#quinn becoming captain was such a good move for him and the canucks

[barzyhughes]

i love this <3

#this is incredible #quinn becoming captain was such a good move for him and the canucks #vancouver canucks #quinn hughes

[39oa]

roboquinn!!!

thank you and tc for asking <3 but also girl this is literally just YOUR commentator au that i wrote down notes/snippets for and then gave up on as we kept talking because i was delusionally hoping you'd do it for us LMFAO. it's a very bare doc with only lapslock excerpts but i'm still attached to the concept and have many thoughts about how their dynamic would work... also funny because we came up with this like 8 months before quinn even got the c but in all our notes we were just like yeah obviously he'd retire as captain lol

anyway the thing with 4321 is that i would personally read a lot of different au permutations for them, especially anything involving umich/Midwestern College Hockey dynamics because there's a lot of au potential there. commentator au specifically was = what if robo never made it to the nhl? + what if quinn retired prematurely because of injury and both of them went into broadcasting?, and i think we'd decided on robo doing play-by-play because he has more natural personality and quinn taking on the ex-player analyst role alongside him. however what's most crucial to ME about non-player!robo is that i think of him as someone who is very secure in himself and almost neurotically dedicated to always doing the right thing/making the correct life decisions, so the only reason he doesn't make it professionally is that his family moves to michigan a lot later and he and his brothers miss out on crucial junior development opportunities, so he realizes that hockey is a pipe dream and decides to treat it as a hobby and gets a journalism degree or something. this also makes the nick sibling dynamic more interesting because in my head nick would still try to become a hockey player since he's way more stubborn and impulsive, but he'd max out as an echl/ahl lifer and it becomes less of like "look at how much my athlete brother has succeeded!!" but in a way still robo being more successful because he got a good degree and stayed realistic about his future and makes good money now.

i think 4321 is basically interesting because everything in the world for them boils down to Siblings and they're the oldest of their respective nhl sibling groups but still have very different upbringings. i love the idea of having history long before they meet as a broadcasting duo because robo also went to umich and watched some of his games, but quinn obviously not remembering him... i also think in this universe quinn retires early but not like egregiously so and therefore still has a historic career with the canucks, but then he still struggles to grapple with that because maybe at this age the devils are like a total wagon and he has to cover playoff games for jack and luke for example. AND IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER HE NEVER WINS A CUP!!! plus i think of quinn spending his entire career in vancouver and depending on petey way more than he'd thought he did and now being like unmoored from his second home while robo is very used to traveling and is extremely independent and self-sufficient, and then it's like You think you're the most adjusted member of your family because you're the oldest brother and spent decades living alone on a whole different coast but the reality is actually that you were still deeply accustomed to the insular niche of an nhl team bubble and are being forced to navigate what it means to be an adult for the very first time when everyone you ever cared about is still stuck in that environment. and you're in your 30s!

also the reason quinn gets hired is because robo used to broadcast with pavs (who eventually leaves the role because he's old and wants to spend time with his family), so by now he's totally used to working with hotshot american ex-players and is very blasé around Rich NHL Dudes, and again like with nick is basically the more adjusted one who kind of sees how like quinn is basically functionally alone and doesn't have any systems around him that aren't 100% about hockey and thus latches on to him a little bit. so the dynamic is like >we are coworkers but also do you even know how to book a hotel by yourself? and quinn thinking robo is a nerd at first but eventually deferring to his 100% faith in himself and ease with which he navigates social situations.

also robo would have longterm gf because it's the Right Thing To Do and he's never thought that there was another way to live... like he's adjusted to the point of being so mindlessly socially integrated that he never even considers the fact that maybe he isn't even into women, he just does it because it's what he's meant to do, whereas quinn has way more inner turmoil and could never really hold a relationship down and has a million crises about it and then stuff happens and they get together in a random hotel room in finland during world juniors blah blah more bad decisions and realizations the end. please write them for me 😭

#a #crazy but free etc.

[stereax]

What’s up with the Canucks? I know their cap situation has historically been tight - do you think it got better this offseason?

The cap situation is the LEAST of the Canucks' worries, honestly. That whole team is a dumpster fire.

More under the cut. Pardon the delay in getting this out, but this is a long one!

