Bracing for return of the bench boss

Transcription

1 Bracing for return of the bench boss Jason Botchford The Province February 3, 2014 You can bet team s fiery head coach won t have liked events of the past couple of weeks Looking back, there probably wasn t a worse time this season for the Canucks head coach to get suspended. The team was reeling, injuries were mounting and the Canucks were beginning a six-game stretch in which five were winnable. But the Canucks didn t win five. They won two. And people are left to guess if outcomes would have been different with John Tortorella behind the bench. Could he have got his team to show up for a home game against the lowly Edmonton Oilers? Would he have spurred the Canucks to build on a third-period lead against the Nashville Predators, not blow it? Would Brad Richardson have made the mistakes with three minutes left in Winnipeg that cost his team the game and Vancouver a shot at a point? If, somehow, the Canucks miss the playoffs this season by a point or two, you better believe people will point to their 2-4 run under Mike Sullivan as one of the possible reasons why. If that s the case, it s not on Sullivan. It s on the coach who got himself suspended and it s on the leadership core that has wilted since, allowing it to break them, not bind them. What the short-lived Sullivan era did manage to do is get people to miss Tortorella, and set the stage for the old-school coach to ride in on his white horse Monday in Detroit. Who knows if Tortorella can actually make a difference? Considering that Ryan Stanton, Frankie Corrado and call-up Yann Sauve are slated to be three of Vancouver s six defencemen, because of injuries, his impact probably will be limited. As if things weren t bad enough, Yannick Weber left Friday s first period injured, didn t return and now the Canucks have to turn to Sauve. He s been struggling this year in Utica and it s hard to envision Tortorella playing him more than 10 minutes Monday, putting more pressure on his top players.

2 But what s important right now is that the players believe Tortorella s return can make some sort of difference and, with just four wins in 16 games, they need something, anything, to believe in. Without him, we obviously haven t played near our potential or collected the points we would have liked to. He s been missed, Jannik Hansen said. When you re missing your head coach, it s weird. It s just not the same feel. Part of it is Tortorella s larger-thanlife personality. Six months after being hired, he has become the organization s heart and soul, for better or worse. A big reason why is the way he can fill a room with emotion. It s that, but it s more than that, Hansen said. This is his system. The words that are being carried out are his words, it s just not his voice. It s a little different when it s the assistant coaches who are running it, saying it. We all have a different relationship with the assistant coaches, and it s not the same coming from them. (Tortorella) obviously, has a very big presence. And that will be back. Since his suspension 15 days ago, Tortorella has been allowed no interaction with the players. That first meeting with them Monday could be a paint-peeling rager. Richardson said: I don t think he s going to be too happy. No, there s not a lot to be happy about. Dan Hamhuis ominously said: I m sure he s going to have some things to say. You think? What is likely to have Tortorella fuming the most is the way the defence has collapsed lately. Sure, there have been two massively important injuries to Kevin Bieksa and Chris Tanev. But Jason Garrison, Alex Edler and Hamhuis all had moments where they disintegrated in their own end Friday in Winnipeg. Tortorella needs those players to elevate their games, not crumble because of the pressure. It s been a bit sloppy, Hamhuis said. And we haven t been getting the wins. We need to be better and I m sure he ll let us know. There s stuff to work on, on the ice, and stuff to look at on tape.

