McKenzie: Benning, Desjardins heavy on substance

Bob McKenzie was on TSN 1040 Thursday afternoon.

On his sense on the Vancouver Canucks organization with the new regime in place:

 “I think it’s, as we knew - everybody knows what Trevor Linden is all about and the persona that he puts forward. Guys like Jimmy Benning and Willie Desjardins – I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’re all substance and no style, but it’s not far off the mark. I mean, You know, neither one of them is going to be the flashy soundbite. Neither one of them begs or craves any kind of spotlight whatsoever. They’re very professional and very calm in terms of their approach, but also have some very firm ideas. I think they’re guys with a plan. I think they’re very well-suited to each other. I think within reason, they’re going to be very, very patient and try to go about their job with as little fanfare as possible and try to maximize the results for a team that we know is getting older as we speak and is trying to milk whatever it can out of this veteran core.

“The challenge between now and whenever the trade deadline is, I haven’t even looked at the exact date, I’m assuming it’s in March, is to make sure that you’re in the running for a playoff spot so you don’t have to ask yourself, ‘Do we need to trade Alex Edler? Do we need to trade Kevin Bieksa? Do we need to offload more veteran players than just the unhappy Ryan Kesler?’

“And that’s really it in a nutshell and everything in Vancouver is aimed toward, ‘Let’s make the playoffs, let’s continue to try to get younger and more exciting and freshen our group a little bit, but let’s also allow this veteran core that’s done some pretty good things in the NHL, but never the ultimate prize, let’s give them the chance to show us what they got.’”

Source: TSN 1040/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey