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The Chicoutimi Cucumber

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Everything posted by The Chicoutimi Cucumber

  1. Suzuki is the man. We got a goal on a phantom penalty, so it is 100% guaranteed the Caps will get a PP before long.
  2. wow...Strome has about a half an hour alone with the puck in the slot. Allen made the save, but Lord amighty...
  3. I guess everyone wants to see him hang around long enough to beat Gretzky's record. But if you ask me, there is something anticlimactic about the idea of this great player floating around as a shadow of himself just until he can do that. Gretzky had 90 points in his second last season and took his leave the minute he knew he could no longer produce at an elite level. Ovie's production this season brings to mind 99's final season: good by normal standards, but not up to the bar of his own greatness. Two highlights for this period so far...Wifi destroying that guy, and Newhook potting one. Some good chances, but IMHO not a lot of intensity or stakes out there; a lacklustre game in that sense. EDIT: the red on Allen's mask is not quite a match for the jersey and it bugs me. There, I said it.
  4. Ovechkin has scored 6 games in a row. That gives him a grand total of 14 on the season. This ain't the Ovie of legend.
  5. HNIC ding-a-lings debating whether kids today have enough "respect" for their elders 🙄 And oh yeah, Jack Hughes think he's a good player. News you need to know. That is two pretty wobbly defences going at it tonight, that's clear. On the first goal, the D left the Cap alone there, so I don't really blame Allen. Great cannon from Wifi. That's the thing about the kid, he has more tools in the box than just his fists. It's just wonderful to watch Slaf out there. He is playing with such confidence.
  6. It sounds like he is better thought of as an Erik Johnson *type*, in terms of offensive output. Maybe Tanev or even Boumeester (minus the super elegant skating) are other comparables. That does reframe him a bit in my mind, since I was thinking he’d grow into a 40+ point type. This conception puts more pressure on Hutson, Mailloux, and perhaps Reinbacher to evolve into a bona-ride PP QB and offensive driver from the back end - and seems to me to push our window back a bit, potentially. After all, none of those three have played a single game in the bigs. (The other idea is that we end up with a blueline that has a bunch of quality D who can move the puck and eat minutes, but no traditional “#1 stud” defenceman. Not sure what the precedent is for winning the Cup with that model).
  7. Y’know, I was looking at Guhle’s totals this season - something I haven’t done in a while - I was a bit surprised. 14 points in 50 games. That’s much lower than I would have thought, based on ‘eye test,’ and actually a slight drop in PPG compared to his rookie season. He’s 22. Still quite young, obviously. But - just to make conversation - is it possible that we’ve been overrating him? Most of us seem to think he is a potential top-pairing guy, but he’s on a 23-point pace in his second season and drawing, I assume, significant minutes. 🤔 Don’t come at me, I’m just asking.
  8. I don’t blame KK for taking the money either. I’m happy to see him bomb out mostly because: first, ّI don’t want yet another former Habs prospect flourishing elsewhere while we’re left standing there with our collective dick in our hands; second, Carolina acted like a-holes for the offer sheet and subsequent taunting, so I am delighted it has blown up in their faces; and third, like I said before, KK never earned a thing (which bugs me, on principle). As for fit, I assume he’s an upgrade on some of the garbage we have in the bottom six, although it’s not, I admit, clear that he is better than our existing C options.
  9. I'd welcome him back as a bottom-6 option. The problem is, KK is a kid who has always had things handed to him underserved: fat contract from Carolina, brought into the NHL at 19 without having earned it, etc. And I suspect this will continue...some team will give him a higher salary point than he deserves, based on "potential" and draft pedigree. And I assume that team won't be us.
  10. 27!! Damn, and I still think of him as a kid, LOL
  11. I don't throw the word "genius" around lightly. Hardly anyone is. Maybe Bob Dylan, in his realm. Maybe Steven Hawking, in his. And so on. I truly believe Wayne Gretzky was a hockey genius. His mind just processed the game differently from anyone else, at a higher level no one else has ever attained. He did not have ANY of the attributes - speed, devastating shot, physical power - other great players have. He just had a hockey IQ that was off the chart. Genius is the only word for it.
  12. Fair points. I guess we'll see, in the end - assuming he manages to land a tryout with a better team.
  13. I agree that comparing players from different eras is futile. What I will say is that Mario Lemieux is the most talented player I have ever seen. He had everything. I don’t think he was a “greater player” than Gretzky, who was simply an offensive genius, or Orr, who transformed the game, but he was as complete a package as any player who has ever lived. To my mind, the real compliment to McDavid is that his talent is in the same category as those guys. If he wants to be remembered alongside them, though, he needs a Cup. Maybe unfair, but it’s a fact. Absolutely correct, but I’m talking about this season. Instead of being ecstatic that they have a team that can go all the way, a critical mass of Canucks fans are hesitant to buy in - sure that a disastrous injury or a first-round collapse lies in wait. It’s the exact opposite of what would happen in Toronto, where they would be anointing this The Greatest Team of All Time. In February.
