What was with WD?

[Ellyn84]

Go and get a hobby and maybe that will stop you dreaming up stuff like this. It's a disgrace.

You admit you have a limited knowledge of hockey probably the same as 99% of us on here but you start a thread like that.

I get it, you're disappointed but don't lose your class.

By the way the other rookie coach Mike Johnston (coach of the Pens, with Malkin, Crosby, Downie, Fluery, Hornqvist, Comeau, Kunitz, Spalling, Sutter, Winnick and Lapierre ) went out in 5. Is he suspect as well?

Get a grip all you posters! Alfstonker (above quote) is the only one on this thread who makes sense! The rest of you would like to think you have a lot of coaching/gm/playing experience to come up with your ideas, but your lack of knowledge and inexperience is coming through loud and clear. Benning and his management team will make changes for the good of the playing team. I trust his judgement better than reading posts from armchair Coaches and couch potato GMs.

Take Alfstoner's advice, and get a hobby!

[Li'l Fra]

Sometimes coaches outsmart themselves.

But if the President has to come and tell you to play your stars more...wtf?

Play Bo more...no brainer...best faceoff guy, inspired, offensive; basically everything Bonino wasn't.

Vrbata needed to play with the Sedins. He's the finisher we've been lacking for years. He was just the rotting appendage of the decaying corpse of Nick Bonino, and the ghost of Chris Higgins. Just booooooo, booooooo, grrrrrr, booooo....

Miller himself said he wasn't ready. Lack proved his ability all year. Goaltending was not the problem. Stupid move, because of Miller's injury.

Obviously there will be growing pains for a rookie coach in the NHL. Overall, I really enjoyed the first year of Willie Desjardins.

[HC20.0]

I don't think this was on WD. If anything this is the players fault. Games 1, 3, 4, and 6 were all very winnable. Hiller stole game 1, but the other three, Vancouver never showed up to play. They coasted and Calgary made them pay.

[FireGillis]

Perhaps you'd rather overwork the Sedins like Torts did and rather miss the playoffs altogether?

The point is to keep them fresh in the regular season so you can ride them in the playoffs. However, Willie felt come playoffs time he needed to keep the Sedins fresh for golf season! It took a meeting with the Sedins and Linden to increase their ice time. Willie was horribly out coached this series and really showed himself to be a rookie coach.

[ahf149]

AV WAS BETTER

Yes and hes coached a hell of a lot longer. What a dumb comparison. Let me guess you were one of the ones calling or his head after we lost in the first round that one year right?

[yes we can nucks]

The point is to keep them fresh in the regular season so you can ride them in the playoffs. However, Willie felt come playoffs time he needed to keep the Sedins fresh for golf season! It took a meeting with the Sedins and Linden to increase their ice time. Willie was horribly out coached this series and really showed himself to be a rookie coach.

This.

Calgary won because Hartley played his top 3 dmen half the game. When it was crunch time in game 6 he double shifted Gaudreau and he came through. WD should've done the same with our top guys. That's why you roll 4 lines during the season.

He should've also loaded up the top line with V. WD explained that the Sedins and Hansen were playing well. True, but they had no finish. On one occasion, Hansen was set up beautifully with a open view of the net. He shot way wide. V has shown that he's a finisher and most likely would've buried that. One goal made a critical difference in this series.

I hope WD learns from this experience in the playoffs.

[DownUndaCanuck]

Tortorella played our stars too much, rode them into the ground and we had the worst season imagineable.

Desjardins played our stars too little, balanced out our lines too much and we have a pretty decent but not fantastic season.

AV had the mix down to perfection. He was playing the Sedins the same amount of time WD is, but didn't keep his 4th line out as much as WD is right now and relied more on our top-4 defencemen. Face it, he was the best coach for this team, he knew the guys the best and he was never the problem. Now sit back and watch him win a Cup that he definately deserves. One of the best coaches in the current era.

