CANUCKS STATS & GAME PICK

2008-2009 Regular Season
#	Pos	Player	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PP	SH	GW	S	S%
22	L	Daniel Sedin	62	25	35	60	16	26	5	0	5	216	11.6
33	C	Henrik Sedin	62	12	46	58	11	36	3	0	4	109	11.0
17	C	Ryan Kesler	62	19	21	40	6	46	7	2	1	136	14.0
38	R	Pavol Demitra	49	16	22	38	7	14	3	0	1	102	15.7
3	D	Kevin Bieksa	53	10	23	33	1	66	4	0	2	116	8.6
14	L	Alexandre Burrows	62	16	17	33	8	105	0	3	2	128	12.5
23	D	Alexander Edler	60	7	22	29	5	42	4	0	1	120	5.8
18	R	Steve Bernier	61	13	15	28	4	19	2	0	3	106	12.3
36	R	Jannik Hansen	52	6	15	21	7	37	0	0	1	62	9.7
42	C	Kyle Wellwood	54	14	7	21	4	2	8	0	3	67	20.9
2	D	Mattias Ohlund	62	4	16	20	3	83	2	0	0	106	3.8
21	L	Mason Raymond	55	9	11	20	2	22	4	0	0	127	7.1
8	D	Willie Mitchell	62	3	15	18	18	47	0	0	1	69	4.3
6	D	Sami Salo	40	5	11	16	1	18	5	0	2	71	7.0
13	C	Mats Sundin	21	6	8	14	-3	18	3	0	0	39	15.4
9	L	Taylor Pyatt	54	7	7	14	-1	37	0	0	0	80	8.8
5	D	Ossi Vaananen	46	1	9	10	7	22	0	0	0	18	5.6
55	D	Shane O’Brien	59	0	9	9	10	162	0	0	0	25	0.0
10	C	Ryan Johnson	42	2	3	5	-1	8	0	0	1	16	12.5
24	L	Darcy Hordichuk	55	4	1	5	2	89	0	0	0	23	17.4
29	R	Jason Jaffray	14	2	2	4	-2	14	0	0	2	11	18.2
37	C	Rick Rypien	5	2	0	2	-1	7	0	1	0	3	66.7
4	D	Rob Davison	23	0	2	2	-4	51	0	0	0	15	0.0
32	D	Lawrence Nycholat	14	0	1	1	3	6	0	0	0	8	0.0
27	C	Jason Krog	4	1	0	1	0	2	1	0	0	5	20.0
49	C	Alexandre Bolduc	7	0	1	1	1	4	0	0	0	7	0.0
6	D	Nathan McIver	18	0	1	1	2	36	0	0	0	5	0.0
25	R	Michel Ouellet	3	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3	0.0

TONIGHTS GAME:

COL @ NYI : TAKE ISLANDERS

#	Goalie	GPI	Min	GAA	W	L	OT	SO	SA	GA	Sv%	G	A	PIM
1	Roberto Luongo	35	2051	2.46	21	8	5	5	1006	84	.917	0	1	2
30	Jason LaBarbera	26	1367	2.85	7	10	6	2	642	65	.899	0	0	2
41	Curtis Sanford	19	973	2.59	7	8	0	1	448	42	.906	0	0	2
35	Cory Schneider	8	355	3.38	2	4	1	0	162	20	.877	0
0

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KEY TIME FOR GILLIS WITH CANUCKS

There we were sitting in a local restaurant in Barrie Ontario after a game where our players just finished playing for the Barrie Colts scribbling hockey plays on the back of the table cloth.

You see back then in 1999 Mike Gillis and I had some players in common in the OHL.

I was working with players in hockey development and the players and I in- trusted Gillis to handle the agent work including contracts at the time.

Gillis came highly recommended from a Junior A coach I knew who had some of his own players with Gillis at the time.

So we met for the first time and from there we developed a working relationship with those players that I had.

Gillis is a very bright- intelligent guy who played in the NHL years ago and was scarred a tad from his playing days, being drafted so high and not really developed correctly by the Boston Bruins.He was injured badly and never really seemed to recover from those injuries cutting his career short.

I also like that he took on the former NHLPA director Alan Eagleson and won and was instrumental in getting charges laid against the former director who stole from his own players.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

Gillis was an outside the box thinker then and as Vancouver fans are seeing he continues to be that now as GM with the Canucks. He was also a very good agent that wasn’t afraid to take on the GM’s in the OHL or NHL if it meant sticking up for his clients.

There were times over the time Gillis represented players that I worked with where we had conversations that began to teach me the business side of hockey. You see I was a hockey guy through and through I prided myself on knowing and understanding the game inside and out, but all on the ice. I made it my mission to be up to date with how the game was changing and what I could implement with the players I was working with to get them that much further ahead.

