A Flying Skate Down Memory Lane

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The year is 1991.

The Hubble Space Telescope has just launched, (and much like the Vancouver Canucks), it arrives seven years behind schedule, is mostly defective, and requires an expensive rescue mission to fix it.



On the big screen, the highest grossing movie of the year is Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The film features Vancouver born stuntman Peter Kent who fills in for Arnold Schwarzenegger whenever the action heats up.



In the world of music, Billboard's biggest song of the year is a love theme by an artist nicknamed 'The Groover from Vancouver.' '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You' goes on to sell over 15 million copies worldwide, to become one of the best-selling singles of all time.



Meanwhile in arenas across North America, The National Hockey League is preparing to celebrate it's 75th Anniversary Season. It's a special diamond jubilee where arguably the most exciting player in Canucks history is about to debut...

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The first order of business is to figure out how to work the coffee machine. Once we master that, we can assemble the staff and sit down for a full financial review.

Several hours later...

Previous management didn't leave much cash in the kitty, and ownership just took a good chunk for themselves, so the bottom line looks a bit dire. There's no money to upgrade the arena, so all we can afford is normal maintenance while hoping the fan-base won't be too upset with a small $2 increase in ticket price. (Please note: The admission rate had to be hiked to help put us in a better financial position next year).

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One by one they fell, like tiny soldiers adrift in a sea of chaos and confusion. It was all so surreal, so uncertain as to which would end first. A long day of budget meetings or the raindrops beating against the window. By midday, we were forced to adopt immediate cost-cutting measures. Scouting Support was slashed to minus two and Game Promotions reduced to a five percent penalty.

While giving ground there, we insisted on maintaining positive cash flow for Team Morale. "Plus 3 and not a step below" were the exact words uttered. It was a tough day of compromise and searching for solutions, but all of a sudden, the rain clouds broke and like a ray of sunlight, good news came shining in...

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"No I'm sorry. I appreciate your interest, but we just can't move him, not even for a first and a second." The phone went dead and images of circling vultures flashed through the old cranium for a moment or two... Now where were we? Oh yes, the Staff Budget! As it turns out, there's more than enough flexibility to reshape the front office and start bringing 'our people' in.

And just like that, we're ready for our first major project. The hard work of evaluating our current personnel, determining who's best in what role, where we need to upgrade and where we need to grow.

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Had a one-on-one meeting with Pat Quinn today... The 'Big Irishman' burst through the door with his trademark stogey and a curious expression. Anticipating his arrival, there was a lighter placed strategically on the desk. That and a quick nod was all he needed to spark up. Funny thing, but we got along fine after that.

You remember Pat? During his playing days he's best remembered for *that* hit on Bobby Orr. (In Boston no less, nearly caused a riot)...



Pat Quinn Hits Bobby Orr

Since going behind the bench, Pat led the Philadelphia Flyers to an NHL record 35 game unbeaten streak. (A record that still stands today). Then there was the time he became the only coach in NHL history to be 'expelled' from the league, but that's another story for another day. Pat's been reinstated, and thankfully he's accepted our offer to stay on and mentor the coaching staff. In addition, he'll also run the blue-line corps and handle most of the in-game adjustments.

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Spent the past few days evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of our current staff. When we took over the club, we had six coaches, seven scouts and a trainer under contract. Now we're ready to move forward and identify free agent personnel who are both: 1) unemployed and, 2) highly skilled in key areas where our organization has to improve.

Somewhat surprisingly, we uncovered a number of good candidates, not the least of which is the gentleman pictured below. Born on Christmas Day, he'd be a wonderful gift as Head Scout for any team.

*[House Rule: To make the game more challenging, we can only sign staff who had real life contracts with the Canucks].*

We did manage to contact Sam via conference call, but despite a generous offer he declined to come out of retirement. Can't really blame him for wanting to spend more time with his family.

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As the overhead light turned red, sound and movement began to obediently grind to a halt. It remained peacefully quiet for several long moments until the light flashed back to green and a solitary voice broke the silence. "Welcome back to Sports Talk, our guest today is the new General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks and we were just discussing the importance of team building. Tell me, what does team building mean to you?"

GM: "It's not something you can work on every now and then. It's something that has to happen with every breath and every step you take. For example, as a coach walking into the dressing room, is your first stop your office? Or is it a locker where you encourage a player and get to know him a bit better? It's about doing all the little things that add up to a very big thing."

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The following week was busy as we interviewed for key staff positions. Of all the people we spoke with, the candidate who stood out most was none other than Harry Neale. If you're not familiar with Harry, he's the kind of guy who's always quick with a quip or ready with a one-liner. The kind of guy who cuts through the B.S. and sums it up like it really is. One of his favorite expressions was: "It's not the team with the best players that wins, it's the players with the best team."

It was a highly memorable saying. The kind of thing that sticks, and it made us feel Harry was a great fit for the type of organization we wanted to build. Harry checked all the boxes, he was talented, a free agent and (as a former Canucks staffer) eligible for rehire under House Rules.

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The gentle rocking motion was as soothing as it was persistent. Gazing out at the endless horizon it was hard to believe more people didn't answer the call. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's back it up a few days, back to when Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths called to invite the senior staff to dinner on his yacht.

Most of our players were out of town for the summer, but there was still a handful around, so we made sure to invite them as well. Turns out we crashed the party as they'd only catered enough food for twelve, but we let the players have our fancy meals while we made sandwiches in the galley.

