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A Quick Change - FEB.08.08

Sunny Dhillon

Entry posted by Sunny Dhillon

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<table width=75% align=center><tr><td><img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/09/sunny_blog.jpg" style="float: left; padding-right: 4px;">How quickly things can change...

Roberto Luongo had just stopped Mike Modano in the shootout. Trevor Linden strolled towards centre ice with a chance to win the game for Vancouver.

Canucks fans couldn’t have planned it any better; they were sitting on top of the world.

Here was Vancouver’s resident penalty shot expert with the game on his stick. The last time I checked, the Flames were losing and the Wild had blown a third period lead. Even the Predators were having a tough time with Carolina.

Linden was going to bury this and the Canucks were going to walk out of Dallas with two points. Their playoff hopes would be rejuvenated. I could feel it.<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2007/12/dec0607_preds09_t.jpg" style="float: right; padding-right: 4px;" />

To which fate replied: feel this!

Linden’s wrister clanked off the post and stayed out.

Although the shootout continued, I knew at that point the Canucks weren’t going to win it. Sure enough, after successive misses by Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler, and Taylor Pyatt, it was over. Vancouver had left an all-important bonus point on the table and taken a serious gut-punch.

More frustrated than Dave Nonis when someone asks him about not drafting Anze Kopitar, I turned off the TV for a couple of hours. It wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of the Sportsnet ticker later that night that I felt even worse.

The Flames had come back from a 3-0 deficit after two periods to beat Phoenix 4-3 in a shootout. J.P. Dumont had scored for Nashville with eight minutes to play to give the Predators a 1-0 win. And the Wild had earned a point by losing to Detroit in overtime.

From the highest of highs when Linden stepped over the boards a few hours earlier, this was the lowest of lows for Canucks fans. Despite playing a tremendous game without five of their top six defensemen, the Canucks had, essentially, lost ground in the Western Conference playoff chase.<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/feb0108_panthers05_t.jpg" style="float: left; padding-left: 4px;" />

Forward to Thursday night.

The Canucks appeared listless and uninspired for the first forty minutes against Atlanta.

After Pascal Dupuis made it 1-0 Thrashers midway through the second, even the most optimistic of Canucks fans could be forgiven for thinking that would be it for the night. It didn’t look like the Canucks would ever score; it didn’t look like they even cared.

Worse, division-leading Minnesota and Dallas were in a scoreless draw and looked poised to play one of those “Let’s take it easy until overtime so everyone gets a point and no one feels bad” type of games.

Nashville had taken an early lead against Tampa. The Flames were facing off against the terrible-of-late Chicago Blackhawks. And Phoenix was at home against a struggling Columbus squad.

But then, just as quickly as things had gone from good to bad for Canucks fans two days earlier, they went from bad to good.

<img src="http://cdn.nhl.com/canucks/images/upload/2008/02/02072008_atlanta10_t.jpg" style="float: right; padding-right: 4px;" />Daniel Sedin got Vancouver on the board with a powerplay goal six minutes into the third. Alex Burrows added what would be the game-winner less than five minutes later.

In Minnesota, Nik Hagman scored what would be the only goal of the game as his Stars knocked off the Wild in regulation. Tampa rallied and beat Nashville in overtime. The Blackhawks shocked Calgary at the Saddledome and the equally-surprising Blue Jackets knocked off Phoenix in the final game of the night.

I suppose part of being a sports enthusiast is overreacting when your team wins or loses. Everything is life or death; melodrama is par for the course.

But with 27 games remaining, this is one Canuck fan that’s going to do his best to take every uplifting win and heart-wrenching loss in stride. The Western Conference is simply too unpredictable to do otherwise.

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barkingmadarthur

This isn't a matter of having faith any more. It's a matter of removing life support and starting over. This team is moribund. No, it's already dead. Despite all his hard work and best intentions, Vigneault hasn't got the material to assemble a competitive team. Other teams have injury problems just as severe as the Canucks have, but none are as unable to respond to the challenge as this team. And the "offense" is healthy; it's just absolutely inadequate. At this point in the season, the battle is over. The trading deadline is imminent, and the Canucks have a chance to offload the problems and start to rebuild. There's no point in trying to put patches over the gaping holes. Even if the team can claw its way into the playoffs, they won't last more than 4 games. I would say the only untouchables are the Sedins and Luongo, assuming any of those want to stick with a low-end team for the foreseeable future. Luongo deserves to be on a team with a fighting chance; he won't get it on these Canucks.

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This isn't a matter of having faith any more. It's a matter of removing life support and starting over. This team is moribund. No, it's already dead. Despite all his hard work and best intentions, Vigneault hasn't got the material to assemble a competitive team. Other teams have injury problems just as severe as the Canucks have, but none are as unable to respond to the challenge as this team. And the "offense" is healthy; it's just absolutely inadequate. At this point in the season, the battle is over. The trading deadline is imminent, and the Canucks have a chance to offload the problems and start to rebuild. There's no point in trying to put patches over the gaping holes. Even if the team can claw its way into the playoffs, they won't last more than 4 games. I would say the only untouchables are the Sedins and Luongo, assuming any of those want to stick with a low-end team for the foreseeable future. Luongo deserves to be on a team with a fighting chance; he won't get it on these Canucks.

I think the point of the blog is that one loss is just one loss, no matter how ugly. You can't overreact to it because the team can go from the lowest low one night to the highest high the next. Now, if they lose to Chicago tonight... oh boy.

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From the lowest of lows against Colorado, to the highest of highs against Chicago.

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