Fan In Van

It’s Over

In a second-half which was eerily similar to the complete collapse of the 2005-06 team, the Vancouver Canucks failed to qualify for the playoffs. Their last ten games saw four wins and six losses, and more importantly, they won only one of their last seven. Amidst all that, the only question Canuck fans seem to be asking is “What happened?”

It’s clear Roberto Luongo could not duplicate the tremendous season he had last year. Markus Naslund, the team captain and leader, as hard as he tried, could not answer the call. Their blueline was seemingly incapable of staying healthy for any stretch of games. In other words, the worst that could go wrong did go wrong.

And now it’s over, just like that. Division champs? Not even a playoff team. Roberto Luongo’s amazing three-game shutout streak in November? It means nothing when you don’t make the postseason. Even the outstanding and super awesome play of Mike ‘Micro-Weave’ Weaver was not enough for the Canucks to qualify …

I look at the standings, and I don’t ask myself “What happened?”. Instead, I dwell on the question of “What if?”

What if the Canucks had beaten the Oilers in a couple more shootouts this season? What if Nonis had traded the likes of Kesler and Bourdon for Brad Richards at the deadline? What if Morrison hadn’t been so ridiculously injury-riddled? What if Peter Forsberg had not come back to Colorado to completely own the Canucks in all three games he played against them? What if the blueline had managed to stay healthy? What if Trevor Linden played in all 82? Dare I say, what if Roberto Luongo didn’t need to have his mind fixated on the birth of his child?

Too many to answer, not enough to ask. And the problem is, there are more questions being asked then ever at this point, which seems ironic since there seemed to be the same amount asked at the beginning of the Canuck season. And the burden of answering those questions will lie with Dave Nonis, Alain Vigneault, and all of Canuck management.

Where do they go from here? Will there finally be more scoring help next season? Do you believe in Vigneault’s coaching system of dump and chase, defense first? Do we bring back Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, or is it time to bury the old Crawford-Burke regime?

Quite simply, it’s difficult for the typical Canuck fan to come to a decision: Are we supposed to be angry and upset about our missed opportunities, or are we supposed to be excited about the possibilities for this offseason?

In the meantime, October seems oh so far away, and it looks like fans on the Pacific are going to need to find someone to cheer for in the postseason,  because, for the second time in three seasons, it won’t be the Vancouver Canucks.