Great topic. Carolina works their systems, Vegas was big with great defence, Tampa bay was fast with great goaltending, the Blues were heavy, 2011 Canucks were were extremely conditioned and swarmed you.
We don’t have an identity. Miller is mean, fast and heavy, Petey is skilled, defensive and smart, Hughes is skilled and and smart. Does a player lead the team on an identity? Should the whole team be on the same page to be a cup contender?
What is this team?
by FoxtrotAlphaGolf69
15 Comments
A playoff team. I’ll be invoicing Aqua my therapy bill if we aren’t playing hockey in April
If we’re going to be the skilled team, we need to be a lot more skilled. Even guys like Quinn don’t seem like they’ll ever reach the makar, heiskanen, fox level (despite being a couple years younger – maybe he could progress)
I think the team can kinda excel at a heavy like west-coast style. If miller is here to stay then guys like Hronek, Soucy, Joshua, Garland, and even Mikheyev have to stay while the Boesers, beauvilliers, Rathbones etc would have to depart
Of course we could run different per line. Have a skilled, defensively responsible 1st line with a hard nosed possession heavy 2nd line.
Tough to play against with improved defensive structure and much improved PK. Probably a playoff contender if most breaks right
I don’t think having team identity leads to winning. I think winning gives your team an identity.
Offensive skill team. We have some good pieces and are so forward heavy.
Forcing an identity is how you get pigeonholed into a style and lose your ability to adapt and adjust. Identities will come naturally with your teams strengths, and aren’t necessary to win.
I think what’s more important is that each line has a specific role. Ideally, we should have a dynamic playmaking line centred around Petey and Kuz, a physically punishing offensive line based around Miller (ideally Pods steps into this role as a winger), a two-way third line that benefits from our winger depth, and then a defensively sound fourth line. From my view, this is what managements goals have been this offseason.
Which if you think about it, is basically how our 2011 roster looked. Sedins, Kesler and Malholtra anchoring the top 9.
While our defense needs to improve I don’t think we have the players to play a really defense orientated system. We’re still built to be a high flying offense. We have a third line likely with likely two offensive first wingers in Beau and Garland. Really our best plan with matchups is to put out our top line vs top line and try to beat them in both directions.
I’m interested to see how it works out. Really feels like management wanted to switch to a defensive system – the coach seems geared for a defensive system – but the players they’re stuck with just don’t seem to me to be well suited for it.
JR and PA want this team to be a fast skating and defensively sound team that plays within a structure sprinkled with skilled forwards. We aren’t there but I think that’s the mindset lol
Whatever identity emerges from being a winning team. Who cares if we’re gritty, offensive, defensive or whatever if we’re losing.
What does identity even mean? Winning? Isn’t that performance? The sum of personalities? Systems play?
There’s plenty of teams where having an identity doesn’t work at all. Look at the flyers: managements insistence that they play a gritty game reminiscent of the broad street bullies only damages their development of a team. Their fans complain about it constantly.
High skilled, fast,Hard to play against, physical all these
Having an underrated and underdog identity always bodes well as an identity. The Canucks should lean towards this route
What was that idea Ovechkin had when the capitals started the 17-18 season? Let’s not be suck? Or something. Do that.
We’re the 10:2 team!
Ten years into a two year retool!
There’s been so many patches added to this team it makes Microsoft look fast and sleek.
2011 was a strong puck possession team that utilized cycling in the Ozone to just wear teams out.
This team is just a bunch of parts, some that work, some that work together sometimes, but otherwise is just throwing shit at the roster and the net and hoping something sticks.