The Canucks Did Not Give Up On Michael Grabner

From the I-Can't-Believe-This-Has-to-Be-Said Files:

Michael Grabner is having a fabulous rookie season for the New York Islanders. The former Canuck is now leading the New York Islanders in goalscoring, but that's not quite eye-opening enough. How's this: with his hattrick last night, Michael Grabner now has more goals than Alex Ovechkin, Jarome Iginla, and Patrick Marleau. He's currently tied with Logan Couture for the most goals amongst rookies, has a five-game goalscoring streak, and has helped the Islanders to three straight wins with 7 goals in those victories.

It is at this point that Canucks fans and media start to take notice, pointing out that Grabner would be third in goals on the Canucks, just 5 behind Daniel Sedin. Heck, he has more than twice as many goals as Mason Raymond, the Canuck he is most often compared to. And so, there are a few people inclined to ask the question, "Why did the Canucks give up on Michael Grabner?" One such person, unsurprisingly, is Brad Ziemer, who goes so far as to say that "giving up on Grabner [was] a big...mistake."

It's not just that it's a dumb question; it's a flawed question. The entire premise is completely and totally wrong. The Canucks did not "give up"on Grabner.

It's called a trade. You give something, you get something. Trading a player is not giving up on a player. Giving up on a player would be something like waiving him with the knowledge that another team will likely pick him up. Like what Florida did. The Canucks, on the other hand, recognized his value, but put more stock in shoring up their depth on defense, an area that has hurt the Canucks in recent years.

The Canucks are currently leading the NHL in goals scored. A pure goalscorer like Michael Grabner is not what they need. The Canucks are currently missing 3 of their regular top-six defensemen. Depth on defense is what they need. Is this a hard concept to understand? The Canucks traded away something they didn't need for something they do need.

Would it be nice to still have Grabner? Of course. He showed decent chemistry with Kesler and Raymond last season and would have been a nice fit on the second line. Do the Canucks particularly miss Grabner? No. Did they make the trade with the understanding that he had the potential to score 30+ goals in the NHL? Yes.

To be fair to Canucks fans, they have been particularly ruthless to Ziemer on this topic, but for the wrong reasons. They instead say that Grabner is getting an opportunity with the Islanders that he wouldn't have in Vancouver, which is only partially true. Grabner is averaging only 14:03 per night on the island, which is about right for a borderline second line player getting mostly third line minutes. He's barely getting any powerplay time and only 1 of his 24 goals was on the powerplay. Quite frankly, he could easily be playing in the same spot that Jeff Tambellini has filled this season, moving up to the second line at times and filling in on the third and fourth lines as needed. Unlike the situation with Brendan Morrison at center, the Canucks don't have a logjam of wingers that would have prevented Grabner from finding a spot.

But that completely misses the point: the Canucks did not give up on Michael Grabner. They traded him. There is a distinct difference. They traded away a valuable asset for a different type of valuable asset and I am certain that Mike Gillis does not consider it a mistake. I don't either.

I Watched This Game: Canucks at Islanders, January 11, 2011

Canucks 4 - 3 Islanders (Shootout)

The Canucks had a season-high 51 shots tonight, the Islanders had 41; that's 92 shots total. How odd, then, that I found this game, with its scoring chances hither and thither, exceedingly dull. Heck, the shootout nearly matched the entire game for entertainment value. Why so mundane? I suspect some of it has to do with the act the Islanders were forced to follow. They're a pabulum team at the best of times, but in direct contrast with last Saturday's Red Wings, they're duller than airplane cutlery.

The Canucks didn't help, though. Despite keeping rookie goalie Kevin Poulin plenty busy, they played a sloppy, uninspired game. After a strong first period, they slowed down for the last forty, and their defensive coverage was suspect all night long. They looked tired, and I suspect they still are. That's not good. They've still got four more games on this road trip, and I'd like them to win most of them. I'd also like them to be more entertaining than this one, which I watched:

• Just as was predicted, Ryan Kesler played despite his injured thumb. Word was that he might let his wingers take a few draws, and considering Jeff Tambellini and Mason Raymond took four between them, it's probably safe to say Kesler gave them one extra faceoff apiece. He really knows how to cut back. The injury didn't seem to hamper his ability to shoot the puck, either, as he still put a game-high eight shots on net. One of them went in (above). Then he scored the shootout winner. This guy's ability to play through pain is mind-boggling, which, consequently, is what I call the mental exercise I perform when nobody will play Boggle with me.
  

• Former Canuck Michael Grabner seemed determined to make the Canucks regret letting him go, breaking in past the defense on multiple occasions and putting a team-high 7 shots to Roberto Luongo. While none of those shots made it past the goal line, Grabner definitely looked like a threat to score all night. But, before you start navelgazing, take a look at the rest of his stat line. It's blank. Grabner didn't register a single hit, takeaway, or blocked shot, which is kind of remarkable considering everybody else did. Grabs is a uniquely pure goalscorer, so pure he neglects all other facets of the game, including even elementary things like passing. Consider that both he and Henrik Sedin are fourth in goals scored among their respective teams with 9 goals each. Henrik simply has 42 more assists. It's unfair to be compared to Henrik Sedin, but it's just an example of how scorers can be overvalued in some cases. Grabner may be an NHL-quality scorer, but to my mind he'll never be a complete player.
  

