Plum Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Article on TSN.ca: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=461375 VANCOUVER - While Vancouver Canucks fans demand change, new coach Willie Desjardins is preaching a status-quo approach — with himself. After spending more than two decades attempting to become an NHL head coach, and with training camp in Whistler, B.C., two weeks away, he is vowing not to change his style behind the bench. "One thing I learned is, you've gotta be who you are," said Desjardins, 57, the new Canucks coach, after taking part in a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon Tuesday. "You can't be somebody you're not. (Otherwise), it just falls apart on you." Desjardins reached the NHL this spring after helping the Texas Stars win the AHL title. He has also spent time in the Canadian university and junior ranks, winning championships at both levels, while also serving a two-season stint as a Dallas Stars assistant. Fans want a significant improvement in the standings after the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008 last season. Desjardins, who finds it "unbelievable" that his long-held dream of guiding an NHL club's training camp is about to come true, suggested that chances of a Canucks turnaround are better than many people might think. "You just get to see the quality of people," Desjardins told reporters. "Sometimes, when you get into something, you go: Oh, what I have I gotten into? But that's not the case here." During the luncheon with 400 members of the local business community — as well as Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden and team GM Jim Benning — Desjardins shed some light on what fans can expect from the veteran-laden Canucks. In one notable change, contrary to the views of former Vancouver coach John Tortorella, who was fired after one season, Daniel and Henrik Sedin are likely to spend less time killing penalties. "We have to share the workload," said Desjardins. "I don't think we're going to make the playoffs with one line being shut down. They're good at all aspects of the game. They're good at killing penalties and they're good five-on-five. They can play the power play. I think you're lucky to have players like that. For us, we want to make sure that they're able to go (and) at the end of the game, they're still fresh and they're playing hard. So that may mean managing their minutes a little bit. We want to play with four lines." Henrik and Daniel, both former NHL most valuable players, managed to produce only 50 and 47 points, respectively, last season. Daniel also endured a lengthy goal drought while both battled injuries after seeing their playing time increased. Desjardins's view on the Sedins reflects the desire of the new top brass to have the Canucks rely on their veterans. Key additions include centre Nick Bonino and defenceman Luca Sbisa, who were acquired via trade from Anaheim for Ryan Kesler. Vancouver also added veteran wingers Radim Vrbata and goaltender Ryan Miller, who were signed as free agents. Benning, who replaced former president and GM Mike Gillis, said he, Linden and Desjardins have focused this summer on finding support for the veteran core. "There'll be many challenges for throughout the season, but I think we've tried to do everything that we could at this point to make the team deeper and give them more enthusiasm so they play with more energy," said Benning. The Canucks' lack of depth showed last season as the NHL veterans and minor-league callups could not make up sufficiently for declines in offence from the Sedins and others when injuries and poor play took their toll. "We talked about maybe there wasn't the depth that we needed to counter those injuries going into that last stretch of the year," said Benning. "So we tried to add to our depth this summer. Now, we don't have to rush young players, and we can let them develop properly and be ready to come up and play when we call them up to play." During the luncheon, questions focused more on hockey than the club's business issues. But the Canucks, used to perennial sellouts, are also trying to bolster their bottom line with more on-ice success. Linden told reporters that season ticket sales are "down a few percentage points." But he expects them to pick up as training camp creates more excitement about the team. ------------------------------------------------ Looks like Sedins will not play on the PK which is a big plus. You could see last season that we had no offence going because they were playing everywhere, got injured and only in short stints were they playing good. They had a great start to the season and I thought wow we're going to be good but we got worse as the season went on and became inconsistent. I also think we'll see Vey play a shutdown role, Bonino play sheltered minutes putting up points while other teams try to shutdown the Sedins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex425 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeNiro Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Just common sense. The Sedins just didn't have anything left in the tank at the end of games last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derp... Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Great news from Willie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dasein Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 The ridiculously obvious is ridiculously obvious. Glad we have a coach that can spot it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watermelons Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I think the Canucks will surprise many this year. Almost every single one of our players had a terrible year last season and I doubt the same will happen again. If at least two or three of the key guys bounce back we will be fighting for a playoff spot. And once you're in the playoffs...anything can happen. As much as I'd love for us to get a super high pick in the 2015 draft, I'd also be happy with seeing the Canucks raise some excitement in the city once again. GO CANUCKS GO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herberts Vasiljevs Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Fire Vigneault! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownky Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 We're going to have... a coach? It's been awhile since we had one of those. AV was not a coach, he never entered the locker room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tystick Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Glad to hear it They're just more effective this way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucks-4-Life Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 AV was not a coach, he never entered the locker room. Is there proof of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KassianBeastMode Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Lines Sedin Sedin Vrbata Burrows Bonino Kassian Higgins Richardson Hansen Mathias Vey Dorsett PP1 Sedin Sedin Vrbata Edler Tanev PP2 Burrows Bonino Kassian Hammer Bieksa PK1 Burrows Richardson Hammer Bieksa PK2 Higgins Hansen (Matthias/Vey) Edler Tanev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanTSN Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 They played a combined 140mins on the pk last season. Most of it early on. I don't think that was a big deal. What led to their injuries may have been our much tougher divisional competition after the realignment, combined with age. As puck-cyclers, the Sedins have always received good o-zone starts and that trend will continue. Probably back up to 80% as it was a couple years ago. But the qualcomp will probably remain high. The lowest qualcomp they've seen is during their peak, the 09-11 seasons. This is largely due to the efforts of Kesler, Manny and AV managing his lineups' deployment fantastically. If Matthias and Richardson can manage to be as effective as our old checking center duo, then that will work wonders for Sedin time management. But that may be a big ask. And the Sedins aren't getting any younger either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iLLmAtlc Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Going back to what someone else figured out like 7 years ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KassianBeastMode Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 They played a combined 140mins on the pk last season. Most of it early on. I don't think that was a big deal. What led to their injuries may have been our much tougher divisional competition after the realignment, combined with age. As puck-cyclers, the Sedins have always received good o-zone starts and that trend will continue. Probably back up to 80% as it was a couple years ago. But the qualcomp will probably remain high. The lowest qualcomp they've seen is during their peak, the 09-11 seasons. This is largely due to the efforts of Kesler, Manny and AV managing his lineups' deployment fantastically. If Matthias and Richardson can manage to be as effective as our old checking center duo, then that will work wonders for Sedin time management. But that may be a big ask. And the Sedins aren't getting any younger either. yep this is why Linden and Benning keep harping on 4 lines. All the best teams can do that, which allows their stars 'better' positional starts and opportunities with fresh legs. Very few players in the NHL can play the way Torts wanted the sedins to. He wanted them to play like Datsyuk or Toews and they aren't either of those guys. Datsyuk is an effortless skater who will never age (Sedin's skating never their strength), and Toews is younger and no slouch skating wise either. Torts got them to play hard 2 ways but he didn't want to accept the cost, fatigue and less points. That's fine if others score more but he didn't have the horses for that. This is what AV understood. We have always been a one line team with one player on the second line. So you have to put the Sedin's to score as often as possible and get the rest of the guys to just play hard d. Torts didn't get that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanTSN Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 We're going to have... a coach? It's been awhile since we had one of those. AV was not a coach, he never entered the locker room. This reminds me of the start of last season, during Torts hype. Virtually everyone has flipped since then of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BanTSN Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 yep this is why Linden and Benning keep harping on 4 lines. All the best teams can do that, which allows their stars 'better' positional starts and opportunities with fresh legs. Very few players in the NHL can play the way Torts wanted the sedins to. He wanted them to play like Datsyuk or Toews and they aren't either of those guys. Datsyuk is an effortless skater who will never age (Sedin's skating never their strength), and Toews is younger and no slouch skating wise either. Torts got them to play hard 2 ways