2018 Management Discussion, Pt. III - Now with Less Trevor and More Mutiny

[mathonwy]

Good title Zombo.

 

[mathonwy]

"Benning said the players were signed to help build a culture that supports incoming prospects, not to try pushing the Canucks towards the playoffs next season."

I actually believe Benning believes this, and it may have some validity to sign one of these type of players (NOT Brandon Prust!), BUT, he is so simplistic and does not see the bigger picture that the long term signings he made, are actually going to be a negative for the team.

Ahh yes. The safe working environment angle. Story checks out.

 

[vancityluongo]

What a twist; without Linden to deflect some of the media, Jim Benning is an unhinged PR disaster!

 

[Melvin]

I'm surprised nobody is reacting to his other quote in that article, where he said if he was looking to compete he would have signed James Neal or David Perron.

 

[mathonwy]

What a twist; without Linden to deflect some of the media, Jim Benning is an unhinged PR disaster!

 

[vancityluongo]

I'm surprised nobody is reacting to his other quote in that article, where he said if he was looking to compete he would have signed James Neal or David Perron.

Wow, didn't see that. But he really did say it.

Jim Benning on Linden’s departure and direction of the team

“We still have cap space,” Benning said. “If we were thinking about making the playoffs next season, we’d have signed James Neal or David Perron or someone like that. But we didn’t.”

Ignoring that Perron wouldn't have come here, Jim really thinks the strategic difference between insulating a team with veterans and "competing" is the $1M more per year Perron got over the same f***ing term as Jay Beagle. JFC, the guy has no understanding of the concept of return on investment.

 

[Cancuks]

Troy Brouwer is about to become a UFA. He's big, got a ton of culture and would be a fine mentor for our mentors this season. Sign him Benning!

 

[Pavel96]

The funny thing is this rebuild hasn't even started. How can the darkest days be over? Do these idiots seriously not know the difference between a team that's rebuilding and a team that's just plain bad?

Yeah. this thread already had me grinning from ear to ear - but after reading that quote I truly laughed out loud. It's quotes like that, that guarantee the darkest days are far from over. How inept can these fools be? It's as if this is a comedy parody or skit, of idiots running a professional sports team. Just when things couldn't get any more zany they find a way to top themselves.

This is becoming almost unbelievable. But that's what I thought of Benning on draft day when I saw him with that ridiculous hair dye job.

I don't even know what to think anymore with respect to this "team" but I am just going to continue to sit back and absolutely enjoy this.

 

[mathonwy]

We should make sure to support our local bloggers.

 

[hookshott]

Troy Brouwer is about to become a UFA. He's big, got a ton of culture and would be a fine mentor for our mentors this season. Sign him Benning!

Plus, I believe he lives in the Lower Mainland. Would have been a possibility, but we had to sign those type of players on July 1st! Patience is not a virtue in Jim's mind, which he why he has not supported a full rebuild.

 

[Hollywood Burrows]

Wow, didn't see that. But he really did say it.

Jim Benning on Linden’s departure and direction of the team


Ignoring that Perron wouldn't have come here, Jim really thinks the strategic difference between insulating a team with veterans and "competing" is the $1M more per year Perron got over the same ****ing term as Jay Beagle. JFC, the guy has no understanding of the concept of return on investment.

Wait a second... so Jim doesn't have "making the playoffs" as a goal this year? Would the owner agree with that?

Lmao at Jim's first day as the head guy. incredible quotes

 

[Pump n Dump]

Wait a second... so Jim doesn't have "making the playoffs" as a goal this year? Would the owner agree with that?

Lmao at Jim's first day as the head guy. incredible quotes

Put it this way, if Benning isn't canned this week, the whole "ownership insists on making the playoffs right away" narrative becomes suspect.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Put it this way, if Benning isn't canned this week, the whole "ownership insists on making the playoffs right away" narrative becomes suspect.

If Benning doesn't get canned the whole "ownership insists on making the playoffs within the next ten years" narrative is suspect. Unless ownership is just plain stupid. That's probable.

 

[Fire Benning]

Wait a second... so Jim doesn't have "making the playoffs" as a goal this year? Would the owner agree with that?

Lmao at Jim's first day as the head guy. incredible quotes

And it's only just getting started. Gonna be entertaining to see Benning handle everything without Linden shielding him.

 

[TruGr1t]

Nice "power play" preamble on your statement on defensemen, Jim. An honest assessment would be that you've broadly failed to acquire any good defensemen, though perhaps the abject failure is more apparent on the offensive side of the puck. The entire organization has some sort of dissociation issue wherein they judge themselves in a vacuum for some reason instead of against the rest of the league.

Thus you get patently stupid statements like the Canucks have "6-8 Grade A prospects." Broadly proven to be absurd if you actually compare the prospect pool to other organizations league-wide as opposed to whatever Alice in Wonderland baseline you've concocted in the Aquilini-driven echo chamber up at Rogers Arena.

I can only assume it's also the reason depth players like Sbisa, Gudbranson, and Sutter are held up to be some sort of cornerstone building block and paid accordingly. What is the scale here? A race to the bottom?

