Bad Hockey or Bad Parenting?

When it comes to what's is wrong with the Vancouver Canucks, it seems that everyone seems to have an opinion, some helpful, some destructive. The Canucks, a team many felt would be a main challenger for the Stanley Cup this year, have struggled far too much this year, losing games that they've had control of and finding their top line almost an anemic mess of late.

They sometimes baffle even their most loyal of fans with their scattered play and the sense that something just isn't clicking in Canuckland. But what it is, remains a mystery. At least until the Tyee went to work and decided it had the answer to all of our Canuck angst.

Bruce Grierson has put out an interesting article for the Tyee that suggests the Canucks are very similar to an adolescent, one which has not been benefiting very much from effective parenting.

With a family structure a tad dysfunctional, likening Marc Crawford to hot headed Hockey mom, while GM Dave Nonis is the suddenly distant step dad. It's a different take on the ever popular topic of what ails the boys in Orca blues.

The losses, the occasional temper problems it all comes down to home life and if Grierson's article hits a nail or two on the head, then the home sweet home of GM Place is not nurturing place.

Grierson offers up some helpful quotations from child rearing experts to assist the Canucks in their battle out of the growing years.

If the season is lost (and the Canucks now suddenly find themselves in a dogfight for playoff spots) then perhaps the best acquisition Vancouver could have made would have been a child psychiatrist, one able to motivate this gangly group into a more mature and successful unit.

The in vogue saying of a few years ago was that "it takes a village to raise a child" in Vancouver there's no shortage of "parents" willing to offer up advice. Perhaps they should be sent to their rooms, have their tv time cut back or their allowance reduced.

Whatever it takes to get things back on track, time is running short for step dad Dave to take control of his family unit!

The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!