Kesler didn’t like the sound of it
Vancouver centre reacts to only part of what his coach actually said
The latest tempest to blow over Teapot Canucks arrived Monday morning in the form of a question to Ryan Kesler.
The Selke winner was asked to comment on something Alain Vigneault had said the night before, after the Canucks’ 4-2 loss to Anaheim, comments Kesler appeared to be unaware of.
Kesler could have said something like, “That’s the first I’ve heard of it and I don’t feel I can address something I didn’t hear myself. ”
Instead, this is what he said: “I don’t know what he means by that. If he wants to say that, he can come to me and talk to me about it. I’m going to play my game, the thing that’s made me successful. I know what that is and if he wants to come talk to me, he’s more than welcome.”
Here is what Vigneault said Sunday night when asked what’s missing from Kesler’s game: “That’s a good question. Ryan is such an important part of our team with the number of minutes he plays, both on specialty teams and five-on-five.
“He’s got to use the players around him a little bit more so he can get into open space and create the type of offensive chances and be the defensive player he can be.
“But I don’t think tonight, pointing a finger at Ryan Kesler — the way the group played — is the right thing to do.”
Kesler didn’t hear that last bit from his questioner, only the “use the players around him a little bit more” part of the Vigneault answer.
“Utilize my teammates a little bit better?” Kesler repeated incredulously.
It provided fodder the sports talk shows, but it really was blown out of proportion.
Can you imagine if Kesler had tried to joke and said something along the lines of: “AV has got to use the assistant coaches around him a bit more.”
Kesler has been surlier when asked about a beautiful sunset or pictures of cute l’il kitty cats; that’s just his nature most of the time when dealing with a media scrum. He’s often far more pleasant one-on-one.
The thing is, Kesler has not been the player who threw the team on his shoulders last spring during the Nashville series and sent the deciding West final game into overtime — on one leg.
“I mean, Ryan and Hank and Danny and, you know, I could name quite a few other guys who in the last little while have accustomed us to such a high-end, energy-paced game — sometimes players are going to be a little bit off,” Vigneault said. “I think in Ryan’s case what happens is, he’s shown that high-end level at really critical times the type of player he can be.
“That’s a really tough thing to be able to maintain in an 82-game schedule.”
That doesn’t sound like a coach trying to push someone’s buttons.