By Joel Smart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 8, 2013
The Canucks went from winning all but a single game in their amazing 2011 run, to not winning a single game in their stunning 2013 collapse.
The Canucks went into the playoffs with high hopes. Sure, we all knew that this wasn’t likely to be the year we stormed back to the finals to claim the big prize, but there were signs that this team might be ready to dig deeper than ever before. It was possible that they might make a playoff push, not as an elite high-scoring squad like in 2011, but as a gritty, hard-fighting group of veterans ready to do battle on each and every play. Unfortunately, the Canucks never found that extra drive come playoff time. All the talk, all the promises, but when push came to shove, the team just didn’t have the heart and drive for it.
We did see glimmers of brilliance along the way. Ryan Kesler in game two was everything the media suggested he could be. Again he pulled the team on his back, scoring twice to put Vancouver in the lead. But unfortunately for Vancouver, the rest of the team was all to eager to pull him back down to their level. Roberto Luongo was also brilliant for extended stretches. His pinch save early in the first game of the series was one of the best we’ve ever seen, and it was just one of several astounding saves. The team was perhaps their strongest in the third period of the fourth game, with everything on the line.
But for a team intent on playing defensively, the Canucks defence left a lot to be desired. The team routinely gave up major opportunities to score that were just nowhere to be found on the other side of the ice. In a market where goalies are the first to be criticized by the uniformed masses, we saw a team where only the goalie really showed up to play. The Canucks, as it turned out, were not prepared to deal with a Sharks team that was peaking at the right time – especially with an injury to treasured defencemen Chris Tanev forcing some inexperienced talent into the lineup.
Although it’s tough to separate fact from bias, the NHL refereeing system was also a major downfall for the Canucks. After 2011’s collapse, the Canucks focused on building a tougher team, presumably because that’s what you need to win in the playoffs, when the refs stop calling as much. Only, that didn’t seem to happen this year, when refs decided to call everything on the Canucks in an effort to keep things from getting out of hand. Little extra hits and skirmishes after the whistle routinely found the Canucks in the box against a potent power play. These momentum-killing penalties were the nail in the coffin for the Canucks. Nowhere was this more evident than in the final minutes of game four. A weak call on Kevin Bieksa allowed the Sharks to claw back to tie late in the third, and an even weaker call in overtime on team captain Henrik Sedin was all it took for the San Jose Sharks to move past the Canucks into the second round.
In the weeks and months to come, Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini will have to decide how to revamp this team. One thing seems clear – changes need to be made. First on the chopping block will almost certainly be head coach Alain Vigneault, but the fate of general manager Mike Gillis is also up in the air – it was he who failed to free up cap space with a Luongo trade earlier in the year, not to mention the way most of his player signings have failed to make any significant impact on the team (to put it nicely). What players will go and what players will stay? Perhaps a full-scale rebuild is in the works – and if it means more depth and talent for the team, it’s tough to say that isn’t the right choice for Aquilini moving forward.
