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CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Game Day Post: Predators at Canucks

The worst thing about being on a losing streak is being on one and then having a few days off. It's been three days since the Canucks lost to Detroit - their fifth loss in six home games (Grant Kerr, Globe and Mail) - and of course, all we've been talking about since then is how out-of-sync this team is. Yes they played better in their last couple of games - and I know I'm stating the obvious here - but they still have some issues to address.

One of those issues is the thinking that Alain Vigneault has already lost the room (Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Sun):
For the media, it is always Halloween in Vigneault's press conferences. Ask a direct question and get a treat -- a direct answer.

No tricks, no two-minute soliloquies on winning and losing as a team that make Stephen Harper sound as compelling as the late Dr. Martin Luther King.

More often than not, Vigneault says what he thinks about his players' performance. And, generally, it is something any reasonably astute observer already knows because the National Hockey League does not play in private, although a Nashville Predators' mid-week home game comes close.

It's not the truth that some Canucks players have a problem with. It's that their coach is willing to share it with -- gasp! -- the media.
While I believe that honesty is the best policy (in most cases), I follow the management approach that different people require different ways of motivation. Vigneault's approach may work well for Alex Burrows and Rick Rypien, but it's obviously not working with some of the key veterans - Markus Naslund, Willie Mitchell and Daniel Sedin, for example.
"When I say a player's got to pick up his game or pick up his level, in my mind, I don't consider that calling him out," Vigneault explained Wednesday. "When I do call out a player, you will know; that's not it.

"You ask questions and I make remarks on different things. Last game, I said certain players have to pick up their level. You could look at the stats and everything I mentioned was just facts. In my mind, that's not calling out or challenging players. I don't use the media for that. I use my office, I use the video, I use other things. Different people interpret it different ways."
He can play semantics all he wants, but it's obvious that he's irked some key guys by his public comments. I'll admit that it's good TV, but is it good for the room?

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Comments/Questions: Feel free to post in the comments section or email me at gocanucksgo10 (at) hotmail (dot) com.

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posted by J.J. Guerrero, 6:18 AM

1 Comments:

At November 11, 2007 10:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank You.

 

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