The scene is Canucks GM Mike Gillis’s office at GM Place. It’s mid-morning, and the sun filters through the vertical blinds. Gillis lies flat on his back under his desk, feet pointing out. Three empty bottles of Crown Royal are lying on his desk. Head coach Alain Vigneault is asleep, snoring, in a chair facing Gillis’s desk. The phone rings insistently, and Gillis awakes with a start, cracking his head on the underside of his desk. The phone stops.
Vancouver Canucks president and owner Francesco (Aquaman) Aquilini fired general manager Dave Nonis Monday in a move that surprised many. (But not us. We knew you cared!) The mainstream media is criticizing the move; we’ll get to that in a minute.
It was the right thing to do. I like Nonis (his public persona, anyway – I don’t know him) and you always hate to see someone lose their job, but let’s face it: not making the playoffs in two of three seasons at the helm doesn’t cut it. (Nonis was GM for four years, but his first year was the 2004-2005 lockout.) That shit might fly in Toronto, where mediocrity is the gold standard for everything, but not in Vancouver. I don’t think anyone would call Nonis’ tenure a total failure; it simply wasn’t good enough.
Let’s take a look at what the MSM scribes are saying.
From Iain MacIntyre:
. . . Aquilini’s decision to so quickly change management regimes is shocking, considering the Canucks are as few as two or three skilled forwards away from being able to compete with any NHL team.
Nonis had ample opportunity to acquire “two or three skilled forwards,” through drafts and trades, and he failed to do so.
From TSN’s Bob McKenzie:
As a rule, GMs are given at least a five year run unless there is a sense the franchise is spiraling in the wrong direction and although the Canucks missed the playoffs this season, there doesn’t appear to be any empirical evidence that the Canucks are on a free fall.
First of all, what rule are you talking about? Aquilini owns the team, he can fire the GM whenever he wants. There’s no fucking rule. Secondly, what do you call it, Bob, when a team wins their division one year and ends up in last place the next, after an epic late-season choke job? That isn’t a free-fall?
. . . the sense throughout the league is that Nonis has put together a good organization in Vancouver and was doing a good job of drafting and developing young talent.
That may be the sense throughout the league (read: whoever Bob knows in Toronto), but it certainly isn’t the sense among anyone I know of. You know, the customer. Most people I’ve talked to think the Canucks have done an abysmal job of drafting. In recent years, the Canucks have passed on Anze Kopitar, Andrew Cogliano, Paul Stastny, Guillaume Latendresse, Milan Lucic and Martin Hanzal, to name a few. (What was that earlier about two or three skilled forwards?)
Of the first-round players drafted since Nonis took over, only Luc Bourdon has had a whiff of cracking the lineup, and that’s only because of all the injuries on D this year. Even then, Mike Weaver played more games than Bourdon, a highly-touted defensive prospect. To reiterate, with the defensive corps decimated, head coach Alain Vigneault preferred to go with a guy who’s bounced around in the minors for the last seven years, rather than a so-called blue-chip prospect. That’s some top-notch player development there, Bob.
From Ed Willes:
Nonis’s firing seems to be a panic move based on the Canucks’ late-season collapse. The former GM believed he and the Aquilinis were on the same page when the organization refused to pay the big prices demanded for the most coveted players at the trade deadline.
Apparently, the brothers have since changed their minds.
But this is also part of a larger pattern of impulsive, erratic leadership which has haunted the Canucks since the Aquilinis appeared on the scene.
Maybe I’m missing something because I live in Calgary so I don’t get a lot of the local hoopla, but I hadn’t noticed any “impulsive, erratic leadership” in the Canucks. You’d think that type of thing would show. Far from it, Nonis seemed to enjoy wide latitude when it came to running the team. And he ran it cautiously, methodically, and with a good deal of sense. Unfortunately for him, they needed more winning.
