(Poll) Who should be the next head coach of the Vancouver Canucks?

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

4 hours ago, Toyotasfan said:

Kinda a forgotten guy but Crawford coached Rodin's MVP season in Sweeden.

I think you're mixing things up here.

 

Thomas "Bulan" Berglund coached Rödin when he was with Bynäs IF (SHL) and won the Guldhjälmen (golden helmet) as SHL MVP.

 

Crawford was with the ZSC Lions in the NLA (Swiss league). He coached Auston Matthews (who won the NLA Rising Star award and placed 2nd in that league's MVP voting).

[Barry_Wilkins]

On 4/13/2017 at 0:59 PM, oldnews said:

That, and the fact they were absolutely horrible in their own end of the ice.

 

Which, imo, wrecked that line in the end.

Morrison was a great defensive center - the only responsible element on that line - but he was also small - and could be dominated down low, particularly without support from his wingers.  And did he get that?  No.  Bertuzzi was an absolute passenger - one of the worst, most vacant defensive fowards the team ever had.  Likewise with Naslund - soft, not particularly engaged and imo didn't necessarily engage to the level he needed to.  What it spelled was a line that could be broken down by game-planning them properly - which involved a heavy forecheck and hemming them in their own zone.   If you had a relatively large, mobile center, you could pose matchup problems for Morrison, and then any additional size, speed, and grit on the wings snowballed the effect.

The WCE was literally awful to watch towards the end.   Great and exciting as hell in the earlier stages, but towards the end just awful.

It pains me to say that, because I love the three of them.

If Bertuzzi had learned to play the kind of game he did later - as a Redwing, extending his career slightly - he would have been an absolute force and that line would have been literally unstoppable.  But it 'wasn't meant to be.'

Agree with all of this. 

 

I still remember Bertuzzi in a crucial late game against Minnesota in that series we blew, drifting by a Minny Dman at Van's blue line. All he had to do was stay in front of him, never mind making a hit. Instead, it's the stick wave, then linger at centre, and wait for someone to flip him a breakaway. Well, you know what happened in that instance. Red light time in our end.

 

I blame Crawford just as much. Bertuzzi wasn't a rookie learning the ropes like, say, Goldobin. He just didn't give two sh!ts about D, and Crawford was either too afraid, or (worse) too indifferent to get it into Bertuzzi's head how important at least passable D is to a squad, especially one engaged with a Lemaire playoff team.

 

A thousand "nos" to Crawford here as head coach.

[Barry_Wilkins]

On 4/14/2017 at 8:55 AM, Joe_Kerr said:

Last time we were looking for a coach i was interested in Adam Oates. Whats he up to now, last i saw he was on some panel somewhere.... He was an offence first player and when he was talking he sounded very knowledgeable and was communicating it in an easy to understand wayy

I believe he now runs hockey camps as an entrepreneur, though that's probably a part-time gig.

 

No to him as a head coach. Even though he's always been praised for his intelligence and communication skills, it didn't translate to on-ice success. His two-year head-coaching stint with Washington was underwhelming.

[Barry_Wilkins]

On 4/14/2017 at 9:46 AM, smithers joe said:

i believe that the best coach for this team, taking into account their talent level and rebuilding, is willie desjardins. 

But you're always going on about the fact that Benning and Linden know best, and that we, on CDC, should never contradict their decisions. 

[Dave "The Hammer" Schultz2]

seems like they talking with dave lowry ....lol someone not many of us thought would be 1 of the possible head coaches hehehe

[smithers joe]

26 minutes ago, Barry_Wilkins said:

But you're always going on about the fact that Benning and Linden know best, and that we, on CDC, should never contradict their decisions. 

cdc can contradict everyone but, we go on opinions and our opinions that sound good to us are different from other's opinions. i don't believe that any of us know what's best. if we did, we'ld be running our own teams. if 10 posters have different opinions, who knows best? JB and TL are the ones that will set the stage for the team going forward. whether they are successful or not, the decisions will be their's. 

[oldnews]

1 hour ago, Barry_Wilkins said:

Agree with all of this. 

