Sports

Garth McLennan

sports @theotherpress.ca

Why the Canucks missed the playoffs

Garth

McLennan sports editor

Gh so remember a few weeks ago when I said that there was virtually no way that the Vancouver Canucks would miss the NHL playoffs? Well, as it turns out, I might have been a little off base on that one.

For the 16" time in their 38-year existence, the Canucks will be watching the Stanley Cup playoffs from the sidelines. They were mathematically eliminated from contention on April 3% when they lost 2-1 to the already eliminated Edmonton Oilers.

In the most important stretch of the season, the Canucks lost six of seven games to play themselves out of the best time of the year. In order for the Canucks to have qualified, they would have needed to win both their final games and hope the Nashville Predators lost one.

One of the big questions that must

be raised is the future of head coach Alain Vigneault and general manager Dave Nonis. Vigneault continued to play a boring style of play and repeatedly utilized Markus Naslund as a checker, while Nonis failed to upgrade the team in any fashion at the trade deadline.

By the way, for those of you out there who say that getting players at the trade deadline doesn’t help that much, looks at the standings right now. Pittsburgh made the biggest splash by landing sniper Marian Hossa, and they

level players and I’m sorry, but Byron Ritchie, Brad Isbister, Dany Sabourin, Taylor Pyatt and Jeff Cowan haven’t exactly been career definers.

Nonis doled out millions of dollars combined with lengthy terms to Mathias Ohlund, Willie Mitchell, Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa that haven’t exactly paid off for Vancouver so far. The Bieksa deal has potential, and it wasn’t Nonis’ fault that he was hurt this year. However, it was his fault to give Cowan a two-year,

$1.45 million deal. Cowan

are looking like the best ae ‘ P had zero goals this year.

team in the league right ‘Alain Vigneault S Thenthereis Vigneault. ae Fae treetiatht of Trevor Tatoos and made a strong [inden was terrible. today. He plays a boring playoff push. Colorado style of play and seems Anaheim and Dallas He took a gr eatly to be testing how much

all made bold additions to their roster and look where they are, and where we aren’t.

To put it bluntly, Nonis and Vigneault should be canned. Nonis has shown zero courage to improve his roster during his three years at the helm (the Roberto Luongo deal didn’t require courage; any idiot could have made that trade). All of his other moves have been for bottom

respected veteran and ‘ Will take to keep the treated him like a rookie.”

fans away. It is coaches like Vigneault, Jacques Lemaire in Minnesota and Brent Sutter in New Jersey that are driving the game into the crapper.

Vigneault hasn’t been any more successful than Marc Crawford. In his two seasons here, Vigneault’s teams have missed the playoffs once and were kicked out of the playoffs in the second

round by the Ducks. What is more, when Crawford was here, win or lose, the games were entertaining and worth the price of admission. Can you really say that about Vigneault now? Is sending one fore checker into the offensive zone when you’re down a goal exciting?

Vigneault’s treatment of Trevor Linden was terrible. He took a greatly respected veteran and treated him like a rookie. Linden didn’t deserve that. He made Naslund play a type of game that wasn’t anywhere near suited to him and put him with players that didn’t come close to complementing his game. The way he used Naslund was the equivalent of taking a stud race horse and turning him into a mule.

Vigneault and Nonis took everything that made hockey fun in Vancouver and basically tore it apart. It is people like Crawford, Pat Quinn and Tampa Bay’s John Tortorella that the game needs to survive. These are guys who are brave enough to play a style that entertains the fans, not treats them like idiots who will tolerate anything.

While the days of Crawford, the Naslund, Bertuzzi, Morrison line and Ed Jovanovski might be gone, it is times like these that you can’t help but miss them.

Luongo needs to grow up

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

Ma. than any other athlete in the city, superstar goaltender Roberto Luongo, 28, carries the fate of the team he plays for on his shoulders. While that can often be a tremendous burden to bear, it doesn’t give Luongo the right to start treating the media the way he has been.

Ever since the game against the Colorado Avalanche a few weeks back when the Canucks lost 3-2 in overtime, after Joe Sakic scored to knot the game with just seconds remaining in regulation, Luongo has refused to speak to reporters after the morning skate on game days, and will only stay for the minimum required time after the game ends.

The reason for this was what transpired immediately following the Colorado game. A fiery Luongo blasted the players on the ice who failed to get the puck out.

“That should never happen, especially in an important game like that,” Luongo ranted. “We just pissed away two points. We had about six chances to get it out. Either we shot it off our own guys or we didn’t get it out. The next thing you know, a shot from the point and Sakic’s alone on the side. I was able to get the first save, and he chipped it over me for the second one. It’s unacceptable, inexcusable.”

While his teammates said all the right things, none of them pointed out that Luongo couldn’t seem to stop a breakaway or handle a rebound to save his life.

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What happened next was only to be expected. The Vancouver sports media, whose entire being revolves around the Canucks, questioned whether Luongo had gone too far in calling out his teammates. Luongo apparently didn’t like this, and has since acted like one of the NHL’s biggest babies.

He still will not allow media types to talk to him before a game, and his comments after the game can hardly be described as insightful. His answers are almost always shorter than the question being asked, and he always looks like talking to the media is the equivalent to undergoing extensive root canal surgery.

While Luongo was obviously upset over the media’s interpretation of his remarks following the Avalanche game, he really needs to get over it. Think about it. The man makes $6.5 million this year, an amount that will only increase in the coming seasons. For that amount of money, he needs to show a little more respect.

This town loves hockey, and what Luongo, one of the best players Vancouver has ever had, has to say is important to Canucks fans. By snubbing the media he is also snubbing the fans. Also, when you think about it, Luongo gets pretty good treatment here. In Vancouver, it is hard to tell whether Luongo or God gets more worship time. One of the big reasons why Luongo blacking out the media hasn’t been a big story is because of how much the city loves him.

But think about it from a reporter’s point of view. These guys

are all on a deadline, they all have to compete with one another for often just a few lines, and their jobs depend on them getting the goods. Also, think of how inconvenient it is to the reporters there. Because Luongo won’t talk to them before a game, and because his post-game talks are about as interesting as talking to a brick wall, they have to go out of their way and reschedule to be at Canucks practices in order to speak with him.

Compare his behavior with Markus Naslund’s or Trevor Linden’s. Both of those guys are always available to the press, and stay to speak with

everyone that needs a quote. Naslund in particular handles the media with more professionalism than most. Win or lose, good game or bad game, he’s always there, despite the unwarranted heat he’s taken from some of the city’s fair- weather fans lately. Just imagine what Luongo would do if he took the kind of criticism Naslund routinely faces.

For a guy in his position, and considering that the media really didn’t do anything wrong, Roberto Luongo needs to stop acting like an immature child and show some respect, even to the lowly reporters.