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Former Canucks Thread 2023-24 Off-Season Edition

lawrence said:
Lets talk about MIke Keenan for a second. Brian Burke praised him originally but it turns out that was all a lie from the start, he never liked him. Anyways, what was Mike Keenans style of hockey? I remember the first few games we looked quite promising than it just became ass all the way.
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Keenan's big thing as a coach was spearheading the short shift revolution in the NHL.

For those who aren't aware, pre-1984 NHL shifts were usually 90 seconds to 2 minutes ... which predictably meant you had lots of guys gliding around conserving energy and not really backchecking with any real intensity. Keenan took over a middling Flyers team, filled it with rookies (seriously, check out the ages of the 1984-85 Flyers team outside of Mark Howe - it's insane) and instantly dominated the NHL and nearly beat the prime Oilers in the 1985 Finals by having a bunch of kids emptying the tank and hounding the puck on 40-second shifts.

Basically he was a taskmaster who demanded maximum effort all the time. Ruled through fear and the way he meted out icetime. If you moved your feet, you got minutes. If you didn't, you'd get run out of town. This worked great for about 10 years 1984-1994 but then the 94-95 season happened and NJD won the Cup playing a much more advanced defensive system than just 'working hard' plus the new CBA and UFA era empowered players to not have to deal with a-hole head coaches anymore. And almost overnight he turned into a dinosaur as he just couldn't adjust in the same way that a guy like Scotty Bowman did.
 
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MS said:
Keenan's big thing as a coach was spearheading the short shift revolution in the NHL.

For those who aren't aware, pre-1984 NHL shifts were usually 90 seconds to 2 minutes ... which predictably meant you had lots of guys gliding around conserving energy and not really backchecking with any real intensity. Keenan took over a middling Flyers team, filled it with rookies (seriously, check out the ages of the 1984-85 Flyers team outside of Mark Howe - it's insane) and instantly dominated the NHL and nearly beat the prime Oilers in the 1985 Finals by having a bunch of kids emptying the tank and hounding the puck on 40-second shifts.

Basically he was a taskmaster who demanded maximum effort all the time. Ruled through fear and the way he meted out icetime. If you moved your feet, you got minutes. If you didn't, you'd get run out of town. This worked great for about 10 years 1984-1994 but then the 94-95 season happened and NJD won the Cup playing a much more advanced defensive system than just 'working hard' plus the new CBA and UFA era empowered players to not have to deal with a-hole head coaches anymore. And almost overnight he turned into a dinosaur as he just couldn't adjust in the same way that a guy like Scotty Bowman did.
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Among their young players was a 20-year-old rookie named Rick Tocchet.
 
MS said:
And Peter Zezel and Murray Craven who were also relatively significant in Canuck history later on.

That team had 1 regular skater over the age of 26 and 9 U21 players in their first or second NHL seasons and nearly won the Cup.
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don’t forget rich sutter, who keenan would threaten to bench if his twin brother ron wasn’t playing hard enough.

part of it was keenan's typical up on his mindgames bs, but the other part was that ron sutter was too valuable of a player to bench, but it didn’t really matter if rich, who was the worst sutter that was an NHL regular until another future canuck, brandon, played or didn’t play.
 
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MS said:
And Peter Zezel and Murray Craven who were also relatively significant in Canuck history later on.

That team had 1 regular skater over the age of 26 and 9 U21 players in their first or second NHL seasons and nearly won the Cup.
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I always wondered if Keenan's style played much part in Todd Bergen walking away. If he was already leaning towards golf, being exposed to Keenan wouldn't have helped.

This was a pretty good read if you haven't seen it.
Mike Keenan, The NHL's Last Great Asshole Coach
 
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Thought I’d look up Jake Virtanen:

He’s currently 11th in team scoring on his club in the DEL with 13 points in 35 games.

Interestingly, in the Battle of the Worst Picks From the 2014 Draft, his teammate Michael Dal Colle is 3rd in team scoring (26 points in 37 games),
 
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IComeInPeace said:
Thought I’d look up Jake Virtanen:

He’s currently 11th in team scoring on his club in the DEL with 13 points in 35 games.

Interestingly, in the Battle of the Worst Picks From the 2014 Draft, his teammate Michael Dal Colle is 3rd in team scoring (26 points in 37 games),
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I bet there is a forum just like this one in german, for the Iserlohn Roosters, where fans are wondering right now

"Hat Jake Virtanen die Wende geschafft?"
 
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