Canucks coach Vigneault keeping an even keel

Dec 2, 2008 - 2:00 PM By Bill Bernardi PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

Alain Vigneault is certainly aware of hockey trends.

After all, the ups and downs are merely a small part of sport's cyclical nature.

The Vancouver Canucks' coach kept a level head as his team posted an 8-0-2 record which encompassed much of November. As a result, the Canucks climbed atop of the ultra-competitive Northwest Division.

Winning, however, is the easy part.

After watching his team drop three in a row, however, the 47-year-old Vigneault kept a stiff upper lip as the Canucks (14-9-2) fell back to the pack.

"That's part of the hockey season, you are going to be challenged (and) you have to be able to respond," said Vigneault, who won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach for the 2006-07 season.

"A week ago we were talking how great the room was, how great the leadership was, how great everything was. (It's the) same players and same game on the ice."

Although known for his sense of humor, Vigneault has had little reason to laugh recently as his goaltenders seem to be accruing more injuries than victories.

Captain Roberto Luongo, who serves as the face of the franchise - albeit under a mask, suffered a groin injury in a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 22.

Listed generously as week-to-week, Luongo is 11-5-2 with a 2.18 goals-against average and leads the NHL with five shutouts this season.

In his stead, Curtis Sanford stepped in two nights later and turned aside 32 shots as the Canucks notched a 3-2 overtime victory against the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

All seemed right in the world for Vancouver, which promptly dropped a home-and-home series to the Calgary Flames and a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.

To add injury to insult, Sanford was sidelined with back spasms on Monday after stopping all 11 shots in the first period. He was replaced by rookie Cory Schneider at the start of the second.

"(Sanford) came to the bench at a whistle and said he might have done something to his back," said Schneider, who finished with 15 saves. "So coach kind of said to get ready just in case. And when he came in, he said he couldn't go, so I jumped in.

"It's never easy, you have to get a sweat going, you have to get into the game. It's part of the job, you have to be ready at all times no matter what."

Also part of the job in Vancouver? Well, winning - and Vigneault knows it.

Signed to a two-year extension in May, Vigneault knows that winning is the ultimate - and immediate - goal for a team which finished three points behind the Nashville Predators for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference this past spring.

That's a trend which Vigneault doesn't want to see repeated.