Willes goes on to accuse Aquaman and his brother of using the team solely for profit:
. . . the Aquilinis have left the distinct impression the Canucks are being run as a business investment whose sole purpose is to make money and not to win the Stanley Cup.
Again, I don’t get that impression at all. In fact, that’s how I felt about the team under former owner John McCaw. This ownership seems to me to be interested in building a winner, which is why they fired the GM who wasn’t able to produce one. And if a pleasant result of a winning sports club is that its owners make money, what’s wrong with that? Nonis’s Canucks were grindingly boring at times, and nobody wants to watch that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team’s consecutive-sellout record falls next season as a result. You can hardly blame the brothers Aquilini for knowing that losers don’t make money. That’s why they’re rich.
As Tony Gallagher put it:
It’s one thing to lose, but quite another to lose in boring fashion. And if there is one thing an owner cannot have, it’s watching his customers fail to be entertained, and on many nights this season that was certainly the case, this team often excruciatingly boring even on nights when they won.
Amen, brother.
With Nonis being shown the door, many are wondering what will become of his deal with Fabian Brunnstrom, a breakout Swedish Elite League forward who was said to be close to signing with the Canucks.
MacIntyre again:
The most immediate on-ice ramification for the Canucks is that they can probably say goodbye to elite prospect Fabian Brunnstrom, a high-scoring, 23-year-old Swedish free agent who had chosen to sign with the Canucks among 20 NHL suitors.
TSN reported Saturday that the Brunnstrom deal would fall through if Nonis were fired. And Brunnstrom’s agent, J.P. Barry, made it clear Monday that Nonis was largely responsible for winning his client’s trust by visiting him in Sweden and being the first to show serious interest in the winger.
Honestly, who cares? One of the reasons he chose the Canucks over teams like the Red Wings was that they were willing to guarantee him top-six minutes with the Sedins. So he hasn’t even played a game in the men’s league yet, and he’s a prima donna who won’t sign unless you promise him he won’t have to get his fingernails dirty on the third or fourth lines. Fuck that. This team needs a transplant of heart and commitment, not petulant demands for ice time from snot-noses.
Here’s hoping the new Canucks GM, whoever it turns out to be, continues cleaning house. I’m not entirely sure I stand by my call to fire Vigneault. Maybe he should get another chance to prove what he can do with a better offence in front of his vaunted defence. But the new man should definitely work on retooling the squad of heartless bums that showed up for the last nine games of the season.
- The Sieve
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Now playing: Stars – Personal
via FoxyTunes
Oh, Canucks. You finished your swan dive out of the playoffs Saturday with a 7-1 loss to the Calgary Flames, a fitting score as the inverse was your win-loss record over the last eight games.
In a shameful display of rolling over, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the last time my kids’ Golden Retriever bitch wanted her belly rubbed, you hung goalie Roberto Luongo out to dry for three goals on nine shots, allowed Flames captain Jarome Iginla to score his 50th goal of the season (SOMEBODY may as well have a good year, right?) and turned what may have been Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund’s last game in Canucks jerseys into a painful embarrassment.
Tellingly, the only player to show up at the optional game-day practice was Luongo. I think that says “everyone who has recently questioned my heart and my commitment can fuck off.” That’s why he gets the big bucks. As for the rest of the you, it says “we have no pride. We don’t care. We’d rather have a day off, since we’re only going to have an entire summer filled with days off after we choked on our own season and we need one more.”
Well, I’ve had enough. I’ve been a loyal, die-hard fan for years, beginning when I moved to Vancouver in the early 90s, and through my move to Calgary. I’ve endured five years of taunting and lost bets at the hands of obnoxious Flames fans. During the accursed 2004 Cup run, when the streets of Calgary were filled with hotties taking their “shirts off for Kiprusoff,”, a lesser man would have crumbled and jumped on the bandwagon. Not me. I stayed true. I defended Dan Cloutier, for Christ’s sake! “Oh no, he’s not a sieve. He’s the only Canucks goalie with 30-plus wins in three consecutive seasons. You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And how do you repay me? With this travesty. This abomination. Well, no more. Until you can prove to me you’re committed to winning, and making some real changes, I don’t want to see you anymore. I don’t want to hear any more of your lip service, and your hollow promises. Until then, you’re dead to me.
