Mark my words - the Canucks will live to regret this day. Shame on you Alain Vigneault.
O'Brien fires parting shot at Vigneault
BY IAIN MACINTYRE, VANCOUVER SUN
And in a related transaction, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in Nashville sent the Roxy Night Club Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and a banjo player to be named later as compensation for the loss of Shane O'Brien.
The Vancouver Canucks traded O'Brien earlier Tuesday for Nashville Predator defenceman Ryan Parent. So ended O'Brien's two-year adventure in Vancouver, and so began another round of Roxy jokes involving the player.
That is how O'Brien is going to be remembered here and it's both funny and sad.
Rarely is a player publicly outed by his team for lifestyle issues and subjected to humiliation as O'Brien was last season by the Canucks.
And it's not often, also, that a capable defenceman with O'Brien's considerable upside is discarded for the benefit of both team and player.
The 27-year-old cleared waivers on Monday. The next day he cleared the air after he was traded to the Predators as the centrepiece of a four-player deal that did little for the Canucks except provide a prospect and potential salary-cap lever.
O'Brien admitted he made mistakes in Vancouver and said it was entirely his fault that he slept in and was late for practice last March after a night out. But he said his transgressions were made worse by coach Alain Vigneault.
"This whole Roxy myth - my first year in Vancouver I did hang out there a little too much," O'Brien said. "Obviously, there's a lot of things I would have done differently.
"But the thing that really made me upset is you look around an organization and there's always stuff that goes on during the year, and they try to keep it behind closed doors.
With me, AV just went right to the press and buried me and that made it worse. Everything else that happens on that team, they try to keep internal. But when he had a chance to bury me in the media, he did. He never seemed to have my back. I'd by lying if I said I thought I had a chance with him from Day 1."
O'Brien, whose contract rights the Canucks retained in July with a qualifying offer of $1.6 million US, said he knew before training camp was a week old that Vigneault wasn't going to have him on the team.
"I knew I was in trouble," he said. "I wish I got a little fairer shake in camp. I only played three exhibition games, all on the road, and we flew the day of the game on two of them. And - no disrespect to the players we had in those games - but the three games I played we were nowhere near an NHL-calibre roster. It was the icing on the cake for my career here in Vancouver.
"Last year, I stepped up when we had some injuries and helped our team win the division, and I thought I played with a lot of heart in the playoffs. Every time there was an injury, I'd play well. And when [the injured player] came back, I'd go right back to the bottom of the barrel. It's tough to play in this league when you know if you have a bad night, you're going to the press box. After two years, it was still the same thing. No matter what I did, I didn't seem to stand a chance with that guy."
Almost from the beginning - he was acquired from Tampa Bay for defenceman Lukas Krajicek at the start of the 2008-09 season - O'Brien clashed with Vigneault.
He complained about being a healthy scratch his first season here, claiming Vigneault wanted him to fight more. General manager Mike Gillis forced O'Brien to publicly apologize.
Last season, Vigneault forced O'Brien into a crash conditioning program when the defenceman returned from the Olympic break eight pounds heavier, then essentially suspended him with pay a month later after his night at The Roxy.
O'Brien leaves Vancouver no more accomplished than when he arrived. He skates well for someone 6-3 and 230 pounds, willingly fights for teammates and can pass the puck. Yet, he always seemed to be clinging to his lineup spot and was a healthy scratch 16 times last season.
He goes to Nashville with minor-league forward Dan Gendur in exchange for Parent and 29-year-old Swedish rookie Jonas Andersson. The Canucks immediately waived Parent, who has two years and $1.85 million left on his contract, and are expected to assign him to minor-league Manitoba. Andersson is on a one-way $675,000 contract, but does not require waivers to go between the NHL and American League. That could make him useful to the Canucks.
General manager Mike Gillis said O'Brien was given the chance to improve and earn playing time in Vancouver.
"He had his opportunity to come here and make the team and other players played better than him," Gillis told reporters. "We didn't go into this with any predetermined ideas.
"We thought there was a lot of upside with Shane. But we can only do so much in trying to develop players and do the best we can, and at certain points I think Shane needed to try and mature a little bit and get better."
Gillis said the team worked to find another NHL opportunity for O'Brien, who said he was grateful.
"That dressing room is full of great guys," O'Brien said. "The organization is first class all the way. Fans in Vancouver were great to me. But if you're being realistic, there was never any chance I was going to move up [the depth chart] as long as the coaching staff stayed intact. I think it was time for a change."
O'Brien is awaiting documentation required to work in the U.S. and hopes to travel to Nashville Thursday or Friday. The Predators open their season Saturday.
Vigneault won't miss O'Brien. Trading him is better for Vigneault than quitting smoking. The Canucks, however, may miss O'Brien's toughness. The Roxy will miss the publicity.
imacintyre@vancouversun.com
www.twitter.com/imacVanSun
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