Vancouver Canucks Tanking 101: A Coach’s Tale

Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
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Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 19, 2016; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins watches from his bench against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Calgary Flames won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports /

How much more painful can the Vancouver Canucks be to watch?

The Vancouver Canucks seem like they have nothing more to lose. Maybe that is because they actually have nothing more to lose. The way the team has been playing, they deserve the second overall pick — a pity pick. You know, maybe the John Tortorella hiring was to prepare Vancouver of a greater pain — this year’s pain. If the Lost Season still feels worse than how this year does, check again. You are wrong.

In this fourth episode of Tanking 101, the question arises as to how much more painful this season could get. Would everything be alright by drafting in the top-five on June 23rd, 2016 at the NHL Entry Draft? Does tanking, actively or passively, just hurt when the team is actually carrying out? Does it have future repercussions?

After all, Tortorella did fetch the Canucks a Columbus Blue Jacket second-round pick in the near future. One can only hope that this season fetches a high-end prospect. And plus, there is this to consider when looking at the Lost Tortz year:

So the Canucks have played a more painful brand of hockey, but they didn’t make the fans feel as much pain as they did two years ago. If that is true, then the Canucks have set themselves up nicely to tank rather painlessly for the rest of the season. I would attribute this to the youth movement and the veteran presence and performance of the Sedins.

So isn’t that what a nice rebuild is? To inject and nurture youth while the veterans lead the way, making the rebuild not seem as painful as it really should be?

But really, does tanking exist?

To tackle that one crucial question, here it is, the Tanking 101 edition of the Canucklehead Lament, recapping this week’s Tanking 101 and answering the question if tanking really exists.

Next: Defining the Pains of Tanking

Feb 9, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; Vancouver Canucks left wing Alex Burrows (14) comforts an injured center Brandon Sutter (21) in the second period against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 9, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; Vancouver Canucks left wing Alex Burrows (14) comforts an injured center Brandon Sutter (21) in the second period against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /

Tanking is Painful

The players are not tanking. A $72.5 million payroll is not a tank job by the management or the owners. Then who is the one doing the tanking? How can a team “tank”?

Well, let’s define tanking.

Tanking, in my dictionary, is the act of purposefully losing despite having the ability to win. The result may be a high draft pick depending on the odds, but for sure will be a loss of fans and franchise value. It is painful to tank. Just for example, look at Ryan Miller‘s situation.

G – Ryan Miller

  • 35 years old, 12-17-8 record
  • .915 save percentage, 2.64 goals against average
  • One more year left on a three-year, $18 million contract

He has done tremendously in the past couple of months when the team was struggling the most. Now he is caving in himself, unable to contain the mess that the Canucks have amassed in front of him.

More from The Canuck Way

Aging past his prime, Miller knows that he is not the franchise netminder in Vancouver. The job is Jacob Markstrom‘s to take as soon as Miller’s contract expires, but Miller dare not ask to be traded this season. With the extra year left on his contract, his modified no-trade clause almost becomes redundant for Miller. Just have to wonder if he wants out from Van City after going through a tough period of rebuilding already in Buffalo.

So he can’t be traded, he is getting all the hate from the youth movement folks for going 1-5-2 in his last eight starts while Markstrom has gone 5-2-1 in his last seven, and he still has to play knowing that he is going to be shown the door (or the boot out the door) as soon as next season is over. Heck, he might not last the year if the Canucks plan to trade him as a pending unrestricted free agent!

So you know that Miller won’t be tanking. Not for his own sake. The youth has nothing to tank for, too. They want to grow in the NHL by playing well and earning minutes. The Sedins are too classy to put on a tank job.

Jim Benning even has expressed that he may consider adding pieces at the deadline if the team is still in the running for the playoffs. The owners will never tank unless the management suggests such thing.

So who is going to lead a tank? Who has the ability to lose despite having the ability to win?

Next: Tanking: A Willie Tale

Tanking: A Willie Tale

Willie Desjardins can choose to lose despite his lineup’s ability to win. Ask the Hockey Night in Canada guys, they will tell you. In fact, they have already told the entire nation of Coach Willie’s travails. Regardless of the intents, Willie is choosing to lose despite the some little NHL-competency that Canucks still have. With last night’s loss to the Calgary Flames, Willie wrote history. Losing 5-2 in four consecutive games is unprecedented in the history of the NHL.

As documented before, it isn’t about ice time. It is about the strategic deployment of the lines and the key players after icing calls for, TV intermissions, and the time-outs. Sure, the Sedins are aging, but they don’t want to tank real good like you do, Willie.

Read More: Willie Making History the Wrong Way

But how is this different from a youth movement? After all, the Canucks are in a youth movement that has somehow morphed into a tank under Willie’s supervision, right? This is a valid comment. When Sedins don’t play, one of Linden Vey, Jared McCann, or Bo Horvat gets the shift. If that is not a youth movement from the coach’s perspective, what is it?

Well, a youth movement is still a youth movement when the Sedins are playing 22 minutes a game and Vey is playing 12 minutes a game. It is especially a good youth movement when Virtanen plays 18 minutes a game while Etem plays 12 minutes.

Almost the entire lineup shows a youth movement. If Willie wants to turn this youth movement into a tank, he can continue to play Vey as many strengths as Horvat gets. He can continue to give Etem as many shifts as Virtanen gets. Whatever Willie does, it is a youth movement. Whether it turns into a tank or not? That is Willie call, and right now, Willie is choosing to lose when he can win a couple more points.

Willie is the lone tanker in the organization. For now.

Next: Tanking 101: The Final Verdict

Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning announces Jake Virtanen (not pictured) as the number six overall pick to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 27, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning announces Jake Virtanen (not pictured) as the number six overall pick to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports /

Tanking 101: The Final Verdict

Alright. So if you were following closely the past week, Tanking 101 has gone through everything that I could think of about tanking. Throughout the week, hopefully, I made myself clear that I was not going to take sides in order to give the most objective verdict on “tanking” at the end.

Let us recap before the final verdict.

A true organizational tank would start with selling the pending free agents. Ship out Radim Vrbata, Dan Hamhuis, Matt Bartkowski, Yannick Weber, and Brandon Prust. That gives Vancouver a lot of cap space to go work around names like Milan Lucic, Keith Yandle, Loui Eriksson, and potentially Steven Stamkos. Jim Benning would make himself a tanker if he trades Ryan Miller, Alex Burrows, and Jannik Hansen, adding, even more, space to the offseason cap.

The Edmonton model lacked defense and veteran presence and is taking forever. The Chicago model is a quick turn-around that was lucky. The Florida model was very organic. Veterans, defence — they had it all, and patience was a key to success. Vancouver needs to be patient, take advantage with the luck of Ben Hutton, and start building the core from the backend out.

The true solution to the issue might not be Auston Matthews. It might be Matthew Tkachuk. Luck is great, and tanking doesn’t guarantee anything in the lottery. The odds are just so close to making the Matthews pitch. Just give it luck and time. Hopefully.

Now, Willie Desjardins is the culprit. He is the tanking leader in the organization. Whether he means it or not, I do not know. But he is wasting the winning talent and using a four-line equality that is resulting in a loss of winnable games.

Next: The Top Five Prospects of the 2016 NHL Draft

You know what I say in this Canucklehead Lament? Tanking is for losers. Even if the Canucks had a valid NHL superstar, what will Willie do? Roll four lines, lose more games, and essentially tank. I say no Willie is no tank. And though this season might be almost in the side mirrors, Vancouver, Willie is the root of your problems.

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