And just so you know, a top-down house-cleaning, starting with Dave Nonis and Alain Vigneault, would go a long way toward patching things up. If you care. Which you clearly don’t.
Lastly: Govechkin! Anyone know where I can buy some Capitals gear? The stores around here are all sold out. (Oddly, the shelves are brimming with unsold Sidney Crosby-branded paraphernalia.) I don’t want to buy it from the NHL online store, since they take 7-10 days just to ship. Seriously, in 2008, what kind of dinosaur-like order fulfillment system takes 7-10 business days before they can get something out of the warehouse? Does it take that long for the gerbils to run from the computer to the shipping/receiving dock?
- The Sieve
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Now playing: The Epochs – Thunder & Lightning
via FoxyTunes
(Photo courtesy canucks.com)
The Vancouver Canucks continued their masterwork in choke artistry Tuesday night, blowing a 2-0 lead to the Colorado Avalanche en route to a 4-2 loss. This was the third time in a week the Canucks snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, having coughed up leads to the Avs last Wednesday and to Calgary the night before that.
Add to this that the fucking St. Louis Blues blew their 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 against Nashville in overtime, and the Canucks are out of the playoffs.
Nashville has two games remaining against St. Louis and Chicago. The Canucks play Edmonton and Calgary. Our only hope is that the Blues and Blackhawks have all Nashville’s “easy schedule” press clippings posted on their dressing room walls, and they use them to get fired up and beat the Predators. Even if Vancouver wins both games, unless Nashville loses at least one, or Calgary loses both of their remaining games, they’re finished.
It’s safe to say the situation is dire. But does it really matter? Even if the Canucks get into the playoffs, what are the chances they’ll make it past anyone, let alone Detroit, which would likely be their first-round matchup? The Coach and I were talking via the mobile telephony device the other day, and he said that maybe missing the playoffs is the best thing that could happen to this team.
I think there’s merit to this controversial view. Missing the playoffs would shatter the illusion that this team does anything but rely on Roberto Luongo night in and night out, and put a lot more pressure on GM Dave Nonis to make some significant changes in the off-season. Let’s face it: aside from the brilliant Luongo trade and signing Willie Mitchell, Nonis has done nothing to improve this roster. All of his other signings/acquisitions have consisted of trading one interchangeable spare part for another.
Last season, the Canucks won the division and made it into the secound round of the playoffs largely on the jaw-dropping, superhuman brilliance of Roberto Luongo’s goaltending. This season, he’s been merely excellent. (People who say Luongo is to blame for the Canucks’ troubles are fucking idiots. Without him, the Canucks would be competing with L.A. for the title of worst team in the league instead of fighting for a playoff spot.)
Luongo’s being merely excellent hasn’t been enough to plaster over the team’s glaring deficiencies up front. The Sedin twins, while
fun to watch for their otherworldly telepathic connection on the ice, are not enough to build a franchise around. Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, both instrumental in the high-scoring, free-wheeling days of the Marc Crawford era, are in the final years of their contracts and hampered by Alain Vigneault’s stifling, defence-first coaching system.
It’s pointless to start picking apart AV’s coaching style this late in the season, and we’ve carped on about it before, so we’ll leave it at that. Until now, Vigneault and Nonis have been able to hide behind Luongo’s goaltending. But when that isn’t enough anymore, maybe we’ll start to see the changes this club needs in order to succeed. It seems clear that isn’t going to happen with the present lineup. So missing the playoffs might not be the worst thing that could happen.
- The Sieve
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Now playing: The Knife – We Share Our Mothers` Health
via FoxyTunes
(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
First of all, I hope you all appreciate the effort it took not to go with the lame “who was that masked man?” joke in the headline, as I’m sure several newspapers will have done.
