joshua

Ronning - Suter

Gelinas - Garland

Antonski - Lafferty

McIntyre - Blueger

Hunter - PDG

 

The similarities are quite scary actually.  We may have more talent this year than in 1994.  1994 was a much bigger and nastier team.  But in today's NHL, we don't need guys like Antonski and Hunter.  So our team in 2023-2024 is better built for today's NHL.

 

In 1994, we were barely a .500 team and then went all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.  This year we are the equivalent of the 2011 team, being in 1st place overall.  As Geoff Courtnall has said, we can go as far as we believe we can...

One thing to remember about the 94 team, almost the same roster won the Smythe division with 101 points and finished 7th overall in the league the season prior. So it was proven they had the stuff, 94 reg season was an aberration.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Captkirk888

[NewbieCanuckFan]

12 minutes ago, Captkirk888 said:

Canucks/Rangers would be a great series.

But I think it would be fun if it were the Islanders. Playing against our former captain (and winning)!

So help me if Lafayette hit's the post again.