I had planned a full scale dismantling of the defensive effort shown by the Canucks last night. They left Roberto Luongo to fend for himself on a number of occasions, and apart from one bad goal looked a little more solid. As a team they have to get back into a better defensive mindset or all this effort will be for naught. Hmmm... there was something else I was gonna say...
Oh yeah. Now I remember. The karma that's been doling itself out in small doses to the Flames and their fans since 2005 finally came home to roost. But I can't give credit to karma alone. Brian Burke deserves a good chunk of credit as well. It was his trades with the Flames that delivered the fatal blow, the strike they could not recover from. Now, saddled with no draft picks in (possibly) the first 3 rounds, no prospects of note in the system and pressed hard against the cap, the Flames are going to have to completely dismantle this team and start over.
Kind of familiar sounding? It should be. That's what the Canucks had to do themselves a few years ago. Have they got the mix right? Time will tell, but 3 division titles in 4 years tells you they are headed in the right direction. You can't tell that to some Canucks fans right now. Anything less than a victory by a large margin is unacceptable it seems, and even in victory, there are some who doubt this team. I get it. We've been let down before. You have to look at it this way: We weren't supposed to be here. They had predicted doom and gloom. We would battle the Flames for top spot. We didn't have any goal scoring. A one line team. We'd squeak into the playoffs. And now, with the 2nd best offense in the NHL, they still doubt us. Good. Write us off. Don't call us a contender. PLEASE underestimate us.
There's still lots of jockeying to do as far as positions in the post season, it's looking more and more like a Vancouver/Los Angeles series. I kind of like that. Limited travel. No leaving the timezone. The hilarity of Hollywood bandwagoners being told by their PR firms that they like hockey. It shall start with them. Or maybe someone else. Either way, in spite of the shakiness... something inside tells me it's going to be different. That feeling has shown itself to me all year long. It just might be our time...