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We don’t need someone to crack the whip: Bieksa

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It’s always been about the room.

There’s the Mind Room, the Star-Trek like locker-room and the room they turned into a posh players’ lounge complete with chef service.

The Vancouver Canucks often reference the room — that place where they take refuge from the coaching staff and media to hold each other accountable — and the veterans who set that performance bar are left alone by Alain Vigneault. It created urgency from within and also a comfort zone.

How the successor to Vigneault sells the buy-in will be more important than finding that third-line centre or improving a pitiful power play.

Being swept aside in the playoffs should provide all the incentive, but the Canucks said the same thing a year ago when they bowed out of the postseason in five games. They believed in the core. They believed in the coaches. The refrain echoed again after the San Jose Sharks series, and you wonder if the new coach may have to...

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Vigneault: the Good and the Bad

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Alain Vigneault went from humorous podium addresses to solemn deliveries, where little was revealed by a head coach from whom much was expected during his seven-year reign with the Vancouver Canucks.

There was much to celebrate in back-to-back Presidents’ trophies as the regular season elite, a Jack Adams Award for his work behind the bench, surpassing Marc Crawford for most franchise victories and coming within a win of a Stanley Cup triumph.

But they all ring a little hollow now.

Vigneault, Rick Bowness and Newell Brown have been fired because the Canucks had become stale, predictable and vulnerable when it mattered most. They went 1-8 the past two playoff series, and have won just two of their last 14 postseason games, managing but 20 goals in that run of futility.

That 2011 Cup run now seems like a mirage.

As we bid adieu to Alain, here’s a look back at a coach who was seldom warm and fuzzy but wasn’t a tyrant...

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Kuzma: Canucks couldn’t score and coach pays the price

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Asked to appoint the 17th head coach in franchise history, Alex Burrows hesitated like a Daniel Sedin release.

The Vancouver Canucks winger briefly paused before following through with a suggestion of what the successor to Alain Vigneault would need to bring behind the bench.

“I don’t know — it’s tough to say,” Burrows initially said Wednesday. “A guy who has been around and knows the league and knows the teams in the Western Conference and can prepare us the right way. I thought we were well prepared and he (Vigneault) wasn’t the one going on the ice and making plays. There was only so much he could do and I’m not sure what he could have done better.

“We always knew what the other team was going to do and what we needed to do to beat them. Sometimes, we just didn’t put it on the ice like we should have.”

Sometimes? The reason Vigneault, associate coach Rick Bowness and assistant Newell...

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Like an approaching storm, you could see firing clouds building around Vigneault

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Like the expiration date on a milk carton, there is a best-before date on most NHL coaches, unless you’re Barry Trotz. Five years is often considered a good run before things can turn sour. Seven is often a stretch and a first-round playoff sweep left enough of a bad taste with ownership and management to cost Alain Vigneault his job Wednesday as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

Also jettisoned were long-time associate coach confidant Rick Bowness and assistant Newell Brown, largely responsible for an ineffective power play that was ranked 22nd. It was first in 2010-11. In the end, the Canucks couldn’t score and their 19th-ranked offence was hampered by the 25th-rated face-off percentage and it was no better against the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference quarterfinal series. The Canucks were second last in playoff draws and scored but eight goals in the sweep. That’s two wins in the last 14 playoff games and just 20...

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Rivermen won’t play in Peoria, so Canucks’ new AHL farm team likely to land in Utica, N.Y.

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It’s not a front-burner issue for the Vancouver Canucks — not with the uncertain fate of the coaching staff after the NHL club was swept in first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs — but that back-burner issue of relocating the franchise’s new AHL club is heating up.

A source has indicated Utica, N.Y., is the front-runner to be named home to the Peoria Rivermen, who were purchased by the Canucks from the St. Louis Blues on April 18.

Canucks general manager Mike Gillis had explored keeping the club in Peoria, Ill., but the city was seeking an agreement that would allow the money-losing club ($400,000 US last season) to operate at a break-even budget.

