Tony G RIPS The Sedins, Coaches & Canucks Country Club

[MJDDawg]

Tony doing what Tony does. But I gotta say I don't have a problem with most of this.

http://www.theprovin...4363/story.html

Before setting off for the World Championships to play for Sweden — where that country hopes to be in the final it is hosting — Canucks captain Henrik Sedin stood up for Canucks coach Alain Vigneault at the end-of-season meet and greet with the media.

And why wouldn’t he. After all, as the captain, it’s his job to pretend it’s a wonderful sailing ship that just happened to take on a little too much water. And let’s be clear here: From Henrik’s perspective, what’s not to like?

The twins never have to kill penalties, they get the lion’s share of every power play — no matter how poorly things are going — they start almost every shift in the offensive zone and when things go awry the coach never fingers them publicly.

They’re in the team’s leadership group, which is the management sounding board for any moves they might be planning to make, and the worst blame that ever comes the Sedins’ way is when the coach might say, “Your best players have to be your best players.” This is as close as it gets to heaven for an NHL player, so naturally they’d like the country club to be run just as it has been, with perhaps a couple of suggestions for the team chef for next year.

Said Henrik: “AV has been nothing but great for this team. So if they want to go in a different direction, that’s up to them. I think our core players have really grown up here and have become better as the years went on. AV has helped us grow as players, and as leaders as well. So I have nothing but good things to say.”

Excuse me, better as the years went on? Sorry, not seeing that after the past two playoffs.

Helped you grow as leaders? After last year’s playoffs, the way Henrik worked and kept pushing against the Kings, you might have had some agreement with that. But after this year’s shocking display — whereby the twins did the absolute square root of sweet fanny adam, coming up with just one even strength point in the series and not reaching anywhere near the level of intensity necessary to compete until the third period of game four — we have to call horse manure to that as well.

And then the captain went on to indict the coaching staff and/or his brother and himself, when he claimed the power play’s shortcomings were the team’s biggest trouble when it came to scoring goals.

“One of the main things is that our power play hasn’t been very good, that’s the main thing,” said Henrik. “We’ve had a few injuries to key guys that you need on your power play. If that percentage goes up to where it should be, I think those are the goals we’re missing. That’s been the problem this year, and it was last year as well.”

Hold on a minute here, pal. Nobody was missing for the playoffs. Both Ryan Kesler and Daniel were present and accounted for, and fit as fiddles. And they’d been around to practise everything for several games before the postseason began. Daniel missed a bit of last season and Kesler much of this season, but missing one guy as they were in each of these instances — never both at the same time — can’t be the reason your power play has gone from being the best in the game to something people laugh at.

It’s here where Henrik inadvertently levels some of his greatest criticism at the coaching staff: by citing the obvious power-play failure. When you have both Sedins, Alex Edler, Alex Burrows, Jason Garrison and — when it counted — Ryan Kesler all available and your power play sucks, there’s something profoundly wrong with its design. And that’s the responsibility of the coaches.

Clearly what was needed during Kesler’s absence for much of this season was to design a power play whereby Henrik could have delivered the puck from the left offensive boards to the wheelhouse of Jason Garrison on the left point. That would have been the equivalent of Henrik putting it on Sami Salo’s stick from the right side of the ice, and that was always successful. Henrik might have had to move lower, closer to the net to create room and then backhanded the pass from that left side, but he’s more than capable of pulling that off. But the coaches couldn’t even find a way to get Garrison on the ice on the first unit in any capacity, something that almost certainly had to stun everyone in the league.

When asked if he thought Henrik on the left side, feeding him on the left point, might have been an option on the first unit, Garrison laughed in frustration and said: “I like to think I can shoot the puck from anywhere on the ice.”

Over the years the Sedins have been great contributors to this team and this community, and that is truly loved and admired by all. Lately though, they’ve also been making considerable contributions to the bullbleep pile as well.

twitter.com/tg_gman

© Copyright © The Province

[Voice of the Voiceless]

I kind of agree with him

[Ossi Vaananen]

I thought you meant the poker player for a second.

