Vancouver Canucks: An open letter to head coach Travis Green
Here’s a tip for Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green: storylines are the lifeblood of an NHL franchise.
Dear Travis Green,
I’m certainly no one special you need heed, just an average Vancouver Canucks lifer, no more than a barometer as far as you might be concerned. However, I beg of you, allow me a few moments for entertainment’s sake, please.
After all, Francesco Aquilini owns a business where the main goal is to profit from entertaining hockey fans, and you are in fact his asset in that endeavour.
Today I’m addressing the idea that no one is bigger than the team and suggesting that this especially applies to coaches, in my self-esteemed opinion, as you’re all top dogs barking out orders from behind the players’ bench, acting like drill sergeants, demanding results.
I’m sure, being from B.C., you’re well aware of the gravity of the John Tortorella situation, so I needn’t go into much detail about how he benched Roberto Luongo at the 2014 Heritage Classic and lost us the best-ever-so-far Canucks goaltender in an ego-takes-all battle that ended up hurting the fans most.
That day Torts failed to observe the greater storyline than himself, and instead decided to impose his will on the lineup, and inadvertently imposed on the future of the franchise, as was only his right to do. To have the right doesn’t mean it’s wise to exercise.
Interest in the team is not easily earned and is an entity that compounds over decades, yet on that one day so much was lost following one single decision of a coach. Lest we forget. Vancouver fans lost their hero that day, which I guarantee was not in the best interests of the brand. One of our favourite narratives was suddenly flushed out from our stream of consciousness.
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Tortorella should have respected the significance of that moment. Instead, he proved reckless with his responsibility, had to be that guy, whatever the cost, at the centre of attention. Ego has no place in coaching when fans are the bottom line.
Take Jim Benning, for example, who doesn’t seem to bring his ego into the job at all. I’m impressed that he hasn’t fired the whole lot of Mike Gillis’ old hires but instead promoted the likes of Judd Brackett to director of scouting and even yourself to head coach of the Canucks.
As long as Benning has great talent in front of him, he’s gonna use it because that’s exactly how one delivers the best results. Benning manages his own ego before managing the team, which may actually be his most valuable skill as an entertainment producer.
To that end, thank the gods I’m only a fan and not a GM, as we both know this letter is really just about me and my own ego, how I don’t like your lineup decisions and why my brilliant opinion should actually matter. Well, it does, Travis. It does.
Before I get on with it, let me wax on a bit further how you’re a BC boy, like myself, only a handful of years older than me, and so, no doubt you’ll understand why I’ve been an impassioned Canucks fan ever since King Richard Brodeur played out of his mind during that legendary 1982-playoff run. Winning with hot goaltending is like catching lightning in a bottle.
Never disregard the power of an electric storyline, as Brodeur and his Bad News Bears captured my imagination for a lifetime, and perhaps yours, as well. Am I right, Travis?
This may sound strange but think about it for a moment. Electricity is consciousness. Provide us with electric storylines and the city will eventually enshrine you with a statue. I promise.
Heed me not for I buy no season tickets, not even the more affordable ticket packages. I’m just a blue-collar fan who only goes to a few random games every year for family birthdays or what else, and more if we make it into the second round or beyond, hoping to witness something special. Like so many other rabid Canucks fans, I must’ve watched 80 per cent of all the televised games every season since forever, and always tried to catch on the radio what I may have missed on TV.
On the other hand, whenever the Canucks fail to make the playoffs, I’m onto the offseason instantly and couldn’t care less what happens in the playoffs. Those are not my storylines. Well, maybe I’ll tune in for the final handshake and raising of the Cup, but generally, for me, it’s Canucks or bust.
Am I right, Canucks fans? And maybe I’m talking more to fans who weren’t born in some other hockey market, who didn’t start their lives cheering for the Flames or something weird like that.
Travis, when you landed on the scene in Vancouver a couple of years ago, I was excited for you. I had been following your career with the Utica Comets for a few years already.
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Overall you did a pretty good job with the Canucklets, especially that one year, 2014-15, when Jacob Markström put the farm on his back and went on a run all the way to the final round of the Calder Cup playoffs.
The Comets had great goaltending from Markström that season, though merely a decent stable of skaters that would need great coaching if they were ever to get anywhere. Of course, your buncha bandits exceeded expectations, regardless of the deeper Manchester Monarchs squad that eventually won the series 4-1, dashing your hopes for a championship title.
Your promotion to the bigs came while youth was being served in Vancouver, yet it was still in the shade of the Sedin twins Henrik and Daniel‘s looming retirement.
The market was captured by the magic of the twins’ storyline – a people and their two greatest heroes. For many a moment during those last two home games, the Canucks’ legacy was on full display, loud and proud.
The whole hockey world stopped to take notice as our incredible plot thickened and finally reached its crescendo, undoubtedly paying the brand forward with increased fan interest and respect for decades, even internationally.
