Rutherford criticizes Boudreau, rips Canucks' "loose" structure

Here we go again.

The vibe is tense right now around the Vancouver Canucks after yet another blown multi-goal lead on Saturday night against the Nashville Predators – their fifth blown multi-goal lead in 12 games this season.

On Monday, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford didn’t mince words when asked about how he feels about his team and his coach.

“I would have expected better,” Rutherford said in an interview with Satiar Shah and Dan Riccio on Sportsnet 650. “I didn’t like our training camp and we continued into the early part of the season the same way as our training camp was.

“There’s a lot of things that have to happen, but, in order for us to become a better team. We have to play with a stronger system and really be more accountable for more of the things that some of the players are struggling with.”

When asked if he believes the team has the right coach and personnel to play with proper structure, this is what Rutherford had to say.

“When we talk to the coaches, we stress it.

“I do believe the style that the team played when they had success in the second half of last season was a loose style and it was more on the offensive side. Our goaltender played great in the second half and really helped us win a lot of those games.

“I don’t believe that that’s the style of play you can sustain over a long period of time if you want to contend for a playoff spot.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Bruce Boudreau.

However, he didn’t let his players off the hook either.

“We have to make players more accountable, and we’ll have to take the necessary steps to get players’ attention.”

“We tried to make changes in the offseason. A priority of ours is the right side of the defence. We need to make it younger. We took a step forward there when we finally were able to get Ethan Bear.”

But, even when Rutherford is in the middle of talking about personnel changes, he pivoted back to his criticism of the team’s structure.

“But, you know, if we were playing in a real strong structure, it would make it easier for our defensive play, and it wouldn’t matter who is on our defence.

“Right now, we don’t have that strong structure, and we need to change the make-up of our defence.”

Many were mildly surprised by the Canucks lack of action in terms of remaking this roster in the offseason, but Rutherford once again reiterated that it wasn’t for a lack of effort.

“When a defenceman comes along like it did in the offseason, we were in on just about every one of those players that moved to another team.

“But, there were always circumstances that meant we couldn’t get them. We either didn’t have the cap space, or the other team had a better player, or players to give up for the defenceman.”

One of the defenders that the Canucks were consistently linked to in rumours was John Marino. He was eventually traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the New Jersey Devils for young defenceman Ty Smith and a 2023 third-round pick.

Marino has been a fantastic fit in New Jersey. He’s rocking a 73% even-strength goal differential despite playing big minutes and being one of the team’s leaders in defensive zone starts.

JOHN MARINO's first GOAL as a devil!!!!

devs up 4-1 pic.twitter.com/eL7YCZd6TX

— Devils on MSG (@DevilsMSGN) October 30, 2022

“We’re going to look to do bigger deals”

With Rutherford not holding back on his coach or players, you know that he wasn’t going to sugarcoat his thoughts about the last management’s work in building this team.

More interestingly though, Rutherford hinted at bigger moves to come. Here’s what he said when he was asked about acquiring draft picks and younger players.

“That’s the goal going into next offseason, that we’ve acquired more younger assets, younger players, draft picks, and opened up cap space.”

However, Rutherford cited the mess that was left behind by the Jim Benning regime.

“That’s gonna be the tough thing to unravel. We’ve tried to do it since last January. But, the players that become the obvious ones that are not going to be here long term, there might not be a return or teams who are willing to take them.

“With the Chicago deal, we had [Jason] Dickinson, and it was a cap move. We had to put a draft pick in there. It was an absolute must to do at that point in time so we could at least work with a 23-man roster.

“But, we’re going to look to do bigger deals than that and open up a lot more cap space so we can be involved in some of the talks for players that will be available next offseason, or prior to that.”

Rutherford then cut off Riccio to clarify his last comment – that he’s open for business right now.

“I don’t want people to take this the wrong way in that we’re pushing this off until next offseason. We’re willing to do something right now if something is available to us.”

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