[PGT] Utah (Arizona) @ Vancouver

[Darius]

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

[VegasCanuck]

Just really getting concerned about our ability to beat contending teams.

 

Arizona is a better team than their record, they have a lot of talent that is starting to mature, but we still should be able to beat them if we are playing as a focused, cohesive group.

 

[Captkirk888]

2 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

Makes more sense travel wise. At least for the Canucks. Although it’s a bit of a wash having Calgary/edmonton or Utah/colorado.

[Bob Long]

10 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

 

interesting. Might see both wildcard teams being out of the pacific for a long while.

 

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

6 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

 

Pick your poison - McDavid or Mackinnon.

 

The defining factor is seeing Arizona/Utah more often vs Calgary who is stuck in that mushy middle. Arizona as they showed have a lot of promise to come.

 

I prefer the old alignment tbh, IMO makes more sense to leave Colorado and Utah in the old division alignments. I like having Edmonton and Calgary as our rivals. 

[BC_Hawk]

11 hours ago, Rip The Mesh said:

It exemplifies just how much we depend on Demko. Not that the other two we've used are terrible, it tells a tale.

Disagree. Silovs hasn't been good in the last 2 starts; below average NHL goaltending. If Demko OR DeSmith is in net for those games, they make the saves, and we win easily. Not because we NEED them to win, but that we need average-good goaltending to win, like most teams.

 

At the end of the day, Demko is one of our best players, and the team SHOULD be built around him. Its not a reliance thing, its how a team with a Vezina calibre goaltender should be built. Hopefully Demmer is back Saturday......gonna be a great game.

[Captkirk888]

7 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said:

Just really getting concerned about our ability to beat contending teams.

 

Arizona is a better team than their record, they have a lot of talent that is starting to mature, but we still should be able to beat them if we are playing as a focused, cohesive group.

 

I posted this earlier in the thread. We are not the only ones being beaten by teams we supposedly should be beating…

 

COLORADO LOSSES THIS YEAR….

 

Sun, Oct 29, 2023

@ Buffalo Sabres

Loss 0 - 4

Thu, Nov 9, 2023

vs Seattle Kraken

Loss 3 - 4

Thu, Nov 30, 2023

@ Arizona Coyotes

Loss 3 - 4

Sat, Dec 2, 2023

@ Anaheim Ducks

Loss 3 - 4

Tue, Dec 19, 2023

@ Chicago Blackhawks

Loss 2 - 3

Wed, Dec 27, 2023

@ Arizona Coyotes

Loss 4 - 5

Mon, Jan 15, 2024

@ Montreal Canadiens

Loss 3 - 4

Tue, Feb 6, 2024

@ New Jersey Devils

Loss 3 - 5

Mon, Apr 1, 2024

@ Columbus Blue Jackets

Loss 1 - 4

 

EDMONTON LOSSES THIS YEAR….

 

Thu, Nov 9, 2023

@ San Jose Sharks

Loss 2 - 3

Tue, Dec 19, 2023

@ New York Islanders

Loss 1 - 3

Thu, Feb 15, 2024

@ St. Louis Blues

Loss 3 - 6

Fri, Feb 23, 2024	vs Minnesota Wild	Loss 2 - 4
Sat, Feb 24, 2024	vs Calgary Flames	Loss 3 - 6

Thu, Mar 7, 2024

@ Columbus Blue Jackets

Loss 2 - 4

Sat, Mar 9, 2024

@ Buffalo Sabres

Loss 2 - 3

Sun, Mar 24, 2024

@ Ottawa Senators

Loss 3 - 5

Mon, Apr 1, 2024

@ St. Louis Blues

Loss 2 - 3

 

[Jaimito]

 

Nux ahead of Oils and FLA 

 

[HKSR]

13 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

Obviously makes it better for travel for the US teams.  Who gives a shit about Canadian teams anyways.

 

Means VAN and SEA need to travel further for the Utah and Colorado games and look how far Edmonton and Calgary will need to travel for their games.

 

So yeah, I can see why Bettman would like the realignment.