3 Tortorella will do everything he can Monday but, while he was away, the problems with his team have gone way past anything a new mindset can help. John Tortorella s frustrating fortnight Wyatt Arndt The Province January 3, 2014 Our bloggers take a tongue-in-cheek look at what the coach may have done during his hiatus As every Canucks fan knows, head coach John Tortorella was issued a 15-day suspension for his conduct during the Canucks-Calgary Flames battle royale that included storming the Flames dressing room between periods and trying to fight Flames head coach Bob Hartley. It was admittedly pretty awesome, but with Tortorella finishing up his 15-day siesta, returning to face the Detroit Red Wings Monday night, we at the Legion of Blog thought we d take a look and see what he (probably) got up to during his vacation. Day 1: Tortorella files suspension appeal. Ignoring the advice of the Canucks legal team, Torts appeal consists of storming the NHL head office like it was the Calgary dressing room. Once that failed, he stood across the street and menacingly punched his fist into his palm for three hours. Day 2: Watched the Canucks take on the Edmonton Oilers from the comfort of his living room. He decided that watching the games from home wasn t so bad and it might be nice to relax for once and actually enjoy a hockey game. That lasted for about five minutes until he stared at the TV really hard and tried to coach the team with his mind. After the win, he gave a post-game press conference to an audience of his dogs, one of whom asked a stupid question, ruining it for the rest of them. Day 3: With no Canucks practice, Tortorella decided to visit the local ice rinks and guest-coach a pee-wee team. He was then removed from the facility by angry parents after making two children healthy scratches for their next game, and assigning a third child to Utica for a conditioning stint. Day4: The Canucks play the Predators in their first home game since Tortorella s suspension began. Although Tortorella is not allowed any contact with the players, interim head coach Mike Sullivan seemed awfully interested in what the fan sitting behind the bench wearing the fake moustache and glasses had to say about defensive zone deployment. Day 5: Feeling the sting of another Canucks loss, Tortorella uses this time to discover the music of Sarah McLachlan. Although he admitted to not knowing who she was before, her dulcet tones were just what he needed to calm down after losing to the middling Predators. Day 6: Utilizing his free time, Tortorella finally gets around to watching The Wolf of Wall Street. Even he is surprised by the number of F-bombs.

4 Day 7: Tortorella participated in the Canucks Royal Rumble, fighting it out with Hartley, Gary Bettman and Paul Devorski. (Watch the epic video at thelegionofblog.com or Google Vancouver Canucks Royal Rumble. There aren t many of them.) Day 8: After watching the Canucks lose to the lowly Oilers, Torts does the only thing he can think of to calm himself down. He calls up David Booth from a disposable cellphone and makes him a healthy scratch for... everything. You stay home and think about what you did! What do you mean I can t scratch you from breathing? Day 9: Feeling a bit lonely after eight straight days of isolation from the team, Torts invites old friend Vaclav Prospal over for dinner. Prospal happily accepts, only to phone and cancel two hours later. Day 10: After witnessing the Canucks blow a two-goal lead to the Blackhawks, Torts decides to watch an episode of The Bachelor to try to settle his anger. This fails miserably, however, as Torts only gets angrier at the lack of grinding in the corners and Juan Pablo s inability to score. Day 11: Convinced the only way to fix the problems the Canucks are facing is to build a time machine to go back into the past to correct previous mistakes, Torts spends the entire day building a working time machine. Sadly, Torts uses the time machine to go back to the Calgary game to get one more shot at Hartley and gets suspended all over again. Day 12: Torts watches the game against the Jets and even he starts to wonder why Jason Garrison isn t on the first-unit power play. I don t get it, he has a really hard shot. He should be out there. Day 13: Torts invites Chris Tanev over to relax at his house while the young defenceman recovers from his injuries. Things get awkward when Torts begins throwing things at Tanev to keep him in shot-blocking shape. Things get really awkward when Torts gets out the nail gun. Day 14: Tortorella invites Kevin Bieksa over to relax at his house while he also recovers from injuries. Bieksa accepts, but then, hours later, Prospal calls Torts up to cancel on Bieksa s behalf. Day 15: Torts has a nice cup of tea. What? Not angry enough? OK, fine, Torts punches a wall in anger. Happy? Check out the Royal Rumble and the rest of the Legion of Blog s creativity at thelegionofblog.com. And follow Arndt and Torts returns to steer struggling squad Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun February 3, 2014