 

I still remember Bertuzzi in a crucial late game against Minnesota in that series we blew, drifting by a Minny Dman at Van's blue line. All he had to do was stay in front of him, never mind making a hit. Instead, it's the stick wave, then linger at centre, and wait for someone to flip him a breakaway. Well, you know what happened in that instance. Red light time in our end.

 

I blame Crawford just as much. Bertuzzi wasn't a rookie learning the ropes like, say, Goldobin. He just didn't give two sh!ts about D, and Crawford was either too afraid, or (worse) too indifferent to get it into Bertuzzi's head how important at least passable D is to a squad, especially one engaged with a Lemaire playoff team.

 

A thousand "nos" to Crawford here as head coach.

That description is entirely true, and unfortunately, entirely representative of Bertuzzi's 'efforts' in his own end of the ice.  He literally camped at the blueline and was utterly useless, depending entirely on his linemates to generate all zone exits.  It's so unfortunate, because he could skate, he could hit - he was an intelligent guy - he was simply permitted to float right through the heart of his career - and yes - a huge part of that falls directly on the responsibility of his coaches. That was a long time ago - I wouldn't necessarily disqualify Crawford as if he's never evolved as a coach - but my point is more directed at the pom pom waving for the WCE, as if this team needs to bring that back, an 'offensive' coach.  Such irony in that.  The offense of the WCE was buried by it's own impotence in it's own end of the ice.

[The Aquamen]

Marc aka Crawford                                                                                                                      - The Aquamen 

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

At this point, I'm good with the rumours of Green moving up to Vancouver and Lowry slotting in as the replacement in Utica.

 

Both are good young coaches and ready IMO for the next step.

 

I get the hesitancy around Green replacing Willie, both in terms of experience and tendencies. There's a legitimate argument to be made that bringing in Green is basically bringing in a younger version of Desjardins. 

 

And the apocryphal Einstein quote that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" does come to mind a little.

 

That said, I think we're in a position where we can afford a little "insanity." And it actually doesn't seem crazy to me to expect different results moving forward. I kind of think Desjardins would have eventually gotten different results, if given time, more roster support/depth, and a little better luck with injuries.

 

So Green, even if a "Desjardins clone" (which I don't actually believe he is), might very well enjoy more success than Willie did here. Even if there's not a lot of obvious differences between the two.

 

Green is a young coach who can grow with this team. If he's successful here, I could see him going on a nice run similar to what AV enjoyed with Vancouver (albeit starting much closer to the bottom than AV ever did). And Green already knows the players here, especially the young guys, from AHL time and also running parts of the preseason/camps (especially with the prospects). 

 

If Green fails, then he gets tossed in a year or two anyway. And we can get our experienced NHL head coach with a Cup win on his resume on the next coaching change.

 

Having Green come in does no harm IMO. We're rebuilding and we're probably not gonna be very competitive anyway. We don't need a big name guy with proven playoff success. Not right now anyway. But we know that Green is a good teaching coach and that he's managed to make some "chicken salad out of chicken s**t" with some of the Comets teams. That ability should serve him well with next year's Canucks roster.

 

If all goes well, Green sees this team through the rebuild and has a tight, loyal, young group ready to contend in a few years. If he runs into trouble, he's gone. But in the process, he likely does a fair enough job to tee things up for the next guy.

 

So I'm good with Green.

 

And Lowry looks ready for the AHL.

[ABNuck]

8 hours ago, SilentSam said:

Thought I heard yesterday on 1040 that Lowrey may be courted for Utica.

Would be a good choice...wasn't he a former Captain in our farm system (Moose)?

[hlinkas wrister]

15 minutes ago, ABNuck said:

Would be a good choice...wasn't he a former Captain in our farm system (Moose)?

2 full seasons as a Canuck back in the mid 80's

[SilentSam]

1 hour ago, ABNuck said:

Would be a good choice...wasn't he a former Captain in our farm system (Moose)?

Yes, and deeper... http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2017/04/14/report-vancouver-interested-in-ex-canuck-lowry-for-coaching-staff/

[Toni Zamboni]

so it comes down to Green, Sutter and Marc JJ Crawford?

