The last time the Vancouver Canucks showed the defending champions the door was in 2011 and they came within one agonizing game of winning the Stanley Cup. But that was expected. The Canucks had 10 points at the top of the overall NHL standings and were an emerging powerhouse.
But this? While we are learning, anything can happen in the playoffs, and that unpredictability is even more likely if the teams are already five months out and playing the playoff tournament in an isolated bubble. And whether the NHL invited 16 or 24 teams or not, the Canucks were a legitimate playoff team when the league stalled in March, sitting with the third-best points percentage in the Pacific Division. We get all of that, but not only do the Canucks have the St. Defeating Louis Blues, they also dictated the pace of play and performed with a confidence that only comes with youthful ignorance. Former Canucks coach and current Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, when he felt more than grumpy during his media briefings, said at one point during the playoffs that even he was unsure whether the fine play of his young players was due to trust as “dumb”. Anyway with the Canucks, it works.
That any resemblance between the 2011 Canucks of 2011 and the version we look at nine years later is coincidental. Unless of course you consider this Canucks team strives to become what the 2011 team was, and more. It’s pretty clear at this point that the Canucks are on top of something special and like today, we’re starting to mark time when that’s going to happen. It might be sooner than we all expect. Travis Green, coach of Canucks, said before the series that his team did not make the playoffs as a fun, cuddly teddy bear who was happy to be there. And his team played that way against the Blues.
“I’m proud of them … they came into the series and expected to win,” Green said. ‘They played like they believed they could win. They were confident. (The Blues) are the Stanley Cup champions and they have almost the same team back. What our boys did, I’m proud of them. ”
And he should be. Nearly half of the Canucks lineup had never played in an NHL playoff game three weeks ago and the organization, as a whole, had not won a round after the season since that magical run-up to the cup final. So often in this sport, attacking teams are defined by the window they have to win. That is the reality of the era for payroll. The window of the Canucks should not be now, but here they are, cracking it wide open and enjoying the refreshing breeze that comes with being among the last eight in the Stanley Cup tournament.
So now comes the expectation part of it. Not necessarily in this round, where the Canucks will face the Vegas Golden Knights in a series that features two very fast-paced, highly entertaining teams who like to chase the puck and push the issue. But then again, why not put pressure on this group to win? By speeding up the program, that pressure will be there anyway when they attend training camp in November, despite what they do the rest of these playoffs.
And that’s where the Canucks will face their next long-term obstacle. Throughout history, the NHL chock is full of Stanley Cup teams that had to deliver a soul-sucking gut punch in the playoffs to learn how to become a champion. That clearly will not happen in this post-season, despite what happens against the Golden Knights. But it could in future years if this group gets a championship caliber team. Or not, because this group, and in particular its young players, has already proven that it is capable of keeping up with the best teams in the NHL. However, this all happens so fast.
“The character we have in the room, we have a great group of guys who have a lot of fun together,” said veteran Jay Beagle, who scored in the knockout game. ‘And if you have that and combine some skills there, you make for a great team. That want to win, that hunger to win, I saw it from day 1 when we entered. We see what we all already knew in the room. But we see it now in the playoffs. “
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