Linden pours oil on choppy waters
RUMOUR MILL: Canucks president denies team owner is interfering and has ‘no problem’ with coach
In light of a fairly eventful weekend for the Vancouver Canucks, we offer a special all-crisis edition of Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
A couple of days ago, the Canucks were coming off two straight road wins and sat just two points out of the playoffs. True, no one was mistaking them for the ’58 Canadiens, but most fans were satisfied with the performance and direction of the team this season.
Then came one almighty soiling of the sheets against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night and, suddenly, there is chaos and anarchy in the streets.
In no particular order, there is said to be: a philosophical disconnect between ownership and the GM; a head coach who’s been exposed as an incompetent boob; and, personnel decisions that defy reason.
And, respected veteran Alex Burrows suddenly says he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause.
You have to admit, that’s a lot of bad stuff to come out of one loss, but it also raises the question: Are any of these issues rooted in reality, or are they simply the product of some overactive imaginations?
We’ll leave the Burrows issue to Ben Kuzma elsewhere in this section (see page 43). But let’s take the others one at a time.
On Saturday night, Elliotte Friedman reported on Hockey Night that Jim Benning favoured a massive rebuild of the Canucks while ownership is pressuring him to make the playoffs. If this report is true, it has the potential to create irreparable damage to the organization.
Ownership wants one thing. Senior management wants another. This is a fight Benning can’t win and, given Francesco Aquilini’s track record, there’s an element of believability to this story.
But there’s also something about it that doesn’t add up. If Benning is encountering resistance from the Aquilinis in his master plan, it doesn’t show on the lineup sheet.
This season the Canucks have identified six young players who will help form the core of the team for the next five or six seasons. There’s another layer of prospects developing in Utica.
Maybe it’s not happening fast enough to suit some people, but when Jacob Markstrom’s playing and Brandon Sutter is healthy, the Canucks have 10 new regulars in the lineup and, excluding Sutter, Matt Bartkowski (with 185 regular-season games) is the most experienced player in that group.
Aquilini is a victim of his own reputation here and he’s brought a lot of that on himself. The Canucks’ archives are full of bizarre stories in which he advocated trading away the team’s future for Brad Richards or invoked a moratorium on signing Swedish players.
Canucks president Trevor Linden was asked on Sunday if ownership meddles in the affairs of the hockey department.
“From the day I started, the Aquilini family has been completely supportive of the plan we’ve conveyed to them,” Linden said.
“I think our actions this year indicate that we’re trying to get younger and faster and we’re going to continue down that path.
“Ownership has absolutely been supportive of that.”
Linden, it should be noted, was more than aware of Francesco Aquilini’s reputation when he took the president’s job and assurances were made he’d have autonomy to run the hockey department.
Is he protecting his boss? Maybe. But I can report there was genuine emotion in Linden’s voice when he addressed the meddling question. I’ve also known Linden since he was 14 and I know two things about him: He’s not that good an actor and he’s never lied to me.
That doesn’t make an airtight case for Aquilini, but I’ll defer to Linden on this one.
Linden was asked about Willie Desjardins’ work this season.
“I have absolutely no problem with the job Willie’s done,” he said.
That might put him in the minority in this city.
Saturday night in the online stream, the Hockey Night broadcast team roundly criticized Desjardins for some of his decisions. Most of them are well known to Canucks’ fans — his inexplicable loyalty to Linden Vey, his use of the Sedins — but they reached a broader audience on Saturday night.
This story is also gaining some momentum and that’s dangerous territory for a coach. There are just too many nights when you’re left wondering about Desjardins’ decisions: who dressed, who didn’t dress, who played with whom and how much they played.
On Saturday, Yannick Weber was given the start on the Canucks’ blueline and he was deplorable. Alex Biega has been a gamer this season, he signs a new two-year deal and he’s scratched in three of four games while the faithful are left scratching their heads.
Desjardins was asked on Sunday if he’s starting to feel any pressure.
“I think you always feel pressure,” he said. “You know you need to win and that’s something that’s always there. It never changes. For me, I don’t think I got the most out of our guys (on Saturday night) but I think I’ve got a lot out of our guys a lot of other nights.”
He was also asked if the Canucks are a playoff team. “Time will tell,” he said. Time will tell about a lot of things.
The decision to call up Weber underscores an ongoing frustration for Canucks supporters.
Down in Utica, Hunter Shinkaruk, Brendan Gaunce and Andrey Pedan are all having strong seasons. Pedan, at 22, is the oldest of the trio.
If the Canucks really are all in for the rebuild, why have those three played a combined six NHL games this year?
Says Linden: “I think they’re all having good seasons, but we want Hunter on the power play, we want Brendan in a feature role and we want Andrey playing 25 minutes a game. We think that’s the best thing for them.”
It probably is, but there’s still something about the optics here.
Watching Radim Vrbata is getting painful.
Emerson Etem was handed a regular spot and he has one goal and one assist in 13 games. Linden Vey? Sheesh.
Pedan, meanwhile, might be green, but he’s a legitimate heavyweight and going back to the Calgary game on Feb. 6, teams are targeting the Sedins.
It could be the trade deadline will free up some playing time for the Utica Three. Then again, this year’s trade deadline will be worth watching for a lot of reasons.