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Like all members of Canuck Nation, we here at Critically Canuck have suffered a long time. We will not die happily unless the Stanley Cup makes its way to Stanley Park. Here you'll get the straight goods on our heroes. With both feet on the bandwagon, we will, however, pull no punches. As long time season ticket holders, that's our prerogative. Expect analytical insight with a strong sense of history. We'll ask the tough questions. And answer them. Enjoy. Ask me anything Submit

January 30, 2013

Canucks’ Weekly Wayback - Flyers Brawl with Fans

Vancouver hockey fans have been witness to some of the most brutal acts of violence in hockey history. In recent times, there was the Marty McSorley head-clubbing of Donald Brashear and, of course, the Todd Bertuzzi neck-breaking of Steve Moore. And the Stanley Cup riots of 2011 are still fresh in our memories.

But the history of violence at Canuck games goes much further back. And today, with the 300th blog entry in our history, and with the Canucks posting the 2nd most fighting majors in the league, we revisit December 29, 1972.

On that night, the Philadelphia Flyers were visiting the Pacific Coliseum and were on their ascendancy to becoming the league’s best and most penalized team. During a scrap between Don Saleski and Barry Wilcox, Vancouver fans, apparently incited by the barbarity of the Flyers’ play, grabbed the hair (and there was plenty to grab) of Saleski, also known as Big Bird. Ultimately, seven Flyer players (Saleski, Bill “Cowboy” Flett, Bob Taylor, Barry Ashbee, Joe Watson, Ross Lonsberry and Ed Van Impe) became involved with Vancouver fans.

All seven were charged with creating a disturbance “by using obscene language and by fighting with spectators with fists and by wielding hockey sticks against and in close proximity to spectators in the general seating area for spectators”.

Further, there were six criminal assault charges levied with goalie Bob Taylor, who had assaulted a police officer, ultimately sentenced to 30 days in jail!

The picture featured in this entry documents a brawl that ensued in Philadelphia when the Canucks visited there the following season. You’ll note that Taylor is again in the middle of the action, duking it out with Canucks’ keeper Gary “Suitcase” Smith.

The Flyers, of course, went on to hockey immortality as the Broad Street Bullies. The Canucks, despite not being in the same conference as the Flyers, would continue to test their mettle against them in heated battles through the 70’s and 80’s that often featured record breaking penalty totals - expect more on that in future instalments of Canucks’ Weekly Wayback.

In the meantime, enjoy tonight’s encounter against the Colorado Avalanche, who remarkably lead the league in penalty minutes, though are hardly the goons of yesteryear.

March 6, 2012

The Canucks and the Big Man

With last week’s stunning acquisition of young hulking winger Zack Kassian in exchange for prized rookie Cody Hodgson, the Canucks are about to add another chapter to a long running story in Vancouver: the quest for the perfect power forward.

This story has its beginning, of course, with Cam Neely, who would become the prototype for the very term. Except the Canucks didn’t know it. And gave him away for Barry Pederson, a playmaking centre who had been a BC junior hockey star and twice a 100 point scorer for the Boston Bruins. Though at the time of the 1986 trade, he had the use of roughly one arm and was a shadow of his former self - though still good enough to lead the pitiful Canucks in scoring. Meanwhile, Neely became the NHL’s definitive power forward and hockey hall of famer despite a career that was tragically cut short by injury.

Since that devastating and memorable loss, Vancouver has had more misses than hits to replace what Neely was never able to provide in Vancouver, but did so effectively in Boston.

Indeed, since the 1983 draft that produced Neely, the Canucks have burned six first round picks on big men up front. There was one hit, Trevor Linden. And several misses - Rob Murphy, Shawn Antoski, Alek Stojanov and the most lamentable Libor Polasek. And there was Jim Sandlak, who seemed to have the game, but just not the gumption on most nights.

The Canucks, since the Neely disaster, have actually had better success trading away big men than keeping them. Linden became Todd Bertuzzi - who, while a Canuck, was the best power forward in the game. Bertuzzi, the power gone from his game after the Steve Moore incident, became Roberto Luongo. Stojanov, of course, became Markus Naslund. And even Sandlak was good enough for Murray Craven, a key player on the 1994 Final team.

