Rise & Fall of the Greatest Canucks Team Ever - an interview with Bruce Dowbiggin

[nuck luck]

People criticizing others for NOT wanting to read the book. What is this a dictatorship? Who cares if someone doesn't want to read the freak'n book. If you want to have at it. No one is stopping you from spending your money. And oh yeah, I won't be reading it so what. I'm sure the book will do just fine without some of us dropping our coin in it.

I couldn't care less if people read the book or not....what bothers me is the irrational thinking! That's what is bothersome for others I'm sure....

You really don't understand do you, "And oh yeah, I won't be reading it so what." .....do you really think this would disturb anyone?

[nuck luck]

Not sure about Dowbiggin, but Gillis started his NHL career as a player in 1978, retired in 1984, became an agent in 1990 and then a GM in 2008 and was canned in 2014. That's well over 20 years of NHL experience.

I guess the criticism of the Linden hiring is that he's been completely away from hockey since retiring as a player in 2008. It's valid. But I can see why Aquilini did it. We fans absolutely love Linden, for starters.

Well said. I am not opposed to the hiring of Linden...but he's still a new in this position.

I would feel a lot better had he spent his retirement from the NHL as a coach, assistant or....just more involved. But, I'm not opposed because lots of great coaches, GMs and Presidents are new when they start....I know Linden loves the team and will do his best to help the team....good start from my point of view.

[nuck luck]

Yes it's chiefly a PR move,

But I actually think Trev grasps what sort of team this city will support, and what we expect to see when we go to a game.

All the successful Canucks teams were offense oriented, willing to drop the gloves and were willing to take a risk to score a goal whether it left us out of defensive position or nor, a little undisciplined and unpredictable. And for the most part, we want a mix of individuals who we wouldn't consider to be DB's,

I think Trev is aware that a Preds, Devils style team whether they won or not, isn't what this city is looking for. I also think he knows we would be unlikely to gravitate towards NBA style attitudes.

My guess is he knows all this, and has put people in place with this vision in mind,

Dave Nonis for instance, didn't get it and put together a very "Un-Canucks" style team, Keenan...well I won't go there. Gillis and Burke got it and both kept this team in the black, Quinn too, although he kind of lost it at the end.

Still not sure what to make of JB, only time will tell.

Thumbs up!

[nuck luck]

I bought this book a few days ago and I'm 3/4's there. I'm at chapter 15 reading about the whole luongo trade fiasco and it's not a bad read so far. Very informative with some insider info that I didn't know about. I agree with what Dowbiggin wrote so far up to this point with everything that happened with the team and it was a nice trip down memory lane with all the good and bad that happened. Looking forward to wrapping this book up!

Thanks for that. I'm looking forward to the read myself

[PhillipBlunt]

I've read a few of your posts and it seems you just don't get it.... your arguments are just weak and any thinker wouldn't need to ask the questions or make the statements that you make.

You were obviously not around pre-Gillis or you'd have a clue and not ask these kind of questions.... pre-Gillis, we couldn't sign any significant player. Period. NOBODY wanted to play for this organization. Even if we overpaid, they would still have to question themselves about signing in Vancouver....

The greatest goalie wanted to leave for Florida because of his wife, she wanted to go back to Florida. That was one reason, and for the first time it was brought up (asking for a trade), AV decided to play Schneids in the Finals and pretty much "called out" Schneids as our #1. Lack discussed a trade on National TV following the game.... How is this the GM's fault? MG has no influence on who the coaches decide to play in a game.

The actual trading of Lou, that was also the coaches fault. 100%. No question. Period. That ba$stard of a coach, last year, decided to play Lack in the Outdoors game...for absolutely no reason at all, save for embarrassing Lou or disgracing him. Lou immediately asked for a trade and I don't blame him. Again...How is this MG's fault?

Ehrhoff wanted out because he was greedy. He was chasing the dollars. That contract was too much at that time and I don't think people blamed MG for passing. This happens all the time in professional sports, so by your "standards" every coach in professional sports is awful?

