Having exercised six of the seven stages of grief following the Vancouver Canucks unceremonious first round exit, we can comfortably move into the final such part of the program: acceptance. We’ve since left the anger, denial, shock, bargaining and depression behind us – each varying in degree of difficulty and length –  having just now come to terms with the heartbreak left in the wake of this season and consequently a new found appreciation for those that got away before or during it.

I mean, who among us wouldn’t get a kick out of watching a former Canuck raise the cup? Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself here though. Lets check in on some former players and coaches to see how they’ve done to this point and how their prospects look going forward.

Allow me to introduce a new wrinkle to the tried and true “Catching up with Old Friends” formula and throw some coaches into the hat. They make up the smallest piece of the departed Canucks pie, so lets dive in there first.

A regular season powerhouse, the New York Rangers looked as likely a team as any to emerge from the wide open Eastern Conference. They made minced meat of the Pittsburgh Penguins, exposing what remained of their defense corps with a fast paced counter-attack offense and did so without a helping hand from Marc-Andre Fleury. 

Facing a much more disciplined and structured team in the Washington Capitals, the Rangers offense has since sputtered to a halt. There’s something to be said for the extent to which underlying numbers are mitigated in importance during the post-season, what with a considerably smaller sample and all, but the Rangers are towing the fourth-best score adjusted Corsi For% of the remaining teams in the playoffs along with the second-lowest SH% – there’s something to be said for poor luck here. 

By that same token, Vigneault hasn’t necessarily done himself any favours in this post-season. His affection for Tanner Glass clearly wasn’t just a Vancouver thing. Fanner is seeing regular shifts with the blue shirts and starting the vast majority of them in the defensive zone. That, my friends, is playing with fire.

Things aren’t looking good for the former Canucks bench boss. His Rangers are down 3-2 and have struggled to get much past Braden Holtby. He’s still one of the better in the business, but it’s an uphill fight from this point for the embattled coach to Lord Stanley’s chalice.

Then again…

The list of more affable people in the history of the Canucks organization is a relatively short one. During his stay with the Canucks, Bowness oversaw the blue line as an assistant to the aforementioned Vigneault. When the Canucks were swept by the San Jose Sharks in 2012-13, only Bowness answered the media’s bell to discuss the off-season and the dismissal of his staff. Whether you agreed with his approach or not, there’s no arguing he was a swell fella.

It makes Bowness’ success in the ‘Sunshine State’ all the more enjoyable. 

Bowness’ role hasn’t changed since joining the Lightning. The defense and penalty kill are his primary responsibility. It’s hard to argue with the results. Among teams still in the chase, the Lightning are surrendering the lowest SA/60 and the lowest GA/60 in the playoffs among all teams. 

By some bizarre stroke of karmic justice, the players on this list get more and more effective as the distaste for them in this town ramps up – I think it goes without saying that it reaches its zenith at Kesler. It is otherwise occupied by a third and fourth liner though, which somewhat softens the blow. 

For a more in-depth look at how these former Canucks are doing, take a gander at yonder graph.

I must say, I’m all kinds of surprised to see Kesler getting the softest deployments of these three – of course, sample size and the like. Equally surprised to see Weise getting the worst of it. Despite spending almost the entirety of this season in Bob Hartley’s doghouse, it appears as though Raymond is holding his own. 

I’m not overly surprised to see Kesler doing as well as he is. The Ducks brought him into the fold for the post-season, after all. Kesler’s 3.7 Pts/60 is second highest among all skaters in the playoffs, bested only by his teammate, Corey Perry. His Quality of Teammate and Quality of Competition metrics would indicate he’s having a relatively easy go of it, but I’m sure these numbers are somewhat skewed by playing a team that hemorrhages shot attempts in the second round more than anything. 

Kesler did his best work this post-season in the first round against the Winnipeg Jets. It wasn’t just that he had three goals, but rather the timeliness of them. In the deciding game of that series, Kesler provided the Ducks with the lead twice, scoring the 2-1 goal and deciding 3-2 goal. 

