Interpreting the Canucks' Head Coach

Oftentimes, Vancouver Canucks’ head coach, Alain Vigneault, will make decisions that leave us scratching our heads. Usually, however, his actions carry an underlying message. Here, we’re going to help you interpret some of his latest moves, in our new segment: “Reading between Coach V’s lines”.


What Coach V did: Defenseman Kevin Bieksa has been moved from defenseman to forward due to the many injuries that the Canucks are dealing with.

What he was thinking: “Since you love jumping into the offensive play without a thought to your defensive responsibilities, you can just play forward and forget about defense all together.”

What Coach V did: Kyle Wellwood was taken off the power play for the first two periods of Tuesday’s game.

What he was thinking: “I don’t care if you’re a ‘powerplay specialist,’ Kyle, if you keep giving the puck away you get to be a third line specialist."

(note, Wellwood played his way back onto the powerplay in the third period, and looked more motivated in his return)


What Coach V did: He demoted Sergei Shirokov from the Canucks to the minor league Manitoba Moose despite all the injuries and the Canucks’ desperate need for offense.

What he was thinking: "You seem to want to play like a kid, so you can just go play with the kids."