Virtanen embraces some tough love
Green tore the winger down in the AHL to build him back up into an NHL player
For the Vancouver Canucks, reality is 3,700 kilometres away.
It’s there, in Utica, N.Y., where Jake Virtanen experienced a revelation.
Pinpointing the exact moment is challenging. Maybe it was one of the nights he spent by himself in the Comets’ 60-year-old arena between games on a bike, riding for an hour and more. Maybe it was his first paycheque after his annual salary dipped from nearly $1 million to $70,000.
Or maybe it was one of the brutally honest sit-downs Virtanen had with then-Comets head coach Travis Green. They would deconstruct shifts and plays with video sessions that must have felt like they were doing a postgraduate degree in hockey together.
Somewhere in all of this, Virtanen found something he lost: his game.
“I never felt (I lost myself ), but Green would show me stuff and I’d say, ‘OK, now I’m seeing it,’” Virtanen said. “He’d show me where I could move my feet more or where there was a guy I could have hit.
“After he’d show me the video, I’d still make the same mistake. He’d say, ‘Look here. You did it again.’”
Eventually, Virtanen said, he got it. That’s how it’s looked so far this month as Virtanen played himself into contention to make the Canucks next week.
It’s how it felt Sept. 16 when the Canucks and Virtanen opened the exhibition hockey season in Los Angeles. Green would later call it one of the better games he’s seen the winger play.
But the most revealing moment that day came after the game. Virtanen was buoyant and there was enough adrenalin shooting from his eyes to power the California coast for a week or three.
“After all that video I’ve watched with Green, I felt like everything was just happening for me,” Virtanen said of that game. “I wasn’t thinking and I was getting in on the forecheck. I was creating turnovers. I was getting hits.
“It was just second nature for me. It was simple.”
It sure wasn’t simple a year ago. Virtanen was overburdened and under-coached. He weighed too much. He didn’t understand the game enough. Then came Utica, reality and Green.
“I had an idea of what I wanted to do with him,” Green said. “He had to buy into what we were doing. It wasn’t punishment.
“The physical part was getting his condition level to where he needed to be to be effective, and then we needed to work on the structure part of the game, understanding the game and understanding the details within the game.”
Virtanen has a long way to go to live up to his draft position. He may end up back in Utica. But he does deserve credit for embracing the idea he needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.
“They had me doing workouts at nighttime right away,” Virtanen said. “I’d work out in the morning with the team, then I’d skate. Then I’d be on the bike. I’d have lunch, go home, sleep for a couple hours and then be back at the rink for 4 or 5 (p.m.).
“Green would still be there. He’d show me video as well at night.”
Green couldn’t recall if he had such a program for any other player over the years.
“We just felt coming back at night would help him,” Green said. “Practices are hard. I didn’t think he could have max efforts in his workouts after practice.
“We talked to Jake and said, ‘Hey, it might affect you in the short term, it might affect your game a little bit, but this is not a shortterm play. This is a long-term play.’ I thought he benefited from it.” That’s how Virtanen sees it now. “I always felt when coaches are hard on me, I’m better,” Virtanen said. “I want to go out there and play for the coaches that push me. Green pushes me.”
There are two games left this preseason and things can change, but right now it appears no player has benefited more from the coaching change to Green than Virtanen.
“It’s the exact same system as Utica,” Virtanen said. “I love that system. When we’re breaking out, he wants his wingers to go and that’s my style of game. He wants his wingers to skate …
“Green’s style is more a power forward game. D are breaking out the puck and I’m going. Go, go, go. It’s simple. It’s easy to play.”
After he’d show me the video, I’d still make the same mistake. He’d say, ‘Look here. You did it again.’