tas Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 BY BEN KUZMA, THE PROVINCE MARCH 31, 2014 They were kindred spirits, a coach trying to make his way back to the NHL and an impressionable winger trying to stick in The Show. Alain Vigneault guided the Manitoba Moose to the seventh game of the 2006 AHL division final and was promoted to the Vancouver Canucks. Alex Burrows also earned a permanent NHL roster spot after a dozen goals in 33 minor-league games. Whether its the road they travelled, a French connection or just beating the odds, there will always be a bond. For sure, there is, Burrows said Monday. Hes always been really respectful and really no grey areas it was always black and white and he tells you how he wants you to play and lets you know. As a player, thats what you want somebody to guide you in a direction and give you challenges that you can succeed at, and he did that with me. You didnt hear from him until training camp, but once it started he was well prepared. He had his opening-day speech and it wasnt just written on a napkin. We were tough to play against away from the puck and once we got it we had the freedom to do things in the offensive zone. He liked high-percentage plays, thats the biggest thing. To not give the other team easy goals. Burrows scored a career-high 35 goals in 2009-10 and the following season would play a key role in the Canucks amassing the leagues top-ranked offence, power play and defence and advancing to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. What cost Vigneault his job last spring was an inability for the Canucks to score in opening rounds of the layoffs eight goals in being swept by San Jose in 2013, and just eight in losing in five games to Los Angeles the previous spring but the current plight of the local club has placed Vigneault in a better reflective light. The former Jack Adams Trophy winner, who willingly turned over his room to a leadership core and kept Henrik and Daniel Sedin to more manageable minutes, is applying his same principles with the playoff-bound New York Rangers. Meanwhile, John Tortorella is doing everything to keep his job after the bench bosses switched posts in the offseason and as much as theres mutual admiration, an ideological difference is significant. Tortorella has always been about a strong voice, the push and bite and major minutes for veterans and pounding round pegs into square holes of a system. Vigneault has always been about delegating and taking what he has and trying to find a system that works. Torts obviously talks way more than Alain did, added Burrows. He comes in the room way more, but the biggest thing is, Alain was more rational in his decisions and they were based on the past or stats. Torts is more gut feeling, and hell tell you he has a feeling in his stomach and Im going to shake up my lines or call this play. For the most part, Alain let us decide how we wanted to play as a team. He manages his bench well and they (Rangers) seem to be rolling four lines, and theyll be a dangerous team in the playoffs. Thats what the Canucks were supposed to be. But they had to adhere to a new system. They lost Jordan Schroeder and Nicklas Jensen to injury, and Zack Kassian to a suspension, all in one preseason game. Burrows would break his foot blocking a shot in the season opener, suffer a broken jaw and need 36 games to score his first goal. A spurt of nine points (5-4) in five games would be followed by a thumb injury and make Burrows the poster boy for everything that has gone wrong this sorry season. How cant you love him as far as how he handles himself? asked Tortorella. He gets going and gets banged up again and fights (Ryan) Getzlaf, that animal. I havent spent a lot of time talking to him because he gets it in what it is to be a pro. Its a situation where I felt bad for him. I dont feel bad for a lot of players, but he wanted to help us so badly when he was struggling and it took on a life of its own. As the Canucks inch closer to being mathematically eliminated from a playoff berth, whats adding up in the Rangers winning six of their last seven, and owning the leagues fourth-best road record, is Vigneaults vision of what works best for him and his team.You definitely have to tailor to the personnel that you have and the team you have, said Vigneault. Its a different team and we play north-south and we use our speed to defend and generate offence when the opportunity is there. Tortorella knows a results-based industry has put him squarely in the crosshairs and Tuesdays game is really just a sideshow to the main event here in the offseason. Im losing games, so Im the idiot, and he (Vigneault) is winning games, so hes the smart guy, reasoned Tortorella. And rightfully so. You lose and you struggle, youre going to get scrutinized. I should be scrutinized. bkuzma@theprovince.com twitter.com/benkuzma © Copyright © The Province i bolded the parts that sounded very distinctly like pining for the good ol' days. edit: and i have no idea why all of the quotation marks got purged. weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THERETOOL Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Im glad alain is gone .. I was so excited to see what torts could do .. he lost me .. I think we should all enjoy watching these last few games .. think it will be the last you see torts coaching an N.H.L team .. good luck on your next job as an analyst .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAntar Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I feel like the article is written using quotes from a variety of times and places to make an opinion-piece seem like a news story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester13 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Sometimes injuries are used as an excuse, however, I don't think the injury-plagued season our Nucks have experienced this year can be written off so easily. I don't know what kind of injuries the Rangers have endured this year, but I'm willing to guess they haven't been without a quarter of their lineup and some of their best players all year. To pin this all on Torts is ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas Posted April 1, 2014 Author Share Posted April 1, 2014 Sometimes injuries are used as an excuse, however, I don't think the injury-plagued season our Nucks have experienced this year can be written off so easily. I don't know what kind of injuries the Rangers have endured this year, but I'm willing to guess they haven't been without a quarter of their lineup and some of their best players all year. To pin this all on Torts is ridiculous. who's doing that? that's not what this thread is about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neversummer Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Sometimes you don't know how good you got it till you lose it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ride the red Pony Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 What a nice feel good story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tearloch7 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Poorly 'crunched together' article .. managing context is tricky, Ben .. may just want to stick to facts .