Finding key pieces....??? one of the two players you mentioned, "the greatest defensive forward" is a player that MG picked up amongst many.... He put enough of these pieces together to get us to the SCF. Yes, he could have done more....but so can 29 other GMs in this league...but each and every one of them are competing with each other so it's not as easy as you would like to think. Yes, the last few years wasn't up to par in terms of extra pieces....but to imply that he is as bad as you claim is just wrong.

Pre-Gillis we were an awful team....he changed the culture of this team and got us to the Finals in less than 5 years....I don't know what your thinking?

News leaking out....why even bother to mention this? Just in spite maybe? Look, in this day and age....news gets leaked all the time. Here's the important part....many times it's done on purpose. It's called strategy.... Again, by your standards, every professional coach is awful because news gets leaked from every professional sports organization.

Your entire post is based on conjecture. Your statements are either based solely on your skewed and spoon fed by the Province opinion or the work of a spineless coward.

Luongo's wife has lived in Florida for all but one season of his career. That was last season. Your walnut sized cerebrum seems to have missed that fact, although based on reading your numbing posts, facts are more of a nuisance than anything.

You generalize specific information in hopes of gaining traction. Another gutless move. Gillis offered the team no direction that was static. He himself admitted to moving the goalposts numerous times.

And Gillis took over in 2008, genius. Two years after Kesler played his first game as a Canuck.

Do me a kindness. Don't post again until you remove that inflated cranium from your bulbous ass, because all I'm getting from you is a load of $#!+.

[RUPERTKBD]

Well, I'm impressed! A lot of people these days have never read 200 pages, let alone written them.

Actually, so am I. I just couldn't resist a chance to get in a little friendly dig at Phil.

[PhillipBlunt]

Actually, so am I. I just couldn't resist a chance to get in a little friendly dig at Phil.

And a good dig it was RUPERTKBD. Well played.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Saw book in Coles on the weekend. $22.

Hahahaha. No.

[-DLC-]

People criticizing others for NOT wanting to read the book. What is this a dictatorship? Who cares if someone doesn't want to read the freak'n book. If you want to have at it. No one is stopping you from spending your money. And oh yeah, I won't be reading it so what. I'm sure the book will do just fine without some of us dropping our coin in it.

I think the reasoning behind it is, "so don't come into the thread then?". There are plenty of threads and to "announce" you won't be participating or to comment on something you haven't read and have no plans to seems a little....unnecessary?

With that, I wouldn't pay $22 for it...I'll wait until it's on a clearance table somewhere for $2.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

I think that once again, CDC is lashing out at an article that they perceive as negative towards the Canucks.

Personally, I agree with most of what Dowbiggen says. I believe the Canucks lost in 2011 largely because of injuries, combined with a shift in the way the games were being called by the officials.

I also agree that Gillis was screwed by the league in the Luongo saga, thanks to the Cap Recapture rule. (Thank our old pal Brian Burke for that one)

As far a Linden and Desjardins go, he's stating fact. They are both green as far as doing their jobs at an NHL level go. This doesn't mean that they're going to fail, it means they have a steep learning curve to overcome. Nothing wrong with that. It's been done before and if I was a betting man, I'd bet on them, rather than against them.

Interestingly, even Jim Benning agrees with this assessment.

And while he'd never go so far as to say that the Bruins got lucky in facing a decimated Canucks squad that would have beat them if healthy, he basically admitted as much in a recent quote (from today's Cam Cole column in the Vancouver Sun):

"That run (the Bruins) had in 2011, we were lucky enough to go through the whole playoffs with ... like Nathan Horton got hurt in the finals, but we went through the whole run without getting hurt," he said.

"It's not using injuries as an excuse, but it's a big part of winning. So you've got to look past that and say: they [the 2011 Canucks] were a good team, and they had a chance to win and because of injuries and stuff it didn't happen for them."

Benning knows that his Bruins got lucky. He's careful how he talks about it because that Cup represents the pinnacle (to-date) of his hockey career and he doesn't want to cheapen that achievement (for himself or for his former team). But he knows that the 2011 Canucks, when healthy and playing their full roster (or one that was similarly "full" to Boston's playoff lineup), were the superior team and would probably have beaten the Bruins 9 time out of 10 in a 7 game series that was actually contested on a level playing field.

