The Canucks Are So Good, Alain Vigneault Might Even Get The Credit

The great irony of the Jack Adams award is that being the coach of the league's best team often precludes one from talk of being the league's best coach. Truth is, when there's no other possible explanation for a team's success, then the coach gets the credit. If, however, it's possible to attribute that success elsewhere (such as the team's makeup or star players) you're likely to hear very little about the man behind the bench.

The Jack Adams trophy typically goes to coaches who have led unimpressive teams to impressive records. Impressive, that is to say, considering how little was expected of them. It's an award predicated on exceeding expectations, not excelling. You measure where expectations were when you started, and contrast this with where the team winds up. The coach behind the greatest unexplained upswing gets the award.

This is one reason chatter regarding Alain Vigneault's coach of the year odds has been relatively nonexistent this year. Everyone expected the Canucks to be good: they've been the safe pick to win the West since the summer, and you don't win the Jack Adams simply by meeting expectations, however lofty. Considering Mike Babcock has never won the award, largely because his team, too, is merely ho-hum excellent, you'd think it was nearly impossible for the coach of a top-tier team to win. The team would have to dominate every major statistical category.

Amazingly, Alain Vigneault has emerged as a late-season frontrunner for the Jack Adams, because that's what the Canucks are doing.

Vigneault for Jack Adams

If you see this as a picture of Henrik Sedin, you may be qualified to vote for the NHL awards.

When Alain Vigneault took the Jack Adams trophy for the 2006-07 season, a lot of people didn't care, because their problem was, Luongo hadn't won the Vezina or the Hart. "Luongo was robbed," the general consensus seemed to be -- an ironic consensus, given the number of NHL players Luongo had robbed himself.

Still, looking back on Luongo's play and the team's performance, I think the right call was made. It's hard to deny that Luongo's numbers were heavily influenced not just by the team in front of him, but by the system. Alain Vigneault took a team that had the same major pieces as the one that had missed the playoffs the season before, and led them to a division title. Luongo was a big part of that, but so was Vigneault's giving the Sedins first line minutes, his motivation of the players that needed the right push, and, ultimately, the system he played.

Luongo is still one of the most talented goaltenders in the league, but it's long been a position of mine that his statistical decline wasn't a decline in his skill level, but a result of a much more opened system, for which he should not have been blamed. If we can take blame from him when he's performing in an open system, then it stands to reason he doesn't get all the credit when playing a defensive system. The 2006-07 Canucks were a trapping, dump-and-chase team that were, at times, painful to watch. As fans, we were willing to watch the Canucks cling to a 1-0 lead for 40 minutes because it was nice that our team was ahead, but really, it was safe, boring hockey. Luongo was the guy who could be counted on to complete the defensive system, but the newly-acquired Willie Mitchell and Vigneault's defense-first trap game had a lot to do with his Vezina-worthy season. While I'd have preferred they both were recognized, giving the award to AV, not Luongo, probably made more sense than giving the award to Luongo and not AV.