5 Vancouver bench boss hits Hockeytown after watching losses, injuries pile up during his 15- day suspension DETROIT He s back, or at least will be this morning when the Vancouver Canucks gather for their game- day skate at Joe Louis Arena. Head coach John Tortorella completed his 15- day sentence Sunday the National Hockey League offers no time off for good behaviour and returns to a struggling team that says it has missed him. It has been a little bit weird for sure, goalie Eddie Lack said of Tortorella s absence. I think we all know we are a better team when he is here. Hopefully, he is going to help us turn the ship around here. The Canucks were already floundering when Tortorella lost it and attempted to storm the Calgary Flames dressing room following the first period of a Jan. 18 game at Rogers Arena. Two days later, he was slapped with that 15- day suspension, which meant he has missed the last six games. Under assistant Mike Sullivan, who filled in for Tortorella, the Canucks went in those games and carry a three- game losing streak into tonight s game against the Detroit Red Wings. Obviously, his presence is missed, Sullivan said Sunday. The semblance of order will be reestablished and I think his leadership, his passion, his energy certainly I think will help us get this team in the right direction. Lack wasn t the only Canuck player to describe the absence of their head coach as strange. It has been really weird, said winger Chris Higgins. I don t think I have ever had that experience before. Every time you are getting ready to start a game you are expecting him to walk into the room and he s not there. So I think it will be nice to have him back on the bench. It doesn t feel the same without him. Obviously this is a lot different than anything we have ever seen, being without a head coach for this long, added fellow forward Jannik Hansen. It s still his style that we are playing, nothing has changed there, but when you have the assistant coaches running it it s a little different because you have interaction with your assistant coaches on a daily basis and all of a sudden they are in charge of everything. So it s been very strange to be without a head coach for this long. Tortorella hasn t been completely absent during his suspension. He was not allowed any contact with the players, but talked regularly with his assistants, most notably Sullivan, as well as team management.

6 Only at certain times of the day, general manager Mike Gillis said when asked if Tortorella had spent much time at Rogers Arena during his suspension. He was allowed to come to the arena at times when players were not there. Gillis would not comment on whether Tortorella has felt a sense of remorse for putting the team in a situation where it had to play without its head coach for two weeks. I think you have to ask him that, Gillis said. It wouldn t be fair for us to comment on how he is feeling. I think you can ask him that when he comes back on Monday. Gillis did reveal that Tortorella is eager to rejoin the team. I think he is anxious to be back and part of the team, Gillis said. He obviously has been watching as we have struggled here and he wants to get back and get things back to normal. Tortorella returns to a team that is not only struggling, but beat up. The Canucks have been playing without injured forwards Henrik Sedin and Mike Santorelli. Sedin could be back soon, but Santorelli is gone for the season. But it s Vancouver s defence where the injury bug has hit particularly hard. In the past three games, the Canucks have lost Chris Tanev, Kevin Bieksa and Yannick Weber to injury. Andrew Alberts has been out since Dec. 29 with a concussion. The Canucks are clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, but clearly need to start stringing together some wins. The hope is Tortorella s return will help get the Canucks back on track. He s our head coach, he s the voice of our team, said centre Brad Richardson. I think everyone is excited to get him back. Sully and Gully ( fellow assistant Glen Gulutzan) have done a great job but it s always nice to have your head coach. Chances are there won t be any of the warm- and- fuzzy, gee, I missed you guys talk from Tortorella when he meets with players before this morning s skate. He was unhappy with his team s play before the suspension and there s no reason he d be liking it now. The players expect he will be all business. I don t think he s going to be in a great mood, Higgins said. I don t really know what to expect. I don t think anyone has really gone through this before. Everyone is in a bad mood, Richardson said. So I don t think he s going to be too happy.

