With the Vancouver Canucks' playoff chances getting slimmer by the day, fans and owners are looking for answers, and once you get past rookie mistakes, player injuries and just simple bad luck, you focus on the coach. Management is having a meeting to discuss what the plan will be for the trade deadline, and whether the team has anything other to offer than Radim Vrbata or Dan Hamhuis, if even that. Could coach Willie Desjardins' future with the team be discussed?
The team has only three wins in 10 games, with five straight home losses. Their power play is rated 24th, and their offence is rated 28th. Their most surprising stat is that they are last in the league in faceoff efficiency, according to The Province's Ben Kuzma.
"Whenever you lose, you're open for criticism, that's just the way it works," said Desjardins. "We have a plan, we know where we're going and we know what we need to do. It's a process. When you're bringing young guys into the lineup every day, you're not going to get the results you want."
The team could do well with a mid-season coaching change, which could revive the players' passion for the game. Assistant coach Glen Gulutzan could lead the way as an interim coach, having had two years experience as the Dallas Stars head coach, Kuzma suggests. Long-term, Utica Comets head coach Travis Green could be brought up in the offseason.
Desjardins' team is rallying behind the current coach, though, expressing that players also do have personal culpability.
"The coach shouldn't have to come in and get you ready for a game," forward Daniel Sedin said. "His worry should be about (tactics). It's up to each and every guy to be mentally ready. When it looks like it did the other night, it's on the players. There's no excuse for that."
"For me, there's no excuse not to be ready. A coach can come in and yell and scream, a player can come in and yell and scream, but it's up to each guy," Sedin continued, according to The Vancouver Sun's Iain MacIntyre. "In the end, if guys are prepared to go out and play their best, they'll go out and play their best. You know there will be games when you're off, but you can at least put your best effort in."
"I don't believe it's ever up to a coach to get individual players ready. If you're not ready to play in this league, somebody else is," veteran Jannik Hansen said.
As the team is in a rebuild, it might be wise to retain Desjardins since Vancouver's playoff chances are so slim, and to avoid paying for the two remaining years on his contract. If he continues down this route, however, a high draft pick isn't such a bad thing for a team focusing on youth.
