head coach: Mike Keenan

roster: C - Mark Messier, Trevor Linden, Mike Sillinger, Dave Scatchard; LW - Martin Gelinas, Markus Naslund, Gino Odjick, Donald Brashear, David Roberts; RW - Alex Mogilny, Pavel Bure, Brian Noonan, Lonny Bohonos, Scott Walker D - Jyrki Lumme, Dana Murzyn, Matthias Ohlund, Grant Ledyard, Bret Hedican, Dave Babych, Steve Staios, Chris McAllister; G - Kirk McLean, Arturs Irbe.

injuries: Martin Gelinas, lw (returned from Grade 2 knee sprain November 20, missed 16 games); Dave Roberts, lw (returned from abdominal strain November 28, missed 15 games); Scott Walker, rw (returned November 29 from broken nose, missed 4 games); Adrian Aucoin, d (groin pull October 30, played November 12 but remains day-to-day); Dave Babych, d (back strain November 4, day-to-day); Gino Odjick, lw (groin strain November 8, day-to-day); Trevor Linden, c (groin pull November 19, indefinite).

transactions: assigned Larry Courville, lw, to Syracuse (AHL) November 28.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA 
Colorado     27  13   6   8    34   80   68 
Los Angeles  26  12   9   5    29   85   71 
Anaheim      28  11  12   5    27   65   76 
Edmonton     27   8  13   6    22   64   82 
San Jose     28   9  17   2    20   71   88 
Vancouver    26   9  14   3    21   74   87 
Calgary      27   5  15   7    17   67   85 

game results:

11/20 Phoenix        W 4-2
11/22 Chicago        L 5-4 OT
11/25 at NY Rangers  W 4-2
11/28 at Boston      W 5-2
11/29 at Toronto     W 4-2

team news:

by Carol Schram, Vancouver Correspondent

If anyone has been on a desert island since the Vancouver Canucks missed the playoffs last spring, one important detail must be mentioned before we get down to brass tacks:

I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!

You may have expected that Tom Renney would lose his job as Canuck head coach. That has finally come to pass. But did you expect that he'd be replaced by "Iron Mike" Keenan? Did you think Pat Quinn would be spending his November playing golf in the desert to relieve the sting of his recent firing? Did you think Mark Messier would be the man leading the Canucks into this new era? Did you think Trevor Linden wouldn't be captain? Did you think they'd be wearing blue uniforms with Killer Whales on their chests?

On Remembrance Day, the Canucks added a statistic to their record book that most of us would just as soon forget. They lost an 8-2 stinker to the Los Angeles Kings, marking a franchise-high 10 straight defeats. They hit the old mark of nine in a row four times in the past, but this was a new mark of futility - the worst team ever. When you consider this squad finished with just 48 points in its second NHL season and finished 15 games below .500 as recently as 1990-91, 10 consecutive losses is quite an achievement.

It really wasn't supposed to be this way. After the Canucks reached Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1994, they seemed to lose their momentum during the lockout year, finishing with an average record and only winning one round in the playoffs. That summer, they moved into their new arena and signed Alex Mogilny. Things were supposed to get better, but Pavel Bure blew out his knee, the Canucks slipped to third in their division, and they lost their first-round playoff matchup against Colorado. So, the team hired a shiny new coach, Tom Renney. They pursued Wayne Gretzky, unsuccessfully, as well that summer, but the group went at the task with renewed vigour again come fall.

Somehow, things got even worse. Bure's health was questionable all season long, but in 1996-97, it became increasingly obvious that this team wasn't pulling on the same rein. Buckets of blame were deflected at the young coach who didn't know how to treat his stars. The most vocal players were shipped out of town but, despite a strong finish, the Canucks missed the playoffs for the first time this decade.

Still, Renney held onto his job. And Pat Quinn set out to shore up his personnel over the summer. He signed unrestricted free agents like Grant Ledyard and Arturs Irbe, and brought most of his own free agents back into camp, including heralded rookie Matthias Ohlund. The biggest story of the summer, though, was the signing of one particular free agent. Suddenly, the so-called Greatest Leader in Team Sports, Mark Messier, was captaining our team.

Many believed that the Canucks' complacency couldn't last under Messier's regime. But I don't think anyone foresaw how bad things would have to get before this team turned the corner. Did they tank on purpose in order to facilitate these major changes? Or had the mood in the room grown so poisonous that a 10-game losing-streak was unavoidable?