7 Captain closer to joining coach back on the bench Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun February 3, 2014 DETROIT They get their head coach back today and it seems their captain will soon follow. After three straight days of skating on his own, Henrik Sedin joined his Vancouver Canucks teammates for a full practice Sunday at Joe Louis Arena. It was a positive sign for Sedin, who has missed the last six games with bruised ribs. It was the first full practice, with contact, so obviously that is a big step for him, acting head coach Mike Sullivan said after Sunday s practice. From my first communication with the trainers he seemed to do very well. We ll wait and see, we know he is making progress and getting close and we are hopeful we ll have him soon. Given that tonight s game against the Detroit Red Wings is the first of a back- to- back the Canucks are in Boston Tuesday night it seems unlikely that Sedin will play against the Red Wings. A LEFT- LEANING D: Yann will replace Yannick. The Canucks recalled defenceman Yann Sauve from the Utica Comets on Sunday and he will play tonight against the Red Wings. Sauve s recall was forced by the injury to defenceman Yannick Weber, who went down in the first period of Friday s 4-3 loss in Winnipeg to the Jets. The Canucks described Weber s injury as upper body and Sullivan said he has been sent back to Vancouver for further evaluation. That is not good news for Weber, who was scheduled to head to Sochi to play for Switzerland at the Olympics. Sauve, 23, was Vancouver s second- round pick ( 41st overall) in the 2008 draft. His NHL resumé consists of five games played in In 39 games with the Comets this season, Sauve has no goals, nine assists, 37 penalty minutes and is minus- 16. The guys down there felt he has played a solid two- way game, Sullivan said. We hope he can bring that to our club up here... We are going to need him to make a contribution to help us get out of this. The Canucks defence has been hit with a rash of injuries lately. In the past three games, they have lost Chris Tanev ( thumb), Kevin Bieksa ( foot) and Weber. Andrew Alberts has been out since Dec. 29 with a concussion. Sauve s recall means the Canucks will have five lefthand shots on defence tonight and just one righty ( Frank Corrado).

8 ICE CHIPS: Just like the Canucks, the Red Wings have been missing an offensive leader. Pavel Datsyuk sat out his 13th straight game with an apparent leg injury on Sunday when Detroit lost 6-5 in overtime to the Washington Capitals. Datsyuk is supposed to captain Russia s Olympic team and some are wondering whether he will be able to play... Vancouver centre Brad Richardson missed Sunday s practice. The team described his absence as a maintenance day and he is expected to play against the Red Wings. Fan holds funny cutout of John Tortorella behind Canucks bench Cassandra Negley Sporting News February 1, 2014 John Tortorella may not have physically been at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg when his Canucks took on the Jets, but his presence was sure felt, as shown in the above video. Tortorella is serving a 15-day suspension for his hallway altercation with the Calgary Flames after a game-opening line brawl. He is not allowed to have any contact with the team during the ban. Friday was the last game Tortorella will have to miss. Another loss, another injury for slumping Canucks Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun February 1, 2014 WINNIPEG Another loss, another injury. Such is life for the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks finally made it to Winnipeg on Friday night, becoming the last NHL team to visit the MTS Centre since the Jets returned to the league. The wait wasn t worth it. Devin Setoguchi scored his second of the night at 17: 04 of the third period to give the Jets a 4-3 win over the Canucks, who have now lost 12 of their last 16 games. To make matters worse, for the third straight game the Canucks lost a defenceman to injury. All of them right- hand shots. Yannick Weber was hurt midway through the first period, which meant the Canucks had to finish the game with just five defencemen. Weber joins fellow D- men Kevin Bieksa, Chris Tanev and Andrew Alberts on the sidelines. Interim coach Mike Sullivan, who will hand the reins back to John Tortorella for Monday night s game in Detroit, indicated the Canucks will likely have to recall another defenceman from Utica.

