Willie Desjardins doesn’t say a lot, but he does a lot.
His podium presentations aren’t appointment viewing — nothing like the long-winded and jolting John Tortorella — but listen long and intently enough and you get a good window on Willie’s World. Dial it back to his hiring when the Vancouver Canucks coach pledged to keep Henrik and Daniel Sedin under 19 minutes per game and actually deploy four lines on a consistent basis. What you see today is a bench boss true to his word.
Desjardins didn’t shorten the bench when his club endured its biggest funk of the regular season — going 0-4-1 from Dec. 8-17 — and the trust he placed in his players resulted in a remarkably resilient 101-point campaign and 76 and 73 points respectively for Daniel and Henrik. They had a just 47 and 50 points respectively last season.
And as much as Desjardins will match lines with the best of them, sometimes he doesn’t. He just puts his players out there and trusts them in any situation, in any matchup.
“I like to have a team that can play against anybody,” said Desjardins. “We don’t worry about it and we don’t get off our game and we get into a rhythm. But sometimes that doesn’t happen and you have to watch it.”
It’s easy to suggest that Desjardins simply looked at the Stanley Cup success that Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston have had in deploying four lines in the postseason and keeping them intact. Call it a third or fourth line, but the Ronalds Kenins-Bo Horvat-Jannik Hansen trio speaks to that mandate. Or history.
“I’ve just always coached that way,” said Desjardins. “I like teams that play hard and play four lines.”
Desjardins won’t command a lot of Jack Adams Trophy consideration as the NHL’s top coach, but that’s OK. He’s here to win games, not popularity contests.
“He wanted to come here to teach and help young guys,” said winger Alex Burrows. “And the leaders wanted to come in and prove last year was just a year off the radar. He’s everything people were talking about.”
Desjardins was open enough to admit he wasn’t comfortable with a 19-year-old rookie on his rosier in trying to get the Canucks back to the playoffs, but he threw Horvat into the deepest end of the learning pool. He took early-season face-offs against Anze Kopitar and Ryan Getzlaf and would eventually prove the club’s best option. He would get the better of Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron. He would get confident and finish with 13 goals and 24 points and a 51.4 per cent faceoff efficiency. And because consistency and loyalty are Desjardins’ calling cards — think of how he kept the struggling Chris Higgins and Nick Bonino aligned until they clicked with Radim Vrbata — and the postseason shouldn’t be a shocker to his players.
“I think it will be a lot like the regular season, but there will be more nerves and energy,” said Desjardins. “You have to stay with what got us here and our guys are pretty focused.”
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