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The Real Reason The Canucks Are Not Playing Well


*Buzzsaw*

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So many people on this board like to point fingers at a certain Canuck player or line and blame them for what is going on with the Canucks.

But they are missing the real point.

The reason the Canucks as a team are not playing well is that the players in our dressing room have all finally realized the NHL brass will do anything to prevent Vancouver from winning the Cup.

And that's depressing. Imagine being a professional player who believes that hard work and good play will get you rewarded. That everything is equal for every team. And then finding out that is all a lie.

They started to get the idea in last year's playoffs against Chicago when the Refs called everything the Canucks did, and nothing on Chicago. Look at the penalty minutes for and against. Even Gillis had to say something. Then it became really obvious in the series against Boston when the Bruins were given a licence to run everyone on the Canucks team but the Canucks were spanked for anything. So we had situations where Rome, one of Vancouver's few healthy defencemen was given a 4 game's suspension for a hit which was on the edge of legal and which eliminated him from further final's play, but Johnny Boychuk was not even penalized for a hit which was a deliberate attempt to injure and which nearly left Mason Raymond in a wheelchair. Raymond is still not the player he was before that hit, and likely never will be. He's lost all his confidence and fine balance. Gillis complained again... nothing happened. Canadian ownership gets no respect.

That all happened because Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs was Chairman of the NHL board of Governors, and his pet flunky Colin Campbell was in charge of discipline. And of course, the fact that Campbell's son Gregory played for the Boston Bruins meant Campbell's decisions on discipline were a joke. Anyone who thinks the decision on the Raymond hit, or even Chara's hit on Pacioretty were based on fair objective evaluation is living in la la land.

Well this year Cambell is theoretically out as Chief of Discipline, but in reality he's still there as Senior VP of Hockey Operations with his finger in the pie.

And the NHL, who thought maybe the Canucks would go away after the fix was put in last year, were disappointed to see them fight their way back to top of the league again. After the game in Boston where the Canucks used their power play to spank the Bruins, the NHL backroom boys got together again to really fix the Canucks wagon.

That's why the calls on obstruction, holding, crosschecking and everything else which can cripple the Sedin's play have been thrown out the window. Meanwhile the Canucks are called on everything. Look at the number of penalty minutes against the Canucks and against their opponent's since the allstar break.

Plus of course, playoff style hockey is now 'in' for any team who plays against the Canucks. Cheap shots, late hits, anything goes. The game with Montreal was the perfect example. Now everytime they play, the Canucks have to put out the kind of effort physically that normally was only required in the playoffs.

And you know what? The Canucks are tired. They are tired of being run, and they are sick at the knowledge that the fix is in and the odds are stacked against them.

The NHL is the only top tier league in the world where the rules can change overnight. They don't do that in Soccer, Football or Baseball. No, only in the NHL, where the old boys club of US team owners puts the fix in so their teams have an advantage.

That's the real reason the Canucks are playing poorly.

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to say it in your own words...you are in la la land.

Even if what you say is true, than I just lost all respect for our players. If that is the reason they quit then, they don't deserve to wear our uniform. If anything it should motivate them more and be more hungry.

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I see a lot of people with their heads buried in the sand and who prefer to think with their mouths instead of their heads.

If what I said is not accurate then why did Henrik Sedin, the consumate team player who never says anything negative, mention the changes in the Ref's calls? Why is the captain of the team pointing this out?

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The scandal in Italian Soccer was about players taking bribes to fix a game... nothing about rules changes to benefit one team or style of play in the middle of the season, or refs being told to call certain things and not others. That's the issue.

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People who think the powers that be are making decisions based on what will produce a good fair league need to wake up.

This league is about money and nothing else. Bettman will do everything he can to maximize profitability in the US market and that means US teams making long playoff runs and a US team winning the Cup.

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The scandal in Italian Soccer was about players taking bribes to fix a game... nothing about rules changes to benefit one team or style of play in the middle of the season, or refs being told to call certain things and not others.  That's the issue.

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