9 My guess is probably, Sullivan said. I am waiting for the update. The question is, who do they call up? Frank Corrado is already here. Yann Sauve and Peter Andersson seem to be the likely candidates, but both are left- hand shots. It is tough when you lose a guy that early in the game and you have to go to five, Sullivan said. It places a burden on everyone, especially a righthanded shot. It is what it is. We have to find ways to fight through this stuff. It seems like it all comes in waves and right now we re a little bit banged up. We have to make sure we control our attitude and make sure we are a resilient group. We have to have a short memory here and we have to fight our way out of it. The only people we can look to for solutions are inside the room. The Canucks did show some fight, coming back from an early 2-0 deficit and then getting a goal from Jason Garrison midway through the third to tie the game 3-3. They looked like they were going to get a point. But Setoguchi s goal, which came after a Brad Richardson turnover in the Winnipeg end, gave the Jets their seventh win in nine games under new coach Paul Maurice. It was frustrating because we fought our way back into the game, said Sullivan, who finished his six- game stint as Tortorella s fill- in with a record of I thought we had all the momentum in the third period and we shoot ourselves in the foot. We take six minutes in penalties in the last eight minutes of the game or whatever and it s hard to maintain the surge that we had. I give our guys credit for fighting back, but we ve got to find a way to win that game. They have got to find a way to win a game, period. The Canucks continue to hold down eighth spot in the Western Conference, but the pack behind them is closing. The Jets, for example, are now just six points back of Vancouver. All this losing seems to be taking its toll on the players. Centre Ryan Kesler, who scored his 19th goal of the season on a nifty backhand early in the second period to tie the game 2-2, said the Canucks simply didn t play well enough to win. You battle back and then you give up goals right away and you give up late goals, Kesler said. We need to figure that out. We played well enough to get a point, we didn t play well enough to get two points. We were resilient tonight. We just need to find a way to win. It s a tough one. Obviously, I don t like to lose. I don t think anyone in here likes to lose. It s getting really old.

10 Eddie Lack got the start in goal for Vancouver in the building where he began his pro career in North America back in He didn t get the storybook finish he was looking for. Or a good start for that matter. Defenceman Zach Bogosian beat him from the left point at 5: 02 of the first on a shot Lack said he should have stopped. Just over a minute later Setoguchi made it 2-0 after a Canuck defensive breakdown. Other than that first goal, Lack played well and made a number of cross- crease saves that helped keep the Canucks in the game. I feel first of all I have got to have the first one there, said Lack, who has now lost seven of his last eight starts. It kind of dove on me a little bit, but it s definitely one I want back. After that I don t really feel like any of us came up to a high standard and I think everyone in here, including myself, has to be better. He ll get no argument. The Canucks were as bad as the stock market in the month of January, finishing with a record of ICE CHIPS: Tortorella made an appearance of sorts Friday. A fan brought a large cardboard cut- out of an angry Tortorella and held it up behind the Vancouver bench... Weber s injury could mean he won t be playing for Switzerland at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Henrik back skating, may practise with team on Saturday Brad Ziemer The Vancouver Sun February 1, 2014 Captain s status for Sochi is uncertain WINNIPEG The Vancouver Canucks hope injured captain Henrik Sedin is back soon and so do officials of Sweden s Olympic team. Sedin has received calls from nervous Olympic brass in his home country who want to know where he is at in his recovery from a rib injury. What they really want to know, of course, is whether they can count on him playing in Sochi at the Winter Olympics. Sedin suggested Friday that playing in Sochi will depend on whether he can get some games in between now and then. We have talked back and forth, Sedin said before the Canucks played the Jets. They want to know what is going on, but that is not going to be a part of my decision on when to go. We ll see how it goes.

