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Majsheppard

Is Vancouver the team to beat?

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I think most of the questions surrounding Luongo stems from the fact that, on the whole, he's never accomplished anything. He's won a few rather meaningless playoff series, but he's only had one real impressive playoff run. Also, statistically, he didn't really have an off year last year; his save percentage seems to stay pretty much static in the .910-.920 region. Don't get me wrong, that's impressive, but it doesn't strike fear into my heart. When I think of goalies I don't want to run into in the playoffs, Luongo is not who comes to mind.

As for western conference teams that have improved themselves, everyone seems to be forgetting Phoenix. They had a strong season last year and made some decent acquisitions without losing much thus far. The Sharks, Blackhawks, and Predators seemed to have downgraded.

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The defending champs will always have that aura of winning the Cup, but the Hawks have lost a ton of depth that they wouldn't have won without. IMO, they're a playoff team, but have taken a few steps back from a bonafide Cup contender.

The only player in their top-six forwards the Hawks lost was Versteeg. They lost none of their top four defensemen (Hjalmarsson pending) nor their goalie (Niemi pending) and have either replaced every player lost with a younger player who is just as effective, or have a replacement lined up. The only exception is Byfuglien, whose net presence may or may not be recreated effectively enough by guys like Kopecky and Brouwer. But my main point is that Chicago's main players are still in place, so to write them off as a team that isn't a contender because they lost easily replaceable depth players who were overpaid anyway.

Eager is no better than Maltby and made $1m last year. Fraser is in the same boat and made $700k. Both were RFAs and would have cost a combined $2m+ to sign...for the team's #12 and #13 forwards.

Sopel was outplayed by rookie Jordan Hendry, and was dumped because he was making $2m, which is #4/#5 money when he was the team's #6 defenseman. Bring in a rookie or another vet to replace him for $1m or less with no discernible difference in play.

The Hawks lost 54 goals between Versteeg, Byfuglien, and Ladd. Kopecky is likely to serve as the primary replacement in Buffy's role, so we'll see an offensive increase from him, maybe an increase of 10 goals between Kopecky and Brouwer's total of 32 up to 42, given the increase in playing time and linemate skill during the regular season. So we have to replace 44 goals. Viktor Stalberg, the primary piece returning in the Versteeg trade, scored at a better GPG than Ladd or Byfuglien and only slightly behind Versteeg. Given better linemates (any of Chicago's top three lines) and a real chance, which is likely what Stalberg will get as a Hawk, he should be able to score at 20 goals over a full season. So let's see where another 14 goals come in. Bolland playing a full season and Bickell playing a full season works out to about 30 goals, which replaces the 14 contributed by Eager and Fraser.

So realistically, the Hawks have pretty much covered their losses so long as the intended replacements work out as they 'should' shall we say. Can't speak for the playoffs given the increased number of inexperienced players, but definitely a contending team with the core having had Cup experience last season and the team being perhaps only marginally worse.

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I actually think there are more question marks in the West than ever before. I think people are forgetting about Nashville, who I believe will have a fantastic season.

It sure isn't like the old days where Detroit/Colorado/Dallas were guaranteed to be in the Finals every single year.

As for Nashville, they might have a decent season, but a Cup contender they are not. Hornqvist is the only forward on their team with first line talent, and that's in a net-front role like Holmstrom. The rest of their forwards are 2nd-3rd line talent trying to make it as 1st-2nd liners. It's a credit to Barry Trotz that he manages to coach such a weak team into the playoffs most years, but it's no surprise that he's never won a playoff series with them.

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I was in Vancouver in February. Are you sure about that?

As soon as Vancouver is allowed to bypass the salary cap and assemble a roster exceeding $125M in payroll, I'll worry about his Olympic achievements. Until then, I'll remember that he doesn't have multiple Norris contenders in front of him, as well as forwards capable of keeping the puck from ever reaching the defensive zone to begin with. I honestly think any of the three goaltenders for team Canada could've won them gold. Thus, I don't really consider it that much of an achievement for him.

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As soon as Vancouver is allowed to bypass the salary cap and assemble a roster exceeding $125M in payroll, I'll worry about his Olympic achievements. Until then, I'll remember that he doesn't have multiple Norris contenders in front of him, as well as forwards capable of keeping the puck from ever reaching the defensive zone to begin with. I honestly think any of the three goaltenders for team Canada could've won them gold. Thus, I don't really consider it that much of an achievement for him.