A few beers later, we discovered some very expensive fishing poles and cast the night away with new friends, good memories and more than a few laughs.

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The pieces were starting to fall into place. We had successfully hired eight free agents (all former Canuck employees) to more than double the size of our Scouting Staff. The trick now was to get them deployed in such a way for maximum coverage in key geographical areas.

After much discussion, we opted for a strong-balanced approach to blanket North America, while maintaining a small but effective presence in Europe. Canada gets a slight priority while the European outposts will be mobile during the season, (allowing us to concentrate on certain areas at certain times).

Here's a look at the layout we arrived at, (keeping in mind that Scouting Support will increase by five points once the season starts):

*[House Rule: Real life teams can reassign scouts, so we're allowing commissioner mode to do the same here].*

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On behalf of the Vancouver Canucks, we had the honor of donating a collection of autographed items for public auction, with all proceeds going to Autism BC. Before the bidding started, there was a keynote speaker who gave a speech on the results of recent studies pertaining to autism. One of the things she shared was a marked contrast between the gazing patterns of autistic people as compared to the patterns of a non-autistic control group.

According to the study, when the two groups watch the same movie, people in the control group primarily observe objects in the foreground, whereas the autistic group is highly sensitive to background objects as well. This helps explain how 'people on the spectrum' can become overwhelmed by too much input, as they are not as effective at filtering out what may be considered non-primary information.

All-in-all it was a very informative and enjoyable evening. Truly a pleasure to help such a worthwhile cause.

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With the scouts firmly in place, it was time to turn our full attention to the coaching staff. Since our internal review was already complete, we had a pretty good idea where we needed to make changes to upgrade the staff. Tough decisions had been made, and while releasing people was never fun, it was necessary for the organization to improve.

Of our five assistant coaches, the only one we retained was Ron Wilson. Ron was the epitome of a lad completely dedicated to hockey. As a teenager, he turned down acceptance letters from several Ivy League schools, (including Harvard and Yale), just so he could play hockey. Though his coaching career was still young, Ron was extremely tech savvy, so we quickly put him in charge of taking our video and stats analysis to a whole new level.

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When we arrived for work the next morning, the fax machine was already busy spitting out documents from the league office. Among the collection of forms was an update on rule changes, and a request for a list of dates when the Coliseum was available for home games. There was a deadline to get the dates in, so we hopped on it right away.

Later that afternoon, we placed a call to NHL head office and bent their ear for better scheduling of our long East Coast road trips. We were already one of the most traveled teams in the league, so any relief we could get from better planning would be most welcome.

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With four vacant coaching spots, we soon had a virtual smorgasbord of applicants parade through the office. We were fielding lots of calls as well, mostly from eager agents explaining why their clients would be a perfect fit. The goal was to find the best coaches possible, so we tried to interview as many as we could. As the process wound down, one individual began to stand out from the crowd.

We were looking for someone who shared our passion for team building while also having a strong ability to mentor young players. Based on this criteria, we decided former Canuck Glen Hanlon would be a great addition to the staff. Affectionately known as 'Carrot' for his red flowing locks, Glen stood out as someone who embodied what we were looking for, plus (as a former player), he was eligible under House Rules.

*[House Rule Reminder: To increase game difficulty, we are only allowed to hire staff who signed a real life contract with Vancouver].*

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GM: "Ticket number four please."

The man behind the counter looked down at the ticket, then slowly gazed back up to my face. He paused for a moment before uttering:

"Hey, I know you. You're that new GM fella for the Canucks!"

A slight grin started to form at the corner of his lips, from which he continued excitedly:

"Your power play sucks! You gotta get somebody who can shoot the puck!"

That's the thing about this job. Everyone knows how to run your team better than you do.

Another long pause...

"Ticket number four please."

[CanuckJohnny]

Loving this

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With staff hiring complete, it was now time to mobilize our manpower and go all-in on player evaluation. To get the ball rolling, we setup a custom War Room in the back office. In the middle, a long conference table surrounded strategically by long rows of whiteboards, (looking a bit like 2D soldiers standing guard).

Next, every team in the league got their own board and we drew up depth charts for all of them. Scouts and Analytic staff added notations to help us rate, rank and tally scores for every team at every position. Then began the task of comparing our roster with the rest of the league to determine strengths and weaknesses. Only then would we have a clear map for prioritizing player acquisition.

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"Hit me with your best shot...
C'mon!
Hit me with your best shot...
Fire away!"

The raspy tones of Pat Benatar belted from the loudspeakers as a room full of toes tapped to the beat... It all started several weeks ago when we asked the marketing department for fresh ideas, - ideas designed to boost fan involvement and sell more merchandise next season.

Among the suggested campaigns was a contest where fans would vote for our new goal song. We'd provide several nominees and the rest (including write-in ballots) was up to them. In the end, it came down to Pat Benatar versus James Brown. Whatever the outcome, we were happy to give our fans the final say.

Goal Horn - Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Goal Horn - I Feel Good

[CanuckJohnny]

I vote for James Brown

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The Pacific Coliseum had a limited number of luxury boxes, so we thought we'd need to get creative to try and squeeze in one more. The idea was to tour our team suite (with contractors in tow), to see if there was any way it could be subdivided into two smaller boxes.

The first would be for team staff to watch our home games, while the second would be used for charity giveaways. (Like free seating for underprivileged kids). A few renovations here, a dividing wall there and voila! We were ready to enjoy the games and give back to the community at the same time.