News

Jan 31, 2024

Canucks: Does Travis Green have a shot at running the Flames bench?

Nobody in the Calgary Flames organization should be comfortable. That’s why kicking the tires on Green should be part of the process. Craig Conroy will be introduced as Calgary Flames general manager

Nobody in the Calgary Flames organization should be comfortable. That’s why kicking the tires on Green should be part of the process.

Craig Conroy will be introduced as Calgary Flames general manager Tuesday as the replacement for Brad Treliving, whose contract was expiring and a parting of the ways was inevitable.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Don't have an account? Create Account

In a connect-the-dots business, this is either good or bad news for former Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green.

A rookie GM could benefit from the outside experience of a veteran head coach to help turn around a season that went up in Flames with the failure to advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Or, he could keep everything in house and look to promote from within for familiarity and a comfort zone.

It’s why some believe the coaching pecking order starts from within.

There’s long-serving Flames assistant coach Ryan Huska, who has paid his dues in the NHL and AHL to run the Calgary bench. There’s associate coach Kirk Muller, who has been a head coach in Carolina and assistant in Montreal and St. Louis.

And there’s current AHL affiliate head coach Mitch Love, who led the Wranglers to the Western Conference division final.

Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Canucks Report will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

However, given the big club faltered this season after losing first-liners Matthew Tkachuk to a trade — he wasn’t going to sign a long-term extension — and Johnny Gaudreau to free agency, nobody in the Flames organization should be comfortable.

That’s why kicking the tires on Green, or even Detroit assistant Alex Tanguay, should be part of the process.

Green is among a number of candidates in the running to replace the fired Darryl Sutter and he does bring something to the table.

He understands the fishbowl existence of working in a Canadian market. He has coached Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev, Tyler Toffoli and unrestricted free agent Troy Stecher. And knows how to work with younger players.

He threw Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes into the deep end of the NHL reality pool and they responded with Calder Trophy nominations.

Pettersson scored on his first shot in his first game and won the rookie award in 2019. Green also guided the Canucks to a memorable 2020 second-round playoff run in the Edmonton bubble and Utica Comets to the 2015 Calder Cup final.

The NHL coaching carousel often results in second chances, or many more, and Green has attempted to stay in the picture because being out of sight can mean being out of mind.

He took on the Spengler Cup challenge with Team Canada, but went 0-3 in the December event and couldn’t muster more than two goals. The team dropped two one-goal games before losing 3-1 in an event quarterfinal, but in a way, Green was better for the experience to work with Hockey Canada and keep his name out there.

“It’s disheartening,” he told reporters of the quick tourney exit. “Looking at our roster, I didn’t think scoring was going to be a problem and ultimately it was. We just couldn’t score and that seemed to be the issue every night.”

Green also had his NHL warts.

His dismissal on Dec. 5, 2021, and that of GM Jim Benning, assistant GM John Weisbrod and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner, was predestined by missing the playoffs in three of the previous four seasons.

The Canucks were 8-15-2 when Green was replaced by Bruce Boudreau.

A lack of scoring, too many turnovers, poor discipline and a historically poor penalty kill (64.6 per cent) were the signposts to sending Green into the ditch.

The Canucks went on a 3-9-0 slide before Green was relieved — including a numbing mid-November road trip where they were bombed 7-1 in Denver, 7-4 in Vegas and 5-1 in Anaheim — to fan the flames of change. It finally came Dec. 4 at home in a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh in which fans booed and jerseys hit the ice in protest.

Did Green suddenly forget how to coach, or did the owner have a problem with systems or deployment or reaching players on professional and personal levels? That’s hard to imagine.

Green was asked by this reporter as the walls were closing in if he had enough players he can win with — scorers, playmakers and those who do the tough stuff like blocking shots, initiating the forecheck and playing in traffic.

“I think so,” he said. “We haven’t got the job done with certain parts of our game. Sometimes, playing with urgency is doing a little bit less and playing a little bit more direct with the puck.”

Sticking with stagnant penalty-kill pairings didn’t help and finding a way to get through to a struggling Pettersson, who had just six goals in his first 25 games that season, proved difficult. The tonic was to be given even more responsibility. Boudreau put Pettersson on the penalty kill and his season took off.

He had a spurt of six points (5-1) in seven January games, 14 points (6-8) in eight February outings and finished with a rapid run of 23 points (14-9) in 15 games to close with a career-high 32 goals and 68 points.

OVERTIME — Former Canucks GM Dave Nonis will join the Flames in a senior management position, according to a report Monday by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. He attributed sources, who said that “ownership was very impressed by Nonis in the interview process”. Nonis also served as GM in Anaheim and Toronto.

[email protected]/@benkuzma

Spring subscription sale: Our in-depth journalism is possible thanks to the support of our subscribers. For a limited time, you can get full online access to the Vancouver Sun and The Province, along with the National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites, for just $40 for one year or $1 a week for 52 weeks. Support our journalism by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun.

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

To contribute to the conversation, you need to be logged in. If you are not yet registered, create your account now - it's FREE.