Relive the 2005-06 Vancouver Canucks Season

The Vancouver Canucks have become post-season regulars this side of the millennium. 

It doesn’t even take a full-hand to count how many times they’ve sat out. It can sometimes be easy to lose perspective of this, but all things being equal, this franchise has been one of the more consistently competitive ones in the league for the last 15-years. 

As such, it’s no big surprise that it’s usually one-and-done with any given coaching staff when they fall short of these expectations. Such was the case for Marc Crawford, as he couldn’t bring this team to realize the potential it flashed so brilliantly in the three seasons prior. If the window to contend was closing last season, this one saw it slammed shut with a set of burglar bars installed. 

Relive their shortcomings, on the other side of the jump!

These results leave much to be desired right across the board. It was the Canucks first stay from the post-season in four seasons, getting edged out by the Edmonton Oilers by a three-point margin. Given the Canucks less than stellar goal differentials, none too surprising. 

This year may have spelled the end of one era, but it paved the way for several formative pieces of the next best set of Canucks teams – they also had a Sven of their own, for whatever that is worth. This season marked the first full campaign for Ryan Kesler and had the first appearances from the likes of Kevin Bieksa and Alex Burrows. Almost forgot about that Richard Park fella… 

That five goalies suited up for the Canucks in this season ought to tell you how healthy this team was in net; that Alex Auld was leading the charge ought to tell you how ineffective they were. 

Rental pieces ahoy! As the Canucks limped their way to the deadline, they went defense heavy, acquiring Carney and Weinrich in the hopes of shoring up their defence for a run at the playoffs and one last kick at the can. Neither worked out all that well, but the net cost didn’t hamper the franchise too much going forward. 

Notable signings:

I still love that Michael Grabner selection, for whatever that’s worth. The results outside that pick leave a lot to be desired, although, the Sergei Shirokov pick seems like it would have been a PCS gem – the whole playing among adults while still a teen thing generally bodes well for a successful NHL future. 

The 2005-06 Vancouver Canucks season was marked by injuries, all the way through. They lost Dan Cloutier relatively early in the season and while I’d generally consider this a positive, when the alternative is Alex Auld, I’m a little less certain. It extends well beyond that, though, as the Canucks blue line was absolutely decimated by the deadline, which led to a series of rental acquisitions. 

There are a few unlikely heroes that emerged from this season, though, and I remember it being pretty neat to watch play out as the season wore on. Carter seemed to develop chemistry alongside the Sedins almost instantly. Nolan Baumgartner had one of his more successful campaigns as a Canuck and how can you not get behind that guy?

One can’t but wonder what this team could’ve done with marginally better luck and better goaltending. Then again, how many years of the West Coast Express come with that qualifier?

Points: Markus Naslund, 32G 47A 79P

At 32-years old, Nazzy still had it. One of the more underrated aspects to Naslund’s game was clearly his ability to facilitate offense from the stick of his teammates, as evidenced by his 47-assists. What a talent.

Goals: Anson Carter, 33G

I always knew during the peak of the West Coast Express that it would be Carter to dethrone Naslund atop the Canucks goals leaderboard… Said nobody, ever. Can you imagine the WOWY statistics for Carter away from the Sedins this season though? Oh, now that would be good for a laugh or two. Imagine Tyler Bozak on the wing, basically.

Assists: Henrik Sedin, 57A

If any season marked the transition from the West Coast Express to Sedin led Canucks hockey, this is probably the one. With 57 assists on the season, Hank immediately turned into a viable first-line forward in the post-lockout NHL. And to think, all it took was Anson Carter. 

One of the more interesting finds while doing the research for this series of posts on Canucks teams of old, is that Matthias Ohlund wasn’t a very proficient possession player. He is often lauded as one of, if not, the best defenceman in Canucks history. And yet, the team often did considerably better from a territorial standpoint with him off the ice than on. During the 05-06 campaign, Ohlund was a moribund 47.8% possession player. Not overly inspiring. 

Given that the Sedins were still second-line players for the Canucks this season, I wasn’t all that surprised to find out how efficient a pair of rate scorers they were. Daniel and Henrik are both sitting pretty, well above 2.5 P/60 on the season – a top-line scoring rate, for the time. 

Controlling roughly 50.9% of the puck possession that campaign, the Canucks appeared to have the requisite talent within their skater ranks to get the job done. Unfortunately, they were in the bottom third in even-strength Sv%, so that might explain why they didn’t.