Cory Schneider Needs to Play Two More Games

The William M. Jennings Trophy is awarded annually to the goalies for the team that allows the fewest goals against. The Vancouver Canucks have allowed 181 goals this season, three fewer than the Boston Bruins, who have four games remaining to the Canucks three. If the Canucks can avoid ugly performances like Saturday's flop, there's a good chance that the Canucks goalies will take home the prize.

Or rather, Roberto Luongo will take home the prize.

In order to be eligible for the Jennings Trophy, a goalie needs to have played a minimum of 25 games. While Vigneault has made good on the promise to rest Luongo and give Schneider at least 20 starts this season (with 21 so far), Schneider has still only played in 23 games. The problem is that Luongo is having too good a season: he's only been pulled twice this year. The first was the oddball game in Minnesota in which Rypien stole the show by attempting to steal a fan and the second was the Voldemort game: that which shall not be named. Other than that, Luongo has been too dang good to get pulled.

What this means is that, after starting on Saturday against the Oilers, Schneider needs to play two more games to qualify for the William M. Jennings Trophy. Which means he'll need to start 2 of the final 3 games because it's incredibly unlikely that Luongo will need to get pulled. Simultaneously, he and the rest of the Canucks need to be good enough to avoid allowing an abundance of goals against, or Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask (who has played enough games to qualify) will win the award instead. And no one wants that.

Frankly, Schneider deserves to be honoured. He has been the ideal back-up goaltender, not just giving the Canucks a chance to win when he plays, but outright stealing games at times. He has faced 40 or more shots three times this season; he has won each of those games. His performance and dependability is one of the main reasons the Canucks have such a stellar goals against average. It would be a shame if the Canucks won the Jennings and only Luongo had his name on the trophy.

Unfortunately, it may not be in the cards. On Saturday, with Roberto Luongo and Alain Vigneault set to appear on After Hours, we submitted a question regarding this issue, and Elliotte Friedman put it to Alain Vigneault (at 6:16 of clip). AV was apparently unaware that Schneider needed two more games, stated that Luongo would start on Tuesday against Edmonton, and indicated that they have a plan. It seems doubtful that the plan was in place for Schneider to start the final two games of the season and unlikely that they will deviate from that plan. It's more likely that Luongo and Schneider will split the final two starts, leaving Schneider one measly game short.

Let's face it: now that the Canucks have sewn up the Presidents' Trophy, the only thing left to play for in the regular season is individual accolades. Last season, the entire team came together to help Henrik win the Art Ross Trophy. They should be able to the same for Luongo and Schneider. Alain Vigneault needs to play Cory Schneider in two more games this season, even if it means putting him in for the final five minutes of game 82 if the Jennings trophy is signed, sealed, and delivered. He's earned it.

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.

They have the league's best offensive players powering the league's best offense. They're 1st in goals for and 1st on the power play, with 39 man advantage goals, where the league median is 21. This offense boasts the top two scorers in the NHL, the league's best playmaker, and two of the league's top four goal scorers. They have the reigning Art Ross and Hart trophy winner, and he'll likely be passing both awards to his freaking twin brother. At alternating times this season, three different Canuck forwards have been tabbed as the frontrunner for league MVP.

On defense, they don't have the same superstar names, and some say they lack a top pairing guy, unless you want to make an argument for Dan Hamhuis or Kevin Bieksa, third and fourth in the NHL in plus/minus, respectively, or for Christian Ehrhoff, who is sixth in scoring by a defenseman, or even for Alex Edler, who is generally considered to be better than those three guys. On top of that, statistically, the Canucks are the best defensive team in the league, so it's hard to criticize their personnel. They're 1st in goals against. They're one-tenth of a percentage point from first on the penalty kill. They have 18 games won by three goals or more, tops in the league. They're first in faceoffs.

They have arguably the league's best goaltending. Their goaltender is first in wins, third in save percentage, and fourth in goals against average, and his backup has nearly identical stats. The Canucks have the highest winning percentage in the league when outshot. Luongo and Schneider are in line to bring home Vancouver's first ever Jennings Trophy.