So first off, the cap situation is bad. It honestly looks better than it is, mostly because of the LTIR. Plus, there's a ton of players whose contracts are expiring next offseason, most notable of which are Pettersson and Beauvillier that the Nucks really need to keep. The main problem is, management keeps swinging at bad players and overpaying them, then floundering on contracts for good players.

So, uh, that Bo Horvat trade, huh? Let's start with that. You signed JT Miller, a 30 year old, to a 7 year extension that would end when he's 37, for $8m a year with NMCs for the first few years and M-NTCs for the rest, going off a career year that he regressed from (predictably). This is a guy who we know has some character issues as well (see: him screaming at Collin Delia, his goalie teammate, for being unsure whether to leave the crease). And you traded your captain away to make the cap work for him? What did you even get for Horvat anyway? Beauvillier, Raty, and a top-12 protected first? Why didn't you trade Miller instead?

Speaking of a swing and a mess, Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Got signed to an 8x8.25, got traded from Arizona to Vancouver, and... got bought out. Now they're gonna have to deal with that on their books for eight whole years. Just another Benning-era flop. I guess it's still better than paying him for that amount, though.

They did pick up some guys, though, with the cap space they acquired - Teddy Blueger, Pius Suter, Carson Soucy. Oh, and extended Kuzmenko. But none of them move the needle enough. None of those players are going to propel this frankly lost team into the playoffs.

Now let's look at the LTIR list, or should I say LTIRetirement list. We've got Tucker Poolman, who played a total of three games last year and promptly disappeared off the map (and NOBODY knows what's wrong with him - and I asked! - but it's speculated to be concussion-related and possibly career-ending, and migraines - yep, like Nolan Patrick migraines - might be a part of it too). And Tanner Pearson. Oh, Tanner Pearson. Tanner Pearson had a hand injury in November, immediately got surgery, and the Canucks said he'd be out 4 to 6 weeks. Fast forward to January 12, Pearson is undergoing his third surgery and is not expected to return for the season. When Quinn Hughes is asked about this, he says "it wasn't handled right," essentially blowing a whistle to point to some form of incompetence from either the Canucks management, their doctors, or both. The Canucks launch an internal investigation and clear themselves; the NHLPA is also reportedly looking into it. Currently, it's been reported that Pearson has undergone 6-7 surgeries on the hand in question (possibly due to infection) and is working to regain quality of life. Yikes. Here's The Hockey Guy (Shannon), a known Canucks fan, lamenting this:

Okay, let's move on from that depressing stuff with a Stereax story. See, one of my very first hockey memories was seeing Thatcher Demko clutch up for the Canucks in the 2020 playoffs against the Golden Knights. That man was ice cold. I was telling myself "no WAY he doesn't become a star tendie". And then... Vancouver broke him. Oops, I think we're back in depression territory. But the stats don't lie - he went from 64 games (33-22-7) played last year with a .915 save percentage to 32 games (14-14-4) played and a .901. Oh, and he got injured with a lower-body injury (LBI) on December 1, was out "6 weeks" apparently got reinjured in training February 17, and was out another 10 days? Yeah. I mean, the defensive structure in front of him being Quinn Hughes Playing 30 Minutes a Night doesn't help. Plus the whole botching injuries? Not a good look for the Canucks organization. Hell, players could have been knowingly playing injured or hiding injuries because they didn't want to deal with that shitshow.

Speaking of the shitshow, guess whose contract is up soon? That's right: Elias Pettersson is an RFA after 23-24! Think he's going to sign a long-term deal with this joke of a franchise? Or do you think he's going to pull a Matthew Tkachuk and essentially demand to be sign-and-traded? I wouldn't blame him if it's the latter, especially considering the lack of, well, anything the Canucks have.

First off, they have no prospects. Their farm system is nonexistent. They have one of the worst prospect pools in the NHL. And when they're not busy trading away their picks to acquire aging veterans, they're drafting badly. This is an old article, but it really, really drives the point home.

Okay, but like, the Pens and Bruins and Avs and Lightning have no prospect pools and they're still good, right? Well, yes, but actually no. See, the reason those teams have no prospects is because they're pushing all in for more Cup runs with their current cores. The Bruins traded away the future for one last Cup run in 2023. The Pens are close to doing the same for 2024. Ditto the Avs and Lightning. The Canucks are not these teams. Simply put, they're just not competitive. Even if they somehow eke out a wildcard next year (doubtful, given Vegas, Edmonton, LA, and Seattle are all also in the Pacific, but maybe it goes 5/3 and the Nucks get WC2), they lack the depth, defense, goaltending, and honestly offense too to make a deep run. That team is fundamentally flawed at its very core. It needs to rebuild, and rebuild properly this time. But the owners won't allow it.