[snucks]

Willie has to be the biggest reason we fell short. We had plenty of problems in that first round but a few major ones could have been dealt with by the coach. First Eddy should have started game 6 for so many reasons I cant put my finger on one of them. Second, when Burrows went down he should have thought why they brough Virbata herein the first place was to have a sniper on the first line with the Sedins, now even if his arguement was he wanted to keep the scoring threat balanced then the obvious answer was sven with the sedins and leave virbabta on the second line. I mean what do you have to loose Sven's a sniper and who better to put him with the our best feeders of the puck. I think we could of had a better chance if the coach made those decissions.

Thats right ! The team needs to be rebuilt but they need a coach who can coach. Its not good enough to have one way to coach and that is to follow a predetermined plan. Hartley was way too smart for WD.

Apparently staying out of the penalty box was another thing the coach wanted, but the Canucks were real good on the PK. So there was no push back with Hartleys tactics. With a 3 goal lead WD did not manage a win. He appears to me to be just like a lot of minor league coaches.

The Canucks have not had a coach for a while now that can adjust in a game. Look what Hatley did; he pulled Hiller after 2 goals.

If Linden doesn't do some huge changes they will lose even more fans next season .

[c00kies]

I thought he was better in games 5 and 6, so I think he's learning. Although experienced, this was his rookie season.

[snucks]

We will see next year how stubborn he is when management want more youth into the lineup. He really never wanted Horvat at the beginning of the year, so lets see if he can adjust if guys like Virtanen, Shink, Gaunce have great camps. Cassels is another interesting prospect who looks like he could step into the NHL maybe quicker than the rest of them. Is he going to to stay conservative? or roll the dice with some more youth.

That is because he had a plan : Vey.

[two drink minimum]

If Hansen is playing significant minutes with the Sedins in a playoff game game...this team has serious problems

[babych]

The province and 1040 many many many times

Oh. I live in Calgary so I would not have heard.

Question - was this speculation on the journalists/ talk show hosts part or are they saying it actually happened.

I have a really hard time believing that Linden would direct WD like this and have it go be public.

[FireGillis]

Oh. I live in Calgary so I would not have heard.

Question - was this speculation on the journalists/ talk show hosts part or are they saying it actually happened.

I have a really hard time believing that Linden would direct WD like this and have it go be public.

It wasn't speculation and happened. Was reported in the province . Why would it be hard to believe? Linden must have been pulling his hair out and wanted to slap Willie so it would make sense for Linden to go talk to Willie about it.

[Canuck63]

Honestly I was very frustrated with the coaching. Sedins played more in the meaningless final game against the oilers than the important playoffs .. makes zero sense! !!!! Should have played the trap after up 3-0 or keep the pedal to the metal. 4 lines during regular season is fine but you know the flames or any other team when down are going to load up and go for it. ... this is not the time to give everyone equal ice time.

After tv timeouts. .icing. .etc ..play the Sedins! !!!!! Need to be strategic. Anyone can coach 4 line hockey. ..argh

Exactly ... four line hockey is what my kid plays in Atom house league. We just roll the lines so all the kids get their fair share of ice time ... which is only natural ..... because ..... they're just kids.

... But this is the FRACKING NHL ... with pros and millions on the line .... What was Willie thinking!!?

[Canucks Curse]

Go and get a hobby and maybe that will stop you dreaming up stuff like this. It's a disgrace.

You admit you have a limited knowledge of hockey probably the same as 99% of us on here but you start a thread like that.

I get it, you're disappointed but don't lose your class.

By the way the other rookie coach Mike Johnston (coach of the Pens, with Malkin, Crosby, Downie, Fluery, Hornqvist, Comeau, Kunitz, Spalling, Sutter, Winnick and Lapierre ) went out in 5. Is he suspect as well?

It's a forum bro, don't get upset for people expressing their opinion, that's what this is for.

Not sure why you think it takes a genius to see WD messed up big time in not playing the twins and no enough and sending vrabata where goals go to die (our 2nd line)

Get a grip all you posters! Alfstonker (above quote) is the only one on this thread who makes sense! The rest of you would like to think you have a lot of coaching/gm/playing experience to come up with your ideas, but your lack of knowledge and inexperience is coming through loud and clear. Benning and his management team will make changes for the good of the playing team. I trust his judgement better than reading posts from armchair Coaches and couch potato GMs.

Take Alfstoner's advice, and get a hobby!

