Wilbur Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 (edited) 1 hour ago, Alflives said: How is Concrete Garden Gnome 62 when he’s got less points than Higgins who is at 64? Last column is pts, 143 vs 142. Goals, Higgins has more 62 vs 55. Edited April 17 by Wilbur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 1 hour ago, Alflives said: How is Concrete Garden Gnome 62 when he’s got less points than Higgins who is at 64? Not sure what's in your drink, Alf, but 142 is less than 143. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mackcanuck Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip The Mesh Posted July 13 Share Posted July 13 Back in July of 2021, then-Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning swung for the fences in a trade that saw him land Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland. In a vacuum, this trade might have seemed exciting at first glance. But like any good void worth its salt, it was merely the precursor to choking the life out of the team, robbing it of the rich oxygen it needed to live. On top of that, they were one year away from having $12 million in cap space freed up by the exiting trio of veterans they had sent to Arizona. Instead, they found themselves taking on OEL’s large and insane substantive contract of $8.25 million, along with Conor Garland’s $5 million a year, effectively negating any cap savings of any kind. Even if you could see why Garland’s skill set was tantalizing to an NHL club, the timing of the deal felt off: It felt like Jim Benning might have made this move to save his job, as this deal was absolutely steeped in gallons of panic; It generated the kind of smell that only occurs when you’re so stressed out that you can almost taste the sour notes of your sweat hanging heavily in the air. Making the playoffs to prove the team was trending upwards felt like the end goal of this trade, rather than building around the current young core and having a long-term plan in mind And even if the plan was to make the playoffs, the trade left a lot to be desired. Trading for OEL, a player whose 5-on-5 production and defending had fallen off a cliff in his last two seasons with Arizona, only to throw him into the chaos of a team that absolutely bled rush chances, was what many would call a “wtf are we even doing here” move. (Ironically enough, OEL would probably have fared much better under Rick Tocchet’s first full season as the coach of the Canucks, due to the new coach’s structured system neutering counter-rush chances, but he was never going to live up to an $8.25 million cap hit either way.) As pointed out, Garland was the most intriguing piece of this puzzle, but never to the point that you should have been comfortable committing $13 million in salary for 5+ years. Because that is the context for this season of Conor Garland’s fantastic year for the Vancouver Canucks. In fact, Conor Garland has been a remarkably reliable player for the Canucks during his time with the team, putting up 52 points, 46 points, and 47 points respectively, despite his self admitted struggles to adjust to life in Vancouver early on. Despite the fact that before this season even began, he was told his agent could try and facilitate a trade to any team that would take him. Despite the fact he was essentially booted to the third line to start the year as he waited to see if he’d end up on a new team. He was basically stuck in a relationship that ended months ago, but he couldn’t afford a place of his own yet so he was riding things out on the couch for now. That is where Conor Garland found himself in 2023, so it should be no surprise that he struggled to rack up points heading out of the gate, putting up a mediocre two points for the entire month of October. And if ever there was a downside to playing in a Canadian hockey market, it’s the dreaded combination of having a high salary with little production to show for it. Canadians are known for being polite, but if your points per game drops below an acceptable level for your contract, your picture gets put up at all the local Tim Hortons with a message in bold font urging you to boo this man on sight. The end result of this trade was Jim Benning was fired months into the season. OEL’s contract was eventually bought out, hampering the Canucks salary cap even further, Garland struggled to find his role with the team as the team missed the playoffs yet again, and Dylan Guenther put up 35 points in 45 games in 2023, showcasing the promise of a top-line talent for many years to come: Now here’s the thing, though. The part that really separates Garland from regular third liners? He also has a high level of skill that lets him play well with elite players. We’ve seen it in the past in Vancouver, the Steve Bernier’s come into town with good size and potential, but they just don’t have the hockey IQ or twitch skills to keep up with the top level players. For all of Andrei Kuzmenko’s defensive flaws, his ability to read the offensive zone and dance with Elias Pettersson is one of the main reasons he excelled in Vancouver on the offensive side of things. And Garland, he can just as easily play in your bottom six as he can on your top two lines: Oddly enough, one of the highlights of the year for me from Conor Garland was a game back in April against the Golden Knights. With the Canucks trailing 6-3, and around six minutes left in the game, the Canucks turned the puck over into a two on one rush the other way. Most players would just let this rush play out and see what happens, using the beer league rules of “hey we all have to work tomorrow, best not to pull a calf muscle chasing this one down.” But Corolla Garland is a different breed. Summoning his inner Jeff Tambellini, he back-checked like an absolute demon to help break the play up: Corolla Garland in a 6-3 blowout game backchecks like his life depends upon it in the third period. Skates hard the entire time, no striding. This guy is a stud. He is this year's winner of the Jeff Tambellini Trophy, awarded for dedication to the hustle and backcheck life style pic.twitter.com/qsseifEmXV That’s the level of effort you get from Conor game in and game out, someone who would seemingly rather die than let the other team get a scoring chance while he’s on the ice. It’s a bloody 6-3 game out there and Garland is using every ounce of energy to make the defensive play, just in case there is even the slimmest of chances it allows his team to mount a stunning comeback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip The Mesh Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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-dlc- Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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GrammaInTheTub Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 14 minutes ago, Rip The Mesh said: Looks like he collects some hockey cards as well - including vintage cards. Gramma loves rippin packs 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip The Mesh Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-dlc- Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 4 hours ago, GrammaInTheTub said: Looks like he collects some hockey cards as well - including vintage cards. Gramma loves rippin packs Me too! My son laughs at me because every now and then I'll buy myself 10 packs and have a night rippin packs. I love it. Cheers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrammaInTheTub Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 16 minutes ago, -dlc- said: Me too! My son laughs at me because every now and then I'll buy myself 10 packs and have a night rippin packs. I love it. Cheers! Your son will totally appreciate this one day! This warms my heart It’s a wild hobby now! I don’t know if you follow it much, but the Bedard 1/1 gold upper deck series 2 rookie card has a $1M bounty on it for whoever finds it. Total Willy Wonka silliness! I like to buy old overproduced early 90s boxes of packs for fun ($20-$35 for 18+ packs). It’s a fun pastime or gift/bet payment to other hockey friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip The Mesh Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hammertime Posted September 10 Share Posted September 10 (edited) 5m is a bargain. Edited September 10 by Hammertime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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