The Vancouver Sun
October 18, 2001
By Brad Ziemer

Marc Crawford has seen the future and he knows that as far as the Vancouver Canucks are concerned Bryan Allen figures to be a big part of it.

Perhaps that more than anything explains why Allen has been in the lineup for all six regular-season games and probably will be again tonight when the Canucks play host to the Toronto Maple Leafs at General Motors Place.

The Canucks are trying to develop the 21-year-old they selected fourth over-all in the 1998 draft and clearly think that development isn't going to be helped by having Allen watch too many games from the press box.

"As a young defenceman with the kind of size and stature he has, I think the more you play him the better he's going to get," Crawford said after Wednesday's practice. "Probably in that same vein the less that you play him the more complicated you make his progression."

Patience is a word that Crawford uses when describing the 6'4", 220-pound Allen. He's prepared for the inevitable mistakes that will be a part of Allen's maturation process into what the Canucks hope will be a blue-chip defenceman.

A case in point came early in Tuesday night's 2-2 tie with the Florida Panthers. Midway through the first period, Allen fanned on an attempted pass inside his own end and had the puck stolen by Valeri Bure who skated in alone on Dan Cloutier. The Canuck goaltender spared Allen some further embarrassment by making a nice save on Bure's shot.

Rather than bench Allen, Crawford continued to spot him on defence for the remainder of the game.

"He's played well enough to deserve to stay in the lineup," Crawford said. "He's played strong enough that he's contributed. We'd like his contribution to continue to grow and to continue to evolve and I believe it will. Bryan is a committed guy, he practises at a high level and he's processing a lot of this information that is being fed his way now. He's starting to get what it takes to play at a high level in the NHL."

Allen, who got his first taste of NHL action when he played in six regular-season games late last season and two playoff games, appreciates the confidence the coaching staff and his teammates are showing him.

"I think the main thing I'm happy with is that I've been in the lineup every game," Allen said. "There's eight defencemen still here and sure I've had limited ice time sometimes and you'd always like to play more, but you just have to be happy you're in the lineup and do the job when you're on the ice."

Allen has averaged about 11 minutes of ice time per game and has been paired for much it with Drake Berehowsky, who joked Wednesday that Allen is off to a better start in his rookie season than he was when he broke into the league in 1993 with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"In my rookie year, we lost 10 in a row to start the season," Berehowsky said. "I just keep telling him to keep it simple. This game, you can make it really hard on yourself or you can just keep it simple which keeps you out of trouble and keeps the puck on the outside. I think that's the big thing for Bryan, to keep the game simple and try to be intense every night."

Allen also must learn that mistakes are inevitable.

"It's a game of mistakes and unfortunately it happened to him last night," said Berehowsky. "But there was no harm done. We back each other up. Everyone makes mistakes, you just can't get down on yourself."

In discussing his patience-is-a-virtue approach with Allen, Crawford makes comparisons to two other big, young defencemen from the NHL's Western Conference. He said both Eric Brewer of the Edmonton Oilers and Robyn Regehr of the Calgary Flames have benefited from the same kind of approach.

"Regehr is a much better player this year because of all the patience Calgary has shown him and certainly Brewer has just taken right off," Crawford said. "He was probably the sixth guy at the start of last year in Edmonton and by the end of the season he was in the top four."

The Canucks hope they can say the same thing about Bryan Allen in the not too distant future. In the meantime, look for him on the ice, not in the press box.



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