Quote:
Originally Posted by mickz
MacT has a helluva better resume than AV. 4 cups as a player and he took an EIGHTH place Edmonton Oiler team to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final in '06. You look at the Oiler lineup that year and they had no stars other than Pronger, Hemsky and Smyth; with Roloson playing lights out. Compare them to the modern day Canuck line up and it's no contest which one was more talented.
AV started coaching the Canucks when they were on the rise. The worst he ever had to put up with was a 9 game losing streak in Vancouver. If this was in the dark ages (late 90s/early 2000s) he would not have survived. He was never here for the rough times and not to mention SO wins count as wins too, whereas in previous years coaches had to live with ties.
The NW division titles mean little, if anything now. I remember when it was the most competitive division in the league at one time. This season Vancouver and 2nd place Calgary had a 21pt differential! It would be more difficult for the Canucks to NOT to win the division. The NE division had a 10 pt gap between first (BOS) and second (OTT) place, teams in all the other divisions were within a hair of each other!
That being said I am hoping AV will join the NHL on TSN Panel next year.
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Success as a player doesn't translate to success as a coach. If it did then Wanye Gretzky would be the best coach ever.
And the 2006 Oilets run was just one of those times where everything clicked for them at the right time. Hell, Fernado Pasani got 14 goals in the playoffs for crist's sake. How did he and the Oilers do ever since?