Another option was striking a territorial arrangement with the Abbotsford Heat to operate a league rival at Rogers Arena — a tough sell to the Fraser Valley Sports and Entertainment Group and AHL — but Utica was always somewhere on the radar.

The...

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Burrows: Canucks’ inability to ‘close games out is … frustrating, embarrassing’

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Humility, affordability and loyalty best describe the past four seasons for Alex Burrows. Reality may best describe the next four.

The Vancouver Canucks right winger has a four-year, $18 million US contract extension that kicks in next season and includes a no-trade clause. It's a palatable $4.5 million annual salary cap hit and the yearly payout of $6 million, $5 million, $4 million and $3 million rewards slogging through a previous deal that made Burrows one of the best NHL bargains at $2 million annually.

However, nobody understands the deep unrest sparked by being swept in the Western Conference quarterfinal series more than Burrows. He knows one postseason victory the last two springs has put the entire organization under the microscope and that the coaching staff may be gutted. Core players may be moved as general manager Mike Gillis attempts to re-set the organization under the constraints of a reduced $64.3 million salary cap ceiling that the club has already...

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Sharks 4 Canucks 3 OT: San Jose sweeps, season over for Vancouver

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SAN JOSE — It was about winning any way to play another day.

Backed by the superlative goaltending of Cory Schneider and third-period goals by Alex Burrows and Alex Edler, the Vancouver Canucks appeared ready to take a bold step away from the playoff ledge that wouldn't plunge them into an early offseason of criticism and change.

A victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday — the first in the Western Conference quarterfinal series and the first this season — was less than five minutes away when elements that have defined the matchup came into play. Kevin Bieksa took a cross-checking penalty, the vaunted Sharks power play went to work and Joe Pavelski's backhander atthe side of the net, his fifth goal of the series, forced overtime.

The issue was finally settled when Patrick Marleau scored on the power play at 13:18 to provide the 4-3 decision with Daniel Sedin sent off for boarding on what appeared to be a...

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Canucks Game Day: Burrows believes taking risks off rush will extend series

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SAN JOSE — It’s not you, it’s me. Or maybe it’s you and me.

They have met and talked it out among themselves. They heard how Roberto Luongo strongly suggested the level of personal sacrifice required to play beyond tonight,  but they will be backstopped by Cory Schneider. And instead of Kevin Bieksa playing the predictable playoff blame game Monday by accusing the San Jose Sharks of embellishment to draw penalties in an attempt to shift the focus, the Vancouver Canucks must draw upon a collective resolve.

They must find a way to score more than one or two goals if they expect to avoid being swept in their Western Conference quarterfinal series. And whatever their identity is, or was, they should take it to the Sharks instead of putting such an emphasis on defence. Take a chance. Blow the zone. Hang on to pucks and gain the offensive zone instead of the lame dump-and-chase game. Get to Antti Niemi....

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Canucks: Bieksa calls out Sharks for embellishment tricks

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SAN JOSE, Calif. — It was a masterful performance by Kevin Bieksa.

With the Canucks struggling to win faceoffs and struggling to score and on the brink of being swept in their Western Conference quarterfinal series, the defenceman switched the talking point on Monday.

The manner in which the San Jose Sharks are using embellishment to draw penalties and fuel a potent power play that has struck four times was the basis of Bieksa’s beautifully timed delivery.

And if it results in the supposed embellishers being penalized on Tuesday in Game 4 — Bieksa cited Logan Couture and Joe Thornton as the guilty parties in Game 3 — then the Canucks believe it could lead to a Game 4 win.

It was a bold and calculated move by Bieksa because Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows are usually the targets of embellishment angst by the opposition. Now it’s Couture and Thornton in the Canucks’ crosshairs.

“It doesn’t take away the fact that it (embellishment)...

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Sharks 5 Canucks 2: Schneider’s wheels come off, Vancouver on brink of elimination

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SAN JOSE — They yanked the stunned starter and changed defensive pairings, but couldn't change what has crippled the Vancouver Canucks in successive playoff series. They're in a world of hurt because they can't score enough. Not even a friendly bounce off a stanchion and a surprise dribbler bouncing into the net to ease the pain.

