Shane O’Brien has parting words for Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault
Shane O’Brien has always had a way with words. The bruising defenceman is never one to back away from a fight, comment, or anything that is said about him.
The 6ft 3in 230 pound defender, who spent the past two seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, was traded to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday for defenceman Ryan Parent. Usually whenever
a trade occurs, the players involved go quietly without much fanfare. But O’Brien, who entertained Canucks fans with his play on a regular basis, felt it necessary to leave Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault with some memorable parting words.
During his stay with the Canucks, O’Brien was made an example of by Vigneault. The coach took fire at O’Brien for his lifestyle choices, and opened up to the media about all things bad
related to the 27-year-old. According to what Vigneault said, O’Brien was a frequent attendee of The Roxy, a nightclub in Vancouver, and he loved to party.
It is highly uncommon for a National Hockey League coach to go public with this kind of information, but Vigneault felt it was necessary. O’Brien admitted to not being on his best behaviour
while playing with the Canucks, but he wasted no time in returning the fire, and he let nothing stop him.
“This whole Roxy myth - my first year in Vancouver I did hang out there a little too much,” said O'Brien. “Obviously, there's a lot of things I would have done differently.
“But the thing that really made me upset is you look around an organization and there's always stuff that goes on during the year, and they try to keep it behind closed doors. With me,
AV just went right to the press and buried me, and that made it worse.”
O’Brien stressed that when his former coach “had a chance to bury me in the media, he did. He never seemed to have my back. I'd be lying if I said I thought I had a chance with him from
day one.”
The embattled rearguard had a feeling that the coach would not want him on the roster for the Canucks’ season opener, and given the recent trade, he was more or less right about that.
“I knew I was in trouble,” O’Brien said of his pre-season prediction. “I wish I got a little fairer shake in camp. I only played three exhibition games, all on the road, and we flew the
day of the game on two of them. And - no disrespect to the players we had in those games - but the three games I played we were nowhere near an NHL-calibre roster. It was the icing on the cake for my career here in Vancouver.”
O’Brien said he tried to buy into Vigneault’s playing system, and that he made some strides to improve his play later on. But in the end, things did not seem to work out, as the two had
had issues since O’Brien’s arrival in Vancouver in the 2008-09 season. He had been traded to the Canucks from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who received fellow defenceman Lukas Krajicek in return.
“Last year, I stepped up when we had some injuries and helped our team win the division, and I thought I played with a lot of heart in the play-offs,” O’Brien said of his play with the
Canucks.
“Every time there was an injury, I'd play well. And when [the injured player] came back, I'd go right back to the bottom of the barrel. It's tough to play in this league when you know
if you have a bad night, you're going to the press box. After two years, it was still the same thing. No matter what I did, I didn't seem to stand a chance with that guy.”
Canucks general manager Mike Gillis responded to O’Brien’s criticisms of Vigneault, stating that O’Brien had been given many opportunities to show he belonged on the team, but his attitude
often got in the way of his development as a player.
“He (O’Brien) had his opportunity to come here and make the team, and other players played better than him,” Gillis said.
“We didn't go into this with any predetermined ideas. We thought there was a lot of upside with Shane. But we can only do so much in trying to develop players and do the best we can, and
at certain points, I think Shane needed to try and mature a little bit and get better.”
Going into the 2010-11 season, the Canucks will be without O’Brien’s unique sense of toughness, but that is not an issue for Vigneault. As for O’Brien, he is glad to be out of Vancouver,
and awaits a fresh start in Nashville. The Predators will play their season-opening game on Saturday evening.
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