And if you think Alain Vigneault is resting on his laurels or coasting on the strength of this roster, consider that the Canucks have dressed 39 different skaters this year, not including goalies. That's more than any other team, followed by the New York Islanders, who are proof that, when you have that many injuries, you're supposed to be terrible.

But the Canucks aren't terrible. Not by a longshot, not at anything. In fact, they're on top of every category. You'd think everything must have gone right this season to achieve that kind of dominance, and you'd be right to think that because, even when it hasn't, somehow, improbably, it has.

Alain Vigneault has weathered every obstacle. He's done it this year without playing even one game with all six of his top defensemen healthy, with his starting goaltender changing his game on the fly, with the right-winger on his top line missing the first month of the season, with the wingers on his second line playing inconsistent hockey all year, with his entire third line disappearing for over a month, and a fourth line featuring numerous AHL callups, Euro-league transfers, and gingerbread men. In truth, the only consistency the Canucks have seen all season has been behind the bench.

And that may be the greatest testament to this incredible season. The Canucks are so good that their coach might even get the credit.

The Selke Is Kind of a Stupid Award

For Canucks' center Ryan Kesler, 2010-11 has been a breakout season (both offensively and shirtwise). In fact, Kesler's been such an offensive sparkplug for the 1st-place Canucks that he's even earned a place in the conversation for the Hart trophy. But, even if Kesler doesn't go home with the Hart, the Selke trophy finally appears his to lose, after two consecutive years of doing exactly that. Twice nominated, he has not yet been able to overcome takeaway machine Pavel Datsyuk, who has been named the league's best defensive forward two years in a row. This year, however, largely due to his offensive breakout, Ryan Kesler is the frontrunner.

Why, exactly? Kesler's offense may have improved, but he's been able to make this progression because his defensive responsibilities have diminished. Earlier this season, Skeeter argued that Kesler's increased offensive role has only been made possible by free agent signing Manny Malhotra, who has taken up much of Kesler's defensive burden. Skeeter:

In 2008-09, Kesler led the team in Corsi Rel QoC, with a rating of 1.265 [...] This was good for 13th in the NHL; night in and night out, Kesler faced the best players the opposition had to offer and earned his first Selke nomination [...] This year, however, Malhotra is taking the heat off Kesler, as Malhotra is third in Corsi Rel QoC on the Canucks, first among forwards. Meanwhile, Kesler is facing the 8th toughest competition [...] With Malhotra bearing the brunt of the opposition's offensive pressure, Kesler has gone from first amongst Canucks forwards in Corsi Rel QoC to sixth.

In short, Manny Malhotra has relieved Ryan Kesler of the dirty, defensive responsibilities and, in so doing, he's freed Kesler up to achieve the type of offensive production necessary to finally win the trophy for the best defensive forward. That's kind of stupid, don't you think?

Yup. It's also indicative of a larger issue. Considering its tacit criteria, the Selke is kind of a stupid award.

The Malhotra/Kesler conversation has underscored one of the main problems facing the Selke: it places a bizarre premium on scoring, (as well as stats in general). Isn't the whole point of the award to celebrate the league's best defensive forward? Who cares how often he scores? The Selke award suffers from a problematic statistical bias. Malhotra's offensive numbers are certainly nowhere near Kesler's, and while he is beginning to gain some Selke traction, the big totals of past winners are working against him. Since the lockout, the award has been handed out five times (twice to Rod Brind Amour and thrice to Datsyuk) and the winner has never had fewer than 70 points. Heck, people thought Kesler might win it last year, mainly because he outscored Datsyuk with 75 points. It shouldn't really have mattered, and thankfully, it didn't.

Another problem is that the Selke is a reputation award. Kesler is coasting on past Selke talk this year, and that's not even remotely unusual--it's how the award works. But, for a trophy handed out annually, the only thing that should matter is how the player performed defensively that season. Instead, the Selke consideration period seems to span multiple years. This too will likely work against Malhotra, who is only in his first season of Selke talk. Unlike Kesler, for whom the pairing of his name and the word Selke is practically Pavlovian, people simply don't think of Malhotra in that way quite yet.

