Willie Desjardins gave what might have been his best-ever press conference in Vancouver as he said goodbye to the Vancouver Canucks organization and assembled media on Thursday morning.
The stream is still available for viewing on The Province's Facebook page:
As Willie spoke from the heart about his time in Vancouver, it's clear that he's not someone who second-guesses himself or lives with regrets. Just like with his player deployment decisions in games, his life philosophy seems to be "I made the best decision I could at the time, and I'll try to focus on the best parts of whatever came from that decision."
Remember—Willie had an offer on the table from the Pittsburgh Penguins when he decided to come to Vancouver.
There was no mud-slinging. He thanked everybody associated with the Canucks organization and said that he had an excellent relationship with Jim Benning—they never had one fight.
Even with the coaching vacancy now filled in Dallas, word is, at least one team has some interest in Desjardins:
Willie did talk about injuries and player personnel as some of the challenges that doomed the Canucks down the stretch, pointing specifically at that game when both Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter were injured in the 4-2 road win over the Buffalo Sabres on February 12.
That game marked the last time the Canucks were at .500, with a record of 25-25-6. They went 5-18-3 the rest of the way but let's face it—it's not like holding steady and finishing the year at 82 points would have gotten this team into the playoffs. The Florida Panthers finished closest to that number with 81 points and they're 23rd. The Flames and Predators logged 94 points to lock down those two Western Conference wild-card spots.
After the four-game winning streak at the beginning of the season, the Canucks were never better than three games above .500. That happened after the win over Florida on Henr1k's 1,000th point night, on January 20.
At that point, the Canucks' 22-19-6 record would have projected out to 87 points. The Canucks may have flirted with a playoff spot around the midpoint of the season, but even at their best, it's unlikely they would have been able to keep pace with the late-season surges of their rivals.
Though the facts seem to show something else, Willie truly believed that they could have had a chance.
Now, the focus shifts toward the future.
One day after the Dallas Stars snapped up Ken Hitchcock, cross another veteran name off the list of available coaches.
Gerard Gallant's name has been connected with the Las Vegas expansion team since the day he was fired by Florida last fall, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise.
At this point, it looks like Travis Green is the front-runner for the Vancouver job. Elliotte Friedman led with this headline in this week's
30 Thoughts: "Canucks coach criteria good news for Green."
Here's how he laid out the situation:
On the weekend, there were rumours the Canucks would not consider experience as the most important factor when deciding upon a new head coach. It's something Trevor Linden confirmed on Monday. That’s good news for Travis Green. The organization knows one thing: they will lose Green if they don’t hire him. His contract is up and he won’t be returning to AHL Utica.
Friedman went on to mention that Green may have a European coaching option on the table. I'm not sure I'd consider that to be a step up from the AHL?
Green's Utica Comets got hammered 7-2 by Syracuse last night, using up their game in hand on St. John's. With two games left on the schedule, they remain three points behind the IceCaps, the only team they have a chance of catching for the final playoff spot in their division.
Utica is looking at a must-win game at home on Friday, against Hartford. They'll finish off their schedule on the road with another game against Syracuse on Saturday.
A story has surfaced out of Victoria that the Canucks have been in conversation with Dave Lowry, who is currently coaching the Victoria Royals.
Lowry has coached the Royals for the past five seasons. He also coached Jake Virtanen as part of Canada's 2016 entry at the World Junior Championship. As a player, Lowry logged 1,084 games in his NHL career. A left wing, he was drafted by the Canucks in the sixth round in 1983 and played his first three seasons in Vancouver between 1986 and 1988—so he played with Jim Benning for two seasons in Vancouver.
All of Lowry's coaching experience to date has been at the WHL level. It would make sense that the Canucks might be considering him for the job in Utica—which Friedman says is going to be open whether or not Travis Green moves up to the Canucks.
My gut feeling is that Green is the Canucks' top coaching candidate. If the Comets fail to qualify for the postseason, I expect we'll find out pretty quickly whether or not that's actually the case.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»