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HomeNewsHartley Miller's Hart Attack – April 11, 2014 Edition 466

Hartley Miller's Hart Attack – April 11, 2014 Edition 466

“Cut your losses.” – To avoid losing any more money than you have already lost: Let’s cut our losses and sell the business before prices drop even further. (Cambridge Dictionaries Online).

“Throwing good money after bad.”- To waste money by spending more money on something you have already spent money on that is no good: trying to fix that old car would just be throwing good money after bad (Cambridge Dictionaries Online).

The Vancouver Canucks “cut their losses” when they sacked GM Mike Gillis, a day after fans chanted “Fire Gillis” during a lethargic 3-0 loss to Anaheim. With Gillis out, the attention turns to the future of John Tortorella.

Ordinarily, in the NHL, one season on the job, is not enough time to make a fair evaluation.

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The Canucks along with the last place Edmonton Oilers face an interesting dilemma. Both teams badly underachieved, yet their coaches have commanded the bench for less than a year. This isn’t meant to compare that the Canucks poor season was anywhere near as bad as the Oilers fiasco, yet the similarity is both clubs made a coaching change with the expectation of improvement. As the standings strongly suggest, that did not happen.

On June 10th, 2013 the Oilers hired Dallas Eakins as their 12th head coach, signing him to a four-year contract to replace the fired Ralph Krueger. Since the change, Edmonton has gone from 12th out of 15 in the Western Conference (2013) to dead last out of 14 this season.

On June 25th, 2013 the Canucks introduced John Tortorella as their 17th bench boss in team history. He was given a 5-year contract (believed to be worth $10 million) to take over from Alain Vigneault.Since the change, Vancouver has gone from a division champion and the #3 seed in the West, to missing the playoffs for the first time in six years.

This begs the question; do the Oilers and the Canucks “bite the bullet” financially and admit a mistake was made?

For what it is worth, two other Canadian NHL teams may also consider a coaching change. Randy Carlyle has to take responsibility for the Toronto Maple Leafs collapse in late March and Paul MacLean failed to get Ottawa to the playoffs after the Senators reached the second round last year.

Bob Hartley should be safe as the Calgary Flames coach even though his team has not made the post season in his two years. Hartley has been given many players who should still be in the AHL.

Michel Therrien has done an admirable job in guiding the Montreal Canadiens to the playoffs in his two years and rounding out the Canadian contingent, the jury remains out on Paul Maurice with the Winnipeg Jets, who has only been with the team for ½ a season.

Eakins has had difficulty connecting with many players in his first season behind an NHL bench. Examples include: he tried ridiculous 8am practices in early January; he benched 2012 first overall pick Nail Yakupov after not being able to get the best out of the 20-year-old Russian; and during an awful 8-1 loss to lowly Calgary last month, there was a confrontation between Eakins and 2010 first overall pick Taylor Hall after Hall’s attempt at slamming a water bottle sprayed Eakins. The coach
then tore a strip off Hall and did not give him another shift for 14 minutes.

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The Royal Half@theroyalhalf tweeted, “Taylor Hall threw a water bottle at Dallas Eakins last night and in typical Edmonton Oilers fashion it missed the playoffs.”

Meanwhile, Tortorella has different issues. He and the former Canucks GM (Gillis) were not on the same wavelength in a number of areas, most notably, the style of play. Torts has overused his top players, received a 6 game suspension for acting like an idiot and ran Roberto Luongo out of town by not playing him in the Heritage Classic. Under Tortorella’s guidance, the Canucks are the lowest scoring team in the Western Conference and have the worst power play in the West.

Coaches like Eakins and “Torts” create great fodder for the media. Reporters love the material from a circus like atmosphere.

The Oilers and Canucks need a coach that can be less controversial and more constructive or maybe it is, less deconstructive.

Naturally, Eakins and Tortorella are not the only reason why their respective team nosedived.

One doesn’t need another season to understand the mistake made by the Oilers and Canucks in June of last year. Yes, in both cases, it should be One and Done.

From the Quote Rack:

Congratulations to Trevor Linden for being appointed the new Prez of the Canucks and also welcome to the 25 newest members of Club 16 Fitness Centers.
Sports Team Owner Handbook on “Restoring Brand Deterioration”
A: fire your General Manager and/or Coach (check)
B: hire someone popular to replace him/her (check)
C: wait for fans to put past failure(s) behind them (in progress)
D: raise ticket prices (TBA)

No one recognized Lindsay Vonn as she disguised herself as a ticket seller for a publicity stunt at a Vail ski resort. Not to be outdone, Tiger received the same amount of recognition when he put on a Houston Astros uniform.

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Comedy writer TC Chong of Vancouver (http://alwaysfunny.com/)

With Tiger Woods out of the Masters, four ticket scalpers have filed for bankruptcy.

Alex Rodriguez’ nephew hit 8 homers on 8 swings in a H.S. tourney.’Octo-Rod’?

Contributor Bill Littlejohn of South Lake Tahoe, California

The NBA has suspended Bucks center Larry Sanders, who is an advocate for marijuana legalization, five games for using pot. Wonder what Sanders can do with all that free time?

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari says he wants to replace “one and done” with “Succeed and Proceed.” Really? “Succeed and Proceed?” Some of his “one and dones” can’t even spell it.

Contributor Janice Hough of Palo Alto, California www.leftcoastsportsbabe.com

Fox News anchor Heather Childers congratulated the UConn men’s basketball team on winning the NAACP championship, proving once again that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Comedy Writer Marc Ragovin of New York

I just saw a video of Kate Upton posing in zero gravity for Sports Illustrated’s 2014 Swimsuit Issue. So much for Pavel Bure being my all-time favourite floater.

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Khloe Kardashian denied reports she’s dating Matt Kemp of the Dodgers. She wouldn’t deny dating the rest of the team.

Comedy writer RJ Currie www.Sportsdeke.com

And in case you missed it:

A travel company in Denmark is encouraging Danish couples to go on vacation and have sex to increase a shrinking population. Denmark should also consider getting an NBA team.

Comedy writer Gary Bachman

Hartley Miller is the sports director for radio station 94X. His column appears Fridays on hqprincegeorge.com. Send along a quote, note, or anecdote to [email protected].
Follow him on twitter: @Hartley_Miller

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