A third problem is that nobody sees all the teams regularly enough to properly determine who the best defensive forwards actually are. Dave Lozo believes both Malhotra and Kesler should be nominated, but what about Jannik Hansen, for example? As a Canucks fan, I could say that Jannik Hansen deserves some Selke talk, but who outside of Vancouver is even going to notice the little things he does night-in and night-out? Nobody. Heck, the fact that he's not a center practically disqualifies him from consideration. However, if one was to ask the players in the Canucks' dressing room to name their best defensive forward, and I assure you Hansen would get a few votes. You really have to watch closely to see all the little things he does on the defensive end: his checking (back, fore, body, and poke) is downright sublime, and his puck pressure and board work is stellar. But that's the rub with good defensive play; it doesn't stand out. How can the Selke celebrate the best defensive forward when good defensive play goes relatively unnoticed in limited doses? It can't.

So how do we combat the issues of statistical bias, reputation, and limited observation? My solution would be to treat the Selke like the Masterton trophy, and let the nominations come from the teams for which the players play. Let each team nominate a forward and let the league pare it down from there. Not only would this allow many more players to be rewarded for their defensive play, it would allow the nominations to come from the people most qualified to recognize their subtle contributions.

Bonus tangent: is there's an award for best defensive forward, why isn't there one for best offensive defenseman? The Dustin Byfuglien/Tobias Enstrom conversation from earlier this year had similar underlying issues.

The Canuck Academy Awards

In honor of the Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, we here at Pass it to Bulis have taken it upon ourselves to award our own versions of the Academy Awards to our beloved Vancouver Canucks. Like the actual Academy Awards, it's incredibly self-congratulatory, but that's just fine. After all, the Canucks are first place in the NHL, Daniel is leading the NHL in points, and Pass it to Bulis gets more and more famous every day. So let's take this opportunity to feel good about the team, pat each other on the back, and dress up like we're going to a shindig on Persephone.

THE WINNERS

Writing (Original Screenplay): James Duthie and Roberto Luongo for "The Heart of a Poet: A Moment of Luongo"

An easy win for the the superfriends for this incredibly entertaining TSN segment. "Rhinoceros hips" alone was a brilliant bit of writery. I'm going to give Luongo a co-writing credit on this one because I'm feeling charitable and assuming he made a few ad-libs in-between poems.

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Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Rollie Melanson for "The Butterfly Effect"

Melanson has done a fantastic job adapting Luongo to a new style of goaltending that keeps him deeper in his net, more efficient in his movements, and more focused in the face (or buttocks) of adversity. This adaptation has taken time, as Luongo struggled early in the season, but he is now second in wins and in the top-5 in save percentage and goals against average. While the playoffs will be the true test of whether Melanson's adaptation is as good as Charlie and Donald Kaufman's "Adaptation.," which was only nominated for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Luongo is looking sharp and claiming to be better than ever.

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Visual Effects: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Sound Mixing: Rick Bowness for "Ham-Juice"

With the multitude of injuries on the defensive end, Bowness has had to be especially creative with how he mixed his defensive pairings and has done a remarkable job. His pairing of Dan Hamhuis and Kevin Bieksa at the beginning of the season paid immediate dividends as a shutdown pairing, but I've been especially impressed with his mix-and-match patchwork defense in response to injuries. Rome and Tanev together sounds like a potential disaster, but they were the best pairing on the ice against Dallas on Saturday.

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Sound Editing: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Short Film (Live Action): Lee Sweatt for "Rudy"

Sweatt bears a strong resemblance to Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, both in stature and facial features, a fact not lost on his Canuck teammates, who chanted "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy" prior to his first ever NHL game. And just like a Hollywood sports movie, Sweatt had an inspiring finish, scoring the gamewinning goal. Also, he's short. Short film. It's funny.

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Short Film (Animated): Jeff Tambellini for "Tamby's Magic Shooty Spot"

Like Sweatt, Tambellini is short. Unlike Sweatt, Tambellini has managed to stay in the lineup long-term. A big reason for this is Tamby's magic shooty spot, that small patch of ice near the right faceoff dot that seems to impart magical accuracy to Tambellini's stick. Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to get to that patch of ice recently and has found himself demoted to the fourth line and is in danger of gorging on press-box popcorn with Cody Hodgson on his way back up from the Moose.

