The Vancouver Canucks management change was felt through the city – and on the ice.
It Won’t Be Enough – But It Will Do
That wasn’t a windstorm on the West Coast of Canada last week. It was the released breath of millions of Vancouver Canucks fans. While we were optimistic prognosticators, even the most pessimistic of predictions kept them out of the league’s basement. And two weeks ago, that’s where they were headed. A weak start in October was mirrored in November with identical 4-10 months. For a fan base already teetering on the edge, it was simply too much.
Ask And Ye Shall Receive… Eventually
The first night of “Fire Benning” chants crept in at the end of a 1-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, disrupted by a power play for the home team with just over two minutes left. The focus of the crowd changed as there was a brief outburst of hope. They still lost, but there was a chance! The Canucks then hit the road for five games, barely salvaged by wins against the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens.
The next home game was it. It wasn’t just a 1-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was the same team and the same score that kicked off the road trip, with the same depressed, disjointed, and frankly miserable play. But this time it happened at home, and all the organ music in the world couldn’t stop the chants reaching fans at home. The unstated obvious was loud and clear and ownership finally acceded to the Canucks management change. The house was cleaned with a fire hose and a new crew is filtering into place.
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
As clumsy and piecemeal as the transition has been, the most visible part has been a smash. And yes, of course Canucks fans made it weird.
https://twitter.com/vanessaj7_/status/1468089162322509824
Do what you know, and what they know is chants. The focus remained the same, but the sentiment was somewhat happier. Bruce Boudreau‘s first game as coach was not only a carnival atmosphere but a 4-0 shutout against a pretty good Los Angeles Kings team. There was applause for the hugely respected Alexander Edler. The short-handed squad killed off both penalties. The power-play scored twice. And the team looked like they could breathe again.
We talked before about how coach Travis Green changed up his style in an effort to cut down goals against. And it worked, don’t get us wrong! But it didn’t work well enough to compensate for the lost offence. And even worse, the team looked oddly flat. A bunch of guys trying to not lose just isn’t having as much fun as ones playing to win. And it looked like everyone was working to keep employed.
Yo Gabby Gabby!
A new coach can give a losing team a lift. A new voice, new style, big effect on the players. That doesn’t always result in wins – it took Mike Yeo a couple of tries to get his first – but it can still make everyone feel like progress is being made. The effect on the fans was immediate, as they roared and cheered and finally had fun again. Off the ice, they went from a mostly unified front encouraging the owner to do ANYTHING to the usual sack of cats. Nature is healing.
Even press conferences have a far different feel to them. If you don’t know, Boudreau’s nickname is “Gabby” for his love of stories and his ability to tell them. And after twenty years as a professional hockey player, he has plenty. He’s coached in the ECHL, IHL, AHL, and the NHL. He (and his apartment) are in the legendary hockey movie Slap Shot. He’s widely known as a player’s coach, drawing up plays that give his stars room to improvise.
Green Means Go
All told, it’s hard to picture a much bigger break from the cerebral and witty Green. It doesn’t help that this season has been brutal on the outgoing coach. He was often hung out as the only representative of the administrative side talking to reporters, something neither the general manager nor owner liked to do. It just wasn’t much fun for him, the fans, or the team.
He knew that his run here was ending. Heck, he probably knew it weeks ago, but you can’t just quit your job. Not in a world where there are only 31 others like it. Unfortunately, the players knew his tenure was ending, too. How could they not? After that atrocious start in what was supposed to be the easy part of the schedule, it was just a matter of time. And anyone who says “Well they should be professional and play just as hard!” has forgotten that this isn’t NHL ’22. These aren’t pixels on a screen.
Of Relief, Rubber Cats, and Resurgence
It isn’t just the win against the Kings. It’s also the wins against the Boston Bruins, the Winnipeg Jets, and most impressively the Carolina Hurricanes. Granted, it was two by shootout and one by a single goal, but it was four wins in seven days. And that’s not nothing. The Canucks management change was not, in the parlance of the stock trade, a “dead cat bounce.”
In those four games, the snakebit Brock Boeser scored three times. Elias Pettersson got his first at even strength. Even the much-maligned Juho Lammikko got his first of the season. A weak defence corps – let’s not lie to each other – missing veterans Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Travis Hamonic held together for three of those wins.
This team is just playing better. A lot of their success can be laid at the feet of Thatcher Demko, certainly. But he didn’t arrive when Boudreau appeared. And even if the two shootouts went the other way, or were even outright losses without the charity points, the Canucks are still playing better. Winning cures many woes, but there’s a bit more at work here.
It’s been hard to miss for anyone living in the province, never mind in the NHL as a job. A shakeup was coming. The brief hope that the “2020 Bubble Team” gave rise to was dashed first in the offseason, then in the year itself. Carrying on with a team that was operating further and further away from reality is hard. It’s like working in a store that’s bankrupt but the owner refuses to say so out loud. Hint – that doesn’t help. Everyone working there knows it’s closing and they’re losing their jobs. Just a matter of when.
But now?
The Future… And Beyond!
Okay, before we get too carried away, this is the same team that started the season. No major – or even minor – changes have happened to the personnel on the ice yet. Do they need to be made? Sure, but that’s going to depend on what the target is. The contract signed by Jim Rutherford is brief – just three years – so for a team plagued by short-sightedness, that might not be the best sign.
“We brought him here to Vancouver to win our first cup.” – Francesco Aquilini on Jim Rutherford #Canucks @Sportsnet650
— Brendan Batchelor (@BatchHockey) December 13, 2021
The Canucks are fun to watch again, the team is winning, and the fans are irritating the coach in the best way. And all this with the added frisson of an interim general manager legendary for his aggressive and extensive trading history. There’s obviously lots to be done, but there are major pieces already in place. In the very short term, the Vancouver Canucks management change has worked.
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