Speaking of owners, the Canucks' owner, Francesco Aquilini, is a REAL piece of shit. Not only does he refuse to rebuild, he's as crooked of a "businessman" as you'll meet, routinely stiffing workers out of wages, raising rents to exorbitant levels (creating homeless seniors), causing the death of children due to negligence, and more. Wanna hear about the child abuse allegations?

And if none of this was bad enough, look at how they treated Bruce Boudreau. The Canucks were supposed to can him for months in favor of Rick Tocchet due to bad results, but left him to flounder like a sitting duck. Media was asking him what were his future plans for the team when he basically had the pink slip in his hands. Even if Bruce was trying to be a good sport about it, cracking jokes ("See you tomorrow - I hope"), this is no goddamn way to treat your coach. If you're going to fire the man, fire him and move on. (At least the fans understood what they were losing...) And of course this impacted the players down the final stretch of Boudreau's tenure - aware every day that your coach is going to be fired but not knowing when? That'll do a mental number on any team. Christ...

TL;DR - The Canucks are so fucked up that the cap isn't even their biggest issue. They're managing that okay enough, I guess, but they're mismanaging the team to hell and back so even good cap maneuvering means nothing.

If you want to know more, I recommend you watch the UrinatingTree videos on the Nucks. I took most of the main ideas of this from there. And ask your local Canucks fan friend if they need any support, I think they'll appreciate it. :)

#stereanswers #stereanalysis #stereducation #vancouver canucks

[nikkeisimmer]

54 Years of Pain (Part 1)

Yeah, there's good parts of this long trek with the Vancouver Canucks

...however...

Most of that trek has been filled with viewings of inconsistency and lack of motivation from the players that have come through here. Certainly there were bright spots - the Canucks had three of them, the 1982 Run (when I was 11 turning 12), 1994 Run (23 turning 24); and the 2011 Run (40 turning 41). Of course the fact that both the 1994 and 2011 runs were punctuated by riots was not a highlight, in fact, it was an absolute embarrassment not only to the City of Vancouver but to its fanbase.

Now as a 53 year old male (turning 54 in another year) this is definitely not a player-simp blog (Oh, god, here I am using millennial speak) - but hey most of the people writing on Tumblr are millennials. There's very few of us Gen X'rs or Boomers writing on social media - they either mostly stick to Facebook - which has become unpopular as a result. I'm one of probably very few Gen X'rs who actually take the time to have a Tumblr blog.

So what I'm going to do here is give you a synopsis of my experience with the Vancouver Canucks as a long-time fan and let you appreciate some of my memories of being a long-standing fan of this franchise. Yes, I'm freakin' old.

The Big Irishman - good ol' Pat Quinn #3 playing versus the LA Kings.

So my journey with the Canucks (equal in age) has been from the time of my birth, where I was living in what would in 1978 become the heart of the enemy (when the Edmonton Oilers came to town). Back when I was born and for the first seven years, Edmonton did not have an NHL hockey team. So my search took me to the West Coast or Vancouver where the Canucks had been granted an NHL franchise. Of course for the first two years of my life, I was blissfully unaware of NHL hockey, since I was in diapers. But eventually, I would stumble across hockey and sit enthralled in front of a TV that my dad had bought. During the course of the news in which snippets of the war in Viet Nam (the dying years of the war leading up to the withdrawal of US forces from Saigon).

Orland Kurtenbach was our first captain of the Vancouver Canucks.

and here he was with our former Captain Bo Horvat which we traded to the New York Islanders. He's standing to the right and I'm glad after 54 years, he's still with us.

In '76, I moved from what would two years later be Oiler...hell... to Maple Ridge in British Columbia, smack dab in the heart of Canucks territory. And well...I was school-age (6 years old and in grade one). My former classmates at St. Timothy Elementary School are probably die-hard Edmonton Oilers fans. Sorry, classmates... I hate the Oilers. Canucks fan through and through.