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Music (Original Song): The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Music (Original Score): Cody Hodgson for "Scoring a Goal"

Hodgson's first ever NHL goal, his original score in other words, was a beauty. Sure, it wasn't a great shot, but it was effective. More impressive was his ability to fend off the barrage of stick-lifts and the patience he showed in getting to a prime scoring area. Other nominees in this category were Mario Bliznak, Alexandre Bolduc, Lee Sweatt, Aaron Volpatti, and Sergei Shirokov. Shirokov's effort was the closest competitor for Hodgson, but Shirokov is clearly the black sheep boy of the Canucks' prospects, whereas Hodgson carries the golden fleece.

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Makeup: Mike Gillis for "The Vancouver Canucks"

Gillis has convinced me that he knows what he's doing, and one of the areas that has been getting a bit more attention lately is the psychological makeup of the team. His acquisition of Manny Malhotra has provided an instant leadership upgrade, the establishment of Henrik Sedin as Captain instilled a calm, business-like demeanor, and his demands on Ryan Kesler to mature as a person have made Kesler a better, more-focused hockey player. People have laughed at Gillis innovations like the Mind Room, but it's hard to argue with the mindset of this Canucks team.

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Foreign Language Film: Alex Burrows for "Win Da Turd"

During the pre-season, Burrows was still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. In a burst of inspiration, he was asked to provide colour commentary for the Canucks and he was delightful. You could barely understand a word he said, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. At some point during one of those broadcasts, Burrows made the observation that the Canucks needed to "win da turd." A few enterprising Canucks fans jumped on the phrase and began spreading "win da turd" across Twitter. It's now a staple of the Twitter-verse during Canucks games and a worthy winner of this award.

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Film Editing: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Documentary Short Subject: Lee Sweatt for "Seriously Guys, He's Short"

Seriously.

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Documentary Feature: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Directing: Alain Vigneault for "V for Vigneault"

Mike Gillis made the decision to keep Vigneault when he became the GM of the Canucks and it appears to have been an excellent decision. There are some who would argue that Vigneault's job should be easy given the conglomeration of talent on the Canucks' roster. Those people are silly. It's not an easy task keeping such a strong ensemble cast focused and ready day-by-day, game-by-game, but Vigneault has been up to it. He even has some prominent mysterious third contributors to popular Canucks' blogs arguing that he should be considered for the Jack Adams award this year. He just might deserve it.

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Costume Design: Fin for "Green Man"

It doesn't get much better than that.

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Cinematography: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

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Art Direction: The Sedins for "Wizardous Sedinerie"

In case you haven't noticed, the Sedins clean up in all the technical categories.

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Animated Feature Film: Jannik Hansen for "Beaker: Based on a True Story"

Hansen is my favorite forechecker, but his talents aren't limited to his dogged determination on the ice. His voice work for the animated biopic of Beaker from The Muppets is sublime. You can tell he put his heart and soul into the role.

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Actor in a Supporting Role: Manny Malhotra for "The Enabler"

Malhotra is the ultimate supporter, gaining few accolades for himself but constantly improving the performances of those around him. I have to be careful about singing his praises too much, as I might make him ineligible for the one award that he might actually win this year: the Fred J. Hume award as the unsung hero of the Canucks.

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Actor in a Leading Role: Ryan Kesler for "Forget the Selke, I'm Going for the Hart"

Kesler is very clearly the leading man of the Canucks. Sure, the Sedins are having brilliant seasons, with Daniel having jumped to the lead for the Art Ross trophy, but they're just not sexy. Meanwhile, Kesler is appearing on the cover of video games, posing for pictures in his underwear, being named one of BC's most beautiful people, and scoring goals by the bucket-load. While he's been a two-time Selke runner-up, Kesler is now being discussed for the Hart trophy as his offensive production has begun to outshine his defensive contributions. Ryan Kesler is clearly in the leading role for the Canucks, while the Sedins get to win all the technical awards that are incredibly important but no one really cares about.

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Best Picture: Tanner Glass for "Glass Half-Full (Of Bears)"

I just saw Black Swan last night. This picture is almost as good.

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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.

