Vigneault likely to get cheered in Vancouver
Former coach had seven good years and a glorious 2010-11 season
VANCOUVER — Mostly, pre-season hockey can shove it.
Too often, it’s stacked home teams pitted against a chuckwagon of hopeful kids, no-hope kids, career minorleaguers and unamused vets.
This year, at least, the schedule deciders saved the best for last. It’s hard to be uninterested in John Tortorella vs. Alain Vigneault, even if the game is yet another exhibition dud.
Tortorella, the still-new Canucks head coach, said his team’s final pre-season game will essentially be a dress rehearsal, vowing the Canucks will be close to the lineup on opening night. And wouldn’t you know, it will come against his old team, the New York Rangers, where the old Canucks coach controls the cockpit.
It will be Vigneault’s first public appearance in Vancouver since getting fired for not winning a Stanley Cup.
The reaction at Rogers Arena should be a warm one. Other coaches were loved more, but none won more. Or had better teams.
Vigneault will be cheered and when he is, it will be, generally, for seven good years, but mostly it will be for one glorious season. The 2010-11 Canucks had a core group blossoming at the same time, playing for a coach who knew it helped to stay out of their way.
“You need to be a special coach to coach as long as he did (here),” Daniel Sedin said. “You need to be respectful to the players, and treat them the right way. Otherwise, players will get sick of hearing your voice. He did a good job of that, He was respectful to us, and we won a lot of games which helped.
“The first few years, he’d come into the room after games and between periods and if you didn’t play well enough, he’d let you know. Over time, he let us take over the room.
“The year we went to the finals, that’s what I remember the most. We had a really good room. It was our room and everyone was held accountable. We played for each other, and that’s the best feeling in the world. But John has come in, and is more vocal with us, and that feels like a good thing right now.”
That 2010-11 team had the league’s best power play, and the second-best penalty kill. They were first in points, goals, goals-against and faceoffs. If you take the season as a whole, and not just the final five games, the Canucks were the best team. Second place wasn’t even close.
“But it didn’t feel like we had a great season,” Daniel Sedin said. “We want to win the Stanley Cup. When you lose the last game of the season, that’s what you’re judged on.”
“Sooner or later, if you don’t win, something needs to happen,” Henrik Sedin added. “And, in the end, we didn’t win.”
What needed to happen was Vigneault’s firing. The team was drifting and a disaster in the playoffs. But that shouldn’t take away from the coach’s legacy which was overseeing the best years of the Sedins, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows and Roberto Luongo.
“Our last year with (Marc Crawford), we got more minutes and started to play better. That’s where it started,” Daniel said. “When AV came in, he trusted us to play top minutes and produce. He gave us the chance.
“He saw we had the potential to be top guys. It takes a good coach to do that.”