After the Vancouver Canucks missed the playoff last season, coach Willie Desjardins struggled with his emotions.

It wasn’t because this was the first time a team where Desjardins was the head coach missed the postseason since the Seibu Bears in the 90s. He was upset because of the way the group didn’t make the playoffs.

Generally in the past when one of his teams didn’t perform to his liking, he could at least take solace in that they showed effort. He didn’t sense that with the Canucks after a 31-38-13 campaign.

“We just didn’t play right,” Desjardins said. “We didn’t play the way we needed to play and you can always – you can never enjoy losing. It’s not ever a good thing but if you play the right way at least you know you kind of went and gave your best. At the end of the year I just felt cheated.”

So far this season, Desjardins hasn’t been cheated. The Canucks have seemed to overachieve with 52 points, just three out of the final Wild Card spot with three games in hand on the Calgary Flames. Still he believes his team has another gear and thinks some improvements can take it to the next level.

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The Canucks have a minus-21 goal differential and rank 27th in goals per-game at 2.30, and 15th in goals allowed per-game with 2.76.

“Like we haven’t done anything yet. We haven’t accomplished anything that we want to and we know that,” Desjardins said. “Our group knows that it’s going to get tougher from here on in and I believe if we play the same way we have up til now, we’re not going to get in. Like we have to find a way to get even better. That’s how we’re approaching it that we need to get better here over the next month, like we’ve got to get better.”

The team’s strong play has also seemed to quiet the talk around Desjardins’ status as coach, which was something that was addressed publicly last March by Canucks president Trevor Linden.

We spoke with Desjardins about beating external expectations this season, how his team has dealt with injuries on defense, the almost daily rumors about his job security and the importance of goaltender Ryan Miller to Vancouver’s success in 2016-17.

Q. Did you ever worry about your job security and if you did, was there ever a point where you stopped worrying about it?

DESJARDINS: I think you’re always aware of what’s going on. You know the situation you’re in. You know that if you don’t win the next couple of games you’re probably not going to be around and that’s a coach’s life. That happens at different points in his career. It’s hard because you’re already doing everything you can. Just because you have to win doesn’t mean … you can’t try any harder. You’re already pushing as hard as you can.

It does add some pressure but the good thing for me is that I had some good people around me and I think that, our belief in our room, we have guys in our room that, they just have a lot of character. They have a lot of belief and. You go in and talk to them and they believe. It’s nice when you’re having a tough day that you can talk to somebody else who says, ‘no, no we’re OK, we can do it.’

How can you describe this year? What has it been like? When you guys came into the season it seemed like nobody was giving the Canucks a shot but you got off to a good start and now you’re in playoff striking distance.

Well, it has been an interesting year for sure. We’ve changed up a little bit what we’ve done previous years. We’ve had to make some adjustments. The first four games, we didn’t lead at all until the final whistle. So usually you don’t win games that way but we found a way to stay close and do that and that’s how we’ve kind of built our team a little bit where we focus a little bit more on defense. Then we went through a real tough stretch and it was a tough stretch, but that’s – we couldn’t find a way to win. We weren’t playing great hockey, but I guess even during that time the players were pretty good, like the players believed we were playing the right way and if we kept playing that way we could find a way to win eventually. And that’s encouraging because players are pretty smart. They understand it and they know – they’re all committed to winning so I thought it was good the players stayed with us and they kept playing hard and eventually it turned. We had some big injuries this year again which have made it a challenge.

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How have you guys dealt with those injuries? You’ve been without some big names on defense at one point or another all season.

I don’t know what our record would be but with (Christopher) Tanev and (Alex) Edler both in the lineup we have a really good record. That’s encouraging for us in knowing when we’re healthy we’ve been able to battle. But since then we’ve lost (Erik) Gudbranson and (Ben) Hutton, which that puts you back in a hole again. But the good thing out of that is how far Nikita Tryamkin has come and how far Troy Stecher has come. Those guys have stepped in and, if we didn’t have all those injuries, we never would have gotten a look at those players, so maybe it was bad but in the end it has turned out good for us.

The end of December was when you guys took off. What led to such a strong stretch?

I think if you look I would bet it was when Edler came back into the lineup. I don’t know if he came back right after – we lost Tanev on one of those days too after. We lost Tanev for the Calgary game that we lost in Calgary. But Edler came back I think right after Chris was – that made a difference in our lineup for sure. So then we started to win again.

What does Edler bring to your defense that’s enabled you to play better when he’s in the lineup?

I think it just puts everyone else in a better spot. I think some of the younger players when you give them too many minutes their game goes down. With Edler in the lineup he took those minutes and not only was he there and that elevated our game but the other guys were able to elevate their games as well. So it just kind of put everybody in the right slot again where they’re getting the right number of minutes. They’re playing against the right lines. It kind of fell in together. It wasn’t just that. It was (Sven) Baertschi’s game came around a little bit. (Bo) Horvat’s game came around, (Alex) Burrows that line came together and had good chemistry. (Markus) Granlund came in and had some good games so there was a lot of things together at that time where a lot of the younger guys kind of fought through some things and came out on the other side playing well.

Was part of improving tuning out the naysayers and knowing you had good players overall?

I think our challenge is still ahead of us. From here on out, every game is going to be a tough game and if we’re going to be successful we have to be better on our special teams. If we keep playing the same way we’re not going to be successful in the next 30 something games. So we’re going to have to be better to get where we want to go. But I think the noise around the team – you can’t control that. There’s nothing you can do. If you start worrying about that then you’re not focusing on what you need to do to be better. A lot of it comes on focusing on that part of the game. I think from that aspect I’m lucky in that I have a really good coaching group with us. Perry Pearn and Doug Lidster and Doug Jarvis are good coaches. Those guys have been around for a long time. That helps when you go through a tough situation because they’ve seen it before.

