The Catch 22 of the Vancouver Canucks

It has been exactly a year since the Boston Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The memories are still with us, they will always be with us. The dramatic Stanley Cup run was special but the nothing will please this Vancouver hockey market unless they win the Stanley Cup.

When the defending Western Conference Champions started their season, the team had one goal. That goal was to mirror what the Pittsburg Penguins did a few years earlier, which was, lose the Stanley Cup and come back the next year to win it.

The task was very challenging. Before the Penguins did it in 2009, the last team to accomplish the challenge was the 1983 and 1984 Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers had lost to Mike Bossy and the New York Islanders in 1983, but had came back in 1984 to return the favor to Al Arbour’s hockey team.

It’s a task that is completed every quarter century. The fans of the Vancouver Canucks expected it to happen almost twice in half a decade. Of course a Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins on June 15^th wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the heroics of Alex Burrows on April 26^th 2011.

On April 26^th 2011, the entire province was focused on one thing that night. Only one thing mattered that day. Nothing else mattered. That one thing was a Game 7 between the Presidents Trophy Winning Vancouver Canucks and the defending Champions the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canucks were on the verge of blowing a 3-0 series lead against their arch rivals. The Blackhawks were giving the Canucks nightmares in every way. Fortunately, the Canucks were able to prevail in sudden death overtime to give the Canucks some revenge to the team who had knocked them out of the playoffs the previous two years.

Why is this important? As the Canucks season wore along this year, it was evident that the Canucks had no gas left in the tank. Their two-month Stanley Cup run from a year before was finally taking a toll on them.

However, it becomes a catch 22 for the Vancouver Canucks. As a result of the unpredictable matchups in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it is quite easy to say the Canucks could have streamed rolled their way through the Western Conference. The Canucks would have hit the jackpot by getting the sixth seed New Jersey in the Stanley Cup Final.

As good as it may have sounded, this may have not been the case. Lets say Chicago does beat the Canucks in that seventh game. It’s not as easy as to say the Canucks would have gotten rested up for another Cup attempt. A first round exit to the same team three years in a row would have meant changes. The changes could have been all the way from 1-2 players from the Canucks current core to the head coach.

Those changes could have led to a different style of Canucks hockey this year. Therefore, the Canucks wouldn’t have been in as good of a position to make a Stanley Cup run. As it turned out, the Canucks Stanley Cup run in 2011 resulted in the Canucks having no energy to make another run this year. It all becomes a catch 22 that was hard to avoid for the Vancouver Canucks. Just take a look at the Vancouver Canucks stats in their first round series against the Los Angels Kings. The stats told the story of the series and half the reason that was the case was fatigue.