Welcome to this edition of "From The Archive". In this recurring series, we open The Hockey News' vault and display some of the top Vancouver Canucks related articles from the past. Today's article comes from Volume 63, Issue 22, where Elliotte Pap wrote about a potential run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final.
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The Overdue 12-Year Itch, Volume 62, Issue 22, April 12, 2010
Really, the Vancouver Canucks’ year for a long playoff run was supposed to be 2006. You can look it up.
The Canucks entered the NHL in 1970 and reached the Stanley Cup final in 1982. OK, they didn’t win it against the powerhouse New York Islanders, but they did prevail in three earlier playoff rounds and created a lot of excitement in Vancouver.
Twelve years after the first run, the Canucks made another unexpected appearance in the final. This time they pushed the star-studded Rangers to seven games in 1994 before succumbing. But again, Vancouver never had more fun cheering on its team.
The pattern was clear: 1970, ’82, ’94. It became known as the ‘12-year rule.’ History was expected to repeat itself in 2006, but that was wishful thinking. There was no playoff run, because the Canucks didn’t make the playoffs.
Coach Marc Crawford was fired, Alain Vigneault hired, fading star Todd Bertuzzi was dealt away for goalie Roberto Luongo in a blockbuster five-player trade and another makeover was underway in Vancouver.
Now four campaigns into the Vigneault-Luongo era – and two seasons into the Mike Gillis regime – the Canucks look poised for another successful playoff run.
Perhaps the best person to judge the team is new Canuck Mikael Samuelsson. The 33-year-old Swede won a Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008 and narrowly missed another last season. He’s lived playoff success, knows what it takes and his prevailing thought is this: there are no guarantees.
“We definitely have a good team here,” Samuelsson said. “But there is more to it than just being a good team. You have to be a little lucky with bounces and injuries and a lot of stuff like that. So we definitely have a chance, but if you look at the West, it’s always the same, any team could come out of it. You have to be good at the right time. You need everything to be working – scoring, goaltending, power play, penalty killing, faceoffs, no injuries.”
During their 1982 run, the Canucks had injuries to key defensemen Kevin McCarthy, Rick Lanz and Jiri Bubla, but they also had tremendous luck as the high-flying Edmonton Oilers were upset by the Los Angeles Kings in the ‘Miracle on Manchester.’ The Minnesota North Stars were also upset, by the Chicago Black Hawks, clearing a path for the Canucks, who handily beat the Kings and Black Hawks after sweeping Calgary in the opening round.
‘WE HAVE A GOOD TEAM, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE A LITTLE LUCKY’
Roly-poly goalie Richard Brodeur became ‘King Richard’ before the Islanders ended Vancouver’s impossible dream.
In 1994, the Canucks remained almost injury free for all four rounds, losing only lumbering blueliner Dana Murzyn with a knee problem. They won their way through on merit, starting every series on the road against a heavily favoured opponent.
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Goalie Kirk McLean was brilliant throughout the run and his first-round, Game 7 overtime stop on Calgary’s Robert Reichel is still regarded as the greatest save in Canucks history. After taking care of the Flames, Vancouver dispatched both the Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs in five games.
The ’94 Canucks had a game-breaker in Pavel Bure and a solid two-way center in Trevor Linden.
So in examining the 2009-10 version of the Left Coasters, the ingredients are in place beginning in goal with Roberto Luongo.
Like McLean before him, Luongo has had a number of successful regular seasons and a couple of Vezina Trophy nominations. But Luongo’s playoff resume is pretty thin. In his first six NHL seasons, he didn’t even make the playoffs with weak teams on Long Island and in Florida.
He has appeared in four career playoff series – all with the Canucks – and has a 2-2 record. Luongo has a Game 7 victory over Dallas in 2007 and a Game 6 meltdown against Chicago last year.
There were doubts he could get the job done in pressure cooker situations, but Luongo dispelled that notion in the Olympics when he stepped in for Marty Brodeur and won four straight sudden-death games. He out-dueled U.S. goalie Ryan Miller in the gold medal final and silenced his critics.