If the organization wants to actually build successfully, or even get a wild card spot, they'll first have to get rid of the delusions of grandeur that mark pretty much every move coming out of the organization ... from the front office to the dressing room. Based on results to date you all suck at your jobs.

 

[Bleach Clean]

From the previous thread:

I am still awaiting an answer to my question. Why is it ok for you to ask poster questions instead of addressing their post when you refuse to answer when another poster asks you a question.

I've answered the questions that are worth something to the conversation. I.e. When you posed "Did Aquilini hold a press conference when Gillis was fired?" I answered and said "Aquilini did have a press conference after Gillis was fired... It was to present the hiring of Linden. They had questions about Gillis' removal at that same presser". That should satisfy this tangent you are attempting to create here.

So you think the majority owner of a multi-million dollar organization should hold a press conference to address a case involving someone like Bob buying something he didn't like and complaining about it in social media (that was the example Bleach Clean/ROE gave).

More relevantly, would you pay little attention to whether the owner of such an organization is actually good at being in front of the mic and answering "tough questions?"

@MarkMM: Appreciate any insight you can provide here. It shouldn't have come to this though.

FAN, you are misrepresenting the question asked of you by conflating the question and Benning's position. Here's what I asked:

Question: Are you or have you ever been an owner of a small/large business? If yes, please present your viewpoint on the following scenario:

1. You sell a widget to customer Bob.
2. Bob uses widget, it breaks.
3. Bob phones your company and gets stonewalled.
4. Bob starts posting bad reviews on google.
5. Bob starts to disparage your business on FB and Instagram.

Somehow, you interpreted this as me asking you to answer this as if you were Aquilini? You had already done this before I posed this question to you. I asked _you_ if _you_ were a small/large business owner, and if yes, then answer the following...

The premise is what you would do as a small/large business owner (mostly small business because we've already established what you would do in a large business re: Aquilini). If you are so inclined, provide your input on small business action with the above scenario. If not, all good too.

 

[PM]

The Jim Benning quotes this season are going to be a real treat. How does Weisbrod avoid ever giving any sort of statement? I can’t think of a more useless AGM than him.

 

[timw33]

The Jim Benning quotes this season are going to be a real treat. How does Weisbrod avoid ever giving any sort of statement? I can’t think of a more useless AGM than him.

In all of the videos that he's in he looks like that person on your work's management team who you literally don't know what they does or what value they adds to the business, yet they're always there sidling up next to the decision maker and ensuring to chime in with a comment with no substance from time to time.

 

[Bleach Clean]

I'm surprised nobody is reacting to his other quote in that article, where he said if he was looking to compete he would have signed James Neal or David Perron.

He did qualify it by saying “someone like that”, but yeah, what Benning thinks it takes to compete has been a joke for 4 years. That quote doesn’t surprise me given that history.

 

[mathonwy]

I'm just waiting for the "I'm here so I won't get fined" comments from Jimbo.

 

[Cloned]

Pardon the intrusion from an outsider, but did Linden actually lose a power struggle to Benning? Not sure what's more alarming; the fact that Linden lost a power struggle to Benning, or that Benning won a power struggle. I hope that was just a rumour.

 

[EpochLink]

With Linden gone, Aquaman and Benning are in the spotlight when disaster strikes.

 

[Kryten]

I'm just waiting for the "I'm here so I won't get fined" comments from Jimbo.

Speaking of fines. Ol Jimbo talking about players under contract already.

 

[MarkMM]

From the previous thread:





I've answered the questions that are worth something to the conversation. I.e. When you posed "Did Aquilini hold a press conference when Gillis was fired?" I answered and said "Aquilini did have a press conference after Gillis was fired... It was to present the hiring of Linden. They had questions about Gillis' removal at that same presser". That should satisfy this tangent you are attempting to create here.





@MarkMM: Appreciate any insight you can provide here. It shouldn't have come to this though.

FAN, you are misrepresenting the question asked of you by conflating the question and Benning's position. Here's what I asked:




Somehow, you interpreted this as me asking you to answer this as if you were Aquilini? You had already done this before I posed this question to you. I asked _you_ if _you_ were a small/large business owner, and if yes, then answer the following...

The premise is what you would do as a small/large business owner (mostly small business because we've already established what you would do in a large business re: Aquilini). If you are so inclined, provide your input on small business action with the above scenario. If not, all good too.

Sure, trying to be brief (and with the caveat that every organization is different, though some principles broadly transfer):

1.) Management sets the high level goal "North Star" that communications is meant to support; like "Generate and sustain Canucks as the preeminent sports/entertainment brand in Metro Vancouver / British Columbia

2.) Identify how they'd measure that (season ticket renewals, number of empty seats on game-days, tonality of media coverage, increasingly possible to use software to identify tone of social media dialogue about the brand, demand for corporate sponsorship, merchandise sales, web hits, social media following, etc)

3.) Identify distinct audiences and the most appropriate messages to suit them and channel to reach them (for key reporters the message would be that management has "the plan" and are methodically building a better team and they get exclusive stories/off the record chats, season ticket-holders the message could be that the Canucks have turned the corner and you don't want to miss these young players develop before your eyes and they get direct-mail/exclusive events, target demographics who are the untapped market such as young professionals the message would be that the Canucks are the social event to be seen at and they get targeted online ads, public at large who could be a casual attender would get the message that the Canucks are proud representatives of the community and even if hockey isn't your thing they deserve your support, so ads on mainstream media advertising the Canucks in the community type things, etc. (More to it with this, but the exact imagery and messaging might be focus-group tested, etc.)