Now, some random thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks’ 2-1 overtime victory over the L.A. Kings last night:
Improbably, Cloutier stopped the first 33 shots he faced Monday en route to a 38-save performance, stone-walling Markus Naslund twice in the first period and stopping numerous other point-blank opportunities, including the poke on Henrik Sedin pictured above.
Aaaaand that’s enough griping. Look at me, eh. Last week, I was convinced the Canucks weren’t going to make the playoffs. Then they rattle off three straight wins, in convincing fashion, and I’m still moaning and belly-aching.
- The Sieve
(AP Photo/Kyle Ericson)
We’re new to this live-blogging thing at False Gods, but in light of the Canucks’ recent slump, I thought I’d take a stab at some verbal (uh, written?) diarrhea of my own. Puck drops in two minutes. Here’s hoping sobriety and interest hold out long enough to finish the game – I’ve been turning them off of late.
Let’s do this.
FIRST PERIOD
8:01 p.m.: I have NHL Centre Ice. Living in Calgary, it’s the only way I get to watch the Canucks on a regular basis. Why does the NHL force the FSN channel down my throat? Please, for the love of God, can I not watch the Sportsnet feed? Early highlight from the announcers: “The team with the best goaltender will win this game.” Yeah, so will the team that scores the most goals.
8:06 p.m.: Oh wait, someone’s kissed me on Facebook. Hey, I gotta take ‘em where I can get ‘em. Back in a minute.
:29: Keith Tkachuk gets a penalty for closing his hand on the puck. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.
2:23: Ohlund lets the puck squirt out at the point for the second time on this power play. How many times have we seen that this season?
2:50: Canucks get a penalty – Jason Jaffray for holding. So much for the power play.
4:10: Cooke on a short-handed breakaway! Oh, shit. Legace, you bastard!
*Switching to time remaining instead of time elapsed on the game clock. Math brain not functioning.*
8:55: Sedins have agreat scoring chance; FSN homers blather on about how Rick Wamsley teaches Manny Legace how to make saves. Awesome.
7:58: D.J. King scores on a weak-ass backhander. Maybe Vigneault is right about Luongo. Lou, what are you doing to me?
6:46: Legace gets away with holding Naslund’s stick. Where’s the call, ref?
5:34: Another penalty for Tkachuk. Delay of game. Keep it up, slick.
3:34: Power play over. One shot on net.
2:31: Burrows misses wide-open net. Gee, I wonder why they can’t win?
1:39: OHHHHHLLLLUUUUNDDDD!!! The patience! The wrister! Picking the corner! Matty, all is forgiven!
:07: Jaffray called for hooking. Way to wreck the momentum, junior. Mayers misses the buzzer-beater.
8:50 p.m.: D.J King, goal-scorer, interviewed in the intermisson. Oddly, he reminds me of the slack-jawed Jon Heder in Napoleon Dynamite. Only minus the ‘fro and the salmon shoulders.
8:52 p.m.: Casino commercial, showing girl leaning over pool table. Voiceover: “Now that’s a nice rack!” Maybe this FSN isn’t so bad after all.
SECOND PERIOD
18:44: Brad Fucking Boyes scores. Why was he allowed to receive that pass? Wide open. Yeah, must be Luongo’s fault. Fuck.
17:22: Mason Raymond hits the post. Jason Jaffray misses. Note to Nonis: relying on minor-league call-ups is guaranteed to result in more scoring.
5:22: FSN colour commenter (who are these guys?) makes note of the fact the Sedin twins are from the same home town in Sweden as Markus Naslund and Peter Forsberg. Can’t bring himself to say Ornskoldsvik. C’mon, you get paid for this. Even I can say it, and I’m but a lowly blogger.
1:30: Scotty Walker takes a shot on Luongo. Usually rabid chants of “LOOOOUUUU” are suddenly half-hearted.
