No surprise that new owners fire Nonis

I guess it came of somewhat of a surprise when Dave Nonis, GM of the Vancouver Canucks, was fired today.  I expected that something would be done to try to right the ship, but I thought that Nonis was saying all the right things and that would be enough to placate ownership.  On the other hand, it should never be that surprising when a new owner fires the GM hired by previous ownership.  The Acquilini’s will surely want their stamp on the team and the surest way to do that is to hire a GM who wholly believes in your philosophy and vision for the team.

On TSN, Bob McKenzie was surprised that Nonis was fired, and thought that it was the wrong move largely because Nonis has only had 4 years to build the team and that was not seen as enough time to judge whether or not he has done a good job.  Nonis is given a lot of credit for acquiring Luongo for Bertuzzi.  Granted that was a good trade, but beyond that one move Nonis has not made any moves to improve this hockey team.  The Canucks went from a high powered offensive team that always brought a lot of excitement to the rink, to one of the more drab teams to watch.  Not only did the Canucks not score much, they were also not a dominant physical presence.  There was nothing to get excited about when watching the Canucks play.

I hope that whoever the new GM is they take the next step and replace Alain Vigneault behind the bench.  Vigneault focuses far too much on defence.  Granted defence is probably the strongest part of the Canucks lineup, but with a strong defence and a strong goalie you would think that you would let your forwards play an open, offensive style game.  Vigneault was too cautious on offence.  The Canucks should allow their forwards and defence to play a more open style of hockey and hope that Luongo can stop the good scoring chances that will inevitably result.

If firing Nonis leads to a more exciting brand of hockey in Vancouver than Canucks fans should all be quite happy.  I became a fan of hockey, and in particular the Canucks watching guys like Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, and Markus Naslund.  Canucks hockey used to be fast paced and exciting.  The Canucks used to lose a lot, but we are losing now in far less exciting fashion.