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Canucks coach addresses playoff letdown, Ryan Kesler’s struggles, and the goaltending situation

Alain Vigneault

Armed with a contract extension that guarantees him a paycheck the next three seasons, Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault spoke to reporters yesterday via conference call and said a few things worth passing on:

On his team’s failure to rise to the occasion in this year’s playoffs: “We weren’t able to get in that state of mental awareness that you need to have. We’re trying to find solutions to that. We’re trying to see if there is a more scientific approach to different elements that will allow our team to get in a better situation to have more success here as we move forward. It was a challenging year. In my mind obviously it was very disappointing how it ended, very disappointing to our fans, very disappointing to us. We’re looking for solutions and we’re going to find them and move forward and try to have a very solid year with a better finish.”

(PHT’s take: The Canucks may have won their second straight Presidents’ Trophy, but they weren’t the same team that went to the Stanley Cup finals in 2011. Motivation appeared to be lacking. The confidence wasn’t there. It’s tough to recover from coming so close, then flaming out and crashing the way the Canucks did against the Bruins.)

On whether Ryan Kesler’s shoulder injury was the reason for his offensive struggles: “That was not in our mind the reason for his diminished production. That shoulder wasn’t 100%, but our medical staff and Ryan did a great job of maintaining the strength. The injury wasn’t the reason his production fell. His rehab, and the way stayed on top of that, permitted him to play at the same pace that he was used to. But for whatever reason, and those are things we’re looking into, his performance slipped this year and we’ve got to get on top of that and get him back to where he was before that.”

(PHT’s take: Kesler became far too predictable in the offensive zone. He fell in love with his shot, making him easy to defend. To take his game to the next level, he’ll need to get better at distributing the puck. Vigneault would probably agree.)

On using both goalies, Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider, in the playoffs: “What happened in the playoffs would be an indication of what might happen moving forward. Cory’s development from last year to this year, he’s improved. And the reason Roberto was playing so many games is because he’s a great goalie and he deserved the starts he was getting.”

(PHT’s take: Not sure if that means Vigneault expects both goalies to be back next season, or if he’ll just be more amenable to a two-goalie system in the future. He may just be covering his bases should the Canucks be unable to move Luongo. The Canucks say there’s a “distinct possibility” the two goalies are together again next season, but I doubt that’s the preferred option for anyone. Update: Vigneault reportedly confirmed Luongo wants out.)