0:00: Blues head into the dressing room with a 2-1 lead. Considering the Canucks have never come back to win from a second-period deficit in this season, the chances of finishing this live blog are slim.
THIRD PERIOD
18:13: Oh, sweet Mother of God, Ohlund scores again!!!!!! You magnificent bastard of a Swede, you! With this, Ohlund passes Jyrki Lumme for all-time goals scored by a Canucks defenceman, BTW.
8:10: Holy shit, what a save by Luongo! Reminiscent of why Alexander Ovechkin called him “an octopus.”
2:50: Canucks down two men. I refuse to comment. FSN: “OH, what a save by Luongo!”
OVERTIME
No score.
SHOOTOUT
DANIEL SCORES!!!!!!
That’s all. I have no witty commentary. The alcohol is taking over.
Luongo the save on Tkachuk! Canucks win !!!!
Also: Yay! I made it!
- The Sieve
(If my FoxyTunes Signatune were on right now, it’d be George Thorogood’s “I Drink Alone.”)
(CP Photo/Richard Lam)
This is Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, after a goal in the Los Angeles Kings’ 4-3 win in Vancouver last Saturday night. The Canucks are now 3-6-1 in the 10 games since New Year’s Eve, and have only one win in their last seven. It’s safe to say they’re in a slump. To make matters worse, they’ve fallen to eighth place in the conference and are close to dropping out of playoff contention.
So who does head coach Alain Vigneault decide to blame? Why, the team’s best player, of course. In this piece (via Canucks and Beyond), Vigneault says Luongo needs to pick it up:
“When we were on a winning run we were getting a little bit more timely saves. Roberto, and when we use Curtis (Sanford, the Canuck backup), it’s been a little more challenging that way, for what ever reason. I know Roberto really wants to get on the same roll he was on prior to this. He would probably be the first one to tell you that since probably the Islanders game, the goaltender he has faced . . . has probably had a slight edge there. The facts are simple. We need our best players to be at their best. Roberto is one of them.”
Before we comment on this, let’s put on our statistical analysis hats. You know, the tall, conical ones. OK, ready? We’ve already covered seven losses in 10 games. During those ten games, the Canucks have allowed 27 goals and scored only 22. (I’ve omitted goals awarded for shootout results, i.e. in a 4-3 shootout score, I counted only three goals for each team.) The Canucks have also outshot their opponents 296-287 in those ten games, including outshooting the other guys in four of the seven losses in question.
So without any baseline or comparison to other teams, what do these numbers tell us? On the whole, the Canucks’ games are fairly tight. Seven of these have been one-goal games. No surprise there. So maybe Vigneault has a point: One or two more saves from Luongo in each game, and we’ve got a whole different set of stats. That’s one way of looking at it.
Another is this: THEY CAN’T FUCKING SCORE. If we can go back to the stats for a second, the Canucks have given up an average of 2.33 goals per game this season, good for third place in the league. Even their average in the last ten games (2.7 GA/G) would still keep them in the top half of the league, were it stretched out over the season.
On the other hand, they’ve scored only 2.55 goals per game, placing them squarely in . . . 23rd place. Over the last ten games they’ve scored 2.2 goals per game. Were that their season average, they’d be be dead last.
I think we’re starting to see where the real problem lies. We’ve harped on this before, but Vigneault and Canucks GM Dave Nonis are relying too heavily on Luongo to carry the team. The guy is a fantastic goalie, arguably the best in the league, but if your team’s balance is so precarious that they go into a free fall whenever Luongo is merely great instead of jaw-droppingly spectacular, then you’re in trouble.
I suspect Vigneault’s comments were more of the motivational variety, rather than how he really feels, but it’s simply unrealistic to expect Luongo to get continually better all the time, without ever occasionally dropping off. What more can the man do to carry this team? Are they going to ask him to start joining the rush and scoring next?