but he didn't want to accept the cost, fatigue and less points. That's fine if others score more but he didn't have the horses for that. This is what AV understood. We have always been a one line team with one player on the second line. So you have to put the Sedin's to score as often as possible and get the rest of the guys to just play hard d. Torts didn't get that.... The Sedins could have succeeded last season if the team had a bit more depth imho. Brad Richardson is more a 4th line winger, not a 3rd line center, for starters. Collectively, the team was stretched into doing too much last season. This season I think we'll have a similar problem, solved only by the improvement of some key young players. Our competition is mainly ahead of us in that curve though as we're still at the beginnings of a rebuild phase. So Benning's right. There will be many challenges throughout this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeNiro Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Going back to what someone else figured out like 7 years ago Pretty arrogant to think a system that won back to back President's trophies was broken, rather than addressing the severe lack of scoring depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KassianBeastMode Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 The Sedins could have succeeded last season if the team had a bit more depth imho. Brad Richardson is more a 4th line winger, not a 3rd line center, for starters. Collectively, the team was stretched into doing too much last season. This season I think we'll have a similar problem, solved only by the improvement of some key young players. Our competition is mainly ahead of us in that curve though as we're still at the beginnings of a rebuild phase. So Benning's right. There will be many challenges throughout this season. I agree on the depth issue but the Sedins don't need to be killing penalties, we have loads of players much better at that than them anyways PK you need fast physical checking players, Sedin's are none of that but are simply solid defensively/aware.....that was pure stupidity from torts and his way of trying to hammer into the team that its about being a team...but you have to be smart about it too.. Disgree on Richie man. His faceoff % was 55.2% which is very high league wise. He is a terrific 4th line center and I think a much better player than that and should be on the third line, because he is a terrific shut down player. Assuming we see the following it makes sense to have him as a 3c as he will be able to play a great shut down role and take away hard minutes from the twins and line 2. Line 1: 18 Mins Line 2: 16 mins Line 3: 14 mins Line 4: 12 mins Sedin Sedin Vrbata Burr Bonino Kassian Higgins Richardson Hansen This would be an amazing shut down line, the way old school 3rd lines use be made up - 3 hard players to play against, hard checking forwards that can also score. I am sure team's first or second lines around the league would not like having to compete against these three at once..not sure if there are many harder working NHL'ers out there than those 3 to be honest. Matthias Vey Dorsett Vey and Dorsett played together in the W so likely play together early, and Vey will be eased in, big winger in Matthias on the other side that can skate, has the hands to score if Vey shows he can play the set up role, and likes to hit. A group that can also reliably take up 10-12 mins a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownky Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Is there proof of this? Yep. Heard that from a player who played under him. Believe me or not is up to you, but consider that I have no reason to lie as he's long gone. One of the reasons I disliked him as a 'coach'. This reminds me of the start of last season, during Torts hype. Virtually everyone has flipped since then of course. I was all up in the Torts kool-aid too to start the year, and even you would reasonably have to concede that it was looking pretty great up until the wheels all came off in December. As soon as the Calgary thing happened, that was about it for putting the wheels back on too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KassianBeastMode Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Yep. Heard that from a player who played under him. Believe me or not is up to you, but consider that I have no reason to lie as he's long gone. One of the reasons I disliked him as a 'coach'. I was all up in the Torts kool-aid too to start the year, and even you would reasonably have to concede that it was looking pretty great up until the wheels all came off in December. As soon as the Calgary thing happened, that was about it for putting the wheels back on too. I don't think it was the Calgary issue, it was a team lacking depth (because of MG), and because of that a coach that ran players into the ground old school and they collapsed.... I really blame MG for that failure, as well as some of our locker room issues. That group had infighting, however silent the room was off and its pretty obvious, it wasn't a 'team'....there were cliques and this caused issues (btw I know this for a fact because I know a few NHL'ers and two who are ex teammates of a a couple of players from junior. I'll leave it at that lol...but like anything, blaming one guy is wrong, it was a clusterfack because of everyone involved, each had a hand in it. GM, Coaches and players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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