11 Asked if he was confident he will be able to play in Sochi, Sedin said: Well, if I can get a few games in and it feels good, but again it s day to day and I have to wait and see what happens. There was some encouraging news Friday. Sedin skated for the second straight day and indicated there was a chance he could practise with the Canucks on Saturday. Sedin is believed to have suffered bruised ribs when he was cross- checked by Phoenix forward Martin Hanzal in a game on Jan. 16. He tried to play two nights later against the Calgary Flames, but had to leave part way through the game. He has missed the last six games, including Friday night s contest against the Winnipeg Jets. It was one of those things where we didn t think it was going to get any worse by trying it and it was just a matter of the pain, he said. But something happened during the game, it got worse and I couldn t get through the pain. But it s gotten better a lot faster than I thought it would. STEPPING ASIDE: Friday night s game was Mike Sullivan s last as acting head coach of the Canucks. Head coach John Tortorella s 15- day suspension ends Sunday and he will be back behind the Canucks bench Monday night in Detroit. It s been a good experience for me, Sullivan said before the game. There is a lot of scrutiny around this team and I think that s a good thing because of the passionate fan base that Vancouver has and passionate media that Vancouver has. There s a whole lot of scrutiny that surrounds this team and that is one of the challenges I think of playing in a market where the fan base and media base is as passionate as they are about their hockey team. Asked if he found dealing with that passionate media difficult, Sullivan said: I wouldn t call it difficult. It is what it is, it s not something I haven t done in the past. I m trying to be an extension of our coaching staff and just a voice for our coaching staff. Sullivan has had plenty of conversations with Tortorella during his suspension and said his boss is anxious to return. Yes, he is and we ll be looking forward to his return, Sullivan said. Obviously, we all take our cues off of him and ( he) has been missed. GET ME SOME GOOSE: Eddie Lack is from Sweden so he knows all about winter. But when Lack began his professional career back in 2010 with the Manitoba Moose in Winnipeg, winter took on a new meaning. He had never been so cold in his life. It s definitely colder here ( than home), Lack said before Friday s game. I remember the first day I was here I bought a Canada Goose jacket. I needed to keep myself warm. The Manitoba capital welcomed Lack back with another bitterly cold day Friday, when the high wasn t much above minus 20 and the wind chill was in the minus 30s. Lack drew laughs when he told a Winnipeg radio reporter he knew from his days with the Moose: I am in the NHL now and have had media training. You re not getting any more scoops

12 from me. Angry? We like Torts when he s angry Jordan Bowman, Wyatt Arndt The Province February 2, 2014 HEro of the MoNtH: John tortorella In a January when the Canucks have struggled and the fans have grown increasingly concerned, it was a bit difficult to find someone to bestow this honour upon but this month we start at the top. (No, not you, Mike Gillis.) When Torts was named Canucks head coach, we were thrilled. Well, thrilled and a little terrified. We didn t want to get yelled at during news conferences, but we felt Torts would give the Canucks that much-needed edge to compete in an increasingly villainous NHL. During The California Road Trip From Hell, the Canucks showed his influence and fans everywhere were left wondering what Canucks team they were watching. Gone was the passive attitude, and in its place was a team that stood up for each other, never backed down and made it rain seven-minute penalties. The Torts culture was in full effect, but even after a 9-1 loss to the Ducks, Mount Tortorella didn t erupt to the media. Then the epic game against the Calgary Flames happened. Tortorella refused to send his star players out to the slaughter, and instead matched Calgary s goon squad with his own. He received a lot of criticism for that decision (and for charging the Flames dressing room), but it was clear to us that Tortorella is a coach who cares deeply about his players. He apologized to them, and made special note to apologize to young Kellan Lain, whose NHL debut lasted two seconds due to Torts decision. Even though he was hit with a 15-day suspension for his antics, that fire and intensity caused a Free Torts movement within Canucks Nation, and it s hard to recall the fans ever backing a coach so much. Alain Vigneault probably would have sent the Sedins on the ice, and sent a strongly worded letter to the Flames locker-room asking them to please stop trying to hurt them. There is nothing heroic about that. VILLAIN of the MoNtH: p.j. stock For those who missed it, during the first intermission in the Flames-Canucks game, P.J. Stock couldn t wait to (in his own words) shishkebab Tortorella for matching Calgary s tough guys with his own tough guys to start the game. (We assume he meant skewer, unless he actually wants to put Torts on a stick surrounded by delicious red pepper and onions.) At times it seemed

