It wasn’t supposed to end quite like this.
(photo Christian Petersen/Getty)
Post-mortem day. Yes, that one.
Yes last night was not a dream. The Canucks are done. Everyone’s looking to explain why.
Here at home, we’ve got Drance writing about the irony of how the Canucks lost, Filipovic with last night’s gamer and a quick hit on the Sedins and Alex Edler (hint: world championships).
Lots more after the jump. Believe me, you’ll get your fill.
He’s amazing fellow, that Wyatt Arndt. Let’s start with his positive spin on things. Can you believe there are FIVE silver linings to the Canucks’ loss? Atta boy. [Legion of Blog]
Fire everybody? Actually, no, Greg Wyshynski doesn’t think it’s everybody that needs to move out, but he does look at the various solutions that have already been bandied about…have a look. "What a disappointment. What a conundrum. What a mess," he concludes. [Puck Daddy]
A curmudgeounly comment at Pass it to Bulis becomes an entire post, ponders blowing the team up and provides a fantastic twist at the end. [Pass it to Bulis]
Oh look – a window. Is it open or closed? Zanstorm at Nucks Misconduct has a look. [Nucks Misconduct]
About that penalty – Cam Cole didn’t like it, and neither did Henrik Sedin. Sedin was colourfully concise; Cole when deeper. Have a read. [The Vancouver Sun]
Is it depth? Is it coaching? Is it prospects? All questions asked by the Canadian Press. [Via The Hockey News]
Eric Duhatschek wonders about where the Canucks have ended up. It was an intriguing start that Mike Gillis and Laurence Gilman made, but where are they now? It’s hard to say, but it’s not a bad attempt. [The Globe and Mail]
This team was never good enough, writes Tony Gallagher. The era is over, he says. At least AV made a good goaltending choice in the end, he says. [The Province]
It may have been a poor call – that’s what The Score’s Justin Bourne figures – but the rebound given up by Cory Schneider was pretty ugly too. Sigh. [The Score]
Gifs, gifs, gifs. SB Nation has assembled a great stack of ’em; not all from the Canucks, but if you really want to re-visit the ugly moments, go nuts. [SB Nation]
Ed Willes saw the Canucks get old before his very eyes. Is he right? Age is always a worry. He also mentions O.J. Simpson [The Province]
Depth and health were the problems, says No Pucks Given’s Chase Ruttig. Certainly a problem that was identified on this blog, though did anyone think it would be this bad? [No Pucks Given]
Apparently the Canucks lost because Joe Thornton actually shot. [San Jose Mercury News]
More from San Jose: the Sharks best players were their best players. [San Jose Mercury News]
Slight side-note – many talked about faceoffs this season, about how the Canucks were far from good at draws. It’s been written about here before, but Cam Charron has penned another piece looking at the question of ‘how importanta are they? over at Leafs Nation. [Leafs Nation]
You didnt have to be a hockey person to know that the loss and sweep was inevitable. Even an accountant or gambler could have predicted the Canucks demise.
Seems like this franchise is built on hope and illusions, nothing more. Gillis and Av should get the sack, followed by half the players. Acountability should be the word going forward. This is supposed to be a hockey team, not a country club. Captains are supposed to lead, not go invisible and make excuses after the game. the guy playing next to the captain should perform, not go invisible as well. The defense is supposed to defend against goals, not play for the other teams. Anyone and all who make mistakes should be benched , not given more icetime. Coaches should coach and teach, not juggle lines in order to kill chemistry. Gm’s should make deal to better the team, not the opposite. Fans should demand accountability and support winners, not losers.
What the Canucks are doing wrong? EVERYTHING.
Canuck fans are crazy. The had their chance to win the cup for 3 yrs, window shut now they are a playoff team. Why don’t fans understand this is a cycle. The core of the Canucks are older so it will take longer before they are a contender for the cup. Unlike Chicago whose core is young.
Window has shut get over it.
