Staying medium

It can be difficult to translate axioms across sports. This becomes even more of a challenge when the axiom is given by Jim Zorn of the Washington Redskins, a coach who has struggled against crappy teams, recently lost his play-calling responsibilities, suffered an embarrasing loss to the Eagles last night on the nationally-televised stage of Monday Night Football and continues to face repeated calls for his head. I’m not here to defend Zorn’s coaching record, though, but rather one of his aphorisms, which is particularly applicable to the Canucks at this point in the year.

The expression in question? “Stay medium.” Zorn successfully got most of the team on the medium bandwagon last season and even inspired a blog and T-shirts dedicated to the slogan. Why? I’d guess it’s partly because it’s quirky and funny, but also partly because the aphorism makes a lot of sense. In any professional sport, you’re faced with a roller-coaster ride of a season, filled with highs and lows. However, buying into those highs and lows can be extremely problematic. During a winless streak, players often lose their confidence, causing the team to struggle even more and continuing the vicious cycle until they finally break the slump. You also see coaches and general managers panicking, juggling lines, sending players to the minors and making quick trades to try and solve short-term problems without thinking about the big picture; often this adds to the team’s problems, rather than erasing them. The converse effect happens during a winning streak, where players start believing the newspaper clippings and buying into their own hype; this can lead to overconfidence, especially against opponents perceived to be weaker, and results in some embarassing losses. In fact, that partially happened to Zorn’s Redskins last year, as they started the season 6-2 but finished 8-8. That doesn’t mean the philosophy is flawed, though; it just questions if the players bought into it as more than a soundbite.

This is perfectly applicable to the Canucks. They got off to a horrid start this year, and the reaction was predictable, with plenty of calls for change and thoughts about the team in crisis. The Province went so far as to call the team’s third game of the season “a must-win“. (For the record, Vancouver lost 5-3, so we should probably throw in the towel on the season now.) The blogosphere actually saw plenty of reasoned, mature, all-things-considered pieces to both the losses and the incredible injuries the team suffered, but there was far less restraint amongst some local talk radio hosts, some of the print media writers and many Canucks fans in general.

A little while ago, I wrote about how the Canucks’ poor start was far from a crisis, and I’ve since been vindicated; despite injuries to key players like Daniel Sedin, Sami Salo and Kyle Wellwood, the Canucks have won their last three games. Call-ups like Michael Grabner, Tanner Glass and Sergei Shirokov have played well, and the bandwagon has split an axle from the amount of people jumping back on it, so you’d think all is well in Canuckland. However, this is where the key lesson of “staying medium” comes in.

Yes, the three wins are great, but if we look more closely at them, there are still plenty of issues. The Canucks beat a good Blackhawks team 3-2, but needed plenty of impressive saves from Roberto Luongo to do so. They then barely eked out a 3-1 win (including an empty-net goal) over the winless Toronto Maple Leafs and were outplayed for much of the second half of the game. They turned in a good showing Sunday in a 2-0 win over Edmonton, which showcased the organization’s depth and was particularly impressive coming off a game the night before. However, keep in mind that this was against an Edmonton team that few expected to do well this year. Wins are always better than losses, but the team and their fans can’t get too euphoric yet. They’re barely above .500 (6-5-0) and are still in tenth place in the Western Conference, out of a playoff spot. I’m still expecting great things from the Canucks this season, but there’s a lot of hockey yet to be played.

Tonight will be a test of if Vancouver can truly stay on an even keel. They’re hosting the Detroit Red Wings (10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific). Detroit’s struggled even more than Vancouver to date, putting up a 3-4-2 record and sitting 12th in the conference, so some might think this could be an easy win for the Canucks. At the moment, I do give the edge to Vancouver, but the team can’t buy into their own hype, and they certainly can’t write off the Red Wings, who still have one of the best rosters in the entire conference and remain dangerous on any given day. Regardless of what goes down tonight, though, this will still be just one of 82 regular-season games; the Canucks can’t get overconfident if they win, and they can’t get down in the dumps if they lose. If they play consistently and approach each game the same way, they’ll do well this year. Staying medium may not have worked for Zorn and the Redskins, but it could be the key to Vancouver’s success.

(By the way, I’ll have a Q and A preview with Chris Hollis of Motown Wings and Sleepless in Michigan posted before the game. Check back here for it around 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific).

Tags: Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Daniel Sedin, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers, football, injuries, Kyle Wellwood, Michael Grabner, Sami Salo, Sergei Shirokov, staying medium, Tanner Glass, Toronto Maple Leafs