The Province from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • A56

HOCKEY TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2018 Celebrini leaves Canucks a parting gift He believes tweaks and techniques can help reduce Tanev's odds of freak injuries in the future 56 I SPORTS I THEPROVINCE.COM HB( IbCB Rick Celebrini made his mark with the Vancouver Canucks in the prevention and rehabilitation of soft-tissue injuries. Hard-luck ailments, like a puck to the face or breaking a leg while blocking a shot, tested the medical mettle of the club's former director of rehabilitation. However, his greatest parting gift to the Canucks before the 50-year-old Burnaby native officially becomes director of sports medicine and performance for the Golden State Warriors on Sept. 15 is helping Chris Tanev avoid injury. The Canucks' defenceman missed a career-high 40 games last NHL season with five injuries thumb, groin, puck to face, leg fracture and knee sprain but Celebrini is convinced that the odds of freak injuries can be reduced.

"Chris was one of my favourite athletes," Celebrini said Monday. "He will put himself in positions that guys might not ever think about. And in doing that, he might be more at risk. We looked at things a little bit differently this summer. "We made some tweaks, but really the nature of his injuries have been about bad timing or bad luck.

He's that guy who will make a play and take a hit. From just a pure (injury) probability standpoint, he will have brighter days ahead because we've been reinforcing deep, balanced positions and maximizing his responsiveness and reaction. "It's doing all the things you have under your control. It's still an unpredictable and quite violent game and you can only do so much. In being aware of body positioning, we can address it technically, but from a hockey perspective, we defer to coaches to make a play or block a shot.

That's not for us to change." Tanev, 28, has been the subject of trade debate because of steady play in his own zone, an ability to transition the puck and an attractive salary-cap hit of million annually for two more seasons. He might also be the perfect transition mentor for prospect Quinn Hughes. The Golden State opportunity is also the perfect position for Celebrini. After four years with the BEN Canucks and working in a similar capacity with the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps and as co-founder and partner of Fortius Institute and senior member of the Fortius Sports and Health leadership group in Burnaby swapping a comfort zone for a bigger challenge was too enticing. Aside from relocating his wife and four kids, working with a more finite group with a world-class organization was too good to turn down.

"It was a no-brainer," added Celebrini. "The ability to focus on 15 athletes instead of 150 between the Utica Comets, Canucks, prospects, White-caps, the residency program and academy will allow me to do what I love to do, focus on one entity. It's a challenge to jump on a team way better than everyone by a mile. They realize the core group is aging at or near the 30-year-old mark and the challenge is to keep them up there (competitively) and stay healthy." Celebrini believed his integrated approach with Jon Sanderson (head athletic therapist) and Roger Takahashi (strength and conditioning coach) best served the Canucks and their players. "It wasn't us versus them as you see in so many professional sports, a sort of a pull or a fractioning between the two entities," he stressed.

"I'm most proud that the athletes hopefully experienced the benefit that their training programs were woven into injury prevention and rehab. "But this is a numbers game. We're responsible for man-game lost and in that respect we were not successful. With the soft-tissue and muscle strains we did a really good job, but we had a lot of traumatic injuries that were the result of pucks and contact. "I wish we had the answer why those types of man-games lost built up." bkuzmapostmedia.com benkuzma Rick Celebrini, seen at right with Canucks team physician Dr.

Jim Bovard, has left his position as director of rehabilitation with the Canucks to join the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. getty images NBA connections key to Celebrini's new position asked if I was interested and he said: 'Probably not. But you can ask "Steve Kerr was doing video analysis for Phoenix when I met him in the gym late at night after working with Steve Nash. We talked about aspirations. Life comes full circle." Celebrini's four years with the Canucks came via a close connection and shared vision with Trevor Linden, the Canucks' former president of hockey operations.

Celebrini stressed his exit had nothing to do with Linden leaving. "Not at all," he said. "I was sorry to see Trevor go, but I was already well down the track in terms of my decision-making on this (job) before that happened Ben Kuzma For Rick Celebrini, the art of his NBA deal was working with Steve Nash and getting to know Steve Kerr. It's how Celebrini, the former director of rehabilitation for the Canucks and the White-caps, filled the director of sports medicine and performance void for the Golden State Warriors. Celebrini's work with Nash in Phoenix led to a chance meeting with Kerr, the Warriors' current coach and former Suns GM.

"I got a call from an NBA team the day before Golden State called, which was eerie," Celebrini recalled Monday. "My head was just spinning for a good week or two as I explored both options. The teams called Steve Nash in advance of calling me and i Rick Celebrini calls Chris Tanev, above, 'one of my favourite jason payne.