Today in Canuck-related news:
Former coach Alain Vigneault will do his best to avoid sacrificing a comfortable 3-2 series lead when the Rangers face the Flyers in Game 7. The series has been back-and-forth all the way through, so it's perfectly possible that the pendulum will swing back the Rangers' way tonight.
If it doesn't, I'd expect an outcry in New York. Remember, Torts was fired last year after a second-round loss to the Bruins. The year before, the Rangers made it to the conference final. I don't think Rangers fans would take kindly to a first-round defeat.
If you're looking for an ex-Canucks coach who's having success, look to—Iron Mike.
Coach Keenan just became the first ever to win the Stanley Cup and the KHL's Gagarin Cup after guiding Metallurg Magnitogorsk to the league championship in his first season.
Iron Mike is a champion again. KHL http://t.co/fvGjWG3kaX
— Daren Millard (@darenmillard) April 30, 2014He's on a two-year deal, but I wonder if the championship will earn him a look from an NHL team?
I think it's safe to say he won't be coming back to Vancouver when Mr. Linden is the man in charge—not after Keenan traded Linden out of Vancouver back in 1998.
The Latest on Linden:
Speaking of Linden, while I was digging out that piece on Keenan I found this new interview with the President from Luke Fox over at Sportsnet.
Not a lot of new information, although Fox's angle is that Trevor's bike-racing endeavours show that he has the internal strength to push himself through tough situations. Other than that, he's still saying he's open to just about anything—including the possibility of trading up in the draft:
"In this particular draft, [the Barrie Colts’ Aaron] Ekblad looks like he’ll be a top pick—one, two, three—and he’s the only real defenceman. It’s kind of all forwards from there on down. It would appear we’re going to take a forward, but it’s hard to say at this point,… he said, not ruling out a trade up to the top five. “We’d be open to looking at any situation.…
There's one topic where he's pretty clear: he seems to like the idea of adding Pat Quinn to his front-office team:
Pat’s someone who’s been a real mentor to me, someone who’s been important to my development as a person and as a player. That’s certainly a possibility.
Did anyone catch Linden on QM-FM this morning?
#Canucks prez @trevor_linden joined @QMFM this morn. Hopes to make some 'announcements' soon. #hurryupalready
— Karen Thomson (@KJT1040) April 30, 2014When Linden says the GM interviewing process will commence shortly, I don't think we should expect any announcements too soon. It also sounds to me, as we've been assuming, that he'll get the GM in place before any decisions are made about Torts.
Game 7 Predictions:
Looking back at my first-round predictions from the beginning of the playoffs, perhaps I was a little overoptimistic about the Red Wings and Lightning.
The two series that I pegged to go to seven games were Kings/Sharks and Wild/Avalanche, though this certainly isn't how I saw the journey unfolding in California. I took the Sharks and the Wild—but I was betting on Bryzgalov—so we'll see what happens tonight. My heart wants Colorado to win now because they're so much more entertaining.
I took the Rangers in six over the Flyers, so I'll be cheering for AV's crew tonight.
Thanks to our visitors from LA for weighing in yesterday on the Kings/Sharks Game 6 and, in particular, Jonathan Quick's outburst. Good insight—it was tough to see what actually happened between Quick and Thornton in the scrum. I just knew that Thornton came out disheveled, with his helmet off, while Quick was still wearing all his gear.
I just wrote a retrospective piece on Game 7s for Bleacher Report, looking back at the 10 first-round series that went to the wire over the past three years. Sorry Torts—if we don't have postseason hockey of our own in 2014, I have no choice but to live in 2011.
Click here if you'd like to take a trip down memory lane.