 

i will barf if they choose Bob Hartley, yuck!

[DownUndaCanuck]

TL and JB did say that experience doesn't matter to them but I disagree, I think our locker room needs some guidance and leadership and not just from the Sedins and Miller. They need a coach who knows how to win in the NHL. Not an AHL coach giving it a crack. We need to start building a winning environment for the kids to play in. We need someone to show them what it takes to win in the big games.

 

Hitchcock would have been perfect. Sutter is the only other guy left now. Crawford is a bit of a wild-card.

 

I'd take either of them over Green. Green's a great coach and has done some tremendous work, but look at what happened to WD and Eakins when playing with a young team. Not many rookie coaches do well with a rebuilding team. Babcock goes into Toronto after the Eakins mess and makes them a playoff team. THAT'S what the Vancouver Canucks kids need. They need a true leader. Otherwise we've got another WD situation where an inexperienced coach is trying to learn how to win the same time the kids are and we'll make some noise if we get lucky. Time to take luck out of the equation. Put someone in there who can guide the kids to NHL wins, not just feel-good points.

 

For me the best fit and coach available was Hitchcock, now it's Sutter, then Crawford, then Lindy Ruff in that order. Sutter may be a hard-ass coach but he's got a fantastic defensive system and knows how to win in the regular season and playoffs. He's one of the best playoff coaches in the game's history and has taken some not-so-good LA teams to the Cups backed by great team defence and goaltending. That's the sort of coach we need. We have to stop worrying about "developing young players" and start winning because getting the kids in big games and big goals to decide games is the best sort of development.

[mpt]

I vote for re-hiring Willie D, since that isn't possible, Green makes the most sense.

[Odd.]

Canucks interested in Dave Lowry 

 

Quote

Dave Lowry, the veteran NHLer that’s spent the last five years in WHL Victoria, could be on his way back to the bigs.

Per Chek News and Victoria Sports News, Lowry has been in talks with the Vancouver Canucks about joining the club in a coaching capacity. Since it’s believed AHL Utica bench boss Travis Green is the leading candidate to replace the recently dismissed Willie Desjardins, there are rumblings Lowry could come aboard as Green’s assistant, or possibly his replacement with the Comets.

(It’s worth noting that, in addition to firing Desjardins, the Canucks also cut ties with veteran assistants Perry Pearn and Doug Lidster.)

Lowry has ties Vancouver. He was drafted by the Canucks in 1983, and spent three years with the organization. During that time, he was teammates with Jim Benning — the club’s current GM — as well as Stan Smyl, who currently serves as Vancouver’s director of player development.

Recently, Lowry has expressed an interest in returning to the NHL. He was Brent Sutter’s assistant in Calgary for three years before taking the WHL gig.

“I’m not in a hurry to go anywhere. But like anybody, I like to explore opportunities. If one came up, I would have to look at it,” Lowry said, per the Times-Colonist. “I aspire to the next level. At some point, I would like to get back to the NHL.”

The 52-year-old could soon be there. Chek News noted that, unlike previous years, Lowry left Victoria immediately following his exit interviews last week. Traditionally, he stuck around to tend to various club matters and business.

Lowry is regarded as one of the best active coaches on the junior circuit. Last year, he captured the WHL’s coach of the year award and, two years ago, was an assistant coach on the Canadian team that captured gold at the world juniors.

 

http://nhl.nbcsports.com/2017/04/14/report-vancouver-interested-in-ex-canuck-lowry-for-coaching-staff/

[SuperReverb2]

Sutter with Green and Jarvis as assistants? Lowry to Uttica?

 

[milk and honey]

im ok with lowry/green i guess. i mean crow would be my choice but if green i guess thats chill. not a lot of great options and not like we are winning the cup so soon. just want a coach good with young kids

[Spoosh]

Gallant was just about the only coach I wanted here. Now with him not being available anymore I'm open to anyone. Green is my favorite at this point but I'll be happy with just about anyone. All the candidates are good quality coaches and I'm sure we'll sign the best one out there.

[YummyCakeFace]

Green. Hopefully bumbling Jim doesn't mess it up by hiring Sutter.