So true. any team on any sport should have a succession plan. Youth will always replace age. In other pro sports in other parts of the world, players are considered old once they reach the age of 25. the Canucks have never been one to waste time with young talent. It’s the Cam Neely syndrome. In fact they are lousy at drafting talent as well.
They don’t bother wasting time developing young players from BC who want to play here, electing for over rated cast-aways from other teams. When their core has done nothing and gotten old, they’ll keep them longer or trade them away for a bag of peanuts, then bring in more of the same league rejects and heartless players form no hit European leagues.
The problem is not the the understanding that it’s a cycle, it’s the fact that for four decades, the team has been doing nothing but selling a pipe dream, by over rating the average players they have and clever marketing to lure in the delusional fan. You need a world class marketing team to sell that crap team year after year…hats off to them. The fact is that this franchise has no more room or leeway for excuses. 4 decades of futility buys them no more time and excuses. There is no more get out of jail cards, but I suspect the fans would love another 4 decades of the same.
They say that in Vancouver, there are hockey fans and then there are Canuck fans. The hockey fans don’t watch Canucks games while the Canucks fans watch Canucks games. Their fans have been nothing more then ENABLERS for a lousy team to survive. Who needs to kick a bad habit when you have other who will support that bad habit? hockey and the cup in Canada is dead, no Canadian owner or the league wants to win the cup here…there’s no need, when the fans keep coming to give them profit. Pretty soon even fans will walk away and take up something that has more credibility and transparency…like curling.
Mike Gillis could learn a thing or two from Doug Wilson.
DW swapped out Clowe & Murray for Torres, Hannan and draft picks. This was an excellent way to maintain their chances at winning playoff games in 2013 while adding futures to the organization.
Cancel out Thornton, Marleau & Pavelski with the Sedins and Kesler. The Sharks can add Couture & Burns to their forward core and, in theory, Havlat.
Who do the Canucks have to add to their core forwards? Burrows and some secondary guys.
And the Sharks don’t necessarily have an elite level forward group. But that’s the price for continual success sometimes.
The Canucks don’t need to rebuild (yet). But they definitely need to retool the forward group.
Unfortunately the only NHL regular drafted by the Gillis regime is playing in Buffalo.
It’s getting harder and harder to trust Gillis when it looks like all he has done is extended the majority of core players he inherited.
Which isn’t really a skill since most players are willing to extend with big market cap teams irrespective of the GM.
The biggest problem is that the Canucks core have proven they CAN’T win in the post season…where it counts. How many more years does one have to have in order to confirm this. The Sedins are better offf going to join the X-Men, as I’m sure they can use his power of invisibility to fight Magneto.
it’s like when a kid takes a math test. He doesnt know the answer in the fisrt five minutes. Then he decides to wait another five minutes and maybe the answer will come to him. It doesn’t, he waits for 15 minutes. Then 20, then 30, then 40, on and on. At what point do we and the kid realize that the kid doesnt have the answer and call it a day? This team has not won anything in 44 years, and that means the cup. They can NOT keep going on that path. If they keep this up, it’ll be 100 years and nothing. So why even bother, why not just pack it up and cal it a day, cause that would be less cruel. At least they moved the Grizzlies. And I dont hear anyone saying how they hoped the Grizzlies would come back.
When the team loses to a team in 4 that is probably less chokey than they are, you know theyre done. You could have put the farm team there and the results would have been the same if not better.the only thing that franchise really cares about is the bottom line…but seeing as how much they spent this year and still choked, we can also conclude that they could care less about winning. And the paying fans of course come last. If I were them I wouldnt care either, if folks are dumb enough to come watch such a over rated useless team, than I’ll take their money cause they deserve what they get. |How can the fans who enable such a team deserve anything other then what they get?
Truth is, there is not ONE person in that franchise from Gillis to AV to scouting to the players that are untouchable. I seriously hope AV goes to another team just to bring them the same misery and excuses. Hope he also take the Sedins and luu and his fave pets with him as well.