Willie Desjardins – Page 5

Vancouver Canucks management end of season farewell (P) — Vancouver Canucks management, (l-r) Coach Willie Desjardins, President, Trevor Linden, and General Manager, Jim Benning. (Jenelle Schneider/PNG staff photo)

by Derek Jory Canucks Writer

It’s go time.

The Vancouver Canucks officially opened training camp Thursday morning at Rogers Arena with 60 players running the gauntlet through physical and mental testing, getting headshots and of course meeting the media.

Coach Willie Desjardins and general manager Jim Benning spoke with the media to kick off the day and both expressed excitement towards the upcoming season. Desjardins was asked, frankly, if it’s reasonable to expect a straight-shot back to the playoffs after missing the post-season a year ago.

Desjardins is cautiously optimistic and knows there’s work to be done.

“We have to get at least 15 more points, but I feel our group is ready to challenge,” said Desjardins.

“It was a tough year last year for lots of guys, who are really determined to take a step in the right direction. We don’t know where Baertschi, Horvat, Virtanen and all those young guys are going to be, but they’ve trained hard this summer and with all that, it’s a realistic expectations we’re going to fight for a playoff spot.”

The Canucks training camp roster is actually set at 66 players, but because of commitments to the World Cup of Hockey, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Loui Eriksson, Jacob Markstrom, Luca Sbisa and Jannik Hansenwill be noticeably absent. This, to Desjardins, opens things up for younger players to step up and get noticed.

“We have more depth at every position and I feel we’re stronger at every position,” said Desjardins.

“In camp, when you have that number, the young guys get a chance and they get more NHL experience, which is great. A lot of our older guys don’t need the exhibition games because they know the league, so the number allows for lots of challenge for spots.”

Benning reported that as of Thursday morning there were no player injuries to announce, meaning the team goes into camp with a healthy roster. That, and the addition of new players, has Benning eager to drop the puck.

“I realize we have a lot to prove to ourselves, to each other and to our fans,” said Benning, “but I am real excited about getting started here. We’ve added more depth to our group and adding Loui Eriksson, who I feel is a good player, a healthy Brandon Sutter, adding Erik Gudbranson; we’ve added some leadership in that room to help our young players along, so I’m real excited.”

The team hits the road for Whistler Thursday, with on-ice sessions beginning Friday at Meadow Park Sports Centre. All sessions are open to the public.

THIS AND THAT – Thanks to Canucks media relations coordinator Alfred De Vera for the following notes, provided to media ahead of training camp.

FRESH FACES – 24 players will be embarking on their first training camp in a Canucks uniform. This includes a number of notable prospects including Thatcher Demko and Olli Juolevi, as well as newly acquired players Erik Gudbranson and Philip Larsen.

BY THE NUMBERS – This is the first Vancouver Canucks Training Camp for 36% of the players in attendance. The average age at camp is 23, the average height is 6-1 and the average weight is 193 lbs.

CAREER-YEARS – 2015.16 saw career-highs for a number of returning players including Bo Horvat(goals (16), assists (24), points (40), games played (82) power play goals (4), power play points (12), game-winning goals (4), OT goals (1) and shots (155)), Sven Baertschi (goals (15), assists (13), points (28), power play goals (2), power play points (7), game-winning goals (1) and shots on goal (107)), Alex Biega (games played (49) and assists (6)), Emerson Etem (points (15) and tying a career-high in goals (7)), Jacob Markstrom (games played (33), starts (30), wins (13), shots against (988), saves (904), and minutes (1,848)) and Jannik Hansen (goals (22) and game-winning goals (5)).

TRIPLETS – Through two World Cup of Hockey games, the top line of Loui Eriksson and Henrik Sedin andDaniel Sedin have combined for four points (2-2-4). Signed to a six year, $36 million contract on July 1st, Loui Eriksson begins his first season in a Canucks uniform. Last season with the Bruins, the standout Swede finished second on the team in scoring and reached the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career.

CAN-NEV – Chris Tanev was one of two Canucks players to represent Canada at the 2016 IIHF World Championships. Tanev notched an assist and finished with a +8 rating to help Canada capture gold at the tournament. Fellow teammate Ben Hutton also represented Canada, registering an assist and a +3 rating in five games.

READY-SET-HUT – Ben Hutton embarks on his second Canucks training camp. He led all Canucks defencemen in scoring in his debut NHL season in 2015.16, notching 25 points (11-24-25). He also ranked sixth among NHL rookies in ice time (19:52 TOI/GP) and tied for seventh in rookie assists (24).

TROPHIES – Several newcomers to the Canucks training camp roster captured awards in their respective Leagues last season. This includes Anton Rodin (SHL MVP), Michael Chaput (Calder Cup Champion) Philip Larsen (KHL All-Star), Troy Stecher (NCAA Champion) and Thatcher Demko (Mike Richter Award). In addition to World Championship gold won by Chris Tanev and Ben Hutton, awards were also added to the trophy cases of Daniel Sedin (NHL All-Star) and Henrik Sedin (King Clancy Trophy) in 2015.16.

