The bickering, finger-pointing, internet yelling has hit Defcon 2 as the Canucks another stretch of time without their #1 goalie, Thatcher Demko. The meele increased once President Jimmy Rathernot said that a rebuild was out of the question for this team. The inferences that grew from his comments we like watching a chain reaction.
(This is not a chain reaction....but it serves a purpose!)
Besides the possibility of stupid money being thrown at him by Vancouver, I'm not sure why Quinn would stay in this boxed wildfire?
"But...but.....this team, when healthy....on paper....or video game console, can be a playoff team!!"
Unfortunately, the games that count are not played on either.
This team has no point per game players.....this team is dead last on the penalty kill....the powerplay is in the bottom half of the league. This is why the team will only be a .500 club. Injuries to the starting lineup are not easy to replace on this team. For all the talk of a Calder Cup win, there is a huge difference for an AHL player to score in that league versus an AHL player to score in the NHL.
This little 3 game road trip might just create that separation in the standings that the idea of the playoffs might be a fleeting thought before American Thanksgiving. I am already kind of viewing this year to be like the last year of Willie D. No expectations of success, but fear of a future without Quinn in it.
Of course, if they find a way to sneak a couple wins out, I might have to change my tune. But the Eeyore in me is just waiting for the next visit of the injury fairies
LINEUPS
Canucks projected lineup
Evander Kane -- Elias Pettersson -- Conor Garland
Brock Boeser -- Lukas Reichel -- Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor -- Aatu Raty -- Jake DeBrusk
Arshdeep Bains -- Max Sasson -- Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes -- Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson -- Tyler Myers
Elias Pettersson -- Tom Willander
Kevin Lankinen
Jiri Patera
Scratched: P.O. Joseph, Mackenzie MacEachern
Injured: Thatcher Demko (lower body), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Teddy Blueger (lower body), Nils Hoglander (lower body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed)
Hurricanes projected lineup
Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Logan Stankoven -- Jackson Blake
William Carrier -- Jordan Staal -- Jordan Martinook
Taylor Hall -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Eric Robinson
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Sean Walker
K’Andre Miller -- Joel Nystrom
Alexander Nikishin -- Mike Reilly
Pyotr Kochetkov
Brandon Bussi
Scratched: Frederik Andersen, Mark Jankowski, Gavin Bayreuther
Injured: Jalen Chatfield (upper body), Jaccob Slavin (lower body), Charles-Alexis Legault (hand)
Status report
Hughes participated in the Canucks' optional morning skate Friday after not practicing Thursday and will be a game-time decision; he briefly left in the second period of a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday favoring his left arm; he returned four minutes later and remained in the game. ... Demko will not dress; the goalie left following the first period Tuesday. ... O'Connor took part in the skate and is expected to play after missing practice Thursday with an illness.
GAMEDAY CHATTER
PEP TALK:
JR says it's not his fault that they couldn't manage the JT/EP40 situation. It wasn't management arrogance that kept them from bringing Suter back - just miscommunication. So... no worries... Nucks management geniuses are on track to keeping the Nucks mediocre without the tedium of a full rebuild. McKenna who?
Since the Nucks are fading away into league irrelevance thanks to the great work of the Faeries and Nucks management brilliance - JB's legacy is longer than hoped - here's to an irrelevant tune from a weird psy-genre with a simple message to Nucks fans: Run Away. From paying Franny - it's the only way to fix this team.
Fuck Fascism, Enshitification of sports streaming and enjoy the game!
