Vancouver Canucks at Edmonton Oilers - Tuesday January 21 - 6:30 pm - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet West
Vancouver Canuck 25-16-9 59 points fourth in Pacific Division Edmonton Oilers 15-30-6 36 points seventh in Pacific Division
The new era begins. The Vancouver Canucks will embark on their first of six games without coach John Tortorella when they face off against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
Tortorella's suspension was handed down Monday afternoon from the NHL offices. He's off for 15 days, which means he'll return in time for Vancouver's week-long four-game road trip, starting February 3 and leading into the Olympic break. For his part, Bob Hartley was fined $25,000 for his player selection at the beginning of Saturday's contest.
The discipline seems reasonable enough to me—I was so surprised that Torts wasn't kicked out of Saturday's game right after the first intermission. I'd thought the suspension could go all the way to the Olympic break.
Assistants Mike Sullivan and Glen Gulutzan will take the reins, and it sounds like Sully will be the man in charge. He's been Torts' right hand since back in Tampa Bay in 2007-08, while Gulutzan is new to Torts' team this year. Gulutzan had two years of head coaching experience with Dallas from 2011-2013, missing the playoffs each year.
I'd forgotten that Mike Sullivan has also been an NHL head coach. He led the Boston Bruins for two seasons from 2003-2006, with the lockout year sandwiched in between. In 2003-04, Boston finished first in the Northeast Division but lost in seven games in the first round to Montreal. In 2005-06, they failed to make the playoffs, resulting in Sullivan's dismissal. Dave Lewis was brought in for one year before Claude Julien took over in 2007.
I did remember that Mike Sullivan was the Calgary Flame who'd been assigned to shadow Pavel Bure during that memorable first-round playoff series in 1994. Which ties us to another great old Canuck playoff memory....
Roger Neilson and Towel Power
The only other Vancouver Canucks coach ever to be suspended was Harry Neale, who received a 10-game ban in 1982 for punching a fan. Here's the video from that melee:
Here's the cool part: once assistant Roger Neilson took over, the Canucks went undefeated for the rest of the year, then swept the Calgary Flames in their best-of-five first round playoff series. By the time Neale's suspension was over, the Canucks were on a roll, so Neilson stayed behind the bench.
Vancouver beat L.A. 4-1 in the second round, then faced off against the Blackhawks in Round 3. The Canucks won Game 1, but were losing badly in Game 2 and—you guessed it—upset about the officiating. That's when Neilson and players Gerry Minor and Tiger Williams raised the white towels on their sticks as a gesture of surrender. In that moment, Towel Power was born.
The movement started organically. Fans took it upon themselves to bring their towels and wave them ferociously when the Canucks returned to the Pacific Coliseum for Game 3. They won both games at home, then went back to Chicago to finish off the Hawks in five games before ultimately falling to the superstar New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Canuck franchise's very first high-water mark came to pass due to a coach's suspension. Can lightning strike twice?
Game Day:
Edmonton's as good a place as any to start the rebirth. There's bad blood from preseason thanks to Zack Kassian's stick breaking Sam Gagner's jaw, but the Oilers don't have enough tough guys on their roster to come close to replicating what happened against the Flames. Luke Gadzic can't be in five places at once.
Henrik Sedin missed practice yesterday. It's confirmed that he'll miss tonight's game, ending his ironman streak at 679 games. Mike Santorelli will also remain on the shelf, so it's virtually guaranteed that Kellan Lain will get a chance to build on his two-second NHL debut.
Joacim Ericsson was sent back to Utica on Monday. I'd expect Roberto Luongo to start against Edmonton.
Eddie Lack was one engaged backup against Calgary on Saturday night. With all the extra room on the bench, he spent much of the game standing up, leaning over the boards, watching every play. I don't think I've ever seen that before.
Sounds like Lack and Luongo had a nice relaxing evening watching The Bachelor in their hotel in Edmonton last night:
@eddielack channel 12 big guy. just started. come to my room i'll supply the tears
— Strombone (@strombone1) January 21, 2014Or, maybe not so relaxing. Eddie got pretty wound up—and got a reply from Bachelor (and former soccer pro) Juan Pablo himself for his troubles:
JUST KISS HER!
— Eddie Lack (@eddielack) January 21, 2014@eddielack I DID...
— Juan Pablo Galavisâ„¢ (@JuanPaGalavis) January 21, 2014As for something that could galvanize the remaining Oiler faithful, Ben Scrivens will make his Rexall Place debut for the copper and blue against Vancouver. Scrivens got into a bit of a Twitter pickle himself last week, after it was suggested that his Cali-girl wife Jenny would be less-than-impressed by a move to Oil Country.
Click here for a good summary of that situation.
The Oilers just wrapped up a four-game road trip with a 0-3-1 record, finishing off with an overtime loss in Winnipeg. Their last game at Rexall was a good one, though—a 4-3 victory over the Penguins.
I don't think we need another line brawl tonight, but I'd like to see some emotion in the game and, most importantly, see the Canucks pick up another two points!