It’s time for Nonis to make a significant move to shore up the team’s offence. I’m not talking about waiver-wire rejects, but a game-breaker. Their goaltending is as good as it’s ever going to be. The defence is rock-solid, at least to the point where I can’t see how they’d make it any better in the foreseeable future, especially once Kevin Bieksa comes back from his calf injury. The glaring hole is up front. If the team is serious about making a run for the Cup, the time to strike is now.
I’ll refrain from making any suggestions on who to pursue for two reasons. I’m still confident Nonis knows what he’s doing, and I’m not one of those message board posters who thinks other players all exist in a vacuum, waiting for my team to come and snap them up at will. (“Let’s trade Morrison to Columbus for Vyborny.” Uh, OK, what if Columbus doesn’t want to?)
However, I will say it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin, now that GM John Ferguson Jr. has been fired. It’s rumoured the Canucks were interested in Sundin, but that JFJ was asking too steep a price, including young defenceman Alex Edler. Perhaps interim Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher will realize his team needs to enter rebuilding mode, and Nonis will be able to pry Sundin loose for a more reasonable price. Assuming Sundin is willing to waive his no-trade clause, of course.
- The Sieve
P.S.: I’m not the only one who thinks Vigneault’s system leaves no room for error.
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Now playing: edIT – Back Up Off the Floor, Pt. 2 (feat. the Grouch)
via FoxyTunes
What is it with Alain Vigneault and Trevor Linden? The Vancouver Canucks head coach said Monday that Linden, the former captain and all-time leading scorer, basically has no place in his lineup:
We have to look at our team identity right now. We have one offensive line, we have a good checking line, we are getting some identity now on that fourth line as far as grit, grind and in-your-face-type hockey … So that’s where we are right now. Where does Trevor fit? If we want to be an in-your-face type team on a fourth line, Trevor doesn’t fit there. We’re in that little dilemma now.
The media love Vigneault, because he’s fairly direct and usually good for a quote. We appreciate that. Nobody likes the evasive bullshit you tend to hear from coaches and GMs. But there is such a thing as too much honesty.
Linden has done more for the team and the city of Vancouver than Vigneault ever will, and he doesn’t deserve to be cast aside in public. I’m not saying you play a guy for sentimental reasons. If he doesn’t fit your plans, fine. But you don’t have to tell the whole world you’re not playing him because you basically think he can’t hack it anymore:
We know what Trevor can bring and we feel, and he might not totally agree with this, he is better when he is fresh. But that being said, we still have to see what some of these young guys in that third- and fourth-line role can do.
Linden is handling the situation with grace, telling the Vancouver Sun he’s not going to let it affect the dressing room:
I want to be a positive influence and one thing I promised myself is that I wasn’t going to be pissed off or upset and become a distraction if I didn’t play. I’m not going to walk around with my lip dragging on the ground because I’m not playing. I’m trying to be good in practice and positive around the guys with the belief that I can make a difference.
I guess it could be worse for Linden. He could be Mark Recchi.
- The Sieve
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Now playing: ZZ Top – Hot, Blue and Righteous
via FoxyTunes
In a preachy, self-righteous, douche-baggey effort to right the wrongs of second-rate publications (not like this one – ahem), we
at False Gods have decided to start taking to task the most egregious examples of bad sports writing. How? By public shaming, of course. By “public,” we mean the three or four people who read this blog. And by “shaming,” we mean pointing out the mistakes of others in order to feel better about ourselves.
Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault. (Vancouver Sun/Steve Bosch)
The offensively challenged Canucks turned in another stinker Wednesday night in Detroit, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Red Wings in a game where they managed just 15 shots. So far on this road trip, the Canucks have been outshot 106-54 – an unacceptable imbalance.
Ten games into the season, it’s too early to panic, but you have to be wondering what the hell is going on. This team looks nothing like the crew that was the best in the league during the second half of last season, going on a tear that led to a franchise-record 49 wins and a division championship.
(more…)
Steve Yzerman, Brian Leetch, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and (yes you) Lou Lamarillo are ON THE KWAN - AND - inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
