Using PGR, I thought it would be interesting to compare the lineups for the Canucks 2010-2011 roster that took Boston to seven games in the Stanley Cup Finals to the lineup of today. Things have changed in 11 years, as fighting is pretty much out of the game and the one or two roster spots that were allocated to tough players are no longer. PGR doesn't give credit for fighting or truculence outside of hits in its calculations so some of these players' value is perhaps lower than what it was at the time.
Here is how the Canucks compare present-day to the 2010-11 roster.
Here is how the 2010-11 roster compared to the Boston Bruins of the same year at the beginning of the playoffs. As you can see the teams matched up very evenly with Vancouver having the advantage on paper in the top-six forwards, but Boston had a little more depth on the fourth line and the bottom-pairing on defence. The Bruins advantage paid dividends in the end.
And at the end of the series, injuries took their toll on Vancouver as here are the lineups by game seven. Boston lost Nathan Horton to injury and the Canucks lost Mason Raymond, Mikael Samuelsson, Manny Malhotra, Christian Erhroff, Dan Hamhuis to injury and Arron Rome to suspension:
The present-day Canucks roster is about on par with the depleted game seven roster that the 2010-11 Canucks were forced to ice. It is a far cry from the opening night of the playoffs roster and a testament to how far off the current roster is to compete for a Stanley Cup.
