10 Possible Reasons Alain Vigneault Doesn't Like/Won't Play Keith Ballard

I don't care what anyone says, I'm convinced that Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault has it in for defenceman Keith Ballard.  Time and time again, since his arrival here Keith Ballard has been benched inexplicably and been passed on the depth chart by virtually every defenceman in the organization.  Most recently by rookie Frank Corrado who has a total of exactly 3, basically mean-nothing NHL games under his belt and a total of 6 total pro games at any level.  I mean, you pretty much have to be going out of your way to push him that far down the depth-chart.
I, for one, think Ballard is not being deployed correctly and is being treated unfairly.  I know many others in the twitterverse and bloggerverse feel the same way.
The narrative we get fed by the mainstream media closely associated with the team is that Ballard makes too many mistakes and turns the puck over too many times.  While I won't argue that he does make mistakes from time to time I would argue that he makes no more mistakes than do Kevin Bieksa, Alex Edler, and Andrew Alberts.  These three however seem to do so with impunity.  So we can rule that out of the possible reasons that Ballard gets sat out so often he has his name engraved on his press-box seat.  For if this were the case, if AV sits players out when they make numerous mistakes, Bieksa, Edler, and Ballard would be sitting out half the season!  Hell, Mason Raymond would be in the ECHL!!!
So I'm trying to delve deeper into the psyche of our good coach Alain Vigneault to try to uncover the REAL reason that he just won't give Keith Ballard a reasonable chance at cracking the Canucks line-up on a consistent basis...

Reason # 10:

Keith Ballard's name is VERY un-French-like.










Reason # 9:

Keith Ballard reminds him of himself when he was an NHLer and since he didn't play much/got benched a lot he projects that on Keith Ballard












Reason #8

Keith Ballard, once early on, didn't offer AV one of his lozenges even though he knew that AV had run out.











Reason #7:

AV once knew a kid back in high-school named Keith who bullied him












Reason # 6:

He's 'saving him' for game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final










Reason #5

Once had a dog named Ballard who he made a doghouse for.








Reason #4:

Some guy named Keith stole his girlfriend at prom










Reason #3:

 If you re-arrange the letters in Keith Ballard's name you can spell CODY HODGSON.










Reason #2:

AV had a thing for Grabner and this is his passive-aggressive way of getting back at GMMG for trading him





Reason #1:

He's not Mason Raymond


If you have some other possible reasons you think Alain Vigneault won't play Keith Ballard,  feel free to add them to the comment box below or tweet them to me!

You can follow Sporting Vancouver on Twitter