And when the Canucks weren’t drafting big men, they were passing on some they rightly should have nabbed. And while second-guessing draft picks is a ridiculously simple and unfair game, there are a few instances that are notable in their sheer idiocy. Two picks after the Canucks selected J.J. Daigneault, who approached the 1984 draft table on crutches, Calgary selected Gary Roberts. And of course, failing to nab local boy Milan Lucic, who was playing in their own backyard for the WHL Vancouver Giants, before the Bruins got him in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft is a slight that will not be forgotten by many.

In Canuck lore, the broad shoulders of Trevor Linden almost carried the team to its first Stanley Cup. And the dominant play of Todd Bertuzzi helped return the Canucks to an elite team before a tragic ending. And, of course, the loss to Boston in last year’s Final has been blamed, by many, on a lack of toughness on the top lines.

So while the quest for the perfect big man continues with the acquisition of Kassian, none of this legacy should matter. We doubt he’s a Canuck historian. But it will likely matter to the rabid fan base, who have too much misery in memory.

When news of the trade first broke, it seemed to catch most by surprise - even the supposed hockey insiders - which causes one to worry if the Canucks had done their best to auction Hodgson to the highest bidder. But it would seem given the Canucks’ now apparent long running drama with the Hodgson camp, that they likely had this deal in the works for quite some time and had their sights particularly set upon Kassian. So while this trade may be evaluated on the longer term performances of both players, the trade of a blue chip asset in Hodgson only increases the pressure on Kassian to contribute now.

And so it goes. Another big man in Vancouver. With pressure to fulfill a prophecy often promised, but rarely fulfilled.

January 3, 2011

Canucks’ Credit, Who Gets It?

With their New Year’s Eve road victory over Dallas, the Canucks finished up the year 2010 with an amazing regular season record of 48-20-9. That’s a winning percentage of .682 - easily the best twelve months of regular season success ever for the franchise. And after a couple of more wins to start 2011, the team finds itself perched atop the NHL standings.

As our followers know, we will not hesitate to pull the trigger when playing the blame game. So what about now? Who gets the credit for this sustained run of regular season dominance?

The easy answer, of course, is Mike Gillis. After all, he inherited a team that had missed the playoffs twice in three years and is now on the verge of watching his team capture its third straight division crown and, quite possibly, much more.

When you look at the roster that has contributed to the extended run of current success, you will notice that the top three forwards (the Sedins and Ryan Kesler) were draft picks of the Brian Burke era. As was Kevin Bieksa, this year’s comeback player of the year in the minds of many. We’re sure Toronto fans are wondering why he didn’t take this build-through-the-draft strategy with him there instead of pulling a Phil Kessel quick fix. At any rate, we’re quite happy about it.

Digging a little deeper you’ll see that Alex Edler, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen and Cory Schneider (all key players in this vintage Canuck edition) were all draft picks of Dave Nonis - a man whose drafting record was roundly criticized. And of course, the backbone of this team, Roberto Luongo, was received by Nonis for the combustible Todd Bertuzzi (in a trade offer that no one would have refused). Combine that with his free agent signings of Alex Burrows and Rick Rypien and it’s quite clear that the core of this team was present before Gillis arrived on the scene.

Even the head coach, Alain Vigneault, was a Dave Nonis hire for crying out loud.

Don’t for a moment think that we are pining for yesteryear - we were driving the “fire Dave Nonis bus” as much as anyone. Gillis has been able to do what Nonis was not - he has made Vancouver a desirable destination for players, despite the difficult travel schedule and fishbowl atmosphere. Further, he has reworked the team’s back end while adding the right mix of complementary forwards to the group he inherited.

By far his biggest accomplishment has been to fully recognize what assets he had and retain them with as little cap impact as possible. A man with a bigger ego and less patience would have been more inclined to blow this thing up, putting his personal stamp on the team in the process.

