Vancouver has a real problem with the youths. Their music is different than mine, their fashion is different than mine, they're always wearing their baseball caps sideways. They’re the worst. Ugh! Youths!
One of the most youthful of youths is Nikolay Goldobin, the winger recently acquired from San Jose in exchange for Jannik Hansen. He’s just 21 years old and exudes a friendly, shrugging kind of cockiness. And to the delight of fans, in his first game as a Canuck he scored a stunning goal. It was one of the nicest of the year, scored on a breakaway showcasing both mad speed and hecka skill. (Sorry to throw that technical hockey lingo at you, I’ll reel it back.)
Problem is, Goldy cheated. He quit the zone early, dropping his man for a potential scoring play while puck control was still contested. It paid off; Ben Hutton won the battle, caught him with the puck, and Goldobin roasted Ben Bishop.
Didn’t matter. Bye-bye, Goldy. Coach Willie Desjardins effectively benched him for the rest of the game. He ended up with a team-low 5:51 of ice time. Desjardins’ official line was something along the lines of, “He doesn’t know our systems yet and I wanted to protect the lead.”
It’s fairly easy to read through that double-speak. Goldy blew the zone, and thus to Willie, he blew it.
With Vancouver’s foot off the gas, the Los Angeles Kings were able to claw back and make it a nail-biter. The Canucks won, barely, on the strength of Goldobin’s gorgeous game-winner.
So I have to ask: should Vancouver’s coaching staff be reining in their young players so much?
The philosophy du jour is that you win your ice time by fully buying into the defensive system. “Did you finish your check? That’s real good, here’s some prime time alongside Bo Horvat for dessert.” If you ask the coaches about this they’ll wheel out a smiling Sven Baertschi to illustrate the point; the winger’s complete play was deficient to start, but he put in the hard work, got his 200-foot game up to snuff, and now he’s coach’s pet, chowing down on big bowls of power play time.
And frankly, all young, dynamic players in the pipeline will face the same treatment, at least under this regime. Not just Goldobin, also Brock Boeser, Adam Gaudette, Jonathan Dahlen; no one is immune.
But at this stage in the rebuild (yes, it’s a rebuild for crying out sakes!) shouldn’t they be?
Look, I completely get the coaches’ perspective. You’ve built this system, all your vets have bothered to learn it, your bottom six forwards stick to it like glue to earn your regard. Then some little twerp comes in and blows to zone to score a fancy one. Pretty goals are great but you’ve gotta nip that behavior in the bud, and ice time is the only stick you have. Makes sense, and in some ways I agree.
But with stick there’s also carrot. Creative play breeds more creative play. A higher scoring team is looser and more dynamic from top to bottom. And critically, being given permission to mess up occasionally takes the pressure off.
What’s the message for offensive-minded players right now anyway? Reid Boucher scores? He’s a healthy scratch two games later. Goldobin scores? Benched for the remainder. Meanwhile, much maligned Mr. Jayson Megna scores very little yet earns plush ice time game after game.
There’s also the product itself to consider. The 2016/17 squad plays on its heels most of the time. The last four games Vancouver has been outshot by huge margins. The Canucks aren’t going to be good for a while, so it’s in management’s interest to keep the on-ice product as entertaining as possible. Fostering a portfolio of young, exciting players is the easiest way to do that. I’m sure that any coach loves a hard-nosed, journeyman veteran who plays an error-free game, but fans don’t mind seeing some mistakes if they also get to be dazzled once in a while.
Perhaps the biggest thing is that offensive instinct can’t be taught. Did Goldobin float and blow the zone, or could he simply sense a scoring opportunity that other players couldn’t?
In any case the sky is not falling. Against the Montreal Canadiens, Desjardins rewarded Goldy with slightly better ice time. He played 10:19, most of that alongside Horvat and Baertschi, and he had one of the best scoring chances of the game. He also had two giveaways in a single shift. But it seems like coach Desjardins is bringing him along slowly.
I just hope that for the sake of everyone watching, he throws Goldy the odd carrot.