13 like he was on the verge of tears as he ranted, so angry was P.J. Stock. It bordered on really awkward, as even Kevin Weekes looked confused as to what was happening. His reaction also seemed a little extreme because P.J. Stock had a career fuelled by fighting. He was the small guy who d never back down from a fight and would go with anybody. In two seasons in the QMJHL he had 818 penalty minutes and was fourth and third in the league in total PIM s during the and seasons, respectively. So from a guy who fans would happily claim would fight anybody any time, it s odd that he finds Torts using a player in that role to start a game so upsetting. It s odd that he finds nothing wrong with the Flames Bob Hartley making the first move, and puts the entire onus on Tortorella. Did P.J. make a prop bet on how many penalty minutes the Canucks would get in the first period? His anger really seemed misplaced, and for that, he gets the Villain of the Month. Did Torts do a bad thing by storming the hallways looking for blood? Of course he did. Should Torts have been reprimanded with such vitriol for line-matching thugs vs. thugs? Most assuredly not. Poor play, timing hinder options Jason Botchford The Province February 2, 2014 Dealing a core asset could be a watershed moment, but trade candidates limited If you re feeling the panic set in when it comes to the Vancouver Canucks, it seems you re not alone. As the team was losing for the 12th time in 16 games (4-9-3) Friday, TSN was reporting every Canuck, save the Sedin twins, was available for barter. That s not a trade block, that s a city block. Nothing says panic quite like We ll trade anyone! Especially for the Canucks current executive. This is a group that has preached, and practised, patience, sometimes to a fault. It s a group that has vowed not to ask players to surrender their no-trade clauses. They ve never traded a core asset, unless you want to include Cory Schneider, and on that they were backed into a corner.

14 To the players, the brass has been generally professional and respectful. To the outside, GM Mike Gillis has been raked for being arrogant, doing his business with a we know more than you delivery. But he always appeared to have a consistent plan which generally included keeping this core together. Let s just say they want to flip the script and give the old plan a 180-treatment trade anyone. Could they pick a worse time? The team is mired in one of its most dire slumps under Gillis s watch. Back in , many of their offensive players had career years. This is the polar opposite. Alex Burrows is having the worst year of his career. The Sedins are struggling in a way they have not for a decade. Jannik Hansen and David Booth are broken. Chris Higgins has been good, and with 15 goals and at $2.5-million he has trade value. But dealing Higgins isn t going to reshape the organization. A Ryan Kesler trade could. But he leads the team in goals and all NHL forwards in minutes played. The Canucks are already thin on NHLcalibre centres. What would they get in a Kesler trade? Another centre? A worse one? The defence is in tatters. Kevin Bieksa, Chris Tanev, Andrew Alberts and now Yannick Weber are all injured. Dan Hamhuis is playing way too many minutes and Jason Garrison looks hurt. If Garrison is not, his contract and play, which went off the rails sometime in December, is becoming one of the Canucks biggest issues. Garrison s contract is still movable. There won t, however, be a big return unless you consider shedding that salary a significant win. Then there is Alex Edler, the best candidate to deal last offseason before his no-trade clause kicked in because then he was young, big, promising, relatively cheap, great on the power play, and offensively gifted. But now? He s in the midst of a down year, on pace for 63 games played and 22 points, which would be his lowest total since he was a rookie. Plus, he s partially responsible for one of the NHL s most disappointing power plays. Trading him now wouldn t exactly be selling high. The Canucks can shop him and his no-trade clause all they want, but they d be wise to remember what happened to the Columbus Blue Jackets when they traded Jeff Carter, an elite player who was experiencing a down stroke, to Los Angeles. Hint: It didn t end well, unless you cheer for the L.A. Kings. Still, I ll take the reports the Canucks are willing to think about dealing their no-trade mob as a watershed moment. There has never been an indication the Canucks would ask players to waive their clauses. Heck, they ve said they wouldn t. But, it seems, that philosophy has changed if it means improving the team.

