yave1964 Posted June 17 Share Posted June 17 PRESEASON OUTLOOK Some thought they were going to be an also ran, others thought that if Demko could stay healthy they might contend for a playoff spot. Nobody really took them serious as a cup contender. FINAL RECORD 50-23-9 109 points won the Pacific, defeated the Predators in six games, lost in the second round to the Oilers in a wild fun seven games series STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR Sometimes it is hard to find a cool stat from a very good or very bad team, bad teams have bad stats, good teams have good stats, ect..... but Vancouver has a very few unique numbers..... they started red hot per game, they led all of Hockey in first period goals and were top five in the second but the wheels fell off as the game went on, only 24th in the third period. The biggie to me is puck luck was with them all year long. They were 26th in total shots in spite of that they managed to come in 6th in total goals. Usually these numbers are about even but the Canucks had a crazy good shooting pct. all year, way above the norm. HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR Oh winning the Division. Demko went out March 9th and the sky is falling crew were out bemoaning their chances and after Desmith bombed Silovs came out of literally nowhere and they went 8-6-2 which was respectable and enough to capture the Pacific title. LOW POINT OF THE YEAR lOSING demko in the first round in the first game to Nashville. Desmith was a dud, Silovs started the next ten games but truthfully if they had Demko IMHO they would have beaten Edmonton, hands down. Silovs was good but the team had to adjust their game rather than playing what got them there. They have a summer of what ifs. WHAT WENT RIGHT Demko would have won the Vezina if not for his injuries, that is a fact, he was brilliant. DeSmith faded late but was good. Silovs came out of nowhere and was good. JT Miller was a flat out beast. Boeser was a goial scoring machine. Elias Petterson was a force. Quinn Hughes was damn near unstoppable on the back end. Garland, Hoglander, Joshua and Suter were fantastic secondary scorers. Blueger and Lafferty were great in bottom six centre positions. Tyler Myers was very good. Zadorov was fantastic. Hronek was an amazing all purpose defender. WHAT WENT WRONG Demko missing the postseason cost them a shot at a cup. Pettersson was dreadful in the postseason. Mikheyev didnt do much. Lindholm came over for Kuzmenko and bombed. The bottom pair defenders were very thin and forced the top four to play too many minutes. FREE AGENTS Just a ton of very good to very serviceable free agents , they want Lindholm and Zadorov back, if they return them they will have to let Joshua, Myers, Cole, Lafferty and Blueger go. Or they bring back any of those three and dont resign Lindholm. Tough choices. Plus Hronek is a RFA who wants serious money based off a brilliant year.DeSmith wont be asked back. They went all in, they dont have a first or second this year. TOP ROOKIES Silovs will be the backup for the brittle but mega talented Demko. they like all purpose forward Linus Karlsson who plays in all positions and might be forced to replace Joshua who had a career year. Danila Klimovich can score and did so at the A, he might develop into a nice depth player. Artu Raty who came over from the Isles in the Horvat deal has not really looked good so far. They have three or four players such as McWard, Bains and Saxxon who can step in as an injury replacement but that is about their high end. Not the worst depth but nobody in the system really checks out. OFFSEASON QUESTIONS Wither Demko? He went 35-14-2 with a 2.45 goals against nearly half a point less than his backup. But damn he cant stay healthy, do you trust that he will fight through injuries and trust Silovs or do you bring in a solid Samsonov as a safe backup? Do you get into a bidding war for Lindholm? Top line centers are impossible to find, hell second line ones are rare. He came over costing a first and Kuzmenko, do you overbid on his very underwhelming season he game them after the very solid postseason he gave? Or do you resign all the depth players instead? Pettersson was God awful in the postseason, do you write it off as a fluke? Every player has one of those postseasons, it just sucks when it happens to you at the wrong time, making it glaring. It reminded me of Primeau with the Wings, he has fantastic in the regular but his postseason numbers were awful. Same with Pettersson. I am beginning to wonder if he will ever compete in the playoffs. Nice season for a team that you never know who they are week to week or year to year. The key pieces are there it is just a matter of if they can stay healthy and hot at the right time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted June 27 Share Posted June 27 On 6/17/2024 at 2:41 PM, yave1964 said: they want Lindholm and Zadorov back, if they return them they will have to let Joshua, Myers, Cole, Lafferty and Blueger go. FIFY Carry on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 1 hour ago, OccamsRazor said: FIFY Carry on. Joshua signed as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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