The Rough Tough Canucks of 1994 Stanley Cup Finals

[Kevin Biestra]

9 minutes ago, Citizen Erased said:

Yeah. I can’t disagree with that. But down the road after 94 is when they could have used Brodeur. Heck, even Irbe was really good for the Canucks, but he had a terrible team in front of him. 

 

Yeah Irbe was my favorite guy in that goalie carousel.

[RolexSub]

2 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

Yeah Irbe was my favorite guy in that goalie carousel.

Hahah forgot we had Irbe back in the days as well!! 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

16 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

Yeah Irbe was my favorite guy in that goalie carousel.

Burke:  "Plan B goalie".

 

Burke's was a solid GM but man was his 'achilles heel' goalies.  Couldn't get one if his life depended on it.

 

It's tough for me to evaluate Brodeur because of the ROCK SOLID blueline he had in front of him & the offense stiffling (to the extreme) head coaching of Jacques Lemaire.  Not saying he was bad (the exact opposite, his HHOF numbers speak for themselves).  It's more a case of evaluating him relative to other "greats".  A guy like Hasek carried his team.  Brodeur was more of the Grant Fuhr mode.  A pressure goalie that didn't wilt under pressure.

Edited July 18, 2023 by NewbieCanuckFan

[Canucks Curse]

On 7/15/2023 at 6:07 AM, Kevin Biestra said:

I think that was slightly before Adrian Aucoin and Cullimore's time.  Oksiuta as well.

 

On the other hand though Nathan Lafayette was a pretty big guy that you left out.  I think he was six foot one measured with a lot of girth and a good looking body.

 

 

He had a body.

[Kevin Biestra]

3 minutes ago, Canucks Curse said:

He had a body.

It's what you want.

[DownUndaCanuck]

The Florida vs Vegas series was another great example of toughness of a different kind. Florida got decimated with injuries, a bit like how the 2011 Canucks got broken down, whereas Vegas just withstood everything physically. That may be part to do with size but it's also to do with endurance. That's a different kind of toughness. A bit like a boxer going into the deep rounds, Florida went deep but really were broken by the end with nothing left in the tank, a bit like the 2011 Canucks.

[Alflives]

9 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

The Florida vs Vegas series was another great example of toughness of a different kind. Florida got decimated with injuries, a bit like how the 2011 Canucks got broken down, whereas Vegas just withstood everything physically. That may be part to do with size but it's also to do with endurance. That's a different kind of toughness. A bit like a boxer going into the deep rounds, Florida went deep but really were broken by the end with nothing left in the tank, a bit like the 2011 Canucks.

I don’t see it that way at all. Florida was able to carry the physical game until they met Vegas. They intimidated their opponents. But their biggest intimidators got tossed aside by Vegas. The incident that won that series was when Eichel planted Gudas. He actually injured Gudas on the play too. The Florida tough guys were more bullies. When they got pushed back they went away. That and goalie Bob went back to being goalie Blob. 

[morgo]

4 hours ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

The Florida vs Vegas series was another great example of toughness of a different kind. Florida got decimated with injuries, a bit like how the 2011 Canucks got broken down, whereas Vegas just withstood everything physically. That may be part to do with size but it's also to do with endurance. That's a different kind of toughness. A bit like a boxer going into the deep rounds, Florida went deep but really were broken by the end with nothing left in the tank, a bit like the 2011 Canucks.

If that Canucks team had been completely healthy, in the finals, they would have swept Boston.  But I guess they only have themselves to blame for not closing out Chicago much earlier.

[EddieVedder]

6 hours ago, morgo said:

If that Canucks team had been completely healthy, in the finals, they would have swept Boston.  But I guess they only have themselves to blame for not closing out Chicago much earlier.

No ones ever completely healthy.  Boston was without Savard and Horton.

I still think we wouldve won if we had Hamhuis playing.  When we lost him, our team just sank defenselively.   Edler, Salo and Erhoff were already playing with serious injuries. 

Ill never forgot hamhuis hip check on lucic that took him out.

Edited July 19, 2023 by EddieVedder

[mikeyman109]

10 hours ago, EddieVedder said:

No ones ever completely healthy.  Boston was without Savard and Horton.

I still think we wouldve won if we had Hamhuis playing.  When we lost him, our team just sank defenselively.   Edler, Salo and Erhoff were already playing with serious injuries. 

Ill never forgot hamhuis hip check on lucic that took him out.

yes was a totally unnecessary injury at the time as well is memory serves me correct. I think it happened late in Game 1. Losing Aaron Rome who was the only healthy D man to the suspension was critical as well.We had depth but lost it all with Hammer going down and Rome being suspended.

[Canucks_fo_life]

This team had a record of 41-40-3, very mediocre, and got hot in the playoffs. They barely made the playoffs by a point or two, but i think what changed their fortunes in the playoffs was the big moves Pat Quinn made at the trade deadline to bolster the roster. 

[IBatch]

On 7/15/2023 at 7:42 PM, Slegr said:

True enough. I never saw him get knocked down, and he was involved in a lot of contact. Tough as nails.

Probably my favourite Babych contact, was when Probert had a head of steam and came flying in behind the net to smash Babcyh, he saw him coming at the last moment, braced himself and Probert went flying over his head, ass of tea kettle or whatever that saying is.   Wasn't what I was expecting at the time ... 