Good ol' Harold Snepts was one of the members of the Vancouver Canucks when I moved to Canuck fandom territory in 76. and yeah, he didn't have that famous brush mustache of his that he would later sport in years since.

Harold was clean-shaven. And one of our toughest defenseman. He could sure throw that body around. We miss guys like that and hope that we got someone like that in our newest d-man Nikita Zadorov.

Harold as we would later know him. The big mustache.

Harold now, in Canucks in Cars with our now current captain Quinn Hughes. Still got the mustache but it's sprinkled with grey.

Our goalie was Cesare Maniago.

Our top goal scorer was a guy named Rick Blight.

And man did I love those away uniforms (the old stick in rink). And yes. nowadays, the dark colored jerseys are the home jerseys, but back in those days, they were the away jerseys. I'm glad they made the switch.

One of the other guys who hit the 20+ goal mark was Don Lever who became captain in 1977 taking over from Chris Oddleifsson who only held the position for an year in '76-77 and Andre Boudrias who held it during 75-76.

Kevin McCarthy would take over from him in 79-80.

But Don would be captain during the change over from the stick-in-rink to the Hallowe'en V's. God, they were goddawful.

But they still hold a special place in my heart, just for the jersey's sheer ugliness.

The were absolutely goddawful.

Tony Tanti, one of our Vancouver favourites would wear this jersey in 1980.

He would be one of those long-time Canucks from 1980 all the way to 1989 when he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Canucks first bright spot in this long, painful growth process was the Cinderella year of 1982. Back then the play-off format was a best of five, not the familiar best of 7 that we now have.

Vancouver swept Calgary in 3 games, then went onto play the LA Kings which they beat 4 games to 1. In the Campbell Conference finals they would meet the Chicago Blackhawks which were headlined by Denis Savard, Daryl Sutter, and Tony Esposito - so Chicago was a powerhouse back then. Yet, the Canucks seemingly on a roll steamrolled the Blackhawks 4-1. The wheels came off the wagon when they came up against the New York Islanders and Mike Bossy. The Canucks were swept in four and the New York Islanders one their second of 4 straight Stanley Cups. It was a heart-breaking loss for the Canucks as well as this fan who had hoped that the Canucks would at least give the New York Islanders some push-back.

It would be a long 12 years before the Canucks got a look at the Stanley Cup again.

The 1982 Stanley Cup Finals would be the swan-song for Canucks Captain Kevin McCarthy which would be watched from the pressbox as McCarthy broke his ankle late in the season and would relinquish his captaincy to Stan Smyl who would captain the team to the Cup finals.

McCarthy would later be dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Stan Smyl would be the first to have his jersey retired as he became one of the longest running captains of the Vancouver Canucks.

Steamer as he was affectionately known would go on to wear most of the jersey changes that happened during the 80s the way up to his retirement.

The next captain of the Canucks, Trevor Linden who was drafted in 1988 at number 2 and became the captain in 1990 (the youngest Canucks Captain to ever receive the captaincy) also wore the jersey with the V on the shoulders.

He also wore the orange spaghetti plate (downwards skate)

When he became captain the jerseys changed to yellow, red and white or yellow, red and black.

In 1989 they would draft in the sixth round a young Russian phenom named Pavel Bure. But their first round draft pick Jason Herter ended up only playing 1 game in the NHL after he was traded to the New York Islanders and became a career IHL'r

Evidently the draft pick was a complete bust. But at least he had a career in the minors and later a career coaching at Western Michigan.

The yellow/red/black/white were the jerseys that they wore during the 1994 Stanley Cup run. Again they would fall short after beating Calgary who had beaten them the year before being forced into a 7 game series which they won 4 games to 3, going into the Conference semifinals exhausted where they would meet up with the Dallas Stars which they would beat 4-1. In this there was a nasty altercation between Pavel Bure and Shane Churla where the former viciously elbowed Churla after Churla dogged him all throughout the series tying him up and ragdolling him. Finally Bure got sick and tired of it and cold-cocked him knocking Churla unconscious.

Vancouver was on a roll and they went on to steamroll Toronto 4-1 as well. Greg Adams would score the winning goal in Game 5 and the stage was set for the Stanley Cup finals where they would meet the Messier-led Rangers.

(to be continued in Part 2)

#Vancouver Canucks #Canucks #Canucks fan #54 years of waiting #non-sims #Nuckleheads