While Kesler is still a dominating two-way force, I’m none too sure the Ducks will be getting any flash of #BEASTMODE Kesler in these playoffs – or future ones for that matter. These years have been hard on the polarizing shutdown center and he just ain’t exactly what he used to be. That’s not such a bad thing though, because if these playoffs have proven anything, it’s that he still has value as an ace shutdown center and a top-end depth scorer. 

This will come as a shock to absolutely nobody who followed the Canucks during their peak years, but Raymond has been somewhat of a disappointment with Calgary. Quite frankly, I’m not sure that without the help of injuries Raymond even has a spot in this lineup. He has been healthy scratched in these playoffs before. 

When inserted into the lineup, Raymond’s been more or less invisible. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s been a liability, but he hasn’t done much to help the Calgary Flames’ cause. Then again, this could largely be a product of his sparse ice-time, as the fleet-footed winger has been playing less than 10-minutes of even-strength ice-time a game. 

Depending on how much longer this series between the Ducks and Flames goes, we could have very well seen the last of Raymond in these playoffs. The Flames are getting reinforcements with the return of Lance Bouma and Micheal Ferland, which bodes poorly for Raymond’s prospects of getting in the lineup.

Dutch Gretzky may have never been even half as good as he once thought he was in Vancouver, but he’s proving a pretty damn useful player for the Habs all the same. The Dutch league superstar has certainly worked his way into the good grace of Michel Therrien, having seen time on nearly every line for the Montreal Canadiens at some point in these playoffs. 

Weise’s ice-time indicates that he’s generally being deployed as a third liner for the Habs. He’s not necessarily pushing play, but having spent these playoffs against the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning (two relatively strong possession teams) it’s not hard to see why. 

What’s most impressive is that Weise is just one playoff overtime goal away from tying actual Wayne Gretzky (among others) for fourth in all-time playoff overtime goals. 

There’s not an awful lot to chew on here – 10-games of data, between two players. Taking a positive spin on this, I guess Vancouver hasn’t let any game-breaking talent from the blue line leave town recently. 

With the qualifying reminder that these samples aren’t overly indicative of anything, lets look at some their usage data from these playoffs.

How’s that for polar opposites? I’m not necessarily surprised by it, given that Diaz has spent much of this season just fighting to stay in the lineup – even when he is in, he’s not getting a lot of ice-time. It appears as though Garrison has been getting heavy shutdown duty, taking on much of the opposition’s best. 

It’s great to see Garrison fare well with the Lightning. Given the way he was shown the door and the tenuous situation surrounding his chronic groin injury, one can’t help but want success for the poor guy. Garrison is getting the fifth most ice-time among Lightning defenders, playing primarily alongside Andrej Sustr – his usual partner in crime from the regular season.

His possession play has been all kinds of ugly, but again, his deployment has been some kind of grueling. With the occasional addition of Nikita Nesterov, it appears as though the Bolts have shifted their mindset with regards to how they are using Garrison. His power play time dipped dramatically and he’s seeing regular shifts against the opposition’s best. Surprising, given that his ability to quarterback a power play has long been one of his best assets. As of right now, Garrison is fourth among Bolts defender’s in terms of average power play ice-time.

The stocky defender has clearly lost a step. He’s holding his own, but again, how long before that groin becomes a serious issue? Hopefully it has another month of use left in it. With the Habs firmly in the Lightning’s clutches, it’s looking more and more likely that he’ll need it. 

Count Hartley among the long list of coaches that Diaz just hasn’t endeared himself to. Diaz has been used sparingly this season, despite proving himself as a more than competent puck moving blue liner with offensive upside with the man advantage. It’s truly bizarre.

Although, to the Flames credit, it’s been injuries, not the coach, that have kept Diaz from the Flames lineup this post-season. In his two games with the club these playoffs, Diaz has certainly helped move the river from a possession standpoint – albeit, he’s played very little, so it could very well be meaningless noise.