Either way, after a month of watching their hapless team lose much more than they won, Orca Bay ownership and upper management decided that they had seen enough. The only saving grace about a road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes was the fact that there were only about eight or nine spectators at the arena in Greensboro to see the damage. The Hurricanes scored a season-high five goals in handing the Canucks consecutive loss number seven, and Vancouver's goals-against continued its tumble to the bottom of the standings.

The next morning, owner John McCaw's right-hand man Stan McCammon flew out to meet the team in Washington, where he handed down the news. To the shock of many, Pat Quinn was the first to be axed, as he was relieved of his two titles - General Manager and Club President. Few will argue that Quinn was instrumental in the development of this franchise since he first arrived in 1987. Quinn changed Vancouver's perception of what hockey means to this city.

In the mid-eighties, there was only one team in hockey, the Edmonton Oilers. They didn't live too far away from Vancouver, and their shadow hung over this city for years as they would drop by three or four times a year to pummel our sad little team with the ridiculous yellow uniforms. In the mid-eighties, you could get Canuck tickets from a scalper for about five bucks, and the only sellouts were for exciting opponents like the Oilers or the Montreal Canadiens.

Starting with the 1988 drafting of Trevor Linden, Pat Quinn slowly began to change that culture. He made a number of ruthless trades in his first five years, acquiring Kirk McLean, Greg Adams, Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning, Jyrki Lumme, Dana Murzyn, and others. He pulled Igor Larionov out from behind the Iron Curtain, and the Russian's work behind the scenes led to the drafting of the Canucks' first-ever superstar, Pavel Bure, 113th overall in 1989. In 1988-89, Canucks fans were thrilled that their team battled eventual Stanley Cup winner Calgary to the seventh game of their first-round series, losing only by a Stan Smyl goalpost and a Joel Otto skate in the crease on the Flames' winning goal. By 1991-92, a big, strong, determined team surprised everyone by leaping out of the gate in October on its way to a 96-point regular season, and the club set a franchise record the following year, with 101 points. In 1993-94 the team slid back to what was then considered mediocrity, finishing just one point above .500. But after squeaking out of a tight first-round series against Calgary with a series of nail-biting overtime wins, the Canucks found themselves in the Stanley Cup finals just over a month later, against none other than Mike Keenan, Mark Messier, and the dominant New York Rangers.

It was probably the most exciting final of this decade, and the memories still resonate for everyone involved. After getting down three games to one to the decided favorites, the Canucks clawed their way back to tie the series at three games apiece, then lost a heartbreaking Game Seven at Madison Square Garden by a 3-2 margin. As Keenan, Messier and the Rangers cavorted with the Stanley Cup, Quinn's boys squatted on the ice, heads down, exhausted and defeated.

Now, as of November 4, 1997, they're not Quinn's boys anymore. As of November 13, 1997, they're Keenan's boys.and so far, they seem to like it!

When Orca Bay announced Quinn's firing, they said their search for a new GM could take several weeks, but they would move as quickly as possible. The timetable was likely sped up by the players' lack of response on the ice. Despite a valiant effort, they did not find their scoring touch as they dropped three more games: 2-1 in Washington, then 3-2 at home against Anaheim and the 8-2 drubbing against the Kings to make it 10 in a row.

The last two losses came with holdout winger Alex Mogilny back in the lineup. His signing was announced just three days after Quinn's firing, although the powers at Orca Bay emphasized that Quinn had done the majority of the work on the negotiation and it was not the lack of progress on this front that led to his dismissal. Within a day, Mogilny was in the lineup and while he looked good, he was complaining a bit about his conditioning and his timing. Nonetheless, it was a good publicity move to give the home fans something to celebrate as their team came home with eight straight losses under its belt, and the crowd went surprisingly easy on their sad-sack team as it dropped it ninth in a row.

While such experiments have failed in the past, Tom Renney coached his last game as a Canuck with all his eggs in one basket, putting Mogilny on the left side with Messier and Bure. Sure enough, they made the difference as Bure started the scoring with a successful penalty shot against Mike Vernon. Pavel also added two more assists, and Messier and Mogilny racked up a helper apiece as the team tallied its first win in just over three weeks. It didn't even feel good by that point, it just felt like a relief. After all, no matter how bad the team had become, they couldn't lose every game.could they?

