OffThePost.org

Hi CC, glad to see you. Hope you stay awhile, although Canuck's land is just more grumbling so perhaps its best to be away.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Steve! Good to see ya!

That goal Petey scored in front of the net last night was just unreal.

Methinks the reason Tocchet is riding his top horses like it's game seven of the SCF is that the organization is desperately trying to convince Hughes, Demko, and Pettersson not to jump ship, that they're on the right track and there won't be an extended rebuild on the horizon, even though long term that's probably what's best. I keep hearing that Demko has already submitted a trade request but I don't have viable sources.

I still maintain that Yzerman could have easily gotten him from Benning

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

How's McDonough looking? Gotta say I'm surprised he signed in the end. A team with hopes of making the playoffs and a history of spending on bottom-6 players just doesn't seem like a great spot for older college guys, but what do I know?

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No Horvat throwing some shade at Vancouver after the Isles won last night.

Question: How does this rank for you in playoff pushes, the excitement of this building and the fans' involvement over the last couple of games?

Horvat’s reply- "It's been unbelievable," answered Horvat before then taking an unprompted shot at the Canucks and their fans. "It's a lot better than Vancouver I'll tell you that for free."

I thought he liked Vancouver.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Good for him, he has a new fan base paying his salary and should stroke them. He also missed out on the playoffs almost every year he was in Vancouver. Playing meaningful games at the end of the season should make him feel stoked. I am a bit surprised in that he was such a repetitive, vanilla speaker in Vancouver, he actually said something off the cuff that was interesting. That's a good thing as well.

I'm glad he's got the opportunity to be in the playoffs, he deserves this and much more.


Sheesh, just looked at his stat line. 7 goals and 15 points in 28 games since joining the Islanders. He's gone from .6 goals a game to .25 goals a game???? I expected a drop off but to something like .4 goals a game. This is some very serious and worrying regression.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Meanwhile, the Canucks nabbed another college guy in Ohio State defenceman Cole McWard. That's with Hirose already there too.

Am I crazy? If I saw Hoglander and Rathbone languishing and millions handed out to Tanner Pearsons and Jason Dickinsons, I'd sign just about anywhere else.

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They are supposedly very involved with their college draft picks. Regularly reviewing their game play. Aidan McDonough could have gone to free agency this year but chose to sign with the Nucks. One of his comments were how helpful the Sedin's were. Even when he felt he had played a bad game they'd call him up and point out things that he had done well. If I was 22 in college and the Sedin's were watching my games on TV and calling me after for a pep talk, I'd be kinda crushing on the organization.

McWard mentioned similar, no specifics, just that there had been regular communications with the organization throughout his time in college.

Reality is very few college players turn into the next Tanev, but if you can pull enough in, eventually you will get one good one.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

He's had a rotating cast of sub-par wingers since Barzal went down a few games after Bo arrived. He was saddled with Bailey for a while (who has been a healthy scratch for like 8 straight games now, soon after breaking 1000 games as an Islander), he's had two rookies, etc. But yeah, he's struggled to score for sure. He's hit a few posts, etc. But he's playing really well. Just not scoring goals. I keep hoping he gets at least 2 more so he has 40.

I'm all for players not being hockey-speak robots, but was surprised he bashed Vancouver like that. You can talk up your current fan base without bashing the old one.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

I found this interesting.

And it looks like Canuck's may have hit the jackpot with Akito Hirose. The guy has stepped right in and been insta steady. Being directly compared to Tanev, and reasonably so. Nothing flashy, just smart, and shifts the play in the other direction. If he keeps this up next year it will go a long way to curing the Nucks biggest needs.

https://canucksarmy.com/news/what-akito ... s-blueline

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Hirose has looked really good, been pretty happy with all the college signings really in terms of giving us depth and options.

Congrats to Petey! He's had a monster season, hopefully we get him signed long term in the off season without too much drama.

Oh and good to see you again CC! hopefully we'll see you more often

Think this may be the first time I've ever posted a twitter link. Eddie Lack and must hear.

https://twitter.com/eddielack/status/16 ... hie-awards

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

At first I thought the rumblings about Garrett being forced into retirement were just internet gossip. No way could anyone be dumb enough to force Garrett out, he's too good at what he does, he's both respected and beloved in the market, and him and Shorty together are a great team, they are better together than the sum of their parts.

He's 73 years old, its not a really taxing job so I assumed he just wanted to spend more time with wife/grand kids/working on his yard; or something else. However it did seem strange that he would quit and not honour the last year of his contract. I've honestly been waiting to hear him come forth about his reasons for retirement and there has been nothing, which really made me wonder if it was his choice.

After Shorty's comment, I have to think this truly horrible HR train wreck of an organization has once again shit all over their people once again.

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Speaking of HR train wreck. Tocchet, why the fuck are you playing 4th liner Phil Di Giuseppe on the first power play unit ahead of Kuzmenko when both he and EP40 are sitting at 39 goals. Do you really think shaming Kuzmenko is conducive to helping him improve for next year? that he'll respect you more for your work to minimize his chance for 40 goals?

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

Tocchet is such a dick. Always was. There aren't too many former players I really hate. He's one of them.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

So along with the usual locker-room clean out day, the coaching staff also purged one of the last remnants of former coach Travis Greene's staff - Jason King, is now a former assistant coach.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/va ... ason-king/

Yes, this is olds (not news) but there we are... The PP was one of the few bright spots but for a team with plenty of skill, they couldn't capitalize on a 5-on-3 all season...

when you think of the skill we can put out there, Petey, Hughes, Kuzmenko, Miller and.... the flavour of the day we really should be top 10 minimum. It's really pretty remarkable he lasted through 3 different head coaches though

Plus Boeser and Horvat (for most of King's time here), and I agree with you that the PP should have been far more consistently potent. I'll be interested to see if Gonchar will pick up this slack... And I wonder if he lasted this long because the front office want us to forget that we had Newell Brown in that position...

I don't understand, Petey won't play for Team Sweden at the Worlds because of insurance reasons? Why would he cost so much to insure?