And sure, we all need to get over the disappointment, because regardless of the circumstances, the end result is that the Canucks lost. But getting over the Cup loss doesn't have to mean devaluing that team (which is what I see from many Vancouver fans). At their peak, that Canucks team was far and away the best team in the NHL and was undoubtedly the greatest Canucks squad ever assembled. Injuries robbed them of a Stanley Cup. The Bruins just happened to be the team that benefited from Vancouver's misfortune.

But the greater tragedy is what came afterwards. Gillis started his tenure in Vancouver with a clear plan for winning and he quickly assembled a group that vaulted the Canucks to new heights among the NHL's elite. And just as quickly, following the 2011 loss, Gillis lost his clarity of focus and his reactionary adjustments ("chasing the moving target") eroded of the foundation of what made that team great, eventually resulting in the collapse of 2013-2014.

That's a story worth telling and I'm glad someone has written a book about it. And while it seems that Dowbiggin might be going a little easy on Gillis regarding his mistakes post-2011 (based on what I've seen in the excerpts I've read), I'd say that he's pretty much bang-on when he talks about the Gillis-era Canucks' rise to dominance and the level of greatness achieved by that team (even though they came-up short in the end).

[nuck luck]

While we may not agree on all points, that was as thorough a response as I've ever seen.

I appreciate it!

** See what I did here?... hopefully you stick to facts in the future.

[nuck luck]

Your entire post is based on conjecture. Your statements are either based solely on your skewed and spoon fed by the Province opinion or the work of a spineless coward.

Luongo's wife has lived in Florida for all but one season of his career. That was last season. Your walnut sized cerebrum seems to have missed that fact, although based on reading your numbing posts, facts are more of a nuisance than anything.

You generalize specific information in hopes of gaining traction. Another gutless move. Gillis offered the team no direction that was static. He himself admitted to moving the goalposts numerous times.

And Gillis took over in 2008, genius. Two years after Kesler played his first game as a Canuck.

Do me a kindness. Don't post again until you remove that inflated cranium from your bulbous ass, because all I'm getting from you is a load of $#!+.

[Absent Canuck]

Your entire post is based on conjecture. Your statements are either based solely on your skewed and spoon fed by the Province opinion or the work of a spineless coward.

Luongo's wife has lived in Florida for all but one season of his career. That was last season. Your walnut sized cerebrum seems to have missed that fact, although based on reading your numbing posts, facts are more of a nuisance than anything.

You generalize specific information in hopes of gaining traction. Another gutless move. Gillis offered the team no direction that was static. He himself admitted to moving the goalposts numerous times.

And Gillis took over in 2008, genius. Two years after Kesler played his first game as a Canuck.

Do me a kindness. Don't post again until you remove that inflated cranium from your bulbous ass, because all I'm getting from you is a load of $#!+.

Kesler played his first game in early 2004 i do believe or late 2003. Four years before Gillis took the helm.

[viking mama]

As a Team President, I'm not quite sure what Trevor Linden brings to the table, except that he used to play for the Canucks, that make him the most qualified candidate.

Good Gawd. Trevor Linden was a long-serving NHL captain, an Olympian, & the elected President of the NHLPA, a humanitarian, spokesperson & a business leader. He has generously given of his time to represent the players association in many instances, meetings & negotiations. He is obviously widely respected by many elements within the NHL & has long had the solid reputation of being an honest player & man of quality character. He's also established some very solid relationships with many very important & signifigant persons in hockey circles who now either front NHL teams, elite league teams, ... or work as NHL team-Presidents or General Managers themselves.

Trevor is PR gold as far as Canucks-fans are concerned,...but also as far as his peers, the players are concerned. They believe no one wants or deserves to hoist a Stanley-Cup on behalf of this city & the Vancouver Canucks organization more....with all due respect to Stan-the-Man Smyl. You've completely under-estimated & be-littled his abilities, when it comes to promoting this team & this city to other NHL players, free-agents or future staffers. The fact that Willie Desjardins declined a substantial offer by the Pittsburgh Penguins to coach Sydney Crosby & Evgeni Malkin,..testifies volumes to what Linden's respectability of character, the allure of a place like Van City & role models like the Sedins...can ultimately draw here.