(Of course, when he was hooked twice in his first seven post-Olympic starts, the critics returned. But we’re talking big-game credentials and Luongo established once and for all he could be counted on to handle the most crucial of situations.)
So in the Western Conference, with goaltending doubts dogging some contenders, the Canucks are in better shape than most. Give them a check mark there.
Up front, the Canucks have a coveted one-two punch at the center position. Both Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler have enjoyed career campaigns and can play in all situations. Henrik is a pure set-up man and has turned grinder Alex Burrows into a 30-goal scorer with his sublime passing skills. With his brother Daniel on one side and Burrows on the other, Henrik is the kingpin on one of the NHL’s top lines.
Secondary scoring isn’t an issue in Vancouver anymore thanks to Kesler’s emergence as an offensive threat. The 25-year-old American broke into the league as a defensive specialist, a skill he didn’t lose when he began piling up the points. Kesler is still the Canucks’ most important faceoff man, a prime penalty killer and is usually matched up against the opposition’s top line when Vigneault has last change.
It’s Kesler’s development on the offensive side of the puck that has enhanced Vancouver’s playoff hopes. He’s got a wicked wrist shot that he deploys to great effect on the power play and his speed has opened things up for his wingers, among them Samuelsson, Mason Raymond and Pavol Demitra. Kesler was also one of Team USA’s top performers at the Olympics and said the experience has sent his confidence soaring.
If the Canucks do fulfill some of their playoff promise, Kesler could very well emerge as a Conn Smythe candidate. So give the Canucks a check mark there, too.
On the wings, the Canucks don’t have the Pavel Bure-type game-breaker, but they score by committee and their ace in the hole might by Demitra, who was sensational for Slovakia at the Olympics and exhibited an ability to raise his play in the most intense of environments.
Daniel Sedin, Burrows, Samuelsson and Raymond give the Canucks good balance on both the right and left sides, which is worthy of another check mark.
The Canucks biggest question mark is on the blueline. The long-term concussion sustained by shutdown ace Willie Mitchell on Jan. 16 has created a vacuum the coaching staff has been unable to fill. Mitchell was always matched against the opposition’s top line, always the first one out on the penalty kill and always the first one out to defend a lead in the final minute.
THE CANUCKS BIGGEST QUESTION MARK IS ON THE BLUELINE
In his absence, Vigneault has used more of Alex Edler and Christian Ehrhoff, neither of whom possess Mitchell’s unique ability to frustrate opponents’ marquee forwards. Shane O’Brien, Aaron Rome and Andrew Alberts have been asked to fill some of Mitchell’s minutes, but if he doesn’t return, it will put a crimp into the Canucks’ ability to defend.
The Canucks also lost depth defenseman Brad Lukowich, who has two Stanley Cup rings, to season-ending shoulder surgery while Mathieu Schneider, an ex-Gillis client, bombed out in Vancouver with a bad attitude and was eventually waived and traded to Phoenix.
So the depth isn’t there and another key injury, to perhaps either Sami Salo or Ehrhoff, could be impossible to overcome in the hopes of a long playoff march. Ehrhoff is vital for his ability to skate the puck out of trouble, join the rush and produce offense from the back end. Salo is equally irreplaceable as a steadying force, a player who rarely makes the big mistake and has a cannon from the right point.
“You need depth,” said understated blueliner Kevin Bieksa, who missed two and a half months with two lacerated ankle tendons, the result of a freak skate-cut inflicted by Phoenix Coyote Petr Prucha. “Anything you need to be a good team – good goaltending, good special teams, depth and an ability to win the close games – you need to win in the playoffs. Right? But I think the most important thing is good goaltending and special teams.”
The Canuck power play has been good all season long, the penalty killing mediocre. Mitchell’s absence has affected the man-short units, but if Luongo gets into one of his zones, he can help overcome that deficiency.
So, for the most part, the pieces are certainly there for the Vancouver Canucks. Now all they need is that element of luck and a blueline corps that doesn’t wind up in the hospital.
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