[BC_Hawk]

2 hours ago, CanuckMan said:

After the hot start to the year Canucks had and the poor start the Oilers had, you would think the title for division winner would not have come down to the last 2-3 games but here we are. Saturday has suddenly become a must win situation with Oilers having games in hand.

Hate the oilers, but one has to give them credit for what they have done since December; totally righted the ship. They were a team that people thought MIGHT be able to get a WC spot after the start; they are basically playing for the division on Saturday.

[AnthonyG]

6 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said:

Just really getting concerned about our ability to beat contending teams.

 

Arizona is a better team than their record, they have a lot of talent that is starting to mature, but we still should be able to beat them if we are playing as a focused, cohesive group.

 

VAN vs Contenders/playoff teams

vs EDM 3-0-0

vs VGK 2-2-0

vs LAK 1-3-0

vs NSH 3-0-0

vs DAL 1-1-1 (outscored DAL 6-2 at 5v5)

vs COL 0-2-1

vs WPG 1-1-1 (outscored WPG 6-2 at 5v5)

vs TBL 1-1-0

vs FLA 2-0-0

vs NYR 1-0-1 (that OTL was bullshit with the blatant non-call)

vs TOR 1-1-0

vs NYI 2-0-0

vs CAR 2-0-0

vs BOS 1-1-0

 

PIT DET and WSH are still sorting out that final spot.

VAN vs legit playoff teams and contenders 21-12-4

 

[Gawdzukes]

21 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

he's a really smart player. I really don't care about his offensive side for the playoffs, I just like having the idea of him and Blueger running two lines capable of stifling offence. I see it as having a 3Aline (Lindy's) and a 3B line (Blueger). 

 

 

I couldn't agree more. That's the type of player whose value increases significantly in the playoffs when it comes down to tight checking and defensive acumen and understanding. He's also got the tools to get in the right places to score too. He and Petey had a super nice play to start the game where Petey saucered over about 3 sticks to get it to a streaking Lindholm. His face-offs could also be huge. Especially being a righty. I really liked his game yesterday.

 

Remember at the end when they were pressing hugely Lindy made some nice forechecks to retain the puck and when it popped out to a Coyote 4 feet away he dived flat on the ice with his stick extended to give Mik? (someone) the chance to extend the pressure and keep the puck in behind their net. Great effort ... right as the announcer was commenting that he can't wait to show the fans what he can really do. That really got me on board. Not to mention that one timer on the 2 on 1. Would have been sweet!

 

19 minutes ago, Captkirk888 said:

Totally unfair, Yotes scored 3 seconds after the penalty ended. He had no time to get back in the play. Don’t you go all Eddie Vedder on us. 

 

Haha, yes. Read my exchange above with De Niro. The comment was about why we only had 3 guys on the ice. I like Boeser, no Eddie V here, but he can be pretty weak on the defensive effort side at times. In saying that he made a couple nice plays defensively last game ... I think one may have lead to a goal for us.

Edited April 11 by Gawdzukes

[Coconuts]

14 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

 

I'd be surprised if they messed with the divisions tbh

 

Doesn't make sense to mess with the Canadian rivalries, Utah's right next to Arizona anyway so it's not as if the travel would really be much different if the status quo remained 

[Barnstorm]

The rumoured re-alignment would increase frequency of clearing customs and down play the current Van/AB rivalry. 

[Nucker67]

2 minutes ago, Jaimito said:

 

Nux ahead of Oils and FLA 

 

 

NHL calls it the Super 16, but yet show the 9 worst teams in their graphic. I guess they had to try and fit TOR in there somehow. 

[Coconuts]

32 minutes ago, Barnstorm said:

The rumoured re-alignment would increase frequency of clearing customs and down play the current Van/AB rivalry. 

 

It also only really favours Colorado, Utah, and the Cali teams. The travel would be roughly the same for Winnipeg but it would be worse for Minnesota, Chicago, Dallas, St. Louis, and Nashville. I don't see why any of these teams would be thrilled about the switch, their travel gets worse and they just swap MacKinnon and Rantanen for McDavid and Draisaitl. Calgary and Utah are probably a wash as far as being competitive goes.

 

Calgary and Edmonton's travel also gets considerably worse. 