That is not to say that Gillis is beyond reproach. His post season patience with Alain Vigneault is unprecedented; only time will tell if it is warranted. His drafting record is, at best, incomplete. And the biggest contributor to his success may have been simply good fortune - Mats Sundin’s reluctance to accept $20 million for two years of floating. And the lengthy contract of Roberto Luongo “could” hamstring the club down the road.

But like we said, now is not the time for the blame game. There is plenty of credit to go around. Mike Gillis should get most of it, but let us not forget Brian Burke and Dave Nonis for providing the bricks and mortar (not to mention the continued demolition of the Leafs). And a thank you to reader “Jake”, for suggesting this timely topic..

December 9, 2010

Markus Naslund Induction Lowers the Bar

From the rain tortured slopes of the North Shore mountains, we interrupt our ark building to revisit a topic we covered this past summer; that is this Saturday’s ceremony to officially retire Markus Naslund’s number 19. With this esteemed honour, Naslund will join fellow long time Canuck captains Trevor Linden and Stan Smyl as the only players to have their jerseys hoisted to the rafters.

This induction has been a somewhat divisive proclamation amongst the Canuck faithful, some referring to Saturday’s ceremony as simply “Markus Naslund Sham Night” - the best opportunity for a season ticket holder to dump a regular season seat for a healthy profit.

It is easy to argue that Naslund does not belong in the company of Smyl and Linden simply because as a leader he did not accomplish the post season success that they did. Nor did he embody their workman-like heart and soul; qualities that are typically more likely to win over the adoration of the fan base in this market.

But after Pavel Bure, he was the Canucks next bonafide superstar, or at least, perennial all-star. For a good number of seasons, he was the best left winger in hockey during the height of the dead puck era. By winning a Lester Pearson award, he was clearly respected by his playing colleagues throughout the league.

Perhaps most importantly to those making the induction decision, he was a classy fellow who put his community obligations first and foremost. He was a genuinely nice guy it seemed; so much so that he was able to befriend the certifiably gruff Todd Bertuzzi.

We say that retiring Markus’ number is lowering the bar. With induction being limited to only Smyl and Linden to date (as opposed to skill players like Bure or, even, Thomas Gradin), a premium has been historically placed on leadership and playoff success.

As we all know, Naslund’s teams were perennial playoff busts. And his fans will argue that Markus can’t be held responsible for the fact that his goal-keeper couldn’t stop a beach ball when it mattered most. And that’s fair.

But here’s the thing; leaders lead. Or at least good ones do. Markus did not. In fact, when it came to crunch time, Naslund, being the intelligent and sensitive man that he was, wilted under the pressure. How do we know this? How can we prove this? Well, since Naslund was not a physical player nor an old school holler guy, his opportunity to lead was through his goal scoring talent. So what do you remember?

When you think of clutch goal scoring in Canuck history, you think of Pavel Bure, Geoff Courtnall, Greg Adams, Brendan Morrison, Trevor Linden, Mattias Ohlund and Daniel Sedin. Naslund does not even enter the discussion.

In fact, what you remember about Naslund, the goal scorer, is wrist shots from the sideboards on the power play. You remember him forgetting the puck at centre ice during a shootout. You remember his coach being so afraid to use the team’s highest scoring player ever that he typically found his ass nailed to the bench during the tie-breaking session. Can you imagine that happening to Trevor Linden, who despite a declining skill set, was still such a valuable clutch player that he became a most successful shootout specialist in his latter years?

Forget for a moment about what we might remember, what do the stats tell us? Well, the stats tell us that Naslund lit it up against inferior opponents. On a point-per-game basis, the teams he was most successful against were Atlanta, Columbus, Toronto, Anaheim, Edmonton and Nashville - hardly a collection of the league’s elite. And his post season line? A paltry 33 points in 45 games and a minus 9.

Really, what was Markus Naslund’s defining moment? For too many, it was the “we choked” apology speech after a stretch drive collapse that cost them a division title. Or no less memorably, the Steve Moore elbow to the head that cued best friend Todd Bertuzzi’s side show that still lingers over this franchise and this great game to this day.