  14. Ylonen is an example of the kind of prospect that we, as fans, would have pinned huge hopes on in the era from Houle to Bergevin. He seems fast, smart, capable - almost a PPG in the A - so you think, “he should be able to do something.” And yet he is utterly unproductive, a total cipher at the NHL level. I’m sympathetic to the idea that there is more there, but we should remember: he is currently playing on one of the worst FW units and one of the worst teams in the league. If he can’t make himself an important cog in that environment, is he really going to do better on a team that actually has quality depth at the FW position? I think he may wind up being just another one of those washouts who seemed promising and yet never did squat.
  15. I liked the Kekaleinen hiring at the time. It seemed to represent a hiring from outside the circle of the usual, endlessly-recycled established hockey bosses. However, it’s pretty tough to argue that he’s been a success. That franchise does seem cursed. Although I sometimes hear nice things about Columbus as a city, nobody seems to want to play there, going back to Rich Nash, and when one does (Goudreau) it blows up in their face. It’s a bit like Calgary, only worse.
  16. More fodder for the speculation that our picks are in play, with a young FW the target
  17. Ha! Note that Poile does not express regret in HOCKEY terms…he expresses it on a human level. Weber was a defining player for that franchise who was traded while he still had some good year left. 😉 I was absolutely appalled with the trade at the time. Turns out, it worked out for both teams, like a trade is supposed to. Subban aged out early, which mitigated a major advantage over Old Man Weber, while Weber - the very worst contract in all of hockey - suffered career-ending injuries before the contract could become a millstone. (This was a horrible turn of events at a human level, but a stroke of luck from a cap-management perspective). The result was that both players (a) were integral to Cup runs on their teams and (b) stayed on their teams for roughly the same number of years. In hockey terms, basically a wash.
  18. It's funny how different the culture can be within different fanbases. Leafs culture is marked by a critical mass of mindless fanboys ("THIS IS THE YEAR!!!!" every year). What makes it even more irritating is that this idiocy is magnified by the "national" (i.e., Toronto) media, HNIC, etc. Here in Vancouver, meanwhile, the culture is the exact opposite, marked by a chronic doom-and-gloom pessimism. Even now, with the team in 1st overall by a bullet, half the fanbase is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something has to go wrong...some disaster must be just around the corner... 😬
  19. Matthews is an incredible player, but no one outside of Leafs Nation seriously believes that nonsense.
  20. This is gonna sound bizarre, but somehow I feel like the Guhle non-injury is some sort of turning point. It breaks the pattern. Maybe our young core players are not going to keep getting obliterated season after season after all 🤷‍♂️
  21. There is also a double standard within the Code, whereby players who are designated as Good Guys are allowed breaches with no criticism or consequence. E.g., Marchand gave the entire Vancouver building the "F U" sign when he scored to add to the Bruins' leader in Game 7 in 2011. No condemnation, no righteous denunciations on HNIC, nothing. Tiger Williams used to ride his stick after a goal in a total showboating, "disrespectful" move. He was celebrated for this by Mr Code himself, Don Cherry - because he was a Good Guy, nice and tough, etc.. On the other hand, PK Subban is mouthy and low-fives Carey Price? Well Jesus, was a punk, something should "happen to him" (Michael Richards). 🙄 So not only is The Code stupid. It's arbitrarily enforced.
  22. Agree. If some guy violates The Code in a way that is completely harmless - we're not talking about a slew foot here - I think you yap at them on the ice, maybe dish out some (legal) hits, call them out on it in the media, and use it as motivation. (I could also handle seeing a Code-breaker challenged to a fight, admittedly). Remember when Chara almost permanently cripped Pacioretty by driving his face into a stanchion? That was in response to Patches having the temerity to give him a shove after the Habs scored against Boston in a previous game. Patches violated The Code, so he deserved to be permanently handicapped. Or at least, that was the judgement of the Bruins and their cheerleaders in the NHL head office. The Code can be enforced by condemnation and using breaches of it as rivalry fuel. Nobody needs to spit chicklets over it.
  23. Nothing wrong with giving a guy a brief taste of The Show as part of his learning process.
  24. I like the philosophy...but it'll all come down to player evaluation. I'm not a prospect expert, but I find it a bit optimistic to project that Joshua Roy will be a 60-point player like Mittelstadt. In terms of 3rd-line C, though, are we better off paying Mittelstadt 5-6 mil per, or bringing Owen Beck along? Beck might not be as productive, but he'd be a lot cheaper for several seasons. We can call that "going cheap" but if Beck projects to become a quality two-way NHL C, then maybe we leave Mittelstadt alone. On the other hand, he does provide some degree of organizational insurance if Dach turns out to be damaged goods. In some ways, that would be a stronger justification for acquiring him - because if Dach is indeed compromised, then the rebuild is hooped unless we have a Plan B.
  25. It makes you wonder....had he just become too complacent, and the Laval stint woke him up? 🤷‍♂️
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