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AV,Newell Brown, Rick Bowness have been fired.

And the peasants rejoice!

Just when Dallas Eakins is available!

...no choice from what I can see.

Rock and hard place time for the franchise.

Interest and enthusiasm is dwindling (and I don't mean the players).

A reset and recharge is necessary.

Hopefully for all you diehards this is only phase one.

some people suggesting he will be hired elsewhere immediately. I doubt it. More likely he waits to try and find a good situation. Likely same as Lindy Ruff.

This needed to happen and seemed to be inevitable. Lots of questionable calls over the years, that could be overlooked because the team was winning, but clearly things have been amiss for a while. Special teams have been mediocre to awful for nearly two seasons, especially in the playoffs. That's on the coaching staff.

Too bad they couldn't get it done. Nothing against them personally, but this is a performance based business.

AV leaves the Canucks as the team's all time winningest coach; a record that might not be passed for a long time. 514 regular season games coached with 313 wins.

Will be interesting to see if Scott Arniel is the heir apparent.

donlever wrote:Interest and enthusiasm is dwindling (and I don't mean the players).

Fudging playoff sellouts is a new low.

Obviously the message was stale and motivation wasn't happening.

Need to thank AV for developing a homegrown group of Burrows, Kesler, Bieksa, Edler, Raymond, and Hansen as well as bring the team to with a game of the grail.

Anyone know when AV's extension was due to kick in?

Finally...

I don't even know what to say. I've been looking forward to this moment for the last 7 years.

To be fair, I don't think there is any arguing that AV is a skilled coach. But that said, I have never liked him as a coach nor thought that he was the guy that could lead us to the promised land (even were all the pieces in place).

Hopefully, there is some very thoughtful consideration on who the next coach will be. (still crossing fingers on Babcock but with how well the wings are doing, I don't see him hitting the market).

In the words of Ralph Cramdon...to the moon ..ah nope

And awaaay wee goo!!!!

Please be good...please be good oh and pray for oklahoma

Mondi wrote:Not the guy who couldn't trade Luongo.

yeah not making that trade sunk AV and his coaching hopes.

Not the guy who flipped Grabner and a first for Ballard.

No, but he was the guy who didn't like Grabner's day to day effort and WAS the reason Grabner fell on the depth chart and was made expendable.

Not the guy who decided to resign Mason Raymond, and retain Manny Malhotra.

No, but he is the guy who continually used Raymond on the second line and PP unit instead of on the third line and PK supporting role. Malhotra-he is the one that played Malhotra in every significant defensive zone faceoff...I'm sure he wanted nothing more than Malhotra to remain and to give him that chance.

Not the guy who thought Derek Roy was the answer.

Oh please. Roy was brought in for center ice depth. It didn't work just like most deadline deals. Get over it.

Not the guy who let Erhoff go in favour of Edler.

He's also not the D-man that thought he was worth far more than players better than him.....

Every single GM in the league makes the call Gillis made. And really Edler isn't worse than Ehrhoff even with his struggles.

Not the guy who let Salo walk.

Seriously? Changes! We need changes! Just don't touch anyone on the roster!

Not the guy who offered Mats Sundin and Pavol Demitra huge contracts.

the dressing room still talks about how important those months with Sundin were. Demitra...they needed secondary scoring and not in the form of Isbister.

he is, however, the guy who simply couldn't make necessary in game and between game adjustments the last couple of years. They are the guys who couldn't put together special teams that would work in the playoffs.

I thought AV did a great job here, and was a guy with a lot of humility and pride. A guy who didn't exude arrogance, but was still appropriately confident.

Good luck AV.

And he did do a great job. But it had clearly become stale. I think that had the season not been a shortened one he would have been gone at Christmas in all honesty. And it isn't an excuse, the shortened season really did mess things up from an operational point of view. How messed up was it? Well geez the leaves made the playoffs! You don't get more messed up than that.


This was a obvious move and I honestly can't believe people were worrying it wasn't going to happen.

A sad day as he was an excellent coach who deserved a GM who could give him the horses to do the job. Like all coach's he was hired to be fired and a different voice in the locker room might make a slight difference. Regardless of who is brought in, if Gillis doesn't do his job then nothing will really change.

I like AV and think he is a fine coach. He will land on his feet somewhere and be successful.

Was AV provided with a perfect roster every year? No, but not many coaches get that luxury. AV was provided with a cap max roster and failed produce anywhere near acceptable playoff results for two seasons.

The PP and PK have been crap. As I've said before, awful special teams falls on the coaching staff's shoulders.

A reset, a refresh, a roster reshuffle with some solid additions and a new coaching staff will hopefully inject some life into the core group of players.

AV was also the guy who let the veteran players lead the team to the point where the inmates were running the asylum. Clearly that hands off approach was a mistake.