When you get right down to it, Naslund was not a heroic figure that deserves celebration, but more likely a tragic figure that draws our sympathy.

And in the sorry history of this franchise, perhaps that’s enough. But what it really means is that the bar it now lowered to include skillful players with great regular seasons, and nothing more.

And if it is, then what about Pavel Bure? Our first, and arguably only, superstar (not to mention, likely Hockey Hall of Famer). And then surely what about the twins? Another season or two of regular season dominance followed by playoff failure should be enough to enshrine them, too? And before you know it, our rafters will look like Molson Centre but missing the most important piece - a single Stanley Cup playoff banner.

As a side note, we find it interesting that the Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to retire Mats Sundin’s number. It’s a pretty easy argument to make that he mattered more to Leaf Nation than Naslund ever did to ours.

In the end, we can passively accept the Naslund induction on the very simple premise that this franchise has had so little to honour, though it only means that our campaigning for Pavel Bure will continue in earnest. Can you guess the topic of our next blog entry?

10:12am
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(Notes: 1)

Filed under: Vancouver Canucks Markus Naslund Trevor Linden Stan Smyl Pavel Bure Todd Bertuzzi

November 5, 2010

Game 12 - The Making of Cory Schneider

You’ve got to hand it to the Canucks’ brass. After last season’s meltdown to the eventual champion Black Hawks, there were rumblings that “the End of the Tail that Wags the Dog” (as we here at CC opined) was near. And 12 games into this season, it seems undeniably so.

Having soft sold Roberto Luongo into giving up his captaincy and the weight of the world that apparently went with it, they have also instituted a goalie coach, Rollie Melanson, of their own choosing who has Luongo looking as composed and comfortable between the pipes as we’ve seen since perhaps his first season here. And it seems that Roberto, as we hoped, no longer gets to decide when he plays. Indeed, after 12 games, back-up Cory Schneider has started 3 games and relieved Luongo in one; thereby on pace to start at least 20 games this season. And the games he plays have been prudently managed by Canuck management and have not just simply been the games you’d expect (i.e., one of either game on back-to-back nights). In his first two starts, he had the luxury of facing road weary teams on home ice; teams, that on paper at least, appeared to be easy marks for the Canucks (and they were). While last night’s start on the road against the high scoring Avalanche was an upping of the ante, it came at a time when his confidence is presumably peaking (and when the pressure of getting the first road win of the season is off) and against an opponent that Roberto Luongo has struggled against (in 29 games coming into this season, he had posted a .414 winning percentage and .899 save percentage against the Avalanche, both easily among his poorest numbers against any team).

What is most remarkable about this sudden and seamless transition from the era of King Luongo, is the good natured and fun loving response it has publicly invoked in both Luongo and Schneider. Granted, wins muster smiles, but it is a side of Luongo we have seldom seen in recent years. It seems that both are aware of and content with their roles on the club. With Luongo’s long contract, Schneider is hardly the heir apparent, though some critics may suggest he should be. In the end, if the Canucks continue to play their cards right, possibly by this trading deadline or certainly the next one, the market value of Schneider will have risen to the point that a significant asset can be had in return. We will remind you of a couple of seasons ago when Dallas packaged up promising back-up net minder, Mike Smith, and received All Star forward Brad Richards in return. In the end, they didn’t get the playoff success they had hoped, but it does indicate what can be had from teams that are goalie challenged. You can bet that the Canucks’ brain trust has this all figured out.

A couple of other notes from last night’s game:

now that Ryan Kesler has played a superb road game, those critical of his poor home/road splits can pipe down for awhile.
the loss of Guillaume Desbiens is unfortunate; while the loss of a guy that plays 8 minutes per night is no big deal, we did like what he was bringing.

