In this interview Ethan Bear explains in detail how they were playing in the first half of the season mostly criticizing the lack of team structure and direction. I highly reccomend listening to him (starts at 10:00):
https://www.sportsnet.ca/650/canucks-central/exclusive-interviews-with-quinn-hughes-and-ethan-bear/
Little summary:
– Coming from Carolina was a big shift for him in terms of culture, coaching, preparation and was a struggle because of the team struggling, not much life in the room, trade rumours.
– The coaching change helped calming everybody down. Says Tocchet and Gonchar are great for them. Also compliments Yeo and King.
– With Tocchet they started having some structure, they started having a plan going into the game instead of just going out there and trying to survive.
– Says they started winning because everyone had a plan and a spot to be in and a job they’re supposed to do.
– Now he feels this is closer to what Carolina is, in terms of having structure, higher standards, taking care of the little things.
– He was shocked to see where the team was at when he came from Carolina, a team that is very detail oriented, where there’s a plan on every single face-off, there’s a plan for every single thing.
– In Vancouver they were just making hockey reads, trying to survive instead of having a plan.
– Says it was a “every man for themselves kinda thing”.
– Says they didn’t have team camaraderie, togetherness, everyone was a little lost.
– Says building a winning culture starts with coaching and then the players.
– Having a plan makes the game easier on the ice, you know where everybody is on the ice and you build trust.
– Says they took a step in the right direction, they’re not quite there yet. Says it all starts in training camp.
– Says it’s hard to build trust when there’s not much direction in your coaches and your system.
-“If you go to your teammate and say “you’re supposed to be here” and he says “why? Coaches never said that. You do your job and I do mine”. That was the first part of the year.
– Says guys did whatever they wanted. Now they have accountability.
– Says it’s gonna take time but they’re almost there.
– He really likes what the coaches have done, says most guys have never had direct coaching like that.
– Extension talk: Bear says management wanted to talk about an extension in November but he told them he just wanted to focus on hockey first, he didn’t want to sign too quickly. Says “everyone can relax, I’m an RFA, I’m not going anywhere”. He’s very appreciative to be on a team where he’s a priority rather than in and out of the lineup.
Says he wants to train hard this summer and be in the best shape of his life for training camp.
– Playing with Hughes: he really enjoys playing with Quinn, says they communicate very well with each other, hold each other accountable if they do something wrong.
by electricnux
21 Comments
Nice to hear what a lot of us have been thinking, from one of the players. Bear seems like a straight shooter no nonsense type of guy, and there’s a lot of validity in what he’s saying. Some optimistic comments from him.
Hopefully come training camp everyone is in top shape and we come out of the gates flying.
The captain should have been accounted for having some team comraderie
This was a great interview. You don’t frequently get such honesty from players.
I love Bruce, he’s a great guy and I give him a lot of credit in nurturing Pettersson out of his slump
That said, it’s becoming extremely clear that his style clashed heavily with the composition of our roster. Especially with what appears to have been an ineffective leadership job from Horvat. This roster is young and green, and it needed accountability and structure. Bruce may have been too nice when we needed a (fair) hardass like Tocchet to instill their roles. I don’t see the roster showing up to training camp unprepared this time around.
This really explains so much and makes a ton of sense. I hope they all come back to camp in great shape and healthy. I do think that this team has a ton of talent and has another level they can hit. Still got a ways to go before they are a true contender, but there is no reason to think they can’t be in the playoff hunt
I want Bear back long-term. Brings effort and stability on the right side.
I think BB’s style of coaching is better suited to a team with a strong leadership core, which is becoming more and more apparent that we didn’t have.
Love 🐻, hopefully they re-sign him
I guess this is what Rutherford meant by “country club”. I’m gonna get hate, but perhaps Bruce, no matter how nice he seemed, should have been fired earlier.
I mean he went from the 2nd or 3rd best defensive team to coming to the worst defensive team with no defensive system what so ever so he’s not exactly wrong
Elite NHL captain Bo Horvat strikes again
Maybe people can stop shitting on management for saying the team needed more structure when BB was coach and letting him go. You think a man who has been in the NHL for decades and been part of teams with structure and cups knows wtf he is talking about. Him saying it was a country club atmosphere within weeks of being here. Writing was on the wall for BB. Give these guys a couple years at the helm and all will be good. Here’s hoping anyways.
Great interview. I remember in maybe his first game right before the end of the period, he went to retrieve the puck in the D-zone in order get one final chance, and everyone else had just stopped playing. He looked up and looked visibly confused at that and just shrugged. That spoke volumes about the differences in the cultures between Carolina and Vancouver.
Was happy we got Bear, hope he stays around for awhile.
Not condoning the way he did it but I can totally understand why Miller was screaming at guys on the ice. When you see everyone skating around like headless chickens without any coordination it has to be extremely frustrating. I mean even us fans in this sub were pissed at what we saw, and JT had a front row seat to everything. He was even calling plays on the ice, telling guys where to position themselves on the power play, because the coaching staff wasn’t doing their jobs.
In a way I’m really glad that Horvat shat on the fans because it forced people to open their eyes and realize what a useless captain he ended up being, compared to what Miller brought to the team. In the beginning of the season this was basically a team full of Horvats who came to the rink everyday, didn’t give a shit about accountability, and just cared about scoring goals to pump up their stats for their next contracts.
This interview was awesome. Was hoping it would pop up here.
He’s bang on. And this team now can build trust because they have the ability to know their role, where they are supposed to be and can keep each other accountable.
Before it was just everyman for themselves, head above water. It wasn’t they didn’t want to play together, they just didn’t have the road map to do it.
Love it
I’ve had a blank jersey since like 2012ish, planned on putting Tanev on it when he first started but didn’t have the money (was still in highschool) and also feared he’d be traded and I’d regret it but it think I really want to put Bear on the back. After his comments about pride night, and after this interview, he’s definitely a person whose name i’d be proud to wear on my back
Seems to make sense that BB is kinda known for bringing a jolt to teams when hired mid-season. Coaches with more defined structure likely take much more time for teams to learn and adapt to. No shade to BB, love the guy but just not a great fit for our team
>Coming from Carolina was a big shift for him in terms of culture, coaching, preparation and was a struggle because of the team struggling, not much life in the room, trade rumours.
There seems to be some life in the room based on the lineup read videos… wonder when they started making those…
Let’s be honest. A soft schedule and going from mid level AHL goaltending to top 10 NHL goaltending is what turned this around.
You can say all the nice things you want about Tocchett and the job he is doing, but the same things were said last year about Boudreau. Good players win games.
Man I might be alone in this but I thought there were some real opportunities to get bear to elaborate on his experience in Carolina that were missed. I get it’s a Canucks show but it seemed like he was really inspired there and would’ve been nice let him keep talking about that instead of constantly steering him back to the Canucks with generic questions about “structure” and “trust.” I just wished they went with his train of thought a bit more.