 

Babych was the master of one arm holds, would just grab a guy, and move him so he wasn't in the play lol.   Hang on for a bit, then let him go.

[Kevin Biestra]

On 7/16/2023 at 7:43 PM, Wise Guy said:

Nedved was hitting on my wife, maybe a good thing, Jagr probably would have scored with her.

 

[-DLC-]

Did anyone else go to this? I kept forgetting we lost...the atmosphere was like we won. Was second row...hooting and howling for our boys. (This is part 1 ... the entire thing is on YouTube in segments)

 

[EddieVedder]

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

Probably my favourite Babych contact, was when Probert had a head of steam and came flying in behind the net to smash Babcyh, he saw him coming at the last moment, braced himself and Probert went flying over his head, ass of tea kettle or whatever that saying is.   Wasn't what I was expecting at the time ... 

 

Babych was the master of one arm holds, would just grab a guy, and move him so he wasn't in the play lol.   Hang on for a bit, then let him go.

So nice to see babych finally get the respect he deserves here.  We had an almost legendary dman here and didn't even realize it.  

[Kevin Biestra]

5 minutes ago, EddieVedder said:

So nice to see babych finally get the respect he deserves here.  We had an almost legendary dman here and didn't even realize it.  

 

Babych retired in the top 20 all time in NHL career scoring for defensemen.  Only Canuck defenseman in history to this day with a hat trick.  6th for the Norris Trophy one year I think.

 

I think younger fans didn't take him that seriously when he was here because he looked like someone's Dad taking his kids to school but the guy was a beast.

 

His brother was a hell of a player too.  Looking like he might be on track for the Hall of Fame but got sidelined by injuries like Barry Pederson, Tim Kerr etc. too early on.

[Kevin Biestra]

2 hours ago, IBatch said:

Probably my favourite Babych contact, was when Probert had a head of steam and came flying in behind the net to smash Babcyh, he saw him coming at the last moment, braced himself and Probert went flying over his head, ass of tea kettle or whatever that saying is.   Wasn't what I was expecting at the time ... 

 

Babych was the master of one arm holds, would just grab a guy, and move him so he wasn't in the play lol.   Hang on for a bit, then let him go.

 

This is my favorite moment from Dave Babych's retirement years.

 

https://www.nhl.com/news/former-nhl-defenseman-dave-babych-rescues-injured-teen/c-282012078

 

Dave Babych rescues injured teen from Vancouver trail

Former NHL defenseman carried girl 35 minutes to safety

[IBatch]

23 minutes ago, Kevin Biestra said:

 

This is my favorite moment from Dave Babych's retirement years.

 

https://www.nhl.com/news/former-nhl-defenseman-dave-babych-rescues-injured-teen/c-282012078

 

Dave Babych rescues injured teen from Vancouver trail

Former NHL defenseman carried girl 35 minutes to safety

Was a great story.   My favourite post career TV moment, was when he joined a panel as guest and was talking about the Canucks run to the final in 2011,  think it might have been prior to Game 3 in Boston, maybe someone can correct me on that specific.    Guy was just a bear lol,  mike looked like a twinkie in his hand, and they were talking about Conn Smythe favourites to date.    He liked KB3... talked about the SJ series and the momentum swings resulting from his game.    That series was a lot closer then the result ... SJ seemed to be getting better, we seemed to be flat at best, just hanging on really (nobody but KB could handle Thornton, he was physically dominant like Jagr and doing his thing almost every shift)     KB making Eager go mad (trying to get him to fight to make up for demolishing Marleau, who was actually the one who instigated that fight too), was just as if not more important to us then his knuckle ball goal.     Guess he liked his defenseman lol.     Babych was my favourite D from those early 90's teams.      Still think he's the only Canuck D to ever score a hat trick.    And he was better come playoff time.   Like a lot of those guys back then.  

Edited July 20, 2023 by IBatch

[HKSR]

1 hour ago, -DLC- said:

Did anyone else go to this? I kept forgetting we lost...the atmosphere was like we won. Was second row...hooting and howling for our boys. (This is part 1 ... the entire thing is on YouTube in segments)

 

I was there!  Such an amazing atmosphere. 

[EdgarM]

On 7/18/2023 at 10:20 AM, Alflives said:

I don’t see it that way at all. Florida was able to carry the physical game until they met Vegas. They intimidated their opponents. But their biggest intimidators got tossed aside by Vegas. The incident that won that series was when Eichel planted Gudas. He actually injured Gudas on the play too. The Florida tough guys were more bullies. When they got pushed back they went away. That and goalie Bob went back to being goalie Blob. 

 

On 7/18/2023 at 2:28 PM, morgo said:

If that Canucks team had been completely healthy, in the finals, they would have swept Boston.  But I guess they only have themselves to blame for not closing out Chicago much earlier.

You hit the nail on the head Alf. Stone took a beating with his bad back too but they over came just like Linden with his broken ribs. We let Marchand walk around like he was 10 feet tall and we had a player who had his back broken in 2011 and we just crawled up in a ball and went away just like Florida did. 

We need these character players from our fourth line right up to our star players. Miller definitely has it and Hughes and Petey seem to be well on their way to be character players when it really counts too. These recent acquisitions seem to be just the right combination of toughness and character that we never really had for awhile on this team.

I feel the pieces are all coming together, just like they did in 94', a team built to withstand anything that gets thrown at them in the playoffs.