Trevor Linden has a pretty unique skill-set for the position that he now holds. Your inability to see this... smacks of the same arrogance that also alienated Gillis from some of his contemporaries. I eagerly believed in Gillis' original vision for this team - but his later mis-teps along the way... including trying to pre-determine Manny Malhotra's fate for him, demonstrated some arrogance. This arrogance also helped to create & sustain the ire of some of his enemies. Benning may seem to be an "Aw Schucks!" simpleton in style,...but he's approachable & definitely not fearful of coming-out even in a deal. He knows how to evaluate talent, he's decisive & he definitely oozes humility. These 3 qualities can be real assets when pursuing a deal. I sense that Mr. Gillis, himself, was a little suspect in all three of those measures.

[RUPERTKBD]

Well said. I am not opposed to the hiring of Linden...but he's still a new in this position.

I would feel a lot better had he spent his retirement from the NHL as a coach, assistant or....just more involved. But, I'm not opposed because lots of great coaches, GMs and Presidents are new when they start....I know Linden loves the team and will do his best to help the team....good start from my point of view.

The thing about this is that as President, Trev doesn't have to make all of the day to day decisions. His biggest and most important decisions have been made already, the hiring of Benning and Willie D.

To be sure, there will be plenty of other challenges, but he's cleared the first couple of hurdles.

You claim to have written a 200 page manual? This reads like dribble...you can't even form proper sentences and anyone's supposed to believe you?

I just dismantled your entire post and proved you to be a sham....People with low IQ's are so easily spotted, don't try and be something you're not.

Do YOURSELF a kindness favor, stop posting on CDC because the more you post the more you lose credibility.

I don't even know what you guys are arguing about, but I had to point of the irony of you calling out Phil's intelligence and proficiency with the English language....

The word is "drivel", not "dribble"....

[mediahack]

Dowbiggin is an idiot. There's reason he has been all but driven out of hockey.

[Monty]

Good Gawd. Trevor Linden was a long-serving NHL captain, an Olympian, & the elected President of the NHLPA, a humanitarian, spokesperson & a business leader. He has generously given of his time to represent the players association in many instances, meetings & negotiations. He is obviously widely respected by many elements within the NHL & has long had the solid reputation of being an honest player & man of quality character. He's also established some very solid relationships with many very important & signifigant persons in hockey circles who now either front NHL teams, elite league teams, ... or work as NHL team-Presidents or General Managers themselves.

Trevor is PR gold as far as Canucks-fans are concerned,...but also as far as his peers, the players are concerned. They believe no one wants or deserves to hoist a Stanley-Cup on behalf of this city & the Vancouver Canucks organization more....with all due respect to Stan-the-Man Smyl. You've completely under-estimated & be-littled his abilities, when it comes to promoting this team & this city to other NHL players, free-agents or future staffers. The fact that Willie Desjardins declined a substantial offer by the Pittsburgh Penguins to coach Sydney Crosby & Evgeni Malkin,..testifies volumes to what Linden's respectability of character, the allure of a place like Van City & role models like the Sedins...can ultimately draw here.

Trevor Linden has a pretty unique skill-set for the position that he now holds. Your inability to see this... smacks of the same arrogance that also alienated Gillis from some of his contemporaries. I eagerly believed in Gillis' original vision for this team - but his later mis-teps along the way... including trying to pre-determine Manny Malhotra's fate for him, demonstrated some arrogance. This arrogance also helped to create & sustain the ire of some of his enemies. Benning may seem to be an "Aw Schucks!" simpleton in style,...but he's approachable & definitely not fearful of coming-out even in a deal. He knows how to evaluate talent, he's decisive & he definitely oozes humility. These 3 qualities can be real assets when pursuing a deal. I sense that Mr. Gillis, himself, was a little suspect in all three of those measures.

The fact that you are only responding to one part of my post, "As a Team President, I'm not quite sure what Trevor Linden brings to the table, except that he used to play for the Canucks, that make him the most qualified candidate," shows that you are just cherry picking one part, instead of responding to the whole.

As I've said regarding Gillis (I believe in the same post that you chose to only respond to one sentence; CONTEXT), he had his strengths and his weaknesses. Like everyone, I want Linden to succeed. But everything you've just listed: Captain, Olympian, President of the NHLPA, humanitarian, spokesperson, and small business owner have absolutely nothing to do regarding the inner workings of running and holding and NHL organization accountable.

