from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Sun,

The larger question here concerns the relationship between Desjardins and team president Trevor Linden and Linden’s relationship with the Aquilini ownership group. Desjardins was Linden’s hand-picked man. He’s just barely into his second season on the job and the first — while conveniently ignoring the playoffs — was a significant success.

The problem is last season no longer seems relevant to the Canucks’ current state and the Aquilinis have demonstrated an itchy trigger finger when things go bad. LInden and Jim Benning were supposed to usher in a new era of calm and reason. They were supposed to be the architects of a master plan and they were supposedly given autonomy to execute that plan.

Now, they’re facing their first major challenge. Yes, on one level it’s just one sour, six-week stretch. But it feels like a lot more than that.

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