As far as we know, Trevor Linden is interviewing his general manager candidates this week, and it's "not a long list."
Would someone in Jim Benning's position leave the Bruins in the middle of a heated playoff series to interview for another job? Or will the interviews be conducted by phone/Skype/video conference? I suppose that's possible—and probably a lot easier to execute in terms of keeping things confidential. Do you remember that mob of reporters waiting for Torts at the airport last year when he first came to town?
All is quiet around the team again, so we'll just have to wait and see.
I don't feel like there's too much point in talking about coaching candidates until we get that GM in place, but there's more speculation for this position—presumably because it's a bit more wide open.
From TEAM1040:
Doug MacLean: Barry Trotz and the Canucks have "kicked tires" regarding the Canucks vacant head coaching job
— TEAM Radio (@TEAM1040) May 5, 2014Though Trotz is certainly a smart hockey man, I'm not too keen to see him come here. For starters, his name sounds too much like "Torts" for my liking. Secondly, this is another coach who pushes a defensive style of play. And third, Nashville finally gave up on him because of his inability to develop young forwards. He did well with his defensemen, but could never get the punch happening up front. That's not a situation that Vancouver needs.
I'm not sure MacLean's intel means much in this situation, anyway. Here's a report out of Florida with a bit more meat to it:
Trotz said this week that he is under contract with Preds thru June 30 and doesnt expect to be interviewed til mid may. #flapanthers
— Harvey Fialkov (@hfialkov) May 3, 2014Fialkov says Dale Tallon's not interested in a coach that uses the trap—like Trotz—and reports that the Panthers' list is down to three coaches and includes Peter Laviolette, who's running Team USA at the World Championships—under David Poile, who's also looking for a coach in Nashville. Funnily enough, Tortorella's name does come up in his story, though mostly in passing. Click here to read.
UPDATE: TSN is reporting that Poile has, in fact, hired Laviolette for Nashville. Guess the World Championship lead-up is going well! Click here for that story. Going a bit deeper, Botchford has a quick and dirty look at more options, including some new possibilities that I hadn't considered:
Botchford: The #Canucks coaching candidates Rorschach test http://t.co/a0GP8UZpvO
— Province Sports (@provincesports) May 6, 2014Familiar Scenes for AV:
Watching the Rangers/Penguins series is certainly reminding me that hockey under Alain Vigneault is not actually all goals, all the time. His team hasn't scored for two whole games—against the always-vulnerable Marc-Andre Fleury!
Raphael Diaz brought some fresh energy to the Rangers' lineup last night with seven shots on goal—mostly on the power play. But New York is now on an 0-for-33 streak with the man advantage.
Monday was the Rangers' fifth game in seven nights so sure, they're probably tired, but there's no emotion at all out there. After last night's game finished, I watched the highlights of Game 7 of the Minnesota/Colorado series for a story I was working on: it looked like a completely different sport with all the banging and intensity.
Last night, the Rangers looked a lot like the team that couldn't score for Torts in the second round last season; they also looked a lot like the Canucks team that fell to San Jose last year. Pittsburgh's not usually known for their great defense but they were solid for the second night in a row. I think AV's bunch is in tough now to win this series.
He also seems to have infuriated the New York media by saying the team "played a good game." That drove me crazy when he was here, too. Check out Dave Lozo's take at Bleacher Report. Canucks at World Championships:
Yesterday, I talked about the Canucks that'll be representing Team Canada at the World Championships: Garrison, Bieksa and Burrows. Of course, they're only part of the story. Our other reps are Yannick Weber with Switzerland, Jannik Hansen and Nicklas Jensen with Denmark, and Joacim Ericsson with Sweden.
Garrison has a new blog up, covering the travel to Switzerland with young Vancouverites Sam Reinhart and Morgan Rielly.