Fluke or not, the losing streak ended too late to save Tom Renney and his assistant Terry Bangen. While Orca Bay executives were pretty mysterious about the G.M. search, it took them just nine days to make a new hiring - as head coach. Mike Keenan had been the prime rumor right from the get-go, because of his past association with Messier but also because of his reputation for discipline and his solid winning record. Keenan has worn out his welcome, in one way or another, in each of the four cities that he has coached in the past, but there's no arguing that he has had his successes along the way - most drastically, winning the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers.

Keenan's player personnel moves in St. Louis and his treatment of fan favorite Brett Hull were the two primary reasons for his ouster last winter. Despite his solid record, he was not offered any of the dozen or so head coaching positions that came open this summer. Yet it appeared that he could be a good fit here in Vancouver. Most Canucks fans still have bitter memories of that Game Seven smirk, but if we could learn to appreciate Mark Messier, I guess we could learn to appreciate Keenan. His hiring was a clear indication that Orca Bay had not written off the season when they fired Quinn; on the contrary, they were more determined than ever to right the ship before it sank deeper.

So far, in two games under Iron Mike's regime, there is room for cautious optimism. Keenan insists that his year off has left him time for reflection, and he is now a kinder, gentler coach. He also says that he is going to take his time evaluating talent before making any moves, and the jokes are flying that he won't have to trade for Brian Noonan, since the grinding winger is already here.

It's well known that Keenan likes to coach talent, however, and with one of his favorites, Mark Messier, already at the helm, Keenan has been giving Bure and Mogilny gobs of ice time: short shifts, but playing in all situations - even strength, four-on-four, power-play, and penalty kill. Keenan also broke up the pairing of Bure and Messier, which had been together all season, during the Carolina game, and the world did not stop turning.

The second line currently consists of Trevor Linden and Mike Sillinger plus, depending on the situation, either finesse guy Markus Naslund or enforcer Donald Brashear. At the third line center spot, Dave Scatchard has probably seen more ice time in the last two games than in his entire NHL career to date. He is getting involved in the play, picking up this third goal of the season against Carolina, and the big rookie looks like he could be an early Keenan favorite. The rest of the forward spots have been spotty, but Keenan is playing huge defenseman Chris McAllister on the occasional shift on the wing for the first time in his career, and Lonny Bohonos dressed but didn't take a shift in the Carolina game. It will be interesting to see how he continues to cope with his manpower up front once Martin Gelinas, Dave Roberts, and Gino Odjick return from their respective injuries.

It has been pointed out that one of Keenan's first moves when he enters a new coaching situation is to acquire a quality defenseman to build the team around. In Chicago, he gave up Denis Savard for Chris Chelios; in St. Louis, it was Brendan Shanahan for Chris Pronger. So far, Keenan is showing an unnerving attraction to, of all people, long-time whipping boy Dana "the Pylon" Murzyn. The lumbering defenseman has been a favorite target for abuse by talk-show callers for years, and Tom Renney had started to take heed and sit the big man due to his lack of speed. But Keenan seems to have marked Murzyn as an early reclamation project, giving him and partner Jyrki Lumme tons of ice time, and the pair seem to be responding. Murzyn, of all people, scored a terrific goal from the slot in the Carolina game - his first point of the year - and was named third star of the game. One pundit suggests that Keenan is planning to make Murzyn into "his new Jeff Beukeboom", and thus, may be able to avoid the unappealing trade market.

Keenan has also gotta like the pairing of Ledyard and rookie Matthias Ohlund, although Bret Hedican and Steve Staios may be on shakier ground. Both are former Blues, and while Hedican was moved before Keenan took over, he has moments of flightiness that may not match the Iron Mike style. Staios was traded away by Keenan in March of 1996, after seeing action only with the farm team in Peoria. Staios was called up at one point, but never saw game action. Nonetheless, a couple of years later he has developed a feisty, physical, take-no-prisoners style, and he has been seeing a decent amount of ice-time, so far, as a sixth defenseman. Adrian Aucoin is another blueliner who may find himself on the bubble once he returns from injury.