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 At what point this season were the Canucks a 4-line team? Even on paper? Really. I know Torts is supposed to be the scapegoat and all, but how about we actually look at the lineups we had dressed now and then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ride the red Pony Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Sometimes you don't know how good you got it till you lose it. I know right, the classic. Boy meets girl Boy falls in love with girl Boy loses girl Boy finds girl Perhaps someday they will be together again and rekindle what they once had. Awww such a sad and cruel world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papayas Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Maybe the reason why we were so injury riddle is because of the way tort played our players? Anyone who didn't expect our key players to go down like flies while playing 25+ mins of blocking shots really need to rethink their way to watch hockey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostsof1915 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I don't think either coach is right for this team. I'm starting to wonder if there is a right coach, or we need a complete rebuild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallstreetamigo Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Looking at both teams they would likely be in a similar situation at this point had they not swapped coaches. The Rangers are a very good team. The Canucks are not. We have had injuries which certainly plays a role in it but in reality the Canucks have not had the personnel to be a 4 line team for years now. AV was a good coach who got too comfortable with certain players. It happens to coaches all the time. But unless Gillis was ready to make some key changes AV would not be any more successful with this team imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Maybe the reason why we were so injury riddle is because of the way tort played our players? Anyone who didn't expect our key players to go down like flies while playing 25+ mins of blocking shots really need to rethink their way to watch hockeyThe Rangers did that all season long in 2012 and they almost won the presidents trophy and went to round 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kassquatchian Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Torts is going nowhere. He will be back next year( 5 year deal i believe.) the players who arent buyin in will be gone. Burr, kes, bieksa etc; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baka Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Looking at both teams they would likely be in a similar situation at this point had they not swapped coaches. The Rangers are a very good team. The Canucks are not. We have had injuries which certainly plays a role in it but in reality the Canucks have not had the personnel to be a 4 line team for years now. AV was a good coach who got too comfortable with certain players. It happens to coaches all the time. But unless Gillis was ready to make some key changes AV would not be any more successful with this team imo. I am not so sure. Maybe the Canucks would be in a similar situation (though could have played out differently as AV runs a different system maybe not as many injuries and maybe Lu sticks around) However I truly believe the Rangers are much better off without Torts. That situation got really ugly and teams don't usually fire a coach who just got you into the 2nd round. But it really seemed like he lost his team. In this season alone... - Torts threw Hagelin under the bus in the media. Hagelin disputed what was said in the media. - He did the same to Gaborik who seemed all to eager to waive his NTC to get off a playoff team and go play in Columbus. After Torts was fired he also tweeted, "Everything happens for a reason." - He made Richards a healthy scratch in the playoffs then openly admitted he regrets how he handled that well after he was fired as Richards went from a guy who lobbied for him to not speaking to him at all. - And of course the slightly contained feud with Lundqvist and Henrik's remarks on resigning before Torts was fired. I really don't think Torts could have stayed in NY without major roster changes or playing with a divided locker room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papayas Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 The Rangers did that all season long in 2012 and they almost won the presidents trophy and went to round 3. you mean playing on the east coast AND having one of the easiest traveling schedule has nothing to do with that? Running your key players like that on a team like Vancouver, no matter how you look at it, is asking for injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurn Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 Burrows to the Rangers for..........? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hockeyville88 Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I've been a big fan of Torts but after seeing him ream Jensen out on the bench the other day, im starting to doubt him just a bit. If the Canucks are trying to rebuild and get younger there will be a lot of rookies who will be getting into games next season (I sincerely hope). Torts has to be patient with them and not instill fear in them that if they mess up they'll get yelled at in front of their teammates and a zillion cameras If the players are publicly expressing issues with Torts's systems, his stay here might be a short one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry Goose Posted April 1, 2014 Share Posted April 1, 2014 I like Torts and believe he is going to add some adjustments to his coaching for next season. People lay the blame all on him but the fact is many of the players on the team this year lacked finish e.g. Burrows, D Sedin, Booth, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.