After Saturday night’s 1-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at home in Rogers Arena, the owner family Aquilini understood that they had no choice.
During the final minutes of the match, shouts such as “Kick Benning” were heard directed at general manager Jim Benning.
The drop came later when one of the home fans threw his Canuck jersey on the ice. A sign that you have given up on the team.
The loss on Saturday was the 10th in the last 13 games and Vancouver is last in the table for the NHL’s Pacific division.
If you want to save the season and get to the playoffs, you have to start winning now.
There was no “farmer sacrifice” but the owner Francesco Aquilini fired everyone who had the main responsibility for this autumn’s failure.
The role of sedinars is growing
According to Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre, Benning took his assistant general manager, John Weisbrod, with him in the case and Green’s second coach, Nolan Baumgartner, was also allowed to leave.
The club will now be led by a group consisting of Chris Gear, who will be acting GM, Ryan Johnson, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin and another former club icon, Stan Smyl.
New coach Bruce Boudreau gets Scott Walker as his assistant coach.
The twins Sedin took on the role of advisor to Benning and the owners this summer and has spent the autumn getting acquainted with the club’s organization and activities, where they had a special eye on the Abbotsford Canucks farm team in the AHL.
Now Sedinarna’s tasks and responsibilities are growing significantly. Expect that they will be heavy voices when it comes to team building and player development within the organization, which of course also includes all the talents they have drafted and the players in the farm team in the AHL.
Gloomy end for Travis Green
For Travis Green, it was a gloomy end in Vancouver, when he signed a new 2-year contract with the Canucks as recently as May.
He only managed to get eight wins in the team’s 25 matches this season. Green got the job as a coach in Vancouver ahead of the 2017-18 season when he replaced Willie Desjardins.
During the four seasons with Green as head coach, the Canucks won 133 league games, losing 147 during regular time and another 34 after extra time.
Substitute Bruce Boudreau has previously coached the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild.
He won the Jack Adams Award in the 2007-08 season, the award that goes to the NHL’s best coach, when he coached the Washington Capitals.
Boudreau aldrig i Stanley Cup-final
But despite having impressive statistics – 567 wins, 302 losses and 115 losses in overtime, Boudreau has never taken a team to the Stanley Cup final.
He gets the chance to show how he wants the Vancouver Canucks to play already the night before Tuesday, Swedish time, when they receive the Los Angeles Kings.
King’s Swedish attacking star, Adrian Kempe, answers SportExpressen’s question as to whether it is an advantage to meet the Canucks immediately after their change of coach or if he expects them to be extra tagged?
– I do not know. I think they will come out tagged and we must have the same mentality, as we had today against Edmonton.
That match was won by Kings 5-1 after two goals by Adrian Kempe.
FOOTNOTE. SportExpressen has contacted Daniel and Henrik Sedin for a comment.
