Vanek is superb defensively. His back check is amazing. He can score goals. He muscles in front of the net. He's a 6 million dollar player, imho.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Vanek has been a game changer for the last year, maybe two...but when he got the contract, no way. He scored but that was it. And we must be speaking to different fans because what I hear is nothing close to awe. I hear that he's a dangerous player but no one has ever said to me that they wish they had him so he could lead their team or to be that one piece that will win them a cup. People respect his talent but I haven't heard him lifted to a Nash, Datsyuk, Lacavalier, Iginla type status. Hey, like I said, I'm a HUGE Vanek fan. I have loved watching him develop into a leader and I think we'll see this coming year and the next if he will become that 'game changer'....but I just don't think he's there quite yet.

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Rick Nash is overrated.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I agree. I think though that he's a lot like Vanek. With better players to play with he'd be way better. Just crossing my fingers and waiting to see what Darcy does this off season.

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He's one of the most talented people in the league though. He has some soft hands.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Sean O'Donnell said the Sabres were physically and emotionall exhausting and made the 7 game series feel like a 10 game series. He credited the Sabres with taking way more out of the Flyers' tank than they thought.

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mechaphil

Funny huh? Philly had nothing left, and even if Buffalo won they weren't going anywhere without Connolly, Pominville, Sekera, and Roy and Hecht at somewhere around 80%.

Nobody ever seems to want to talk about it out of some weird shame, but injuries matter. If your best guys aren't playing or playing well under 100%, your team isn't as good, plain and simple. Two playoffs in a row for Buffalo and it's skewing opinion about just how far away the team is from being a contender. The teams left right now don't have more than one regular player out with injury (except maybe Tampa with Kubina and Gagne, but Gagne is set to return).

Gagne is always hurt, he doesn't count.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

you're kidding. he's okay defensively. if that's considered "superb" i'm interested on what your adjectives are for really good defensive players, like selke candidates.

He's a better than just okay, but using words like superb and amazing is just a tad ridiculous.

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mechaphil

vanek is selke smooth in the defensive end.

see what i did there?

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Vanek had a team-worst -7 in the playoffs.

It has nothing to do with his backcheck, which he works very hard at.

Those negatives came from missed clears out of our own zone; times when he held the puck along the half wall and ended up getting double teamed by Philly's forecheck.

Not sure if anyone else noticed it, but Vanek had a lot of turnovers in our defensive zone.

I know he scored 5 goals, but even if you could count his power play goals in +/- (which is irrelevant, because I'm looking at 5 on 5 stats) he'd still have a team impact of -2.

He has to improve in that area. It wasn't good enough.

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Wheelhouse

adam's got a good point. working hard does not mean you're good.

Two weeks after the team was eliminated, and people are still going out of their way to shit on Vanek.

Some things will never change.

Thomas Vanek is paid to score goals FIRST, and play defense SECOND. Frankly, he's doing a pretty good job at both.

who's shitting on him?

Just a general statement. It's the usual nonsense.

"He's overpaid.". "He's not good enough defensively."

All garbage.

My opinion is that he would be worth every single penny and more if he played with better players. You can't do everything out there all by yourself. Our forwards...well they kinda blow. We have a few bright spots but mostly just middle of the road kind of guys. If Vanek could play with another guy as skilled as he is then who knows what could happen.

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The problem is that too many fans equate worth in a comparison with another player.

Their argument is that if Player A and Player B both make $6M a year, and player B has poorer statistics, then player B MUST be an overpaid bum.

There's some merit to that argument, but not as much as most people put forth.

People forget that probably half the goals while Vanek was on the ice could be directly attributed to Chris Butler having one of his "special moments."

Granted I'm still fairly new to hockey, but I think a pretty small percentage of goals wind up being the fault of the wingers since their defensive assignments are pretty easy.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual