Former Vancouver winger turned Sportsnet 650 radio analyst wonders if Miller-Pettersson brouhaha hasn’t become a ‘full-blown distraction’
“I would assume that when the players go home and talk to family, friends or just neighbours in their apartment buildings they’re getting asked, ‘What’s wrong with these guys? What can’t they get along?’ Again, we don’t know exactly what the deal is. Now it’s everybody who’s getting asked, and it feels like it’s too much in the room when the focus should be on other things.”
Hansen, 38, has become known for saying exactly what’s on his mind since signing on with Sportsnet 650 as a guest analyst during the 2020 playoffs. That’s on brand for him if you consider his dressing room stall was a favourite stop for the media during his 10-year playing career with the Canucks due to his always honest assessments.
“Hockey players have egos. You can’t have 20 guys with egos getting along all the time,” Hansen continued about the current trends with the team.“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team where everybody was best friends with everybody. It doesn’t happen. What does have to happen is that as soon as we leave the dressing room we’re one, and we have to play together.
“And every team I’ve been on, or most of the teams, have been able to do that, and if you can’t, changes get made. Because as soon as you start thinking the ‘me, I, myself’ kind of thing, the culture goes and the team functionality and dynamic goes away, and the team becomes less of a team because of it. So yeah, you don’t have to be best of friends, but as soon as we’re on the ice, we’re a family, because you need everybody, and it can’t be done if everybody’s not on the same page.”
If the Canucks go on an extended win streak, the media narrative shifts. As Hansen says, “They look like a contender, (the locker room struggles) will die down.”
And as Hansen points out, they still have the building blocks to go on playoff runs over the next couple of years at least.
“Those are the most important spots. You don’t have those, you’re never going to win,” Hansen said. “It’s a lot easier to fill in the blanks around those guys.
“They have those players, and they have those players in their prime. That’s what is so frustrating when the team isn’t clicking, because you have all these pieces that are so hard to find.”
Hansen doesn’t consider himself a media member, saying that he doesn’t come to the rink to look for stories, but rather “I analyze the game, and I interpret the game.”
He answers questions he’s asked, and admits “some of it is a little harsh.”
“It’s not personal. I try to say it like I see it,” he continued.
He was a part of some of the the Canucks’ best teams, including the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals squad that lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games.
That Vancouver unit finished the regular season at 54-19-9, leading to the most points a Canuck team has ever amassed in a campaign. Next on the list is the 51-22-9 from the 2011-12 team that also included Hansen, followed by last year’s 50-23-9 squad.
“Everything came together at the right time,” Hansen recalled of those Vancouver teams he was on. “Players aged together at the same pace. It wasn’t like we had some really old guys and some really young guys. Everyone was peaking or getting close to peaking. And we had the right culture. It was a culture of excellence. Being good wasn’t good enough. We needed to be great. Everybody pushed everybody.
“The media and the fans saw the results in the regular season and the playoffs, but it was something that happened in the offseason and in training camp and in practices. It was built and formed and shaped there and it came together in the games.”
Various players from that Vancouver era over the years have spoken about how the culture was key, and how they had multiple leaders in that group. Hansen remains aligned with that.
“You have to start playing the right way, being okay with not thinking about yourself and putting yourself first,” he explained. “You start doing that. The team starts doing better. You start doing better and the team starts winning, and everybody’s happy. But you’re always going to be losing first, having some tough times, learning to win, learning adversity, learning to play the right way. The culture gets formed that way.
“The culture can come together in the gym and in practice, come from that we’re doing things a certain way. So when we do play, it’s just a norm. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to play games now. Now we’ve got to dial everything up and change things.’ No, the way we practice was the way we played.
“Obviously, you’re not trying to run your teammates through the wall at practice, but when you’re passing the puck, you’re firing those things. When you’re shooting, you’re shooting to score. When you’re on 2-on-1, you’re trying to pick the D apart, you’re trying to score. We practised hard, which just became a norm.”
Hansen put up 109 goals and 256 points in his 626 NHL regular season games. His career high for goals in a season with Vancouver came in 2015-16, when he tallied 22 times in 67 games. He was traded March 1, 2017 to the San Jose Sharks for winger Nikolay Goldobin and a fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft. That selection was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the deal that brought Vancouver a package that included the 2017 sixth rounder they used on Finnish forward Petrus Palmu.
Hansen played two seasons with the Sharks and another season in he KHL before retiring from hockey.
Jannik Hasen: Quick hits
• You were part of a run of players from Denmark to make the NHL, along with the likes of Mikkel Bødker, Frans Nielsen, Peter Regin, and Lars Eller. Nikolaj Ehlers arrived on the scene after that. How is hockey in Denmark doing now?
“I think we plateaued a little bit. When we were coming through — guys that were a couple of years older than me and then three, four, five years younger — it really took off. We kept pushing the pace but it’s kind of stopped and not as many players are getting drafted now. I don’t have a finger on the pulse there. They do have more players coming, but not necessarily the high-end players that will really break through.”
• You were in the stands at the NHL Draft in 2004 in Raleigh, N.C., but you were one of the final picks. Were you worried?
“Towards the end, I was like ‘Is this not going to happen? I’ve travelled pretty far here.’ My agent brought me over. It was my first time in North America. So it wasn’t like it was out of my own pocket to go to Carolina. It was a neat trip and everything, but I went there to get drafted. It was probably a little nerve wracking towards the end. But, to be completely honest, I don’t really remember too much. That was a long time ago.”
• Favourite road city as a Canuck?
“I liked the ones where we were competitive. Early on, it was going to Detroit. Playing against (Nicklas) Lidström and (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg in old Joe Louis Arena was amazing because of the build-up. Swedes on Swedes, two of the best teams in the West. Then when we started playing those games against Chicago and they felt like a battle. And San Jose games were fun as well. It wasn’t about the places. It was ‘This game is going to attract the attention of the whole league.’”
• Favourite Canucks jersey?
“I really liked the blue Orca. We didn’t get to play a lot in the black Skate. That came in afterwards. I like that. I came in with the maroon ones and then we got the blue Orca and I liked those.”