All the time I spent getting to know how to break game tape ( video) down with then NHLPA Director Bob Goodneow was time well spent. Bob taught me the game inside and out and as a Junior A coach that thought he understood the game and had a good handle on the game actually found out that there was so much more to learn and I did through Bob.

I also spent hours and hours watching Leaf practices at Maple Leafs Gardens where I use to buy the guy that watched the door at the back entrance at the Gardens a coffee or slip him a few bucks for easy in/out entry. I would watch both teams practice or pregame skates to get ideas and drills to bring back to the teams I was coaching back then.

So it was after this time that I met Gillis and he began to pick my brain about the game and what I had learned over the yrs spent with Goodenow coaching his son. Gillis was smart enough to see that not only were my teams winning but the players I coached were moving on to bigger and better things at the next levels. Gillis and I would spend hours either on the phone or meeting at rinks or restaurants over the next few years talking about the game.

Gillis while working as an agent had some big names such as then superstar Pavel Bure and was looking to restock his player shelf and I had a few up and coming players. I handled the play of those players and monitored their progress and development all the while Gillis would deal with the teams. This is where I learned from Gillis the most as he did the game from me, Gillis at one point in the stormy season under then coach Bill Stewart of the OHL Champion Barrie Colts set up a conference call between the 3 of us.

Stewart was out there as most hockey people know but certainly was a good coach in Junior who made headlines for putting that Russian player under the bus to cross the boarder and was suspended for it. Stewart in his wisdom was going to suspend a few Colts players for a game for being 5 minutes late literally for curfew. I remember Gillis getting on the phone and saying to Stewart who tried to play the tough guy all the time, ” Stewie you are not going to sit out one of my players for being a few minutes late when the kid has never ever missed a curfew in his career- further more this is not something I will sit by and watch you do to a player with NHL teams watching” It was a short conversation where Gillis made Stewart get that there was more to this than just Stewie trying to show his jam to the players, there were careers at stake and for a few minutes would be just plain stupid.

Gillis is as tough as he needs to be and also is as smart as he needs to be given whatever situation he was in at the time.

Gillis was testing the waters to become a General Manger even way back when the Leafs situation with Ken Dryden in charge and searching for a General Manager, he and Gillis talked about the position. If Dryden had given Gillis the job with all the power that goes with it he would have left to become GM years ago. Gillis made a ton of dough representing players and it seemed it was time for him to make the change to running his own team.

Hence today Gillis running the Vancouver Canucks, his dream job so to speak as GM in a Canadian City where the fans eat sleep and breath hockey.

Gillis has but one chance to make a name for himself as a General Manager and almost immediately upon getting the job I said he would appoint Laurence Gilman to his staff and he did just that. Gillis would want to be surrounded by people he trusted and knew understood the game and what kind of things he wanted to do moving forward as a GM.

Gillis and I talked about character players all the time and as a coach how important they were to winning championships in hockey. We spoke at length about proper training techniques along with players development on and off the ice in the summers. How important it is and was to get a good fitness trainer and do whatever it takes off the ice in summers to get to where the player wanted.

This is why players like Mike Danton always did so well in the NHL teams fitness testing because they just simply trained the right way all summer long. Danton would train like I have never seen before on the ice and then off the ice doing weight training, plyometrics, boxing, a ton of quick feet drills to speed up his skating/legs. It worked Danton was one of the fastest skaters on both the New Jersey Devils and St Louis Blues when he was playing.

It’s not rocket science in hockey, it’s hard work on the ice and most important it’s hard working off the ice that makes you a better player today. Players must train off the ice, they must eat right, sleep right and get the proper amount of mix of rest- training to be better players. Gillis knew this and knows this today as you see he is implementing all these attributes into his players as General Manager with the Canucks.

Gillis landed Mats Sundin and stayed patient with his coach as I predicted he would during that losing streak last month. Gillis will not make any decision quickly he will think about it and then re-think it before he does any thing.

For fans in Vancouver looking for changes to its roster this week, they may have to settle for a veteran forward who fits under the teams cap and has an abundance of character over talent. Gillis will not mortgage the future for now and I would be shocked to see him give up a first round draft pick or prospect that he wants like Cody Hodgson for a rental player.

Yes, Gillis realizes I bet that his time to show Canucks fans that he can do the job is now. But his intellect will not allow him to make a move now that will in any way shape or form hurt the teams long term existence of being an every year contender. Gillis I would think has spent plenty of time learning the ropes fast in the NHL as a GM but he also is smart enough to listen to those around him when it comes to players.

If Gillis makes a move it will be with the mind set character team first and not the fast band aid approach that a ton of exisiting GM’s make every year at this time.

Gillis will look at how this season ends before he decides where the team must go in the future which includes the Sedin twins contract situations and who to go after or retain in the summer time for the Canucks.

For Hockey God I’m Dave Frost

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