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Willie's point of view


Ronning4center

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Example: If Willie were to leave and go to another team. This fan base would all of sudden love him and move on to finding negative things to say about the new coach.

This. Honestly cdc undervalues every person in our organization. And over values other teams. I dont understand it. Im guilty of the oppisite to be honest. I overvalue our players

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Correct me if I'm wrong but.....

The GM provides the players, the Coach gets the most out of them.

So, on Horvat, he had:

  1. been scouted to death in junior
  2. played well in prospects camp
  3. played well in main camp....so having cleared 3 hurdles earned a 9 game trial....
  4. did fine in his first game and then got injured
  5. went to Utica for conditioning and played well in 6 games
  6. finished his 9 day trial

At the end of all these steps, any one of which may have indicated that he should go back to junior, JB decided that he should play on the Canucks. The decision was not just a gut feeling or made because JB liked him personally. This is not to say that Willie didn't have input, it is clear that JB wants input from everybody, just that JB made the decision.

Linden Vey on the other hand,

  1. Had a stellar junior career with Willie as his coach (won the scoring title in the WHL his final year)
  2. Had paid his dues in 2 1/2 years in the AHL and produced well

He was scouted by JB in Manchester (close to Boston). So based on certain knowledge of his record in the minors, he was given plenty of opportunities early in the season with the Canucks.

What happened? He didn't produce as expected so they cut back his pp and ice time. They made him a healthy scratch. He finished the year as the 13th forward and produced ok.

They like the kid because he has character but they weren't afraid to reel him in when he didn't play as expected.

If Horvat backslides, and he might, it is common, he'll be back on 4th line minutes too. I don't think he will though.

Astute and logical. It's a pity there were not more posts like that on here.

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About the same amount of time it will take for CDC to stop moaning and become more realistic I would think.

Funny, I hadn't noticed any moaning in this thread, only a lot of people bending over backwards to understand the situation Willie was in this past year. That's one definition of realism.

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You have to wonder about the Canucks and Linden. Everyone thinks Linden was the answer. I remember Mike Keenan got rid of him. In any case you have to wonder why Garrison was let go and now was one of the steady D men for Tampa. To me the future for Canuck fans doesn't look good. Its almost as if they are going to keep flogging the old horses and favour little players like Vey.

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"...What happened here and what happened there?!!"

All off season whining.

It was 1 season, people! Here's a news flash too... we actually didn't do as bad as we were projected to do.

Everyone wants WD to come into his first NHL job and win a cup no less.

Wants him to jump the gun and put all his inexperienced rookies out like the Coilers did.

Big surprise some fans expect too much here.

I agree with whoever wrote, "Put on your big boy pants", Vancouver.

Even with the future looking bright for us, the nay-sayers will make the rebuild/retool a pain to wait through.

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I think it's because we don't have many prospects who can force their way into an NHL lineup outright. Horvat and Virtanen are men already and they will play the right way, so there's that. The rest have a certain amount of flaws to them and will take more time. This is to be expected.

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Heres one for B-mac, Donnie and the Moj.

Is it just me or is Willie Desjardins attitude towards young players surprisingly negative for a guy who only recently made the Jump from Jr to the NHL?

Not sure how I feel about this......

Willie on Jake Virtanen : "He played well for a young guy at this time of the year. He has stuff to work on."

Willie on Bo Horvat

“I didn’t expect an awful lot from Bo. I didn’t know if he’d make the team,” head coach Willie Desjardins confessed Monday.

“If he did make the team, I didn’t know how good it would say our team was....

Willie admittedly was "Not excited" about having a teenager join his team.

Have to disagree pretty much completely. Suppose we ask the question: "who has best record in North America for developing young players?" Willie is at least on the short list and could arguably be the winner. He has been successful at University hockey, Junior, and in the AHL, and this year in the NHL with the development of Bo Horvat (not to mention Kenins).

He is great with young players. One reason is that he does not overload them with expectations. Some people think that the way to develop players is to put them in pressure situations and let them "sink or swim". Those people are wrong. Hyping young players and then putting them in situations where they are likely to fail is the wrong way to develop players. Willie has a background in education before he became a coach and has a much better idea of how to work with young players.

So he is lowering expectations with respect to Virtanen (and Horvat). Then those guys do not have to keep answering the question "why aren't you scoring more?".

He also does not want to create attitude problems. If you hype a young guy too much there is some risk they start believing the hype and taking short cuts on the ice instead of working hard in all three zones. And it does not help their relationships with teammates either.

And he is absolutely right about Virtanen. If VIrtanen does not make the team next year and gets sent back to Junior Willie does not want Virtanen, the fans, and the media thinking of him as a "failure".

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Heres one for B-mac, Donnie and the Moj.

Is it just me or is Willie Desjardins attitude towards young players surprisingly negative for a guy who only recently made the Jump from Jr to the NHL?

Not sure how I feel about this......

Willie on Jake Virtanen : "He played well for a young guy at this time of the year. He has stuff to work on."

Willie on Bo Horvat

“I didn’t expect an awful lot from Bo. I didn’t know if he’d make the team,” head coach Willie Desjardins confessed Monday.

“If he did make the team, I didn’t know how good it would say our team was....

Willie admittedly was "Not excited" about having a teenager join his team.

You need to keep it in perspective. Horvat didn't exactly dazzle last preseason. As a matter of fact Vey outshone him badly. I didn't expect Horvat to make the roster and wasn't surprised to hear WD say around Christmas he didn't think he was ready after camp and preseason. Benning wanted to keep him on. The kid did well and got better as the season went on. The evidence was there in increased ice time and tougher matchups. But that's all hindsight. WD's opinion was based on Horvats camp and preseason.

Btw, Benning has also said recently Virtanen has some things to work on if he wants to make the team next season.

It had nothing to do with Horvat being a teenager. It had everything to do with Horvats performance in preseason.

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Blunt, I'm going to basically disagree with that. The minute he is let go is the minute Benning and Linden admit to a mistake. They're not likely to want to expedite that moment.

Why hello there, Fig. I'm not saying that they'll fire him in the next couple of seasons at all.

What I'm saying is that they will be very "hands on" as a management group should Willie decide not to play any rookies or put Bonino in the second C spot.

Willie got a pass for some of the questionable decisions he made last season. He won't be afforded the same luxury this coming season.

Definitely agree that Willie is here for, at least 2-3 more years.

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Funny, I hadn't noticed any moaning in this thread, only a lot of people bending over backwards to understand the situation Willie was in this past year. That's one definition of realism.

Funny, I thought I was answering a general question with slightly acerbic but general answer. I never mentioned this thread, I was making a point in general.

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