[stonecoldstevebernier]

What does he expect? He's acting like its the media's right to know everything going on behind the Canucks. Henrik's never going to publicly come out and say "yeah, its the coach's fault/this player's fault" - he's the kind of person that isn't going to feed journalists mean-hearted quotes to fill their articles with. Maybe that's why Gallagher's so bitter, he has to actually delve deeper into his own brain to think of something to write.

[Plum]

No suggestions just plain old rip into them.

[Nuxfanabroad]

Any circuitous line of reasoning which ultimately points blame towards AV's ineptitude, is to be appreciated & applauded.

He's done to our franchise, what Bush did to America. Kaibosh that dud!

[Twilight Sparkle]

I have vitamins in me

[oldnews]

Tony never disappoints.

His idiocy always rises to the top.

Had trouble reading past the whole "the Twins never have to kill penalties" thing.

That about sums up Tony's density.

As for Tony's pretenses to coach, there's a reason Henrik sets up on the right half boards. Garrison's laughing at the suggestion that running the powerplay from the left side is genius, and noting that he can shoot the puck from either side, may have something to do with the fact that he did precisely the opposite - shoot the puck from the right side on the powerplay - when he tallied 16 goals in Florida last season.

And when he's on the 2nd unit, where does he shoot the puck from?

Being on the right side on the point of the pp allows for the one-timer from both the right half-boards, where Henrik sets up, and the cross ice pass from the blueliner on the left side. Having your primary shooter being a left handed shot on the left side of the point...isn't it elementary how dumb that is? That eliminates the one-timer from the right point, and would have Henrik handling the puck with his forehand directed down low were he to move to the left side.

Is this Tony G's genius plan for making Garrison and the pp more productive?

Thanks for coming out Tony.

The ironing is that you are the most prolific producer of bullbleep in the city, and you've just dumped your latest load.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Ehrhoff has been missing for the past two playoffs, but anyway...

Relying on the powerplay, and therefore the refs to make calls, in the playoffs is folly. We've just seen the Caps go the entire game 7 against the Rags with ZERO powerplay chances. You simply cannot count on the powerplay when it matters most. So i hope that isn't 'the big strategy' again.

But this season our PK sucked more than the powerplay, thanks to no Manny. Hey, that's another missing guy.

Meanwhile, it's stability when you're winning, but a country club when you're losing. These factors that make the Sedins happy? Yeah, they were important when they won mvp awards and when the team went to the finals. What would you have preferred? Losing them as free agents to TO? Could you imagine the panic around this fairweather city if we traded the Sedins just before they hit their peak? Good Lord.

And to think writers here have the gift of hindsight when making their ho-hum reports based on flawed analysis... I mean, can't these guys do better?

I shake my head to think that this guy represents this team abroad. Remember when that goomba Shawn Thornton took him to school? Couldn't even get the simplest of facts straight, and then ran his team under the bus. What a bloody disgrace.

Hey, Gillis said we need to 'reset', Tony G. So RETIRE already!

[Sypher009]

lol @ how this board calls every reporter who isn't a Canuck homer who plays cheerleader all day an "idiot". Take your Canuck glasses off

[oldnews]

lol @ how this board calls every reporter who isn't a Canuck homer who plays cheerleader all day an "idiot". Take your Canuck glasses off

[topbananas]

AV has never fingered the twins in public............thats where he is going wrong

[nv snipe show]

Plain and simple solution to this mess... draft Canadian and ditch the euro mentality.

[oldnews]

AV has never fingered the twins in public............thats where he is going wrong

[topbananas]

Couldn't disagree more. Calling out the Twins publicly is the kind of thing a coach who is trying to displace criticism and save his job would do.

Vigneault doesn't turn a blind eye to the Sedins - he has handled his disappointment with their performances in the past in the form of cutting their ice time, and in some instances, their powerplay time, but suggesting that he should call them out publicly... that kind of approach can go south in so many ways. Some of us remember the Keenan era. Others should be careful what they wish for, Gallagher included.

[cheguevara9]

Yes! Finally someone gets it. I've been wanting to write a piece on the Sedins for so long.