Edited April 11 by Coconuts

[coolboarder]

36 minutes ago, Captkirk888 said:

Makes more sense travel wise. At least for the Canucks. Although it’s a bit of a wash having Calgary/edmonton or Utah/colorado.

 

41 minutes ago, Darius said:

Speaking of Utah/Arizona...anyone else see the 'rumours' floating around about division realignment.  Utah would be in the Pacific, Edmonton and Calgary moves to Central, and Colorado moves to pacific...

 

 

Here is what I would like to see in a realignment: scrap the 4 divisions of 8 teams and go with 4 teams of 8 divisions, no conference format.  

Northwest: Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton

Southwest: SJ, LA, Ana, LV

Mountain: Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Winnipeg

Central: Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Dallas

Great Lakes:  Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, Columbus

Northeast: Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, NYI

Mid-Atlantic: NYR,  NJ, Philadephia, Pittsburgh

Southeast: Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington

 

Schedule Matrix: divisional games: 8 games vs 3 teams for 24 games (4 home/4 away).

Non-divisional games: 2 games vs 28 teams for 56 games (1 home/1 away).

Total games: 80 games.

Final 24 games will be divisional games.  To prevent a certain team having early or late advantage in schedule, the whole division will be either home or away against the same division for a certain period.  So in theory, a team could play away games for 8 in a row at the same time or play 8 games in a row at home.  

Playoffs format: top 2 in each division makes the playoffs, 1 v 2 for best of 7 series. No wildcard, no nothing.

Divisional record is thrown out when determining seeding after first round and reseed from 1 to 8.  Games against non-divisional opponents becomes important when determining the home-ice.  So that teams in a weakest division don't feast against 3 teams and take home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.   8 different divisions winner can face each other from round 2 and onward with 2-3-2 format to lessen the impact of travel and balance out the home ice advantage. If an away team snatch a victory with a 1-1 deserve to keep the momentum with a chance of winning 3 games in a row at home. Round 1 will be 2-2-1-1-1 format to protect top team having the home ice if down 3-1 in the series to regain the momentum.   That is my preference format so that the Canucks can stay close to their region as much as possible when it comes to away games.

Edited April 11 by coolboarder

[Gawdzukes]

10 minutes ago, HKSR said:

Obviously makes it better for travel for the US teams.  Who gives a shit about Canadian teams anyways.

 

Means VAN and SEA need to travel further for the Utah and Colorado games and look how far Edmonton and Calgary will need to travel for their games.

 

So yeah, I can see why Bettman would like the realignment.

 

You guys take this a little (a lot haha) far sometimes. I don't think when a new team reallocates and re-alignment is brought up the first thing that pops into Bettman/league heads is how can this be used against the Canucks and Canadian franchises. There must be other legitimate business considerations in play.

 

Having said that I'd like to hear the rationale behind it as the locations are very close. Does this mean they would have made the switch even with Arizona? Maybe it's a way of completely breaking free of the Arizona situation. As well I heard Arizona will retain the right to put a team back there if they can secure an arena deal or something to that affect. Perhaps it's with an eye on the future with word of possible new franchises in Atlanta and Houston as well.

[Rip The Mesh]

45 minutes ago, BC_Hawk said:

Disagree. Silovs hasn't been good in the last 2 starts; below average NHL goaltending. If Demko OR DeSmith is in net for those games, they make the saves, and we win easily. Not because we NEED them to win, but that we need average-good goaltending to win, like most teams.

 

At the end of the day, Demko is one of our best players, and the team SHOULD be built around him. Its not a reliance thing, its how a team with a Vezina calibre goaltender should be built. Hopefully Demmer is back Saturday......gonna be a great game.

My post stands, yours is babble for the sake of filling up space. Make some sense, and I may converse. 

[Ghostsof1915]

28 minutes ago, coolboarder said:

 

Here is what I would like to see in a realignment: scrap the 4 divisions of 8 teams and go with 4 teams of 8 divisions, no conference format.  

