RR ee RO RR ar EEN RE PY

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By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

of highs and lows for the Vancouver

Canucks, and no one on the team
exemplifies that like Danish winger, Jannik
Hansen.

Drafted by the club 287" overall in 2004
and now 22, Hansen was a pleasant surprise
after unexpectedly making the team out of
training camp. After playing ten playoff games
with the Canucks two years ago, Hansen was
supposed to be a full-time roster player /ast
season, but was invisible during camp and
spent the year with Vancouver’s AHL affiliate,
the Manitoba Moose. In 50 games on the farm,
Hansen notched just 21 goals and 22 assists in a
campaign where he was supposed to excel. Most
scouts and pundits wrote him off.

However, he sparkled in the pre-season this
year and has managed to stick with the Canucks
in varying capacities pretty much ever since.
Evaluating Hansen, though, is much easier said
than done.

In 41 NHL games so far in this, his rookie
season, at the time of writing, Hansen has posted
19 points—more than some much more highly
touted rookies such as Kyle Turris, Steven
Stamkos and Viktor Tikhonov. However, he has
just five goals in that span. Now, Hansen has
never been known as a scorer. This season, he’s

S o far this season, there has been a number

Jannik Hansen: Boom or bust?

already endured a 24-game goalless drought
along with a separate 11-game goal drought.
Even in the lower levels of the game, Hansen
has had difficulty putting the puck in the net. His
highest totals came back with his WHL junior
club, the Portland Winter Hawks, where he had
24 goals in 64 games. During his time with the
Canucks, Hansen has had ample opportunity to
boost his scoring numbers but hasn’t managed
to capitalize. He’s played on a line with the
Sedins and a different combination with Mats
Sundin and Pavol Demitra, for extended parts

of the season but has done little to justify those
plum positions. While he’ll occasionally have an
outstanding game, more often than not he’ll get
noticed for missing sure-fire empty net goals or
for fumbling the puck in the offensive zone.

While Hansen is much more skilled on the
defensive side of the game than the offensive,
the fact is that in most contests, he’s practically
invisible. He’s a proficient penalty killer, but his
often indifferent or ineffective play has earned
him a two-game demotion to the Moose before
being recalled.

Hansen has the tools to be a solid third line
winger or a borderline second liner in the future,
but at this point, with such wildly swinging play,
it seems hard to call him a success for the team.

 

 

 

 

  

By Garth McLennan
Sports Editor

he Vancouver Canucks are in
: their worst slump in years.
While Roberto Luongo’s
wonky groin has been like a lethal
injection to this team, it’s safe to point
a finger directly at one man: head
coach Alain Vigneault.

Vigneault has coached the
Canucks for almost three years now
and while he did win the Jack Adams
award as the NHL coach of the year
in his inaugural season with the club,
his tenure here can hardly be called a
success.

During his Coach of the Year
season, the Canucks were one of the
surprise teams of the league when
they rode the incredibly strong play of
goaltender Roberto Luongo, and that
can scarcely be attributed to Vigneault.

 

mortal looking goalie in 73 of 82

He refused to play his backup goalie
and when Luongo burned out in the
playoffs after playing 76 regular
season games, the Anaheim Ducks
wiped out Vancouver in the second
round of the playoffs.

Last season, Luongo didn’t take
the hint and played as a much more

 

contests. Vigneault continued to play
his defense-first—a.k.a boring—style
of play, wouldn’t let Markus Naslund
play his game, and Vancouver missed
the playoffs after tanking badly near
the end of the campaign.

When the Canucks, and mainly
Luongo, got hot heading into

IW Vigneault needs to go

November, things were looking up
for Vancouver. And with former
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats
Sundin coming to town, Stanley Cup
visions and comparisons to Detroit
and San Jose were being bandied all
throughout the city.

However, Luongo went down
with a lengthy groin strain and all
the worst parts of Vancouver’s game
came to light. As of January 20",
they have lost seven in a row at
home and gone six straight without
a win. They’d had several truly
horrible outings including brutal 5-3
annihilation to the New Jersey Devils,
an embarrassing 4-1 pasting at the
hands of the Phoenix Coyotes and a
demoralizing 6-5 overtime loss to the
Columbus Blue Jackets in which they
coughed up a two goal lead, allowed
the Jackets to score four unanswered
goals, tied the game with only a few
minutes remaining and then proceeded
to lose in OT. Following that was
the humiliating 2-1 OT drop to the
league-leading San Jose Sharks.
They held a 1-0 lead with just over
a minute remaining in the game
before Vigneault ordered them into
a defensive shell. They were clearly

overwhelmed in the final minutes and
gave up their lead with one minute
left. In OT, despite some desperate
heroics from Luongo, they panicked
repeatedly and, sure enough, lost the
game.

Over this horrible stretch
which has resulted in the Canucks
plummeting in the Western
Conference standings, Sundin hasn’t
looked special, Luongo hasn’t been
great since his return and most serious
of all, Vigneault hasn’t been able to
motivate his players. His frequent line
alterations have irritated his roster and
he doesn’t give his combinations more
than one opportunity if they fail to
produce immediately.

The plain fact is that if Vigneault
can’t get his guys in gear soon,
he’ll find himself on the chopping
block. And with Canadian World
Junior Championship head coach
Pat Quinn sitting without a job and
eager to make a return to the NHL
full-time, it wouldn’t be hard to find
a suitable replacement. Quinn lives in
Vancouver, owns part of the WHL’s
Vancouver Giants and used to both
coach and manage the Canucks.

 

 

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