TRACING THE ROOTS – Before entering professional hockey, players on the Canucks roster took a number of different routes to get to the pro leagues. The league that most players played for before entering professional hockey was the WHL with 19. It was followed by College Hockey (14), the OHL (11) and the QMJHL (11). There were also a number of players that played overseas, including Sweden (7), Finland (3) and Russia (1).

Source: Canucks training camp opens

Vancouver Canucks’ head coach Willie Desjardins admitted his players’ passion dropped with every loss last season. This year, he believes the team is better equipped to compete. DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

By Iain MacIntyre

September 21, 2016

The coach on everyone’s first-to-be-fired list this season is on his way to Whistler this afternoon for training camp. Willie Desjardins will recognize the road — all twists and dips and blind corners.

The Vancouver Canucks were careful never to say the R-word last season when they crashed like a meteor over the final 2½ months and finished with their worst National Hockey League record since the 1990s. But the obviousness of their rebuild and prioritization of player development was confirmed when Desjardins, in an exclusive interview Tuesday, identified the difference between last season and this one.

Winning, he said, is like a straight road. Even if the playoffs are over the horizon, you know the destination is straight ahead and, singularly focused, you do everything you can to travel there. But Desjardins said player development is a blind road full of curves, where you don’t always know where you are going. And wondering where you’re heading makes a lot of people question the journey.

Player development is the Sea to Sky Highway. A winning vision is a road on the Prairies that aims straight to the horizon. Desjardins, a coach who grew up in Climax, Sask., and had never missed the playoffs at any level in North America, knows a straight line simplifies everything. And that is the difference for the Canucks this season.

“That’s the biggest thing, the number 1 thing,” Desjardins said on the eve of training camp. “For everybody, not just the players. The road is a clear road.

“The stage our team is in … it’s a touchy subject. Whenever you get into that discussion between development and winning, those are such polarizing subjects for everybody. I think the key to winning is having a vision and having a straight line. Knowing exactly where you want to go, it’s much easier to get there for everybody. It’s when (the line) goes back and forth, that’s where you can lose your way a little bit.”

Desjardins said he thought his players’ passion waned late last season as losses mounted. But after exit interviews with players, he realized it was the vision that had been the problem.

Too many players just couldn’t see where the organization was going.

The lineup included two 19-year-olds — neither was ready to play a full season in the NHL — and one of them seemed to lose every key faceoff he was sent out to take.

Rookie defenceman Ben Hutton logged top-four minutes, second-year centre Bo Horvat was sacrificed in matchups against the best centres in the NHL, untried goalie Jacob Markstrom played every second game down the stretch, when the defence included a mysterious Russian giant named Nikita Tryamkin, and nine different Canucks played their first NHL games.

So if you’re a veteran player and see all that, where would you think your team was going?

“Last year, there were times people wondered: Why is this line starting in the offensive zone?” Desjardins said. “Maybe some guys are going: ‘This guy hasn’t won a draw and you’re putting him out there again?’ But you have to develop. We had to go through that year where we made development (a priority).

“If you look at a guy like Sven Baertschi, if our total focus is just on (winning) and he’s struggling, he probably doesn’t get to play and we lose him. We lose him. I truthfully think, in a strange sense, we had a good year for getting where we need to be. The ice time Tryamkin got at the end of the year, Horvat having to go against all the big guys, Baertschi getting to play, Hutton making the team, Jake (Virtanen) staying with the team, Markstrom getting to play down the stretch. There’s no part of me that thinks losing is good, but we got some things done that we needed to last year.

“This year, it’s a different story. Our road is way straighter, way straighter. Our vision now is in a line and all the players, all of us, are accountable to that vision. As much as people thought last year was a wasted year, there were a lot of good things that came out of that. Now we have put those good things in place this year.”

With the recovery from serious injuries of top defenceman Alex Edler and key centre Brandon Sutter, the additions of first-line winger Loui Eriksson and rugged, second-pairing blue-liner Erik Gudbranson, competition at the bottom of the lineup and that season of development for the Canucks’ young players, Desjardins said the team is equipped to take a straight shot back to the playoffs.

He also knows that many of you are guffawing at what you just read.

The Canucks will need to be at least 18-20 points better to return to the Stanley Cup tournament.

More people will pick the Canucks to fire their coach than make the playoffs.

“I really don’t listen to what’s going on,” he said of his overheated market. “What would that do for me? It wouldn’t do anything. I’m really confident with our group. I’m really confident in myself as a coach. I know what we did right my first year and I know, in my mind, where things went wrong last year. I’m excited about where we’re going this year.

“All those young guys are ready to get better. Every one of them is ready to push. And we’ve got way more depth. Every night will be that way. And that just changes your whole lineup. It changes everything. I have to make sure the guys understand what we’re doing and where we’re going.”

Full speed, just following the hood ornament straight ahead.

Source: Iain MacIntyre: Desjardins’ road map straight to the point — playoffs or bust | Vancouver Sun