The fallout from Tuesday’s big news that the Vancouver Canucks fired president and general manager Mike Gillis continued the next day.
Not only was Trevor Linden hired as the new president of hockey operations on Wednesday, but players, head coach John Tortorella and chairman of Canucks Sports and Entertainment Francesco Aquilini were able to publicly reflect for the first time on the end of the Gillis era in Vancouver.
For the first time since 2008, the Canucks will not make the playoffs. The team has been trending downward since it made it to Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. And Gillis, in his sixth season in Vancouver and with highly publicized criticism for his decisions over the years, took the fall.
“Whenever a GM gets fired, it falls on the players. It’s our performance on the ice that cost him a job,” said forward Daniel Sedin, as per Metro News.
“That’s the bottom line. It’s always tough to take as a player. That was tough. But then waking up this morning, seeing Trevor’s name, that brought some excitement back for sure.”
Change in Vancouver might not be restricted to just the front office. Tortorella, in his first season with the Canucks, could also be on his way out at the end of the season, as the coaching staff will undergo an evaluation from the new man Linden.
