A Response To Cam Cole: AV, really, is who to blame for the fall of the Canucks.

[doobiedoodoo]

A coach's job is to take what is given to him and get the best out of it.

I look at Ballard sitting in the press box, Kassian not knowing what role he is to play, Edler still on 1st pp, Roy not knowing if he is 2nd line centre or 3rd line centre......

I am not saying GM MG has given AV an amazing team to work with, but if you look around the league other coaches have done a lot better with much less.

[Renelsisc]

As much as I hate AV, I do think he's a pretty good coach. However, there's an expiration date for everything, and his will be after tonights game. Same team, same approach, same coach, same message, and we expect different results? Enough with this already. Mike Gillis is at fault too for signing/trading for these players that do not produce, but let's put it into perspective:

- Edler and Bieksa has been terrible all season. Yet they don't even get the slightest drop in minutes. Ballard gets scratched for the slightest mistsake.

- Gillis traded for Ballard before we got Hamhuis, but Ballard was a pretty decent player prior to coming to Vancouver. I remember that day when we traded for him and everyone thought it was a good deal. Don't lie, you liked it at the time. So clearly, Ballard is a good player, so why don't we play him?

- Corrado's been pretty decent, but he's still very inexperienced and should be brought in slowly, given that seems to be AV's excuse for not playing young guys. So why is he playing top 4 minutes in the playoffs, whereas Ballard has yet to see action? I don't see how he could be worse than Sestito even if he played forward.

- We had grabner, who he didn't play because apparently he doesn't play defence. But last I checked, the Isles had him on the PK against pittsburgh. True, the Isles might not be as a skillful team as we are, but last I checked, they weren't down 3 games in a series. So who are we kidding?

- Schroeder/Raymond/Hansen had chemistry all season, and Schroeder gets sent down for Ebbett. What does Ebbett bring that Schroeder lacks? They are the exact same player except Schroeder has a little more skill and chemistry with the teammates.

- line juggling. This is NOT a strategy. Changing guys to play with each other is NOT a tactic. It's a desperate move because you have no idea what you are doing. If your lines were perfect to begin with, why have to change it?

- Hodgson. yes he wanted to get traded. But why? As skillful as he is, which has been proven, why was he not in our PP? why didn't he get more minutes to generate more scoring? he's a young player so must be played with protected minutes? Please see Corrado.

- Kassian. Ok, so we traded Hodgson for him. Good or bad, we traded for him, so let the guy play! He had chemistry with the sedins early in the season, and so the coach decided to drop him to the 4th line. Really? A young player that you are supposed to develop all of a sudden found chemistry with 1st line players and so to reward him you drop him to the 4th line with Weise?

- Aaron Rome. that's it. I got nothing.

- Game 2. 1 minute left in the game, up by one. You put the Sedins on the ice the game. They are probably the worst defensive forwards in our lineup, that's why they are not in the PK. Yet when games on the line, you put them on to defend the lead. Result, we lose.

- Game 3. Luongo's been playing lights out, and you put in a cold schneider for 5 goals. Did you expect anything else? Last year, Lu lost his net for his poor play to Schneider, so why can't Lu get it back this year? I like both goalies, but let's just call a spade a spade.

The list goes on and on, and we wonder why our young guys never develop like Detroit....

[alt kilgore]

To all the AV apologists, sorry, where there is smoke there is fire. And he needs to be fired.

Hodgson, Shirokov, and Grabner. Was there some stubborness, or laziness or immaturity that those kids were guilty of...sure. But who is the senior adult in the situation? The pssing matches that AV got into with Cody were particularly disturbing. AV was acting like a petty CDC poster not a coach. If I remember correctly Shirokov was not only sent down the next day after that goal, he was inexplicably benched in the third period of that game.

Now this year we have Ebbet over Schroeder. Almost like he played Schroeder during the regular season because he had to, but it never entered his mind that he could continue to play him and help create a chemistry on the team going into the playoffs.

Kassian's development is the most frustrating. As much as I love Burrows and his work on the top line, if AV is going down the road of beefing up the team after our last playoff woes, THEN DO IT! AV should have ridden out the storm of rookie mistakes and kept Kassian with the twins all year for the most part. Let them find each others games and learn to find their own system together. If they had played all season together, they may have developed that. And a second line of Burrows Kesler and Higgins/Hansen would be formidable.