[alfstonker]

"Thats right ! The team needs to be rebuilt but they need a coach who can coach. Its not good enough to have one way to coach and that is to follow a predetermined plan. Hartley was way too smart for WD."

Who is this guy Hartley, who's so smart? Where has he been for the last 3 years?

Hartley won the Calder Cup in 1997 and joined Avalanche in 1998 winning the SC in 2001, he was fired after 31 games in 2003

Since then he has missed the playoffs 5 times out of 7 seasons, and was fired by Atlanta Thrashers in 2008.

Willie has just started after winning the Calder Cup and took an ageing and injured team all the way to the playoffs.

Despite going out in game 6, any sane person would admit that had we got some puck luck we might have been into the next round.

However let's not kid ourselves, this team is not really good enough yet to go to the Finals. JB is in charge of sorting that and in the meantime Willie D's team garnered 101 points, thus providing a winning environment as he was hired to do and did it despite horrendous injuries including our No1 goalie.

It amazes me how anyone can criticise our rookie coach never mind want to see him replaced. We have already lost AV because of the same stupidity.

Willie needs to be given JB's team crammed with youth, skill, speed and physicality, then we should judge him.

[desiboynux4lifee*******]

Wille D was being stubborn.

Quick things I saw

1. Horvat best player, no powerplay time

2. team showed no come back after they were being beat physically.

3. Keeping Bieksa and Sbisa together

4. No answer to Calgary's forecheck (coach's job)

5. No answer to Hartley exposing our D. Could of over played some of the top guys. AV use to do it many times.

[alfstonker]

Exactly ... four line hockey is what my kid plays in Atom house league. We just roll the lines so all the kids get their fair share of ice time ... which is only natural ..... because ..... they're just kids.

... But this is the FRACKING NHL ... with pros and millions on the line .... What was Willie thinking!!?

Never mind what was he thinking, what were you watching?

How about you smart guys supplying us some stats to back up this cr-p you keep coming up with about time the twins were on the ice?

As for mentioning your kids playing 4 lines, and comparing that to WD it's just dumb and insults our intelligence.

[wallstreetamigo]

Desjardins made some big mistakes that much is clear. But the team itself is just not good enough. No compete when the going gets tough. No killer instinct. And yes I will say it no heart.

[alfstonker]

Wille D was being stubborn.

Quick things I saw

1. Horvat best player, no powerplay time

2. team showed no come back after they were being beat physically.

3. Keeping Bieksa and Sbisa together

4. No answer to Calgary's forecheck (coach's job)

5. No answer to Hartley exposing our D. Could of over played some of the top guys. AV use to do it many times.

1. Do I have to explain that even if Horvat WAS our best player (he wasn't) that does not necessarily mean he should be on the power play. The reason Horvat was playing well imo was that WD was NOT over playing him.

2. What has that got to do with Willie. Are you saying they lacked fitness or lacked compete, either way that is not something you sort out after you reach the playoffs. That will be JB and TL's job to fix.

3. Actually he didn't if you are talking over the 5 games. If you are talking about game 6 the top pairing was Edler/Tanev it would be silly to break them up. Putting Hammer and Bieksa together was not working well and in any case that would have left the two with the least experience Sbisa and Weber playing together. Why would that work any better?

4. What do you want him to do slap them about like Tortorella? The forecheck was effective because we were not passing well enough, that was obvious. Willie could drill them till they are blue in the face and it would not have made any difference if they don't do it when it counts. The best way to counter the forecheck is slicker passing and having your own players applying the same pressure to the opposition. Our players were not good enough, physical enough, to do that apparently. Once more that is where JB comes into play.

5. Our D was not exposed as much as you want us to believe. However when it was it must be a 5 man effort not just the D. Some of our players were just not up to it. I put it down to the hard season of horrendous injuries taking it's toll. Willie can do nothing about that.

All your points are just bitter disappointment and hindsight, a need to blame someone for your own excessive expectations for the team.

You need to stop and ask yourself, where were Calgary last season? Nowhere. Why are we rebuilding/transitioning? Because we know we have weaknesses. What did most people on here expect this season? Certainly not to reach the playoffs. Did they think we would suffer so many injuries? No.