Sutter blossoms under new coach
Canucks forward is blossoming under coach Green’s tutelage as shutdown centre
Here’s our Halloween treat to you, the musings and meditations on the world of sports.
Before this season, Travis
■
Green sat down with Brandon Sutter and outlined the role he envisioned for the Vancouver Canucks centre. He would not play on the power play. He would not play on the wing. He would not be expected to drive an offensive line one night and a checking line the next.
Willie Desjardins had tried all that last season with Sutter. Suffice to say his play was as confused as his job description.
But this year the new coach simplified things for the 28-yearold centre. He told him he’d be matched against the other team’s top centre on a nightly basis and be expected to shut them down while contributing offensively. If this works, it will continue. If it doesn’t, we’ll speak again.
“It’s not an easy job,” Green said Monday before the Canucks met the Dallas Stars.
But it’s one Sutter has embraced. It’s just 10 games in, but the former Red Deer Rebel’s play has been one of the most underappreciated and one of the most important aspects of the Canucks’ encouraging start. Sutter and linemates Derek Dorsett and Markus Granlund have not only formed a line that can neutralize the NHL’s best, they’ve contributed offensively. All three are plus players. Dorsett, who’s never scored more than 12 goals in 10 NHL seasons, leads the team with six through the first 10 games.
But Sutter has been the key. A polarizing figure last season when he was all over the lineup, he’s thrived under Green’s direction.
“He said this is the kind of player I think you are and I pretty much agreed with him,” Sutter said. “I think we have an understanding of what’s to be expected. It’s a role I like to play and it’s something I’m comfortable with.
“When you have that clarity and know what your role is you can really excel in it.”
The key is that term “clarity” and that seems to be Green’s strength as a coach. He clarifies roles and expectations. He’s clear about the style of game he wants to play.
The real test will come when the Canucks encounter the inevitable turbulence that is part of an 82-game schedule. But this coach has been able to draw something out of this team and he’s drawing the best out of a player like Sutter.
Much has been made about the ■
Whitecaps’ lineup and conservative tactics in their 0-0 draw with Seattle Sunday, but Carl Robinson said his strategy can be traced back to their two-game series with the Portland Timbers in 2015.
That year, the Whitecaps thought they’d gained a significant advantage when they fashioned a 0-0 draw in Game 1 in Portland. That edge, however, disappeared when Kekuta Manneh hit the post in the ninth minute and the Timbers’ Fanendo Adi scored a crushing away goal in the 31st minute. From that point, the Timbers parked the bus and cruised to a 2-0 win at B.C. Place on their way to the MLS title.
Fast-forward to Sunday and Robinson admitted he had reviewed the two games of the Portland series before settling on a starting lineup designed to shut down the Sounders’ attack over the first 60 minutes. That part of the plan worked. The problem was the Whitecaps generated next to nothing against the Sounders, which means Game 2 in Seattle will likely be determined by the first goal.
Still, Robinson liked his team’s position heading into Thursday.
“It was important we didn’t concede today,” he said following the match. “In two-legged ties, conceding at home is a no-no. I learned that two years ago. That was the mindset.”
After a painful season in which ■ their playoff aspirations disappeared with an eight-losses-in-nine-games stretch, it was heartening to see the B.C. Lions record a win in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Said it before, but this team isn’t that far off from contending. They need a more consistent Jonathon Jennings, improvement on the offensive line and a pass-rusher. If they address those issues, they should be back to an 11- or 12-win team in 2018.
But there’s one other thing they need and that’s resolution to their ownership/front office/ coaching situation. This franchise needs a new vision and a new direction and they can’t get that with another year of David Braley’s ownership.
Finally, listened to Game 5 of
■ the World Series while driving home from the Whitecaps game on Sunday and was irked I was missing such an epic encounter. Houston had just torched Brandon Morrow for four runs in the seventh and was cruising with an 11-8 advantage. That was a helluva ball game to miss.
But I still got home in time to witness three innings of War and Peace. There was Chris Taylor’s baserunning gaffe in the top of the eighth. There was Brian McCann’s solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, which surely would provide the margin of victory.
But no, Yasiel Puig’s onehanded homer in the top of ninth brought the Dodgers within one. Then Taylor tied the game with a two-out single.
I mean, the Astros’ two-out, game-winning rally in the bottom of the 10th off Kenley Jansen was almost anticlimactic.
With Game 6 set for Los Angeles, this series will surely go down as one of the most memorable in baseball history and that’s saying something. There was last year’s CubsIndians classic. St. Louis and Texas gave us something special in 2011. There was Anaheim and San Francisco in 2002, the Diamondbacks and Yankees the year before that, Joe Carter against the Phillies, Jack Morris in Game 7 for the Twins, Bill Buckner. And we’re not even out of the ’80s.
So it’s hard to know where 2017 will rate. It’s already given us everything you could ask for in a World Series: great moments, crazy moments, pitching and hitting, heroes and goats.
But, mostly, it’s continually surprised us and that’s where its greatness lies. There’s never been a moment in this series where you knew what would happen next, where the outcome was foretold and that’s kept us all fully engaged.
It’s also the reason we watch sports and baseball seems to supply a disproportionate share of these moments.