When the dust settled from the playoffs, the Canucks were once again left without the Stanley Cup. This year can be considered an interesting one. The Canucks came away with the President's Trophy for the best season record in the league, however when all was said and done, the only trophy that mattered this season once again slipped away from their grasp. OK, maybe slipped away wasn't the word for it. It was brutally smashed away. This was not a "we just about nearly won it" attempt like 1994. It was a single game sweep-away like 1982. Instead of in 4 games, it was a game 7 one game series for all the marbles and the Canucks didn't even show up. There were no Linden-like heroics. Kesler, playing absolutely hurt, couldn't muster the energy to pull the team anywhere near close and Tim Thomas of the Bruins just was an absolute automaton who made every save to earn a 4-0 shutout victory and the right to parade the Stanley Cup up and down Roger's Arena ice in front of dejected Canuck fans. This year for Canuck fans shouldn't be "what could have been". We didn't deserve the Cup this year, not with our PP going flat and our offence coming from the third and fourth lines. You aren't a Cup-winning team when your 3rd and 4th lines exchange scoring ability with your 1st and 2nd lines; injury or not, you have to get it done. It's going to be a "what are we going to have to do to win the Cup" year. What sort of changes to our line-up do we have to make? That's the Stanley Cup potential question that Mike Gillis is going to have to answer in this off-season.
Certainly there were signs of life in the Canucks in the early going but once the first goal went in on Luongo, it was the harbringer of the end. Certainly the Canucks were the better team in the regular season, but there is a reason why they say that the Stanley Cup finals is the "only season that has any meaning in the NHL". Once the door closed on the regular season at the end of the game against the Calgary Flames, the real season started and for most of the series the Canucks were in, they looked like they were a fish out of water. After being up 3-0 on the Chicago Blackhawks, they nearly squandered their lead away and nearly got eliminated in a hard-fought Game 7. The game winning goal by Alex Burrows got them jumpstarted and into the second round against a feisty, defense first Nashville Predators team that pushed the 'Nucks into a 6 game series that nearly went 7 games if it wasn't for a timely goal by Daniel Sedin to put the Canucks ahead 2-0 and that's the way it stayed until a David Legwand tally to get the Preds on the board. The San Jose Sharks series was where some of the weaknesses of the Canucks were exposed. We lost a key member of the team with the loss of Mikael Samuelsson in Game 2 of that series and that put us seriously in a worse position for our run with the Bruins, let alone our somewhat "capable" offense sputtered to a stop in Nashville, but temporarily ignited for a flurry in San Jose. It was a combination of luck and skill that got the Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals. However when you look at the entire series you know that luck and skill don't last. Luck is unquantifiable, and skill can only take you so far. It was heart, grit and skill at the very last game that pushed the Bruins into the top spot as the NHL Stanley Cup Champions of 2011.
Heart, grit and skill will make luck going into the playoffs. And that's the combination that the Canucks will have to find in the off-season.
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