4.) Anything that disrupts any of the aforementioned messaging to targeted audiences would need to be addressed, with a number of potential strategies; you could hope it blows over and you just wait it out until something shiny catches the public's attention (why politicians will often drop bad news on a Friday or before the holidays, proverbially known as "take out the trash day", and you drop all bad news at once because then reporters would have to choose which bad story to cover, and with the audience not paying attention. Or you could try to distract them yourselves, known as "changing the channel" where you announce something else either good news, or at least bad news for which you'd rather talk about because it's easier to defend.

Handling bad news is generally referred to as "Issues Management" and you'll notice major politicians (Prime Ministers, Premiers, Ministers) have a full-time person assigned as Director of Issues Management. There's a general playbook used, just Google "Commandments of Crisis Communications" and you'll see a variety of articles broadly similar, or read the book "Masters of Disaster", generally the best example of how to do it would be like how Tylenol handled their contaminated pills, Maple Leaf foods handled their contaminated meats, and the examples of how NOT to do it would be BP and the Gulf oil spill or Toyota and their stuck gas pedals. On the surface the handling of Linden leaving smells a lot like the latter, which also lends one to believe there was a fair bit of animosity given if it was an "amicable" split, one would expect a degree of coordination on how to present the story to the public.

But generally, some guidelines (assuming this isn't something you can change the channel or wait it out, and clearly Linden leaving isn't a one-day story that would be a blip, so you'd need to handle it head on):

1.) Accept full responsibility and be up front and highly visible to the public. It looks like leadership, anything less looks sketchy and reporters will make that a story for the sake of it, even if the underlying story isn't so bad.

2.) Be out early and often with communication. In crises, often you don't have many facts but even tell them that, but make sure YOU are the one telling them. (Notice that after shootings police now hold immediate press conferences even if only to tell the public they don't know much but you can expect to know more in a few hours...) If people know when they're going to get new news they'll generally wait, rather than run off and spout their mouths off and look silly afterwards. But if they don't know if they're going to know more in a day or a week or a month, then they'll get antsy and start digging/making things up and you'll lose control of the narrative which is what's happening in the sports media in Vancouver right now.

3.) Speaking of the narrative, be the first to frame the story. Word was that the Aquilini's were difficult to work with, without giving the media anything else to explain Linden's abrupt leaving, that was (and ended up being) the only thing that became the story, to the chagrin of the Canucks ownership. The narrative after the signings has already turned to the Canucks making the same mistakes (signing older free agents to above market salaries, having a net exodus of draft picks, and still losing, so getting the results of rebuilding without the benefits of it), that, combined with Aquilini's reputation of interference made it inevitable that the story would start to form of the Aquilini's interfering with management leading to poor decisions and Linden doing the honourable thing and leaving. However, if right after Linden left the Canucks quietly dropped a few hints that ownership had could not support recent decisions made under Linden's leadership, it's ambiguous enough that it introduces doubt about how Linden might actually be the problem for whatever people don't like about the team, and a whole new perspective could have formed...like, that the bad decisions were Linden's fault, and THAT'S why management kept interfering, they were trying to be good ownership and let the hockey professionals manage but they couldn't stand by while Linden exercised poor control, up until the breaking point and they decided they'd lost faith in Linden. Of course that would still leave ownership the blame for picking Linden and staying with him for that long, but in crisis comms, it's about picking the LEAST DAMAGING storyline, and it's better that they be seen as having undue faith in a community icon than being fanboys who interfered with professional management (which is what it looks like now).

It just seems that Linden leaving did catch them off guard, because their "message control" just isn't there. Of course there's signs of them fighting back with it looking like they're leaking things to their allies in the media, but it's all smells like a rearguard action, reactionary to an already formed disaster instead of controling the storyline and turning it to their advantage from the beginning.

 

[RandV]

Pardon the intrusion from an outsider, but did Linden actually lose a power struggle to Benning? Not sure what's more alarming; the fact that Linden lost a power struggle to Benning, or that Benning won a power struggle. I hope that was just a rumour.

It's not exactly clear right now, but I wouldn't really call it a power struggle considering how incompetent the organization is from the top. It does appear that Linden wanted to take a more patient approach and let kids have roster spots instead of signing vets and was shot down there. But looking at each persons role Linden as President is more of a PR rep who plays the go between from ownership to management, while Benning is in charge of actually managing the team. So the problem here is Linden never really had the power to begin with, you just never really noticed because he'd always just gone along with the same page as Benning.