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The Jinx Effect: Are the Canucks Doomed in 2011?
Written on September 3, 2010 at 08:02, by HTTN
Hockey experts around North America are expecting huge results from the Vancouver Canucks this upcoming season. Publications from The Hockey News to the Puck Daddy Blog have picked the Canucks to win it all, and the city of Vancouver is revelling in the attention. Not so fast, I say! Remember the last time this happened, Vancouver? Let us reminisce…
Lest We Forget, Vancouver: We’ve Been Through This Before…
The year was 2003. The Vancouver Canucks were loaded with expectations prior to the season, having just taken the Detroit Red Wings, eventual Stanley Cup Champions, to 6 games. They boasted the most prolific scoring line in the NHL, featuring one of the league’s most gifted goalscorers in Markus Naslund and the giant with the divine touch, Todd Bertuzzi. Flanking Brendan Morrison on either side, they were known as the West Coast Express, a fitting name for a line that freight trained through opposing defences with all the graciousness of a sledge hammer through a brick wall.
Their defense was a dynamic and youthful bunch, led by Ed Jovanovski, Mattias Ohlund, and a young, fit Sami Salo.
When prognosticators picked the Canucks as Stanley Cup contenders, Vancouver jumped on the bandwagon, and while naysayers warned that the NHL season was a long grind; anything could happen, they were shoed away and ignored.
A long season it turned out to be – Canucks fans were treated to one of the most painful rollercoaster rides in their history, and that’s something, considering the tumultuous history of the team.
The wheels began to fall off for the Stanley Cup contenders on February 16, 2004, when Markus Naslund sustained a concussion at the hands of the now infamous Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche. You may recall that the rivalry between the Canucks and Avalanche was nearly unparalleled in the NHL at the time – in an era before bodychecking was taboo, their matchups were like the UFC on ice.
As if a concussion and hyper extended elbow to the team captain and reigning Lester B. Pearson winner (NHL MVP as voted by players) was not enough of a blow, the Avalanche returned to cause more havoc only one month later.
On March 8, 2004, a date that is as etched into any Canucks fans’ mind as September 11 is to all other human beings, the same Steve Moore declined to fight Bertuzzi and skated away. Unfortunately, he made it only 2 strides before being hit by big Bert’s fist to the back of his helmet, and through the ensuing dogpile, his head was driven into the ice.
Bertuzzi would be suspended for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs, and with him were dashed all hopes of a Stanley Cup for the Vancouver Canucks in 2004.
Not so fast, cried Brian Burke, erstwhile general manager of the Canucks. With the NHL’s trade deadline falling one day after the greatest calamity in team history, and a certain suspension coming to their superstar, he quickly retooled the Canucks, trading a 3rd round draft pick and 2 prospects for rental players Geoff Sanderson and Martin Rucinsky. This was the Canucks’ year, and Burke was not about to let it slip away.
Valiantly, they won their division and battled their way into the playoffs to be pitted against the 6th place Calgary Flames. But it was in this first round series that Mikka Kiprusoff first made a name for himself. And while he made spectacular save after spectacular save at one end, Canucks starting goaltender, Dan Cloutier, did the same at the other.
Unfortunately, Cloutier sprained his ankle in the third game, needing to be replaced by Johan Hedberg and then the rookie, Alex Auld, for the remainder of the series. And though they were but a makeshift team by this point, an improvisation put together by Burkie’s imagination, they would still manage to drive the series to 7 games.
Game 6 was one for the ages, as the Canucks, down 3-2 in the series, faced elimination heading into overtime. The two teams battled through 2 full 20 minute extra periods with nary a goal allowed. Then, two and a half minutes into the 5th period of the game, Brendan Morrison took the puck across the mouth of the net, faking once and tucking it past the goalie who rarely made a mistake. Having scored to save his team, Morrison spun around on his knees and raised his arms with a triumphant smile stretching from ear to ear, only to be mobbed by an entire roster of grown men.
And then there was game 7, a story in itself: Jarome Iginla gave his Flames a 2-1 lead with 10 minutes left in the third period, and time wound down steadily on the Canucks’ season. Just when the game was about to expire, Markus Naslund carried the puck the length of the ice and desperately threw it towards the net. A crashing Matt Cooke would direct it in, tying the game at 2 goals apiece.
The city of Vancouver rose in unison, jumping up and down just as Ed Jovanovski did from his front row seat in the penalty box. The dream was not over, perhaps it was only beginning.
Fifteen minutes to catch their breaths, and Vancouver fans strapped in for a stressful overtime. But only 1:25 into it, ex-Canuck Martin Gelinas scored the overtime winner. His goal would break every heart in the province of British Columbia, bursting a bubble that should have never been so inflated in the first place. A final nail in the coffin, the series clincher, the season ending goal for the Canucks.
Now do you remember? This is what happened the last time the Canucks were pre-season favourites. Please, remind me that there is no such thing as a jinx.
Not so sure anymore, are you?
-to see the real reasons behind The Hockey News’ prognostications, click here
