Coach Alain Vigneault let gone by Vancouver Canucks after disappointing performance – NHL Update
In a surprising and expected move at the same time, Vancouver Canucks fired their head coach, Alain Vigneault, after days of consultation and reasoning out why the top Canadian based National Hockey League (NHL)
failed to perform up to their full potential. The decision was made by Vancouver on Wednesday.
During the regular season and the years previous to it, Vancouver had always been a dominating force in the league by topping the Western Conference and ending in the top three if not the first position.
"We're in a results-oriented business and if you look at the last two playoffs we've been in, we were the higher-seeded team but lost the first two games at home," Canucks president and general manager Mike Gillis
stated during a news conference.
"We lost consecutive games in the last two playoff years, and there comes a point in time where the message has to change and we have to be better. And we simply didn't get the result we expected."
During Vigneault’s tenure, which was the best in Vancouver’s history, the Vancouver Canucks topped the Northwest Division six times, along with winning the Presidents’ Trophy twice. They were also an inch away
from winning their first Stanley Cup trophy back in 2011 but lost in the finals against Boston Bruins in a series that went seven games.
Vancouver also fired assistant coach Rick Bowness and Newell Brown along with Alain Vigneault as sources believe that the Canucks upper management is in the mood to completely overhaul the coaching staff and
revolutionize their ways.
"I am a career coach, and it is what I love to do. I hope to coach again in this league and will always have good memories of my time and the fans in Vancouver," Vigneault stated.
This past season, Vancouver finished third with 59 points in the Western Conference but they were shockingly eliminated by the San Jose Sharks in the opening series in a clean four game sweep. Losing was one
thing but being completed wiped out for the first time in over a decade was even more shocking.
It will be interesting to see who the Vancouver Canucks bring on board to lead their team next season.
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