I'm surprised you don't remember the groundbreaking MindRoom™, a Clockwork Orange style brain reprogramming centre.
Quotes just go to show, from what the players were even willing to tell the media, that Gillis's constant capacity for innovation was at times less than well-received by his own players.
There was also other drama that I guess people need to be reminded of:
Canucks are being sued by an Italian soccer sports psychologist | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
I don't know why you're so against trying new things to get an edge. Do you really think Gillis thought all of these things would have success? Of course not, but there's hardly a reason against trying some of them. Also, this idea, despite the negative connotation you're trying to associate with ripping off someone else's 'Clockwork Orange' 'clever' remark (nevermind that CO's premise was that it was effective, just used in a horrifying manner), does have some roots in science at a bare minimum - the placebo effect.
Now, I honestly believe it was not the best use of time and would argue there were possibly more effective ways of achieving a similar result but that's hindsight and my own biases towards hard sciences. Empirically, there are a lot of people who get a lot of benefit out of spirituality, mindful meditation and the like. We know athletes especially are very, very superstitious people and a significant factor in their performance is confidence - being in the zone. Why not foster things which might help to get them there? Just because some of the tactics didn't work or were less effective than was hoped, does not make the trial pointless. That's the risk of innovation.
Re: 'drama' on the psychologist - who the hell cares? You really think that's a significant distraction to the players that the organization is in a lawsuit? You know what I care more about? The ineptness of Benning where he's fined for tampering
while on radio on Stamkos and Subban. That's a relevant distraction - in fact, it's not just that he's too dumb to realize he was tampering, it was actually an admission on air that he was.
Also, you're making a lot of assumptions on the player's opinions being even more negative than they would admit. I will fully cop that I'm making some similar assertions based on where MacT's state-of-mind is; however, the players still largely bought in. Note too that just because someone has a negative opinion on a matter, doesn't mean it's ineffective. I hate filling out timesheets but recognize the value to my organization. I also crack jokes on those KPI-like forms all the time.
But fine, let's play this idiotic game of cherry picking quotes:
BURNSTEIN When I started with the Canucks in 1995, we became one of the first teams to have a hyperbaric chamber. We always felt like we were trying to get ahead of the curve, seeing what’s out there. Certainly when Mike came in, he brought a different perspective. Teams were starting to look at hiring performance people, mental people, a sports psychologist, a nutritionist, sleep people, motivational speakers — all of these different specialists…. Mike’s philosophy on things was, “We’ve got the horses. Can we get another per cent out of them?”
TAMBELLINI The exciting thing as a player is when you can tell that ownership and management is willing to spend any dollar amount to give our group the edge to have success. They’re bringing in 3D visual training to work hand-eye co-ordination and peripheral vision. You walk into a room, the food that was coming out and the recovery drinks. Whether we won or lost, this was the plan and they were sticking to it. It was so noticeable that this team was all into winning. We’re going to give our players the best opportunity to be fresh every night.
KESLER [There was a machine] that took our heart rate, that tells whether you should practice or not. We would do that every morning. The mechanism to slow down your breathing after games. I bought into everything.
CRAWFORD I worked there a long time — 16 years. I remember being there for group talks about it very early on, Marc (Crawford) and Mike Johnston talking: “We’ve got a younger team, but we have the hardest travel. How are we going to do that?” Mike flipped that. He said, “Listen, we have to maximize the schedule and we have to go to the league to get it done.” Instead of managing the players, they managed the league.
CARLING A couple of the things we did weren’t always popular, but they were done because there was a belief it was the right thing to do. And you can imagine the guy telling his wife after 12 days with the kids at home, “Oh, by the way, we’re not coming home Thursday. We’re going to come home Friday.” But it was done so that the team would be ready for the next game after that.
VIGNEAULT He challenged our comfort zone. He wanted to be proactive in everything. Mike had this idea about bringing in a science expert, like they have in soccer. I really liked the idea, but I thought maybe this should be tested at a lower level before you bring it to us. And, to tell you the truth, [he] was … right. There were some things we tried for a short amount of time and then moved on. But I liked being proactive and looking for any new thing that could help an athlete perform, whether it be physical or mental. To this day, I use a lot of those things I learned in those five years with him.
WILLIAMS I can’t speak for the other teams, but we had three laptop computers in the main lounge where every player’s shifts and all the games were kept. The full line or a defence pair could sit with a computer apiece. They would watch the shifts, discuss what they were doing, what they needed to do better. They did it in groups all the time. Even when we were on the road, we took these computers and put them in the room in the hotel we had for the players. Rod Brathwaite helped me a lot with that. It wasn’t very often they just sat there with nobody looking at them.
KESLER [Gillis] stayed the course the whole time. It took me years being gone to understand how good [he] was. I can’t believe he doesn’t have a job, to be honest.
The best team in Vancouver Canucks history, Part I – Sportsnet
It really speaks volumes to how this fan base is that this period in Canucks history can be dismissed so easily.
But there - is that enough quotes for you? Do I 'win'?
