Vancouver Canucks: Willie Desjardins Doing What's Right
Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins seems to love odd decisions, but finally went back to a lineup that makes sense.
Every decision a sports team’s management or coaching staff makes gets questioned by fans and media — that’s simply the way it works. But there are some decisions that are obviously worse than others, and those regarding the Vancouver Canucks‘ lineup have often been plain bad. Luckily, head coach Willie Desjardins seems to be doing what’s right now.
Let’s take a look back to Game 1 of the 2016-17 season, when the Canucks iced the following forward lineup against the Calgary Flames.
Game 1 vs. Calgary Flames
Sedin — Sedin — Eriksson
Gaunce — Sutter — Hansen
Baertschi — Granlund — Virtanen
Burrows — Horvat — Dorsett
The top line is what had Canucks fans excited all summer long, but the question marks start right after that.
Markus Granlund looked good on Brandon Sutter‘s left wing in preseason, but Desjardins decided to split them up. Suddenly, Brendan Gaunce found himself on what might have been the worst second line in the entire NHL.
Behind that, Desjardins had Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen on the wings — as expected. But what was Granlund doing back at centre, in a spot that seemed reserved for sophomore Bo Horvat?
Speaking of Horvat, what was he doing on the fourth line? Horvat is the Canucks’ top scorer in the year 2016 and his only struggles last season came from tough defensive match-ups.
According to corsica.hockey, Horvat only had 11.11 percent offensive-zone starts in five-on-five situations, while starting in the defensive zone 55.56 percent of the time. Only one of his nine face-offs was taken on offence.
To no one’s surprise, fans got rather angry with those decisions and — to everyone’s surprise — Desjardins changed things up for Game 2.
Game 2 vs. Carolina Hurricanes
Sedin — Sedin — Eriksson
Granlund — Sutter — Hansen
Baertschi — Horvat — Virtanen
Burrows — Gaunce — Dorsett
Against the Carolina Hurricanes, Desjardins went with the lines everyone was hoping for.
Granlund and Sutter were back united and Sutter and Granlund thanked WD for it with a goal and an assist each. Second, Horvat got to centre his original line and he, too, responded with a goal. Even the fourth line was able to produce, with both Gaunce and Derek Dorsett recording an assist.
As a summary, every line scored, except for the Sedins and Loui Eriksson — and we all know that’s the one line we don’t need to worry about (for now).
Player deployment is also closer to what we were hoping for going into the season. In Game 2, Horvat had 53.85 percent offensive-zone starts and only took two defensive-zone face-offs. With that, Horvat was the Canucks centre with the fewest defensive-zone starts.
It was still a close game that Vancouver just about lost, but things looked better overall. In the current lineup, everyone is in a position to succeed — which is what a team needs when it tries to execute a rebuild on the fly.
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