Obviously, there was no way you’d ever pull a Torts Classic in a moment like that, so I speak in contrast. Instead, you stood back in awe of the moment and helped to deliver that incredible storyline to the fandom, like the entertaining asset you were hired to be.
It was awesome to hear you after the Sedins’ final home games, when you spoke to the immensity of the moment, delivered excellent breakdowns of it all, and honoured the Sedins for being selfless professionals. “Travis Green gets it,” I thought to myself with a profound sense of Canucks pride.
I was at that second last home game of the Sedins’ careers when fans had first learned of their pending retirement, and the spontaneous outpouring inside Rogers Arena was unreal. Holy moly, it still moves me today.
Travis, you are definitely a great voice for the franchise in the good times and bad, a hockey mind through and through, fair and well-spoken.
That said, a year later during the Canucks March 30th game against the Dallas Stars — Hughes second NHL game ever — you may have heard me yelling myself hoarse at you from the rafters above your bench, screaming “Huuuuuuuuughes!” when you had the shiny new offensive talent sitting in favour of your ol’ faithful Alex Edler, who was stuck out on the ice for an inexcusably long time: Six worth of same old, same old power play: an eternity during an otherwise seemingly meaningless game: even longer than this sentagraph.
All that in a game where Elder was massively overplayed to the tune of 30 minutes. Please, have pity on us. Our new wheels had just arrived and you’d hardly taken them out of the garage for a rip, yet had the perfect opportunity. Who does that?
Hughes was the storyline du jour, but unfortunately for me and many other Canucks fans, your ego outshone everything that day. You were the reason for less entertainment and greater fan frustration. That’s on you, says me.
Many were blown away by Hughes in the limited offensive time you allowed him, yet were angry because they saw a wasted opportunity for one last wink of hope before a long offseason.
There’s a responsibility to your audience when you accept the role of an entertainer. These are not minor league teams that can afford to care less about the fans. NHL fans are the millionaire makers. Some of us will turn on you in an instant if we think you take that fact for granted.
As to why you didn’t play your most dangerous offensive defenceman on the top power play in those last few meaningless games before golfing season, you basically made the excuse of minding the veterans in your room, namely Edler.
For what? Are these veteran egos so frail? Is it Hughes’ ego you wanna keep in check? You don’t like fans yelling directions at you? From what I routinely read in the comments section, while you might not lose your room playing mind games like these, you may lose your city.
We don’t care if you think Edler’s ego is too fragile to allow the larger narrative to unfold at the end of a long-ago-since-lost season when the future of the offence has just arrived. Edler’s own day will come soon enough, when Vancouver fans will eventually chant his name as he plays his final NHL game, but those last few games of your otherwise-burned season belonged to Hughes.
Quinn came with all the acclaim and earned the opportunity, just as Elias Pettersson did even before you entrusted him with meaningful minutes.
It’s kind of amazing that you had the gull to slow play the great Golden Boy himself with a measly 9:46 of ice time in his first NHL game. It’s not like we didn’t know someone great was coming. I mean, he did just shatter all those Swedish records.
If Hughes doesn’t look exceptional, well sure, bury him on the second unit like you did. However, he did look exceptional, and rather instantly proved himself the lifeblood of the second-unit power play, which was not something ever said about Edler in his entire career. “Big part,” maybe, but certainly not key or lifeblood.
Yet there Edler was, shift after shift, on the top unit.
No offence meant to Edler. He’s great and all, it’s just that Hughes is the news and is obviously the better offensive catalyst. Granted, defensively speaking, Edler is the backbone of the Canucks five-on-five and on the penalty kill. But we’re not speaking defensively.
Travis, that this is not the first time you’ve done something like this is what concerns me. And I’m sure you’ve heard it all too many times already from everywhere else.
How you slow played Hughes at season’s end is not unlike how you slow played Brock Boeser at the start of his first full season. At the time you offered the excuse that Brock looked tired. Well, he looked amazing to us but you quashed that vibe. Disappointed fans come to mind again.
What’s at stake this coming season is the all-important storyline that will get Canucks fans most fired up to spend dollars and be passionate about your brand.
As the late, great, world-tennis star and three-time Grand Slam champ Arthur Ashe once imparted to us all, the journey is far more important than the destination. Winning isn’t actually the important part of sport, it’s rather the storyline that carries you there.
We wanna dive deep, all season long, into the very exciting possibility of Quinn battling his brother Jack Hughes for the Calder Trophy, and battling Colorado’s top defensive prospect Cale Makar for bragging rights as the best defenceman from the 2019-20, NHL rookie class. There is no denying that a third Calder race in three years would be huge for the city after so long with pointless Canucks hockey.
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Travis, for the love of entertainment and the spirit of Vancouver, please play the Hughes.
Yours truly,
Canucks fan Stephe