Injuries have a bearing but the line mixing and hunches this coach implements, at the most inopportune times, has infected the team. Only AV plays out the string at the end of the season with disinterest and then for the first game switches everything up like its his personal toy soldier set.

[skyfall]

A coach's job is to take what is given to him and get the best out of it.

I look at Ballard sitting in the press box, Kassian not knowing what role he is to play, Edler still on 1st pp, Roy not knowing if he is 2nd line centre or 3rd line centre......

I am not saying GM MG has given AV an amazing team to work with, but if you look around the league other coaches have done a lot better with much less.

[kchengc]

You don't boot a guy after going to game 7 for losing in the first round to the eventual cup champs, you boot him for getting swept the year after that.

I have to agree with OP, AV got out coached last playoffs, and this years. When it matters, and teams have studied the canucks, he has come up as lame as the players did in the finals.

[stawns]

I think the issue with AV is that part of his system doesn't make sense. A defensive minded system that has active pinching defensemen? Seems a bit backward to me.

In addition, asking the forwards to play deeper in their zone, especially the Sedins, makes no sense when they're offensive players who need a transition game. If the forwards can't blow the zone and run a transition game, you essentially eliminate a good portion of offensive chances based on the system. This team is built for run and gun with a transition game, not the current system AV is using.

[Vansicle]

AV is not the problem. It is a combination of several problems none of which have a significant sway on the Canucks total failures.

[Salmonberries]

Hopefully this is the car both will be getting into when Gillis drives them to the airport.

[Vansicle]

It's the player's job to do what the coach says.

[Salmonberries]

I like AV. If Gillis had his finger on the pulse, he would have replaced AV with MacTavish last summer and AV might be coaching Montreal right now.

[brownky]

I like AV. If Gillis had his finger on the pulse, he would have replaced AV with MacTavish last summer and AV might be coaching Montreal right now.

[snolan]

It's not always about 'how good' a coach is, it's if his system is working and he's motivating the team. He's not doing that here, and I think he's consistently getting out coached in the playoffs. We do good in the regular season because other teams don't put as much effort into 'countering' the which makes a soft defensive system and a prayer on the top line / PP work well.. tends not to in the playoffs.

[thema]

Name the "fractured" relationships and spare me the Hodgson drama, which was overcomplicated and cannot simply be blamed on AV's fictional hatred for young players.

This 'players that Gillis gave AV' thing is a silly qualifier with a tiny sample size.

We are just seeing the emergence of Gillis draft picks.

So forget the micro-nitpicking of the Hodgson affair and name another 'fractured' relationship.

Everyone on these boards has an opinion of how Kassian should be used, but really, the specifics of those complaints rarely hold water, and regardless, nothing resembling a 'fracture'.

Tanev, Schroeder, Kassian, Corrado - no fractures there. Just CDC dramatizations.

On the other hand, look at AV's record as a whole and these types of claims become utter nonsense.

Burrows, Kesler, Hansen, Raymond, Bieksa, Edler, Schneider... all 'ruined' by AV.

[Cigano]

They are both to blame and both need to go.

AV can only do what he can with the players he is given, yet with the players he is given he makes dumb decisions with them. Both combined are flaws for the team

[Toni Zamboni]

fire Gillis.

[safin]

this isn't an Av problem alone, this is a team problem, from player decisions to drafting to coaching...so while Cam Cole wasn't entirely right in just placing the blame on MG, he wasn't entirely wrong in saying it wasn't all AV's fault either but he didn't help his case either with some bad choices. The message might well have gone stale but regardless the quality of players available can't be overlooked, if one goes the other should go.

[skyfall]

actually, if you know anything about systems hockey, it makes perfect sense. When you employ a 1-2-2 system, you always have two fwds high to cut off the boards, or a pass up the middle. Also, when you encourage your dmen to jump up and pinch, you need a forward there to cover........in a 1-2-2 you always have a fwd there to cover for a pinching dman.

[Red Light Racicot]

actually, if you know anything about systems hockey, it makes perfect sense. When you employ a 1-2-2 system, you always have two fwds high to cut off the boards, or a pass up the middle. Also, when you encourage your dmen to jump up and pinch, you need a forward there to cover........in a 1-2-2 you always have a fwd there to cover for a pinching dman.

[CHIPS]

Optional practice=nothing is wrong guys we are doing great.

Yup....