When asked if Vancouver Canucks coach John Tortorella would return next season, his own general manager was as candid as he could be. Gerard Pique Spain . "Im not sure Ill be back next season," said Mike Gillis. Speaking to the Team 1040 in Vancouver on Thursday, the Canucks general manager spoke of his clubs failure to live up to the success of past years, but refused to heap all the blame on his coach. "John is a proven winner and competitor," said Gillis. "The running of this team is my responsibility and I feel that the last few seasons we have been chasing goal posts that have been moving and got away from our core principles of how I want this team to play and how we want to perform and the tempo we want to play with. "People want someone to blame but the reality is that as an organization we have deviated from things that have been successful and I know will be successful. We will get back to those levels and that style of play that we started six years ago and we have the personnel to do it." Gillis added that believes that the system in place is solid enough for any coach to find success, but acknowledges that the Canucks failures this season are broad. "If given the resources and the players are committed to it, any coach can coach the team that he has," explained Gillis. "But having said that, our problems are far reaching and will be addressed. If people dont want to get onside with how I view this team and how its supposed to play then they wont be here.” Gillis also said that he believes that everybody in the organization, from top to bottom, is in line to go under the microscope at seasons end. "I think everybody is open for evaluation," he said. "Weve had players who have severely underperformed. Our team has underperformed. I think that were all open for evaluation and deserve evaluation and thats whats going to come. Well go through a thorough evalutaion of what occurred this year. Well go through a thorough plan of where we see we have to go and theyll make a decision about what route theyll choose." Now in his sixth year leading the Canucks front office, Gillis admits that this season has brought him frustration unlike any other. "Weve had a lot of success in the past and none of this sits well with me," he explained. "Its been an incredibly frustrating season on a variety of different levels. For me, Im committed to getting back on the levels that we expect and we have a plan do it. "We had a plan six years to do it and we got as close as we could get. We learned a lot of lessons from that and Im tired of chasing a moving target. We are going to get back to the fundamentals and the principles that I believe in and thats how were going to play. Like I said, if people dont want to comply, and we did this six years ago, we made hard choices. Those hard choices are going to come again if we dont see people get on the same page." One player that Gillis refused to fault in his teams struggles is goaltender Eddie Lack, who became the teams starting goaltender following the trade of Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers at the deadline. "You get people in Toronto who just love to carve the Vancouver Canucks and its going to be unending, so were used to it now, but its unfortunate for a young guy like Eddie Lack," said Gillis. "Eddie is a very special player. Hes got great personality, hes got great size and his emergence allowed us to think a little bit differently about where we were going." For his money, Gillis thinks Lack should be in the conversation for the leagues top rookie. "If we had given Eddie any run support this season, he would certainly be, in my mind, a nominee for the Calder," posited Gillis. "He probably wouldnt win it, but he should be in consideration based on the way hes played. Hes lost more one-goal games than any goalie in the league. Hes second in the league in shutouts with half the games played." Gillis also expressed his faith in his goaltending tandem on the whole, including the recently acquired Jakob Markstrom, who came over from the Panthers in the Luongo deal. "I think Jakob Markstrom is another 24-year-old goalie who has all the attributes to be a top-flight goalie in the National Hockey League," he said. "I feel strongly that we have two young guys who are in their prime. I hope our fans get behind them and support them." The Canucks currently sit 10th in the Western Conference, six points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card playoff spot. The Stars also have two games in hand on the Canucks. The Canucks play the first of their final five games on Saturday when they host the Los Angeles Kings. Cesc Fabregas Spain Jersey . There is also the Genoa derby on Sunday, while second-place Roma hosts Parma looking to take advantage of any more slip-ups from Juventus. Here are five things to know about the Italian league ahead of this weekends matches: LLORENTE ON SONGThe last time Juventus hosted Inter Milan the visitors ended the Bianconeris impressive streak of 49 games unbeaten with a 3-1 victory. Koke Spain Jersey .C. -- Cameron Gaunce scored in overtime to lift the Texas Stars to a 4-3 win over the Abbotsford Heat in American Hockey League action Wednesday.TORONTO – Heres what we know after watching R.A. Dickey for a season and a half in a Blue Jays uniform: we dont know. Who knows what to expect from a pitch, the knuckleball, that in one moment confounds a hitter and in the next is traveling, with plenty of spin, more than 400 feet in the opposite direction? Who knows how to manage a knuckleball pitcher? When is the right time to remove him from the game? These guys dont tire as quickly because they dont strain their arms and you cant predict when the pitch is going to flatten out just that once, which could be the difference in the game. All of the above came in to play in Friday nights 5-4 loss to the White Sox, a game in which Dickey no-hit Chicago for four innings but left without recording an out in the seventh. By then hed allowed five hits, four of which landed on the other side of the outfield fence. Actually, three of them did. One of them hit the foul pole. “One less home run, we win that game,” said Dickey. “Its just a really bizarre outing to strike out nine guys, get all those swings and misses on what I felt like was a really good knuckleball tonight.” Then, some home run talk. “Three of the four home runs were possibly mistakes, two I know,” said Dickey. “Normally, theyre a foul ball here or a miss hit here, but they just didnt miss them tonight.” Jose Abreu and Dayan Viciedo hit solo home runs in the fifth to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead. Those were Chicagos first two hits of the evening. The Blue Jays bounced back with back-to-back solo home runs in the sixth, one from Edwin Encarnacion and the other off the bat of Dioner Navarro. Sergio Busquets Jersey. . Dickey, sporting an 11.81 ERA in the seventh inning this season, couldnt give his team the shutdown frame it needed. Abreu clubbed his second home run of the night to lead off and, after Adam Dunn walked, Alexei Ramirez clanked a two-run shot off the left field foul pole. The knuckleballers night, so promising two innings before, was over. In six-plus innings, Dickey allowed five earned runs on five hits (four home runs) and one walk. He struck out nine. He was so good and then he wasnt. Theres no discernible pattern outside of his bloated fifth (9.39) and seventh inning ERAs and who knows what to make of those? Dickeys ERA in the sixth is 2.38. “I thought his knuckleball was as good as its been,” said manager John Gibbons. Then, some home run talk. “Its a pitch that can come and go,” said Gibbons. “I mean, one inning it can disappear, one hitter it can disappear and all of a sudden it clicks in. Its tough.” Then, he offered an admission: its hard to determine what to do with Dickey as a game wears on. “Its a totally different way to manage a game,” said Gibbons. “But hes here to win games for us and he needs to stay out there.” Dickeys loss on Friday night dropped his season record to 6-7. His ERA climbed from 4.04 to 4.24. In 51 appearances with the Blue Jays in a season and a half, Dickeys allowed 51 home runs. His win-loss record: 20-20. So there is some symmetry amid the unpredictability. ' ' '
