Optimist Prime - 11.13.2009
Entry posted by Optimist_Prime
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<table border=0 width=1000 align=center><tr><td><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2009/10/oct0209_optimist_blog.jpg" border=0 style="float: left; margin-right: 8px;">Every Rose Has Its Thorn is more than Poison's first and only number-one single, more than #34 on the list of 100 Greatest Songs of the 80's, more than the power ballad Otto used to propose to his main squeeze Becky on The Simpsons many moons ago.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn is a song title that perfectly encompasses what it means to do battle in the NHL and come out on top.
The rose, being the Stanley Cup champion, is a thing of beauty that is associated with greatness. The thorn, being trials and tribulations, signifies the bumps in the road in which that team endures.
<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2009/11/OP7_6.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="right" />Whoa, that was deep. A little too deep. Forgive me, but it was either a reference reminding everyone that a perfect season doesn't exist, or going Elizabeth Lambert on all those leaping off the bandwagon to sip some Haterade.
Sure, the Canucks are in a funk. Everything they touch turns to Skittles, I'm with you. We're just lucky they aren't playing today, Friday the 13th, or things could get real gruesome.
Vancouver has lost three consecutive games for the second time this season and being 20 games deep, that puts the Canucks on pace to have eight such losing streaks this year. But that's according to the numbers and we all know they lie, like every time I step on the scale or check my bank account balance, for example.
Numbers do turn in Vancouver's favour when looking at the past five Stanley Cup champions, however.
Starting with the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning and ending with the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins, the last five teams to hoist the Cup have lost at least three games in a row three times during their championship seasons.
<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2009/11/OP7_11.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="Left" />The 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks persevered through an 11 game stretch in which the team won only twice and had two four-game losing streaks. Ditto for the Detroit Red Wings circa 2007-08, they ended February 2008 losing 10 of 11 games, including six in a row. Same story for last year's Pens as over one 10 game period between December and January they lost five straight and eight of 10.
Welcome back perspective, we missed you. You were away helping Larry Johnson put his life back together, you say. Well that's a noble cause and we understand your absence.
Every rose has its thorn and the Canucks are currently being pricked, better now than in March. I'm optimistic we'll make it through this and come out on top with our heads held high in Captain Morgan stances when things are in full bloom and everyone is lining up to smell the roses.
<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2009/11/OP7_10.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="4" vspace="1" align="right" />Then and only then will we look back on the widespread panic the fans and media went through mid-November and enjoy a
I recommend something from the
Who is Optimist Prime? He's an eternal Canucks believer whose glass is always half full, even when it's empty.
Throughout the 2009-10 season, Optimist will take a lighthearted look at the Canucks while never losing the faith. It's Cup time baby!
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