from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,
It is the end of Day 2 in the Vancouver Canucks great Chinese adventure and Travis Green has been asked a number of questions about the charms of Shanghai without once being asked about the chances of Brock Boeser or Jake Virtanen making his team.
For Green, there are some benefits to holding a training camp on the other side of the world. This might be his favourite.
“I haven’t missed that,” says the Canucks’ head coach with a rueful smile.
As for the downside, well, there are any number of things which take on a different dimension in this, er, non-traditional hockey market. Little things like trying to find practise time for the Canucks’ new third-string goalie, Taylor Sun. And bigger things like the push and pull of trying to sell hockey to a city and country which isn’t vitally invested in the game but is of vital importance to the league and its players.
All this is asked of a coach who’s also trying to turn around a Canucks team coming off 29th- and 28th-place finishes in the NHL over the last two seasons and for whom a quick start to their season is essential to their survival in 2017-18.
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.