In their last eight postseason outings, the Canucks have managed 13 goals and the telling 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday that has put them on the brink of elimination — and another extended summer of navel-gazing and finger pointing — was further proof that their 2011 Stanley Cup final run seems like a mirage.

The worst part of being down 3-0 in the Western Conference quarterfinal series — and knowing just three NHL teams have clawed back from that hole to win a playoff series — is the wounds have been self-inflicted.

The Canucks had a 4-on-3 power play in the...

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Kuzma: Retired Shark Owen Nolan still showing the way in San Jose

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SAN  JOSE, Calif. — The thermometer is still hovering around 30 degrees Celsius as the Happy Hour throng — a melting pot of diverse cultures and interests — escapes the heat and shuffles into a popular San Jose Sharks watering hole on the main drag. It’s minutes to puck drop, but the 16 screens in the main bar and those outside in the back are still tuned in to the A’s because they’re about to blank the Yankees.

A rotund round-ball fan, squeezing into a Larry Bird jersey, is still screaming about how a Celtics rally fell short to be eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Knicks. Another dude in a Bulls hat smirks at the scene, and you’d have a hard time believing this is hockey country or a hockey bar. Even though the Britannia Arms can boast former Sharks star Owen Nolan as one of its co-owners, with patrons greeted by an array of his framed...

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Sharks impose their will, don’t need to win battle of skill

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There's nothing fancy or pretty about playoff hockey.

It's gritty, dirty, ugly and usually more about a battle of will than skill. It's crowded creases and scrums. It's hacks and whacks and finding just enough scoring to live another day. Third-period goals by Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau proved the San Jose Sharks were willing to find a way to claim a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference quarterfinal series opener Wednesday at Rogers Arena.

It was too much like a year ago when the Canucks dropped their series opener 4-2 at home to the Los Angeles Kings. They managed but eight goals in that five-game exit, and have now lost five straight playoff games at home. On Wednesday, their only goal was credited to Kevin Bieksa. It came off a wild scramble in which Raffi Torres tried to sweep the puck back to Antti Niemi and pushed it under him and into the net. But the...

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Ducks 3 Canucks 1: Kind of meaningless, as long as nobody got hurt

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In what could be his final Rogers Arena appearance, Roberto Luongo could have taken another infamous bathroom break during a play stoppage Thursday and allowed Joe Cannata his first NHL minutes.

Keith Ballard could have gone end-to-end as a converted defenceman with the rover executing a spin-a-rama move. And Derek Joslin could have done something to impress in his first outing with the Vancouver Canucks to make the excitement meter budge a bit through 40 listless minutes. 

Just as long as nobody got hurt with the Stanley Cup playoffs on the horizon. The Canucks had already racked up 152 man-games lost to injury and only suffered bruised egos Thursday. In what amounted to the Canucks facing the AHL affiliate Norfolk Admirals, instead of the Anaheim Ducks, the Northwest Division winners dropped a listless 3-1 decision to the Pacific Division champions. Can the playoffs start today?

Once the Canucks changed lines and changed momentum in the third period, a 5-on-3 power-play goal...

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Canucks edge Red Wings 2-1 in shootout after tough battle tinged with playoff ferocity

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At one point, Johan Franzen continually cross-checked countryman Daniel Sedin to the ice Saturday like he was planing a piece of wood. At another point, unlikely combatants Keith Ballard and Justin Abdelkader exchanged punches after another mosh pit in front of Cory Schneider.

The playoffs are still on the horizon but looked they had arrived at Rogers Arena.

On a night when the Vancouver Canucks needed to prove a point to gain a pivotal point and secure a postseason berth, they had to poke, prod and punch their way to a 2-1 shootout victory that placed the Detroit Red Wings in the precarious position of missing the Stanley Cup chase after 21-straight playoff appearances. That's why it seemed like the clubs were locked in a bitter playoff battle. There was angst, aggression and enough questionable officiating to make you wonder if it was time to unveil another conspiracy theory about making sure the Red Wings had every chance to play...

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