Sweet Tweets: Trades, witch hunts, double doubles, cornerstone players, politics

The good news is, we’re back for another edition of the weekly Sweet Tweets! The bad news is that the Canucks still can’t win a game at home.

In case you missed the debut of Sweet Tweets, this is a weekly platform where I will be stealing four or five of your thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks and other news from around the NHL, then using them for my own personal gain.

I guess there are worse tragedies than the Canucks losing their last couple of games on home ice. Depending on political stance, there are probably a lot of people in Canada who are pretty angry right now.

According to the results maps, there are at least a few angry people in Calgary. But that could also be because the Flames just got demolished by the Capitals on Tuesday night.

Man, they are having a rough couple of days in Calgary.

But this isn’t about politics (I’ve had enough of that…). This is about the best hockey related Tweets from the past week.

Okay, there are some political tweets at the end…

1. Trade reflection

@jeremydavis89 Corrado hasn't played yet, Clendenning played his 1st game last night, Kassian in rehab, Bonino, Kesler suck. Canucks R OK

— Chas (@chazzwood01) October 18, 2015

I absolutely loved seeing these tweets, if only to make myself feel temporarily better about Jim Benning and his trading abilities.

These two tweets accomplish two things, even though one is a joke (presumably):

Makes fun of Ryan Kesler and the Anaheim Ducks.
It puts things into perspective. And perspective is something that is sorely needed.

Although Benning has been universally panned on pretty much every one of his deals, this tweet points out that there is often more to the story than we understand 10 seconds after reading a Bob McKenzie trade confirmation over social media.

As terrible as it is to lose a young asset like Frankie Corrado, especially with a thin depth-chart, not being able to crack the Toronto Maple Leafs validates what the Canucks saw during training camp.

Frankie isn’t ready and needs to play. He wasn’t going to get that in Vancouver, so they tried to move him back to Utica and it failed.

Life moves on.

I remember the reaction to Kassian (and a pick) getting traded in the summer for Brandon Prust. It wasn’t pretty because, at the time, the perspective was that the Canucks gave up on a budding power forward for an aging fourth line plug.

A few months later, and it was revealed that the Canucks in fact did everything they could do to help Kassian through his issues and move forward with his career, but it wasn’t going to happen.

In no way am I defending every move Jim Benning makes. I sure as hell won’t be writing something like this about Luca Sbisa anytime soon. Nor am I trying to pick on Zack Kassian because I sincerely hope he gets his life back on track.

All I want to say is that before we all lose our collective minds over every single move the Canucks make now and in the future, take a step back and consider that there may be more to the story than we understand.

2. A good old fashion witch-hunt

I'd hate to think @nhl specifically edited the clip to make burrows look bad, oh wait, that's exactly what I think

— Jason Botchford (@botchford) October 17, 2015

Speaking of there being more to the story, and being that we are closing in on Halloween, I think we should discuss how much fun a good old fashion witch hunt is within the hockey community.

Except there is ever only one witch. His name is Alex Burrows.

If you haven’t seen the video, take a gander:

https://vine.co/v/e9aD2bYgd6q

To the untrained and dare I say it, biased eye, it looks like Burrows is up to his “old antics” of diving trying to draw a penalty. Except I don’t even know how you can interpret that because really, with such a short clip it’s impossible to see what is happening without drawing your own conclusions.

It all depends on your perspective.

I’ll let Jason Botchford explain this one:

burrows wasn't diving, you savages, he was jumping out of the way on a shoot in. See what you did @NHL? https://t.co/Tf65sENbn5

— Jason Botchford (@botchford) October 17, 2015

No matter what, Burrows’ reputation will follow him until he is ready to hang up the skates. Even then, he’ll still be regarded as one of the dirtier players of this generation. Outside of Vancouver at least thanks to personalities like Ron MacLean and the NHL posting selective videos.

Oh yeah, and people like Darren Dreger doing the same.

Really? https://t.co/qyTiW8VEiO

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) October 17, 2015

Too bad Dreger’s tweet was deleted.

Go figure.

3. Big Country

Jake Virtanen with the lowest ice time for the #Canucks with 9:10 – but led the team with 4 hits, and had 3 SOG.

— Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) October 19, 2015

Everyone’s favourite Abbotsford Chrysler spokesperson is gaining fans in British Columbia and abroad at a Bo Horvat-like rate with his style of play that most closely resembles a bull fighting contest.

Here’s the problem: The one person that really matters still isn’t entirely convinced.

Of course you know that I’m talking about head coach Willie Desjardins, who is taking his painstaking approach to bringing rookies into the league slowly a little too seriously.

Well, except for Ben Hutton, who is making Luca Sbisa look good. Even Desjardins knows they’ve got something special there if he can accomplish that.

The fact of the matter is, there are things that Jake Virtanen brings to the table that no other Canuck can. And the key is that these things can help Vancouver win some hockey games.

I just want to take a moment to appreciate this play because it is so Jake Virtanen:

What does @Jake_Virtanen order at Tim Horton's?

A double double.#NailedIt pic.twitter.com/SY3Gcmzd7Q

— Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) October 19, 2015

Instead of following the aerial puck and hoping to be the first one to grab it (like everyone else is doing), Virtanen finds a different solution.

He barrels through two Edmonton Oilers and accidentally-on-purpose springs Sven Baertschi in on a breakaway.

He hits, he shoots, but yet he is still stapled to the bench for most of the game.

This will be an exercise in patience for everyone.

4. The offensive black hole

“It’s a 4-on-1!”
“Yay!”
“Sutter to Dorsett!”
“Aw crud."

— Daniel Wagner (@passittobulis) October 17, 2015

If it’s not painfully clear already, it’s looking more and more like Brandon Sutter will not reach the potential that Jim Benning declared he had five minutes after trading for him back in August. Or when Benning signed him to a five-year contract and then called him “cornerstone” player.

I can be critical of Jim Benning too…

But here’s the thing about Sutter; even though he may not provide the offence and make coherent passes in a top-six role, he can be extremely valuable as a third or even fourth line centre depending on what happens with Jared McCann.

Why? Because Willie Desjardins will roll the living crap out of his lines no matter how close the game is and Sutter can move up and down the lineup in the short-term if there is an injury.

Well, to a certain point because it’s pretty obvious that if Henrik Sedin goes down the Canucks are screwed anyways.

5. Politics

Canada has a new prime minister. I believe that'll be our sixth since a Canadian team last won the Cup.

— Jason Brough (@JasonBroughTSN) October 20, 2015

It’s not so much humour as it is depressing. I even had to look it up to see if those numbers were correct. But it’s true. Justin Trudeau is the sixth Prime Minister since the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993.

Although those numbers are slightly inflated because there were technically three Prime Ministers in 1993:

Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Jean Chretien.

See? Sweet Tweets can be educational.

To cap things off:

RW Stephen Harper on waivers this morning

— Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) October 20, 2015

Burn.