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Alain Vigneault: Good or Bad?

The Vancouver Canucks’ Henrik Sedin was the highest scoring player in the NHL this season, and the only reason his clone, Daniel, wasn’t up there with him is because he was injured for 18 games.  How ridiculous is it, then, that the pair did not lead the forwards in ice time in game 6 against Chicago?

There is a term known as “over-coaching”.  Sometimes a coach needs to simply put his players out on the ice and let them play and not worry so much about matchups.

Jason Botchford wrote an article in Sunday’s Vancouver Province, which included these thoughts from Daniel Sedin: “I think line-matching is, well, let me put it this way: I think we played our best hockey on the road. It’s tough to line-match on the road. That’s all I can say.”

That’s all he can say because he won’t say anything against his coach.  But I can. Here’s the message behind Danny’s words: he was furious that he and his brother, the Canucks’ top line, were so often sitting on the bench because Coach V didn’t want them playing against Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.  He adds that when the matchup option was taken away from the coaches on the road, the team was better off.

Strong words from the usually vanilla Swede, really, and they shouldn’t be ignored.

That’s Not All

One of the Canucks’ many nightmares during game 6 was the lack of healthy defensemen.  Before the game, Lawrence Nycholat took the pregame skate, and Vigneault had the option of dressing 7 defensemen.  Instead of erring on the side of caution, the coach decided to go with the 5 and a half defensemen he had – with Sami Salo only just making it back from his groin injury.

Salo’s skating made Andrew Alberts look like the Road Runner, and once Edler went down with his ankle injury, it was only a matter of time until the Chicago’s scorers took advantage.

Nycholat would’ve made all the difference for the Canucks and Vigneault’s decision not to dress him was a costly blunder.

Power Play Problems

Throughout the playoffs, special teams were not Achilles heels, they were more like two useless legs the team couldn’t stand on.  One decision that never made sense was the persistence of the coach to keep Steve Bernier on the powerplay.  All season long, Bernier received power play minutes over the likes of Alex Burrows, Mason Raymond, and often Kyle Wellwood.

The logic behind it was to have a big body in front of the net, I suppose, but putting the guy with the worst hands on the team in front of the net?  Bad move.

Teaching a Lesson

During a game against the Colorado Avalanche on March 9, Mason Raymond threw the puck up the middle of the ice in the 2nd period resulting in a giveaway that cost the Canucks a goal.  Vigneault benched Raymond for the rest of the game, to send a message.

Raymond is 24 years old and has been playing hockey for a long time.  Surely, as soon as he realized what he’d done, he felt like crap. Having a goal scored because of it taught him lesson enough.  Did Coach V really need to staple him to the bench to make his point?  Not only is it an unnecessary lesson, with no value, I would add that it’s a detrimental move.  Everyone on the team knows that Raymond plays hard and he made a mistake, so not only are you alienating him, you are creating a negative atmosphere with every player who disagrees.

But He’s a Jack Adams Award Winner!

Vigneault won the Jack Adams trophy for coach of the year in 2007, but it was really due to Roberto Luongo, who had an outstanding year and was nominated for both the Hart and Vezina trophies.

In his first trip to the playoffs with the Canucks – 2007 – the team did well getting to the second round, but again, it was on the back of strong goaltending.  In his next two attempts, the Canucks underachieved, losing to the Blackhawks both times.

It could be worse – he’s no enemy of the players like John Tortorella or Andy Murray.  Unfortunately he’s definitely no Mike Babcock.

At the end of the day, the players win games.  Vigneault is average, but the team can make up for it.  Don’t be surprised to see some new assistant coaches hired for next season, though, as the special teams are on life support at the moment.