GREEN HIRE WOULD SIGNAL CANUCKS ARE RARING TO GO
Coach’s success with Baertschi, Virtanen just what the doctor ordered
It says something about Travis Green’s readiness to run an NHL bench that the focus is on how he can coax a transitioning Canucks roster to reach the next level of development and who his assistants may be.
And he doesn’t even have the gig — yet.
Unless management serves up a curveball, its pitch to land a replacement for the fired Willie Desjardins to work with youth in a firm-but-fair manner is right in Green’s wheelhouse.
He’s the right coach at the right time. After four seasons of directing the Utica Comets — including a Calder Cup final appearance in the 2014-15 season and being considered for NHL head-coaching vacancies in Anaheim and Denver last summer — he can point to two examples of why he meets the criteria here.
They’re named Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen.
As an assistant coach in the WHL, Green had a good book on Baertschi, when he put up 34- and 33-goal seasons with the Portland Winterhawks between 2010-12. It was before the winger’s falling out with the Calgary Flames and before Desjardins showed patience that allowed Baertschi to become a top-six fixture with a career-high 18 goals this season.
“You have to give players the opportunity and it should be a prolonged look to give the player confidence that you believe in him,” Green said after Baertschi had seven goals and eights assists in 15 regular-season AHL games and then eight goals and seven assists in 21 games en route to the Cup final.
“I have a lot of belief in Sven. He has a chance to be a top-six forward and play on your power play because he deserves the chance. Of all the kids I’ve had, there are a handful who I have said should play in the NHL and he’s one of them.” That was two years ago. Baertschi was taught how to be safer with the puck, when to make the right pass coming out of his own zone and how to be just as effective without the puck. Today, Baertschi is a more confident and complete NHL mainstay and the 24-year-old Swiss native shouldn’t have any trouble buying into what Green may be selling next fall.
It should be the same with Virtanen.
Despite amassing just nine goals and 10 assists in 65 games with the Comets this season, the right winger made two giant leaps. He played a more complete game, so he can become more responsible and effective at this level. And he made a commitment to conditioning to get his weight down to 213 pounds from 231 at training camp.
It wasn’t an easy exercise for the teacher or the pupil. But if Virtanen can start the climb back to Canucks roster prominence on the fourth line next season and eventually become that trustworthy power forward the franchise is craving, then what Green accomplished in Utica shouldn’t be undersold.
“Jake is still a young guy (20) and people forget that,” said Green. “He went through a stretch where I know he was getting frustrated because he wasn’t getting the points. And that was a good time to break it down to him that the goals and assists will be a byproduct of doing things to be a difference in a game.”
And when that sunk in, it resulted in a two-goal game on April 1.
“When young players don’t have success, it can sometimes look like they really don’t want it,” said Green. “And for some, it’s hard. They’re in and out, and their compete levels go up and down. They tend to take their foot off the gas and you have to make them accountable.”
Accountable on and off the ice. It wasn’t unusual for Green to have Virtanen riding the bike after games to drive home performance and conditioning points.
“It hasn’t been all roses for Jake,” said Green. “We’ve been very honest with him, but he’s confident his game is going in the right direction, even though it’s hard sometimes. It can help a player play outside his comfort zone.”
What’s of comfort to any head coach is knowing he has familiarity and a collective focus behind the bench. If Green gets the Canucks’ job, that will mean gaining a working relationship with assistant coach Doug Jarvis, who was retained, and finding the right replacements for the departed Perry Pearn and Doug Lidster.
Green and Nolan Baumgartner have been on the same Utica staff the last four seasons and the former NHL defenceman — Baumgartner was a first-round 1994 pick of the Washington Capitals — might make a good replacement to run the back end.
There could also be a connection that allows Dave Lowry to serve as a Canucks assistant or run the bench in Utica. He not only played in Vancouver with current Canucks general manager Jim Benning and director of collegiate scouting Stan Smyl, he also served as a Calgary Flames assistant for three seasons and spent the last five years as bench boss of the WHL’s Victoria Royals.
You have to give players the opportunity and it should be a prolonged look to give the player confidence that you believe in him.