• I love Tanner Glass. Part of it is that he agreed to play Scrabble with me. The other part of it is because he does stuff like this. Glass's fight may have salvaged this game, giving his team an energy boost when they began to skate on sand. Look at Kesler's excited face on the bench after the tilt--he's amped. Glass isn't the best fighter in the world, but you can see in this bout that he's a smart fighter. He patiently waits for Matt Martin to open up a bit, then he just slides in and pushes his off button. Hard. With his fist.
  

• A word on Luongo's all -star snub. He doesn't care. At all. He's been before, and he fought to avoid the game two years ago when his wife had a baby. Hey, guess what, she had a baby this year too! I suspect we'll eventually find out that Luongo had a chance to go to Raleigh, but asked to be excluded in order to spend time with his family. [Edit: Ben Kuzma says this isn't the case.] He doesn't want to be in North Carolina. Few people do. Half the state didn't, which is why there's a South Carolina. I would much rather spend a weekend with my newborn son than go to North Carolina. Heck, that's just one on a long, long list of things I'd rather do than go to North Carolina.
  

• Luongo was solid tonight, by the way. Ignore the fact he let in three goals and remember that he made 38 saves. Furthermore, nobody is stopping that John Tavares shot. That was like a summer's day, it was so beautiful.
  

• It may not have been perfectly executed, but it was nice to see the Sedins and Burrows pull off that faceoff play. They used it to perfection so many times last year that everybody's wise to it, which is why we've yet to see it work this season. But my favourite thing about the Wizards of the Coast is that, while they know full well that every defense in the NHL knows what they're trying, they still try it. Unlike Wile E. Coyote, they don't try a plan once, then scrap it forever. Then keep everything in their bag of tricks and just hammer away at the defense's scouting reports. Did you watch video on this? Did your coach tell you to watch out for this?

• Jeremy Colliton seems a bit rough around the edges, doesn't he? He took two silly penalties tonight--one on a hook and one on a hold--and both of them seemed as avoidable as a banana peel on Koopa Troopa Beach. The hold on Henrik Sedin was particularly egregious. If he thinks it's okay to hold a person like that, I'd advise against letting him have a kitten or a bunny rabbit. He'd be like Lenny from Of Mice and Men.

• Today I realized we talk about Kevin Bieksa a lot here at PITB, but man, looking at his stat lines these days, you'd think he was Adam Banks. Apart from scoring Vancouver's game-tying goal (on a lucky deflection, but still), he also put up 5 shots, 6 hits, 2 takeaways and a block. Michael Grabner, take notes: this is how you do other things.

• I fell asleep during this game. More interestingly, I fell asleep while fast forwarding the PVR through the second intermission, and when I woke up, Don Taylor was telling me the final score. Not cool, Don Taylor.
  

• The Canucks outhit the Islanders 38 to 24, but didn't it seem worse than that? The Islanders, as currently assembled, are a team of semi-skilled young'uns, severely lacking in hittiness or old man strength. Meanwhile, the Canucks have more old man strength than The Crimson Permanent Assurance.

• The Canucks now sit atop the NHL standings with 62 points, three more than Philadelphia and Detroit, and still with a game in hand on the Red Wings. It excites me, as a fan, to be checking the scores of the other top teams in the NHL rather than simply the teams in our division. I'm not used to being so inclusive. If the Canucks win the Presidents' Trophy, all those Northwest Division titles will seem a bit trite, no?
  

Every Goal the Guys We Traded to Florida Scored Last Season

Steve Bernier, setting a completely legal screen.

The Keith Ballard trade was difficult to react to. While we acquired Ballard and Victor Oreskovich, two players with high ceilings and glaring problems (Ballard's diminishing point totals, Florida-ness, goalie-bludgeoning and other famed blunders and Oreskovich's awful corsi rating and similar Florida-ness), we also traded away two forwards with high ceilings and glaring problems. So it's a wash. Steve Bernier and Michael Grabner are nearly polar opposites (one big, lumbering, and seemingly no good any further from the net than two feet and the other small, slick and, well, kinda spindly). That said, they both had a lot going for them, and showed flashes of the better players they could be. Here is every goal they scored last season, so as to induce mass hysteria when Vancouver fans realize they were twin Gretzkies. Today: Steve Bernier & Michael Grabner.

Steve Bernier

1. Oct. 7 vs. the Montreal Canadiens
Bernier's first goal of the season (and first of four in October) is the sort of goal we imagined he'd score on a regular basis in Vancouver. Parked in front, on the power play, he takes a feed on the powerplay after some wizardous sedinerie and puts it into the empty net. Not shown in this clip: the multiple times he received this same feed and the puck turned into a Gingerbread Man and hopped away, laughing.

2. Oct. 19 vs. the Edmonton Oilers
Bernier scores here after a ridiculous giveaway by the Oilers to Kyle Wellwood. Wellwood shows nice patience to hold onto the puck until his passing lane opens up, then center for the big winger. Bernier takes it off the skate, and gets it to settle down before popping it in.