15 And really, that s how it should be. The Canucks need to do what s right by the organization and if that s asking players to give up something they negotiated, something they probably gave up significant money to get, so be it. The players don t have to say yes. These are things the team should be exploring in the offseason. You know, when the team doesn t look so desperate. Just how deep will the sinkhole go? Jason Botchford The Province February 2, 2014 Woeful January ends with another third-period meltdown as depleted lineup awaits Tortorella s return We have to keep going defensively, but it s frustrating, that s for sure. BRAD RICHARDSON CANUCKS FORWARD WINNIPEG The only relevant, and unanswerable, question after the Canucks were outplayed by the Jets Friday was this: How deep can this sinkhole go? January ended with another loss and another third-period meltdown for Team Crisis. In a month, the Canucks played 15 games and in those 15 games they earned 10 points. Those are lottery team numbers. And, let s face it, the Canucks have been playing like a lottery team. They nearly got chased out of the MTS Centre in Friday s first period, coughing up two early goals. It wasn t so much going down 2-0 that was troublesome, it was seeing the Canucks out-classed in a first period they were out-shot By the Jets. But that s the reality for a Vancouver team which was already undergoing a confidence crisis before a wave of injuries took Kevin Bieksa, Chris Tanev, Mike Santorelli and Henrik Sedin from the lineup. If there is good news, it s that Henrik skated twice late last week, suggesting he s close. And John Tortorella gets to hop on his white horse in Detroit and ride back into the locker-room. Tortorella has been missed, and not just by the media. He has quickly become the emotional lifeblood of the organization. Without him, the Canucks were the equivalent of a laptop without a hard drive. Just about useless. They had their moments Friday, even tied the game 3-3 with a rare Jason Garrison goal in the third. But watching Eddie Lack make fivealarm save after five-alarm save, it felt like it was just a matter of time before the Canucks made the wrong mistake at the wrong time.

16 That happened with 2:56 left when Brad Richardson compounded his own giveaway in the offensive zone by failing to pick up Devin Setoguchi in the offensive zone. Alex Burrows had been called for a delayed penalty and Richardson missed the penalty along with the extra attacking forward. Setoguchi beat a screened Lack and the Jets had their 4-3 win. Meanwhile, the Canucks blew another game late when they had the opportunity to get things to overtime. Everyone is in a bad mood, Richardson said after the game. You can expect Tortorella to be, too. His team has degenerated into so many crises it s hard to keep track. There s the goal-scoring crisis, the power play crisis, the injury crisis and now the defensive crisis. The players keep talking about changing their mindset, but it s ringing hollow. The Canucks had also been vowing to win games 2-1, but their three best defencemen in the lineup, Alex Edler, Dan Hamhuis and Garrison, were turnstiled more than once by the Winnipeg forwards. Their most inexperienced defenceman, Frankie Corrado, was pushed around and physically overmatched at times. Now with Yannick Weber out he left Friday s game in the first period the Canucks will have to add someone new to this blue-line. What are the chances it makes them any better? There was relief from several players that they get their coach back. His suspension never worked into the rallying cry some had hoped. Instead, the team continued to die on the vine. Tortorella s back but he doesn t necessarily represent a quick fix. The Canucks went 2-4 with Mike Sullivan as their acting head coach. They were under Tortorella in the 10 games before his suspension. He can give all the inspiring speeches he s written in his 15 days off, but it s not going to get back Tanev and Bieksa, two of the team s best defencemen. It is tough, a lot of key guys are banged up for us, Richardson said. We have to keep going defensively, but it s frustrating, that s for sure.

17 At least we know what happens to a team that can t score when you start stripping away defencemen. The sinkhole gets deeper.