+1

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I honestly think any of the three goaltenders for team Canada could've won them gold. Thus, I don't really consider it that much of an achievement for him.

You could change out pretty much any single player on Team Canada with a quality player who didn't even make the team and Canada probably still would have won. It's a team game.

But maybe we can just cut right to the chase here and you tell me who actually contributed to winning the gold medal and who didn't.

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You could change out pretty much any single player on Team Canada with a quality player who didn't even make the team and Canada probably still would have won. It's a team game.

But maybe we can just cut right to the chase here and you tell me who actually contributed to winning the gold medal and who didn't.

Any NHL-level Canadian-born goalie could have won that gold the way that team played. Osgood, Giguere, Theodore, Lalime, Mason, Ward, Turco, etc.

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And Kesler is a STEAL at $5 Mil. If you don't agree with that, you don't know Kesler.

I've watched a lot of Ryan Kesler. I agree that $5 million was a good number for the Canucks for his 2009-10 season. It remains to be seen, however, if he's capable of maintaining or improving upon the offense he produced this year, or for the next six years.

That being said, his contract is more a product of the GMs being bats*** insane than a product of his talent. Six years at 5 million for a forward with one decent and one solid season under his belt?

Edit:

Any NHL-level Canadian-born goalie could have won that gold the way that team played. Osgood, Giguere, Theodore, Lalime, Mason, Ward, Turco, etc.

Except Fatso. :hehe:

Edited by ComradeWasabi

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I'm not playing any games when it comes to the cap at this time. Too many unknowns still in play.

Of those players you mentioned, the most valuable (Mitchell) didn't even play in the playoffs so that screws your theory a little right there. The rest did 3rd or 4th line duty and none of them tore it up.

The Canucks have no problem at all scoring, and none of those players you mentioned were major contributors in that area. On the contrary, most of them scored very little. And we have some excellent prospects in the system, some of who could make the team this year. The Canucks offence is the least of their worries.

The Canucks addressed a weakness; not having a mobile enough defence, and in my opinion they did an excellent job at addressing that. As soon as you can get your head around the fact that the Canucks needed to address defence and have given up very little of their potent offence in doing so, the sooner the experts will show you the secret handshake.

Look, the cap is the cap. Some players on the other side of the ledger are going to have to go in order for the World's Greatest Defence Ever Assembled to take the ice. That means the offence will be affected in some way, whether it's dealing a top six guy or even dealing two defencemen for picks in order to come close to fitting under the cap.

But maybe you're right and we're all wrong. For your enjoyment, I'll include a link to Keith Ballard's greatest NHL playoff moments: Here.

I'll also include a link to the greatest hits of the second round for Dan Hamhuis: Hammer.

And finally, here's some footage from the Canucks' last Stanley Cup parade: Canucks parade.

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Look, the cap is the cap. Some players on the other side of the ledger are going to have to go in order for the World's Greatest Defence Ever Assembled to take the ice. That means the offence will be affected in some way, whether it's dealing a top six guy or even dealing two defencemen for picks in order to come close to fitting under the cap.

But maybe you're right and we're all wrong. For your enjoyment, I'll include a link to Keith Ballard's greatest NHL playoff moments: Here.

I'll also include a link to the greatest hits of the second round for Dan Hamhuis: Hammer.

And finally, here's some footage from the Canucks' last Stanley Cup parade: Canucks parade.

Canucks parade link not working. Unless that's intentional.

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TSN will always favor a Canadian Team. If they back Vancouver this year big deal. With that said to say that Vancouver didn't improve over last year is probably fool hardy. They need to trade Bieska to free up cap space, I think they overpaid for Malhotra but they got Hamhuis for a good price considering what the other teams payed for their D guys IMO.

They were #2 for goals last year and I don't believe they lost any big contributors to that. They had a big number of man games lost last year as well. They addressed the Defence and improved on that I believe.

I do think Luongo is overpaid and over rated and predict he will be traded in the next 3 years or so Unless Schneider doesn't pan out. Burrows is out for an extended time with surgery this year too.

Anyways my point being is that Vancouver now reminds me of Detroit some in the mid 90's. They are good but can't quite pull it together yet in the playoffs. Will that come, probably. Is it guaranteed, no.

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they added a couple of good defensemen in Ballard and Hamhuis and Malhotra to their third line.

It doesn't matter how many players they add to their lineup, until Luongo can stop pucks in the postseason, they're not going anywhere.

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