3. Oct. 21 vs. the Chicago Blackhawks
Another power play goal, this one is again set up by the Sedins, but Alex Burrows is the net presence here created unorganized noise in front. He draws some attention, Antii Niemi loses sight of the puck, and Bernier finds the loose puck.

4. Oct. 30 vs. the Anaheim Ducks
Bernier's fourth goal in October comes directly, like the previous three, in front of the net, as he tips home a Willie Mitchell shot. Most of Bernier's goals come from here, as they should have. He was a big body, and if he had played like it every night rather than intermittently, he'd still be a Canuck and this post would be much longer.

5. Nov. 14 vs. the Colorado Avalanche
I want to give Johnson, Hansen and Bernier credit for their great boardwork here, but, I mean, come on. Did the Avalanche players think the puck had gone over the glass? How do you let Steve Bernier go to the net alone? All he does is go to the net. Maye they read that article on Ryan Johnson being the worst player in the NHL and figured there was no way he knew how to center a puck? I don't know.

6. Nov. 14 vs. the Colorado Avalanche
Goodness gracious, Colorado sucked on November 14th. It's not even that they got scored on 8 times. It's that they gave up goals like this one to the Canucks' fourth-line. How does Matt Pettinger give you the wizard treatment? How? In any case, Bernier goes hard to the net and the Avalanche, thinking he's Steve Bernier, don't respect his ability to receive a pass in front of the net.

7. Nov. 20 vs. the Colorado Avalanche
Another great tip from Bernier, this time off of an Ehrhoff pass. I've been impressed, throughout these clips, at how many goals come by Ehrhoff passes and shots from the point. He has an impressive bag of tricks from back there.

8. Dec. 5 vs. the Carolina Hurricanes
Bernier gets a juicy rebound here after some good work by Samuelsson and Wellwood, whose little drop pass by the side of the net creates the chance.

9. Dec. 16 vs. the Anaheim Ducks
Again, it's Bernier from directly in front of the net. I said earlier that he was good at going there, and he was definitely tough to move from the crease. I do wish he got to those rebounds a little more regularly. It must be hard, though, when Henrik Sedin almost never misses an opportunity to put in a loose puck. Bernier is almost always going to look awful by comparison. Still, after watching these clips, it's apparent the Canucks' strategy is to score on loose pucks around the net, so Bernier's going to get heat when he doesn't.

10. Dec. 22 vs. the Nashville Predators
The Glass-Wellwood-Bernier line was the bane of my existence last year. They shouldn't be together. Wellwood needs somebody who can receive his shifty little passes, and Glass needs to be in the press box. That said, this is a good goal that comes on a Wellwood setup to Glass and, as usual, a Bernier rebound.

11. Jan. 23 vs. the Chicago Blackhawks
Bernier's finest goal of the season, and, like all the other ones, it's a rebound. He shows some surprising hands to corral this one and backhand it upstairs. Shortly after this, Bernier's season was cut short due to a sports hernia, and he wouldn't score again. He has it in him to be a good net presence if he can get his hands to the level we just saw on a consistent basis, but if he doesn't, expect him to get about 10 goals a year, all in the way he scored 11 last season.

Michael Grabner

1. Oct. 21 vs. the Chicago Blackhawks
Grabner's first NHL comes off a feed from Ryan Kesler. I think Kesler is only a decent passer, but he's willing to take a hit to make a pass, and it creates offense. Here he comes across the blue line and feeds Grabner streaking in. Grabner's shot is perfect and it beats Niemi.

2. Oct. 25 vs. the Edmonton Oilers
This goal is a perfect tip on a Christian Ehrhoff shot and I don't have much more to say. Grabner's in great position and he does a good job tracking the puck.

3. Apr. 2 vs. the Anaheim Ducks
My favourite thing about this clip is the group of Canucks' fans with giant printouts of the player's heads. Grabner's shot is nice, too, as he streaks down the wing and beats Hiller with a wrist shot. Pavol Demitra does a nice job of not being passed to, which was probably Grabner's smartest decision since giving up soccer forever.

4. Apr. 2 vs. the Anaheim Ducks
Another beautiful shot, as this time Grabner comes off the wall and fights off Eminger's attempt to hold him up. To Canucks fans ruing the day we traded this guy: relax. Grabner's got skill, but he's not what this team needed. Raymond does what he does better, and we've got stronger, faster smallish forwards guys coming up in the system.

5. Apr. 2 vs. the Anaheim Ducks
This goal is almost identical to Grabner's second goal of the season, except that the puck's two feet off the ground. His tip here is gorgeous. Kesler's board work is good as well; it's what starts this play. And, of course, if you didn't realize, this is a hat-trick goal. Grabner scored a hat-trick in his first NHL season. Does this terrify you? It shouldn't. Jonathan Cheechoo once scored 56 goals in a season, and now he manages the Langley Arby's.

1st Round Pick

The 1st-rounder we gave up scored 0 goals last season, so we definitely won the trade.