I'm fully aware of what he brings, but it's the question marks of what's missing that have me worried. As I've said before, nothing is either 100% terrific or 100% awful, there's ALWAYS some grey area. Right now, Linden's complete inexperience within an organization (i.e. See Yzerman's path for example) and the fact that he completely removed himself from anything hockey related after his retirement is a question mark.

And as I've said before, this doesn't mean that he can't succeed in his role. I hope for the organization and for fans that he does. However, it is a risk going with someone who has been removed from anything hockey related since his retirement and was never even a Vice-President within the organization, let alone shadowed positions.

I'm not being a "Negative Nancy" here, just outlining the completely obvious worries that one should have. I don't know about you, but I try to look at the whole picture, not just hang off someone's nutsack "just because".

[nuck luck]

The thing about this is that as President, Trev doesn't have to make all of the day to day decisions. His biggest and most important decisions have been made already, the hiring of Benning and Willie D.

To be sure, there will be plenty of other challenges, but he's cleared the first couple of hurdles.

I don't even know what you guys are arguing about, but I had to point of the irony of you calling out Phil's intelligence and proficiency with the English language....

The word is "drivel", not "dribble"....

Agree with your statements about Linden.... his most important decisions were solid and I think that Linden is a smart character and will perform his duties well as President.

Yes, the day-to-day decisions won't be made by him and his choice of Benning & WD was a very good start. However, there are still decisions to be made by the President of any organization....the reason that I say I have "slight" concerns is that I would prefer if Linden was still involved with the NHL as opposed to his other businesses. All Presidents still need to make decisions and this is based on information given to them by those who report directly to them. They need to ask the required questions, perform their own due diligence and than make their decisions afterwards. Somebody who has been involved would have an advantage over somebody who hasn't....but this could be erased in short time.

Presidents who don't understand the fundamentals of the business or Presidents who are preoccupied with other priorities heavily rely on their management team and specific individuals, and this makes the President very susceptible to influence. Which is not a very good scenario for any organization...a very good example is Bush and the puppet masters (Cheney, Rove, etc).

By no means am I comparing Bush and Linden...just an example of the worst possible scenario. I would just prefer if the Canucks was his sole priority and he wasn't distracted by his other businesses... However, like I said, Linden seems to be a very smart character and I'm sure he will be able to catch up on all fronts, if he hasn't done so already.

Yes again...."drivel" is the correct term. I was reading an article on Bosh and his relations with Lebron after the Cleveland signing....although the article didn't mention anything about 'dribble', I'm blaming it on this haha

But, "dribble" could be used in this situation as well, "a small trickling of stream or flow". In other words, a slow uneventful read... but I admit it wasn't my intended use

[falcon45ca]

I wholeheartedly agree with some of Dowbiggin's points (the Canucks lost in '11 due to lack of healthy bodies, Gillis shaking things up in unconventional yet effective methods, Torts, creating a positive player environment in Van), but completely disagree with others (Benning & Linden being "noobs" (Gillis also had 0 GM experience before Van), Willie having no coaching experience (except for over a decade of coaching at various levels), & Van being "toxic" for players now).

All that being said, any book that has that amount of intrigue is certainly worth a library visit...no way am I paying for the book directly though.

[falcon45ca]

Agree with your statements about Linden.... his most important decisions were solid and I think that Linden is a smart character and will perform his duties well as President.

Yes, the day-to-day decisions won't be made by him and his choice of Benning & WD was a very good start. However, there are still decisions to be made by the President of any organization

The majority of NHL teams have either the GM, or the owner, fulfilling the role of President of Hockey Operations. Having split President duties & GM duties between Linden & Benning should actually allow for each to fulfill their respective duties better, especially considering the high level of respect & communication that's been demonstrated thus far between the two.

Linden certainly understands the business of hockey, having made an exemplary career at it both as a player & NHLPA President.

If you want to discuss the failures in Bush's Presidency, I'd point to Obama as being an inferior President...at least with Bush you knew he was an idiot that would screw over the American people... which is better than offering tremendous hope, only to turn out a sham like the rest.