VanJack
Registered User
- Jul 11, 2014
- 21,388
- 14,659
Nothing that happened under Boudreau's tenure is the reason they're going home early. For two-thirds of the season the Canucks 'were' a playoff team.
But when you go 8-15-4 in your first 26 games or so, the season is basically 'lost' no matter how well you play the rest of the way. And the guy who wears the goat-horns for this season is clearly the owner.
He aggressively championed Benning as his GM during the off-season, and came up with every excuse in the book as to why the Canucks basically crapped out last season in the Canadian Division.
Then he allowed Jimbo to convince him to re-sign Green as the coach. And then was forced to fire both of them by November.
But every disaster has a silver lining. Aquilini was finally forced to actually listen to the fans--hiring one of NHL's most experienced hockey executives and let him fill out his hockey ops staff with 'hands-off' from the owner.
So this season won't be in vain for the long term as long as the new mandate from ownership actually holds up.
But when you go 8-15-4 in your first 26 games or so, the season is basically 'lost' no matter how well you play the rest of the way. And the guy who wears the goat-horns for this season is clearly the owner.
He aggressively championed Benning as his GM during the off-season, and came up with every excuse in the book as to why the Canucks basically crapped out last season in the Canadian Division.
Then he allowed Jimbo to convince him to re-sign Green as the coach. And then was forced to fire both of them by November.
But every disaster has a silver lining. Aquilini was finally forced to actually listen to the fans--hiring one of NHL's most experienced hockey executives and let him fill out his hockey ops staff with 'hands-off' from the owner.
So this season won't be in vain for the long term as long as the new mandate from ownership actually holds up.