Northwest: Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton

Southwest: SJ, LA, Ana, LV

Mountain: Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Winnipeg

Central: Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Dallas

Great Lakes:  Toronto, Buffalo, Detroit, Columbus

Northeast: Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, NYI

Mid-Atlantic: NYR,  NJ, Philadephia, Pittsburgh

Southeast: Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington

 

Schedule Matrix: divisional games: 8 games vs 3 teams for 24 games (4 home/4 away).

Non-divisional games: 2 games vs 28 teams for 56 games (1 home/1 away).

Total games: 80 games.

Final 24 games will be divisional games.  To prevent a certain team having early or late advantage in schedule, the whole division will be either home or away against the same division for a certain period.  So in theory, a team could play away games for 8 in a row at the same time or play 8 games in a row at home.  

Playoffs format: top 2 in each division makes the playoffs, 1 v 2 for best of 7 series. No wildcard, no nothing.

Divisional record is thrown out when determining seeding after first round and reseed from 1 to 8.  Games against non-divisional opponents becomes important when determining the home-ice.  So that teams in a weakest division don't feast against 3 teams and take home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.   8 different divisions winner can face each other from round 2 and onward with 2-3-2 format to lessen the impact of travel and balance out the home ice advantage. If an away team snatch a victory with a 1-1 deserve to keep the momentum with a chance of winning 3 games in a row at home. Round 1 will be 2-2-1-1-1 format to protect top team having the home ice if down 3-1 in the series to regain the momentum.   That is my preference format so that the Canucks can stay close to their region as much as possible when it comes to away games.

Two quibbles. One being the league will have an issue with it.

80 games vs 82, the NHL will not agree to that. Unless there's more pre-season games to offset the revenue.

Number 2, 8 games vs. Calgary, Edmonton and Seattle? You would get tired of seeing 4 games, let alone 8.

Travel wise, and historical rival wise it adds up.

 

Certainly an interesting option.

 

[Ghostsof1915]

48 minutes ago, BC_Hawk said:

Hate the oilers, but one has to give them credit for what they have done since December; totally righted the ship. They were a team that people thought MIGHT be able to get a WC spot after the start; they are basically playing for the division on Saturday.

They are going to have to do some juggling with the cap that's for sure. Even with the predicted cap increase.

[BC_Hawk]

11 minutes ago, Rip The Mesh said:

My post stands, yours is babble for the sake of filling up space. Make some sense, and I may converse. 

Not Babble; Pretty simple concept:

 

22/23 Canucks: Demko needed to stand on his head for us to win games

 

23/24 Canucks: We need avg NHL goaltending to win

 

Silovs and DeSmith (for a stretch) played below avg level goaltending and we lost games.

 

[erkayloomeh]

4 hours ago, Alflives said:

Are you suggesting Demko doesn’t impact the game other than just stopping pucks? 

He does.  But he doesn't generate a good pp. 

[Ghostsof1915]

15 minutes ago, BC_Hawk said:

Not Babble; Pretty simple concept:

 

22/23 Canucks: Demko needed to stand on his head for us to win games

 

23/24 Canucks: We need avg NHL goaltending to win

 

Silovs and DeSmith (for a stretch) played below avg level goaltending and we lost games.

 

DeSmith was fine when he was the backup. And took some of the load off of Demko.

However at this point Silovs and DeSmith look like they can't handle the starters load.

The team long term needs to find goalie prospects that can turn into starters.

Because if early in the next season Demko gets a serious injury, at this juncture you'd probably write off any hopes of making the playoffs.

 

Edited April 11 by Ghostsof1915

[KFAN]

12 hours ago, JeremyCuddles said:

Edmonton has 5 games. But they also have 2 back to backs. We are the 2nd game of their 1st back to back. Even if they win out for the division. They're likely gonna be spent playing so much hockey in a condensed period of time. 5 games in 7 nights, and only 1 day off before the playoffs start. That team is gonna be gassed going into the playoffs. Winning the division might not help them. Besides, McDavid is already hurt. So they may just sideline him til the playoffs. If they're smart. I honestly think our spot is safe. Even if it isn't. We're rested.

As much as I dislike McDavid, I do hope I get to see him live in Edmonton on Saturday, in part because I want to see Zadorov or Joshua lay some big hits on him. Also, of course he is a helluva hockey player, and dislike or not, I have to appreciate that.