View photos Henrik Sedin #33 of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates his goal during his NHL game at Rogers Arena January 20, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Vancouver won 2-1. (Getty Images) More

I’m looking at an interview we did with you last year, and you said the last time you missed the playoffs as a head coach, before 2015-16, was with the Seibu Bears in Japan in the mid-90s. How much did the oddity of not making the postseason last year gnaw at you?

It was so disappointing and not just not making the playoffs. We just didn’t play right. We didn’t play the way we needed to play and you can always – you can never enjoy losing. It’s not ever a good thing but if you play the right way at least you know you kind of went and gave your best. At the end of the year I just felt cheated. I just felt that I didn’t get the best out of that group. There was more there and so it was a tough year. I was certainly disappointed that we hadn’t found a way to give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs.

What did you do to sort of unwind after missing the playoffs? Clear your head?

We had year-end meetings and it was good. There was lots of challenges. It was a hard look at what we did and where we were at. It was a challenging time. You have to grow. If you’re going to go through all that you at least better grow from it. So we made some thoughts and said, ‘OK, what can we do to make us better?’ So we made some changes to do what we thought would give us a better chance this year to be successful.

What were some of those changes?

The one tough thing is it’s good and bad and when things go bad. I think lots of times you take it more upon yourself. It’s good because you’re taking responsibility but it’s bad because I have a great staff and they can help me like if I allow them to get input and help so we can be better. This year when we came out I certainly, I think the staff – I talk to them. We’ve gone through things better as a group and hard times do that to you. Hard times make you really analyze where you’re at and what you do and they make you grow and I think that made us a better staff and I think that’s part of it, but in the end it still comes down to being on the same page. Like when I talk with our guys, I’ve said it doesn’t have to be my page, but we have to be on the same page and I’ve always believed that.

Does having the support of general manager Jim Benning help you do what you need to do?

Jim has been excellent. He has always been good with me, like always. He has always let me coach. He has talked to me about things, but he has always let me coach. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jim and it’s not just hard on coaches when things don’t go well, it’s hard on him too, but he has always been good about things.

What has been the secret behind Ryan Miller’s bounce back for your team?

Ryan Miller has been good for me every year. He’s a good goaltender and he has been solid. I think the thing I appreciate more about Ryan Miller this year than before is that is what a good teammate he is. Like he has done a great job with (Jacob) Markstrom and not – like he knows we need Markstrom to play well if we’re going to be good. So he has helped him come along. He’s a veteran guy and he’s a smart, smart player. So he has helped us in lots of ways. Not just his play on the ice, and that’s what everybody looks at, but he has helped our room too. He has given the players confidence.

That seems to be one of his main strengths. He’s confident and he battles and guys feed off that, right?

They know when he’s there. If we’re not quite on top of our game, he’ll give us time to get it going. He cares. Like he cares every day. He cares like he’s a professional because he goes out and does his job, but it’s not just the job for him. He loves the game and he takes pride in what he does, so he has been good for us. Like it’s just throughout our lineup every night whether he’s in play or not, he’s always on board and supporting the team.

View photos Ryan Miller of the Vancouver Canucks plays the puck during their NHL game against the Florida Panthers at Rogers Arena January 20, 2017 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Getty Images) More

In January, you guys lost four games in a row but three of them were after regulation. Is that part of your key with the team of keeping games close to just get points?

We would like to be up by four goals and get two points, but that’s not the team we have right now. So we have to make sure we keep it close and if we stay close we believe that we can find a way to win a game. So that’s kind of the way we approach. Let’s play good, solid hockey. Let’s not beat ourselves and then let’s find a way late in the game to get some points.

What is the biggest surprise about your team to you?

I think in lots of ways, if you’re surprised, then you didn’t have belief in your team to begin with. I think the one thing in coaching is you don’t put limits on guys. You don’t want to say, ‘well this guy can only do this.’ You always hope that there’s more there and I think probably the biggest thing is how we’ve been able to fight through our injuries and still stay competitive and that comes because of the development of our young players. There are so many young players that contribute every night. If they don’t do it every night we’re not successful and that’s hard for young players, so I think the biggest thing is how they fought through injuries and how the young players have been able to step up and play.

How do you keep this group focused on the fact that they have to keep it up after the all-star break? Sometimes younger players struggle with consistency.

Well, I just think it’s obvious that we have a long ways. Like we haven’t done anything yet. We haven’t accomplished anything that we want to and we know that. Our group knows that it’s going to get tougher from here on in and I believe if we play the same way we have up til now, we’re not going to get in. Like we have to find a way to get even better. That’s how we’re approaching it that we need to get better here over the next month, like we’ve got to get better. We’ll see how we deal with that. When we came back after the Christmas break we said, ‘each player has to give us five percent more.’ We needed that out of each guy. And however you’re going to get it that’s what we needed. After this break we came back and said, ‘OK, now we need five percent out of each line. Like instead of 15 percent we need another five. We have to find it through chemistry, through whatever as a combination as a line, as a defense partner.’

It’s finding that way to get a little bit more. There’s more there. Like it’s not impossible to get. But every other team is looking for more too. We’re all in the same boat. You’re going to get into those games and there’s going to be some teams that are looking to do the same as us. We’ve got a challenge.

Like I said in the room today, I’m excited about it and I want to see what we can do. It’s up to us, like ‘what can we do? Let’s find out.’

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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