That said, Alain Vigneault hasn't let up. In 2007-08 the team wasn't any better -- in fact, they were arguably worse, as Nonis's depth acquisitions were just plain awful, and the whole defense spent most of the season injured. Even so, the team spent most of the season not just contending for a playoff spot, but contending for a division title. AV should get credit for that.

He should also get credit for last season, where the top six Canuck scorers all had career years. If a team achieves success on the back of one player, then sure, you can point to the player and say, that's why. Pretty much everyone last season was having the best season of his career, including Christian Ehrhoff, who had been acquired from another team. Alain Vigneault discovered Sedin-Sedin-Burrows. He oversaw Mason Raymond's growth in a novel way. The guy was originally making defensive mistakes that made him a liability, so AV put him on the PK. How crazy is that? But it worked. When you come down to it, if most of your team is having a career year, it means the coach is excellent at tapping potential. Still, AV wasn't even in the running for the Jack Adams award.

It seems recently, to win the Jack Adams trophy, you've got to right a sinking ship. Bruce Boudreau and Dave Tippett are excellent examples of this. They stood out because all the writers who had predicted struggles were blown away by the success of the team under its new coach. That's great, they did excellent jobs on their teams. There have been several teams where a coaching change brought success. Chicago, Colorado and Dallas are other examples. (I refuse to count the Penguins. They made the Cup Finals under Therrien.) Still, while I credit these guys for doing a great job, let's be honest here: they had nothing to lose. If you walk on to a sinking ship and save it, then you look like a hero. If you fail, then you walked onto a sinking ship and it sunk. No one blames Jack Capuano for the Islanders' losses, but when they got hot briefly (if you can call a 3-game winning streak "hot"), Capuano got all the credit. It's a pretty cushy situation to be in. If the players respond to the coaching change, the coach is instantly among the frontrunners to win the Jack Adams.

It doesn't even require that you're coaching a bad team. Recall that Boudreau stepped onto a team with Ovechkin, Semin and Green already on it. Backstrom, too, but he wasn't such a big name then. It's not like Boudreau was taking the Florida Panthers to the playoffs. The Caps have great players in a weak division. Boudreau is an awesome coach, and did a great job, but much of his success stems from having some crazy-talented guys in the lineup. He didn't take a ragtag group of nobodies and show them that if they believed in themselves, they could achieve anything. He took the handcuffs off of Alex Ovechkin and watched the magic happen.

That shouldn't be a slight against Boudreau. It's perfectly acceptable for a coach to have a good team. This is the point I wish voters for NHL awards could wrap their heads around. The Capitals are a good team, and Boudreau is a good coach. Mike Babcock, Todd McLellan, and Alain Vigneault are also good coaches. They shouldn't be ignored because the team in front of them has talent.

So let's give Alain Vigneault a thorough look for the Jack Adams this season. Sure, the team's got some crazy-good scorers, a Vezina-quality goaltender and a defensive corps deeper than the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, but the team also has a great coach. Haven't the Canucks been on the best stretch in the history of the franchise? Hasn't Alain Vigneault been instrumental in the development of players like Kesler, Burrows, the Sedins, Bieksa and Edler? Shouldn't all this count for something?

The Canucks are showing resilience, consistency, and a level of compete that leaves unprepared teams agape. They wear the opposition down even in the third period of the second back-to-back game at the end of a long road trip. What right does any team have to be that good? Point to Kesler's play all you like. Point to the Sedins being all-stars and Luongo being a superstar. Point to a deep defensive corps. All that's well and good, but let's not disqualify Alain Vigneault for having too awesome a team. We've seen teams similar to this one struggle. We've seen talented teams fail. Even this season, we've seen players as good as Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk demonstrate that "on paper" isn't any kind of guarantee.

If the Devils turn their season around under Lemaire, if the Isles make the playoffs under Capuano, if the Stars continue their winning ways and finish at the top of the Pacific under Crawford, these guys will be the only ones people talk about for Jack Adams. They'll have accomplished a lot that's worthy of consideration. But leaving the likes of Alain Vigneault out of the mix because his team's just too good would be a massive oversight. Let's get the talk going right now: Alain Vigneault for Jack Adams.