Vote of confidence for Vigneault
Despite playoff disappointment, Gillis plans to stand by his bench boss
If there was any doubt, we now know who really runs the hockey department. No sooner was the contract of Mike Gillis extended last week than the president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks was adamant that the decision to retain Alain Vigneault would be his and an extension for the head coach is more about length of term rather than lingering debate about whether he was right for the job after a shocking first-round playoff exit. The emotional Francesco Aquilini owns and has heavily invested in the Cadillac club but has turned the keys over to Gillis to keep it on the right road and out of the ditch.
In that respect, the expected announcement that Vigneault will return for a seventh season — and be given an extension that could mirror the three years he received in 2009 — will rank as one of the most significant offseason developments for the Presidents’ Trophy winners. The trading of Roberto Luongo, the re-signing of Cory Schneider, finding a third-line centre, what to do with Mason Raymond and Manny Malhotra and some back-end concerns require the attention of Gillis. However, maintaining faith that Vigneault can continue to withstand the scrutiny of a hockey-mad market and get a veteran core to respond to another long climb up Mount Motivation is the best birthday present for the bench boss who turns 51 today.
It’s a conviction that the playoffs were a mulligan and that the season scorecard was one to dissect rationally and not dismiss emotionally. And while you could make a case against a coach who has lost eight of his last 10 playoff games, the management meter swung to support the body of work. One win shy of capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, two first-overall regular seasons and four straight division titles sold Gillis.
“I feel very comfortable with Alain as a coach,” said Gillis. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t want somebody back that has done an excellent job and has the results to show for it. It gets exasperating sometimes. A lot of teams that are envious of where this team is in a lot of different ways and having a good head coach is one reason they’re envious.”
Gillis inherited Vigneault when he succeeded Dave Nonis as general manager in 2008. There was an exhaustive interview process because they were driven but a mutual admiration only formed through years of working together, not through weeks of preliminary feel-out sessions. The players have come out in obvious support of Vigneault and why wouldn’t they? He allows them to set the performance bar, be accountable to each other and police themselves. He doesn’t rant and rave and rarely calls anyone out in public. Yet, in return the Canucks in the postseason often lacked focus, direction, discipline and execution. Is that coaching or players thinking they could simply flip the performance switch after trying to create some level of urgency through the March monotony? Probably both.
Winger Chris Higgins has played for Claude Julien, Guy Carbonneau, John Tortorella, Brent Sutter and Peter Deboer. They have different strengths but Higgins insisted that Vigneault doesn’t have to take a back seat to any of them.
“He’s one of the best coaches I’ve had professionally,” said Higgins. “He understands the team and is smart enough to realize that we want to take ownership and I’m not sure a lot of coaches would be comfortable doing that.”
You can count on one hand the real disconnects Vigneault has had for various reasons — most notably Cody Hodgson and Shane O’brien — but the give-and-take between player and coach had to evolve over the years. As the Canucks got better, the coach loosened his grip. “We know what he expects and when he’s not happy with our effort,” said captain Henrik Sedin. “There doesn’t have to be a lot of meetings. We know it has to be that kind of relationship where he’s the boss, but there are times when he shows a lighter side and that’s good to see.”
Yet, it’s about winning a championship so this is where it gets interesting. Gillis favours offence and suggested the NHL is slicing its own wrists by not icing a product that is fast paced and highly entertaining. And make no mistake. After saying they would be comfortable playing low-scoring games whether by design or the reality of 30-goal winger Daniel Sedin being sidelined by a concussion the last nine games of the regular season, the strategy backfired. The lack of a killer instinct was lethal in a season-ending 2-1 overtime loss to Los Angeles and just eight goals in five games was a familiar playoff refrain.
Then again, Vigneault can argue his club can play it any way because the Canucks finished fourth on the power play and fifth in goals and were fourth in goals against and sixth in penalty killing. However, the four Stanley Cup finalists this spring ranked second (Kings), third (Rangers), fifth (Coyotes) and 10th (Devils) in defence, so that’s an easy sell next fall. By comparison, the final four were 11th (Rangers), 15th (Devils) 18th (Coyotes) and 29th (Kings) in offence, so the trick is to find just enough goals — especially on the power play.
After a league-leading 24.4 per cent following four power-play goals on Jan. 7 in Boston, the Canucks went 16-for-117 (13.6 per cent) the rest of the way and were blanked 13 times in the final 18 games because they became predictable with those neutral-zone drop passes and stagnant in the offensive zone. Even worse, the power play was a paltry 3-for-21 (14.3 per cent) in the postseason. Does that fall on Vigneault’s watch or that of assistant Newell Brown, who handles the special-team units? There was tension in Chicago after a first-round exit and speculation Joel Quenneville was not happy and it cost assistant Mike Havliand his job. But assistant Mike Kitchen was responsible for a woeful power play that was 26th in the regular season and last in the postseason.
What does this all mean in Vancouver? The Canucks were eighth in even-strength goals and relied on the power play — and exceptional goaltending by Cory Schneider and Luongo — to win when they couldn’t press to put games away earlier. They were also 42-10-4 when scoring first and led the league. They were 27-9-9 in one-goal games and 32-1-2 when leading after two periods. Getting leads weren’t the problem because they also scored first in nine of their last 10 regular-season games with no sense of real urgency.
The biggest challenge with centre Ryan Kesler sidelined until November with shoulder surgery and the need for a third-line solution in the middle will be to make the right moves. Gillis has to get the talent. Vigneault must get to them.