10 Surprises 10 Games into the Vancouver Canucks Season
By Allen Tung
Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
Sedins, Kesler Averaging 21+ minutes A Night
Former Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault didn’t play his best three players more than 20 minutes a night.
In their seven seasons under Vigneault, Ryan Kesler averaged 19:09, Daniel Sedin averaged 18:46, and Henrik Sedin averaged 19:34. One of the ways Vigneault kept the Sedins ice time down was to keep them off the penalty kill and only start them in the offensive zone.
Tortorella says he doesn’t care how much his best players play and isn’t worried about burning them out.
“I’m not a big believer in, ‘Holy crap, he played 26 minutes, does he have anything left for Wednesday?’ I don’t buy it,” Tortorella said.
“I want to win that game. I want to win Game 2, I’m not looking to Game 5. So if Sedin or Kes needs to be on the ice in those situations, in that third period and play 12 minutes of that third period, they will play the 12 minutes of that third period to try to win that game.”