Stop pointing figers at either of our goalies, or secondary scoring, or our fouth line(lol).

Our problem starts with the Sedins. We're not, (we might have, in 2011, with a great supporting cast and Kesler at his best) going to win diddly squat with these two.

I don't even care about the fact they're not tough, or not great defensively, because that's not what we need them to do.

We need them to score, and when does that happen? Neither of them can shoot anymore, look how Daniel reacted when the Sharks suprised him, twice, with that isolation move. He could not fire the puck....

But the main downfall of the Sedins, in my opinion, is their lack of speed. They just can't get to the puck, or put on a meaningful forecheck, with those slow strides. If you're not big, or tough, you need to be speedy, or have a great shot.

The Sedins have none of those things.......

When do you ever see the Sedin line with the same intensity that Kesler plays with?

Some of you may instinctively disagree with this because the Sedins have supposedly been the face of this franchise for so long, but many among you don't remember how long we waited for them to develop as decent players, after we drafted them. For the longest time, the twins were absolutely horrible players.

I think we have one of the weakest first lines around the NHL. To prove my point, take the best player on each of the other NHL teams, and how many of these players would you take, for either Sedin? And don't give me that sh*t, the Sedins aren't to be compared separately to another player, that they need to stay together to be effective. That's actually a knock against them, isn't it their problem that neither of them can compare individually to another so-called superstar? We're effectively spending 12+ million a year on two players that, when added up, are the equivalent of a bonafide superstar.

We shouldn't get stuck in this mentality forever, we can have much more freedom and flexibility in shaping a new team, when we get rid of the twins, and will have the opportunity to head on the right direction.

I realize the Sedins have been great to the community, but hockey-wise, I don't think they can carry this team. They belong on some team's second line, not on the Canucks' first. No hard feelings, I hope they find success somewhere else, but it's certainly not going to happen in Vancouver.

[Bodee]

No suggestions just plain old rip into them.

[Bodee]

Yes! Finally someone gets it. I've been wanting to write a piece on the Sedins for so long.

Stop pointing figers at either of our goalies, or secondary scoring, or our fouth line(lol).

Our problem starts with the Sedins. We're not, (we might have, in 2011, with a great supporting cast and Kesler at his best) going to win diddly squat with these two.

I don't even care about the fact they're not tough, or not great defensively, because that's not what we need them to do.

We need them to score, and when does that happen? Neither of them can shoot anymore, look how Daniel reacted when the Sharks suprised him, twice, with that isolation move. He could not fire the puck....

But the main downfall of the Sedins, in my opinion, is their lack of speed. They just can't get to the puck, or put on a meaningful forecheck, with those slow strides. If you're not big, or tough, you need to be speedy, or have a great shot.

The Sedins have none of those things.......

When do you ever see the Sedin line with the same intensity that Kesler plays with?

Some of you may instinctively disagree with this because the Sedins have supposedly been the face of this franchise for so long, but many among you don't remember how long we waited for them to develop as decent players, after we drafted them. For the longest time, the twins were absolutely horrible players.

I think we have one of the weakest first lines around the NHL. To prove my point, take the best player on each of the other NHL teams, and how many of these players would you take, for either Sedin? And don't give me that sh*t, the Sedins aren't to be compared separately to another player, that they need to stay together to be effective. That's actually a knock against them, isn't it their problem that neither of them can compare individually to another so-called superstar? We're effectively spending 12+ million a year on two players that, when added up, are the equivalent of a bonafide superstar.

We shouldn't get stuck in this mentality forever, we can have much more freedom and flexibility in shaping a new team, when we get rid of the twins, and will have the opportunity to head on the right direction.

I realize the Sedins have been great to the community, but hockey-wise, I don't think they can carry this team. They belong on some team's second line, not on the Canucks' first. No hard feelings, I hope they find success somewhere else, but it's certainly not going to happen in Vancouver.

[spook007]

It'll be funny to see how we fare once the Sedins and Luongo have left the building... Be careful what you wish for...

[gamasutra]

The team has choked two playoffs in a row. So every article ripping them is mostly right.