So - the bleeding has stopped, for now. After losing 10 in a row, the Canucks have picked up five of their last six possible points. Thanks to the lousy performances of other teams in their divisions through the past month, they are actually just three points away from the eighth playoff spot.

The Carolina victory came with lower shots against, solid goaltending, and a two-goal performance from Alex Mogilny, who is only just starting to get on track. Most importantly, though, the energy around the team has changed palpably. Celebrations after goals look truly heart-felt. There is much back-slapping and high-fiving on the bench. Players are sticking up for each other on the ice. In short, for the first time in a long time, this is starting to look like a hockey team. We will never know whether the players intentionally orchestrated these changes, but we did know that there was going to have to be an essential change at the core of the team to address was what wrong - not over the past month, but over the past three years. If these players were really playing that much below their potential, then something had to be done. Given that Pat Quinn would probably never have hired a coach of Keenan's caliber and reputation, it appears that these moves were necessary, and the early returns show that they have generated the requisite results. The Canucks are moving out of the cellar of the Western Conference, out of last place in goals against, and hopefully will become known this year for more than just their press conferences.

OTHER NOTES:

*After Keenan's hiring, the official party line at Orca Bay remains that the search for a General Manager is "ongoing". Right now, a la the Toronto Maple Leafs, GM duties are being handled by committee. Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Steve Tambellini is the go-to guy for player personnel issues - the one to phone if you're interested in talking trade, although all personnel decisions must be agreed upon by both Tambellini and Mike Keenan. Tambellini is an ex-Canuck winger who retired in 1988 and immediately joined the Vancouver front office, as assistant Media Relations director. Over the past decade, Tambellini has slowly climbed the corporate ladder and assumed his current title this past summer, in essence sharing George McPhee's old duties with former Chief Scout, now Assistant General Manager, Mike Penny. Both these men have been Quinn proteges, but Tambellini in particular is proving adept at understanding what it takes, now, to be an Orca Bay man. He is walking an amazingly fine line where he appears to be carrying on Quinn's legacy while, at the same time, advancing at lightning speed up the ranks of the organization. While the GM duties at this point are still, ostensibly, being handled by Tambellini, Penny, Orca Bay CEO Steven Bellringer and Deputy Chairman Stan McCammon, if Operation Keenan continues to go as well as its early returns imply, don't be surprised to see Tambellini alone in the General Manager's office by season's end.

*Despite the fact that the Canucks are still cellar-dwelling in terms of goals-against, netminding continues to be the least of the team's worries. Kirk McLean's average took a beating during the losing streak, and before his win against Carolina, his last victory came on Thanksgiving Day, when he shut out the Edmonton Oilers. Arturs Irbe managed to eke out two wins of his own along the way, against both his old teams, looking solid back in October in a 5-1 win over the surging Dallas Stars and putting forth a good effort to stop the San Jose Sharks' two-game winning streak and put the Canucks out of their 10-loss misery last week. When Irbe has been called in to relieve McLean during the blowouts, he has played as badly as McLean, but on the rare occasions that he starts, he does deliver the goods. Nonetheless, Mike Keenan is known for playing one goalie to death and McLean likes gobs of ice-time, so, in the short term, expect the current situation to remain unchanged.

*Meanwhile, Corey Hirsch is single-handedly changing the fortunes of the Syracuse Crunch. After starting the season with a brutal 1-8-2 record, the Crunch has won five straight since Corey joined the squad. Their offense is firing better, but Hirsch is making the difference with solid, aggressive goaltending against the best teams in the AHL. This may not be the time to be peaking, but if one of the Canucks' goalies goes down with an injury, Hirsch is definitely ready to go.

*Don't look now, but despite the Canucks' horrific record, Pavel Bure is 12th in NHL scoring after the Carolina game, with 22 points in 21 games. Bure's contract will skyrocket into the stratosphere if the Russian Rocket gets 40 goals and 80 points this year, and no matter what other agendas this team might have, Bure appears determined to make that happen, as he is maintaining a point-a-game pace on cruise control. Once he starts to bury some of those shots that he's currently missing, Bure could well be a force in this season's Art Ross Trophy sweepstakes. Alex Mogilny has some catching up to do after missing 16 games, but he is also going at a point-a- game since his return to the lineup, and with three goals in his last two games, his productivity looks like it's only just starting to match his potential.

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