Up next, an always entertaining home ice tilt against the Red Wings. We will sadly be missing this one, which really pains us. There is nothing we look forward to more than booing Todd Bertuzzi…

1:22pm
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(Notes: 1)

Filed under: vancouver canucks roberto luongo cory schneider mike smith brad richards ryan kesler guillaume desbiens todd bertuzzi

June 16, 2010

So You Think You’re Tough - Round Two, Match Two

What do you mean by toughness anyway? Well, we’re going to let you, valued reader, decide. Though from our perspective, it’s not just the tendency to drop the gloves and pound someone. We’re thinking about that, of course, but also thinking about the ability to effectively play through injury, delivering devastating, but clean hits and going to the hard places on the ice and paying the commensurate price. And, of course, things like agitating the opposition and sticking up for fallen teammates. Bottom line, we’re looking for the kind of player that is respected by his teammates and physically feared by the opposition.

Let’s keep this party going:

Stan Smyl - Back in the days when nicknames actually meant something (we’re sorry but “Kes” and “Bur” and “Hank” and “Lou” score zero on the creativity scale), “Steamer” was aptly named. Smyl was the heart and soul of a gritty, but typically crappy team. A borderline midget by NHL standards, “Steamer” left no check unfinished. Ever. We are quite certain he was the last player to lead his team in goals, assists, points AND penalty minutes in the same season. When it came to scrapping, Smyl was cagey enough to get in close and stay there. There’s a reason his number hangs from the rafters and it’s got nothing to do with skill. So says Mike Vernon’s glove hand. The little clip shows Steamer coming in to defend a fallen teammate instigating a scrap with a tough defenseman 5 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier. Smyl had little trouble with his round one opponent, the much larger Jack McIlhargey.

Curt Fraser - This gritty winger (and Smyl linemate) was a middle weight by size, but a heavy weight in punching power. Many times he’d drop a guy with one quick punch. One of the key players in the improbable ‘82 run. Able to score, hit and fight; he’s the type of player the Canucks miss most right now. This clip is one that is forever ingrained in our minds. And it’s exactly as we remember it. One punch and out. Fraser took out heavyweight champion Donald Brashear in round one, apparently still a little woozy from that Marty McSorley stick to the head.

View and vote here:

Today’s Honourable Mention:

Brad May - While never a particular favourite of ours, May has carved out a long career for himself by being a willing pugilist and, at least early in his career, a decent scorer. His recent career path has regressed into following Todd Bertuzzi whereever he goes, seemingly the George to his Lennie.

Comeback for Round Two, Match Three tomorrow.

10:00am
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(Notes: 1)

Filed under: stan smyl curt fraser jack mcilhargey vancouver canucks Donald Brashear marty mcsorley brad may Todd Bertuzzi of mice and men

May 20, 2010

So You Think You’re Tough

In the early post mortem, there’s been plenty made of the fact that the Canucks are lacking considerable toughness and, as such, are not a true playoff ready team. We find that interesting when you consider that the only team in the league with more penalty minutes this season and still in the playoffs are the Philadelphia Flyers. In fact, in the last 3 regular seasons, the Canucks are among the 3 most penalized teams (along with Anaheim and Philly). But we don’t think you’d find many teams that consider the Canucks a tough opponent to play against from a physical standpoint, which goes to show you that there is a big difference between being tough and being disciplined; something the Alain Vigneault coached Canucks undoubtedly haven’t figured out.

We don’t doubt that team toughness is a key element to a championship team though both the Penguins and Red Wings might say otherwise. Bottom line, there are different ways to win a championship, but being undisciplined is not one of them. Mike Gillis, are you listening?

This got us to thinking about who is the toughest Canuck of all time? Are there any players on the current roster that might qualify for this title? What do you mean by toughness anyway? Well, we’re going to let you, valued reader, decide. Though from our perspective, it’s not just the tendency to drop the gloves and pound someone. We’re thinking about that, of course, but also thinking about the ability to effectively play through injury, delivering devastating, but clean hits and going to the hard places on the ice and paying the commensurate price. And, of course, things like agitating the opposition and sticking up for fallen teammates. Bottom line, we’re looking for the kind of player that is respected by his teammates and physically feared by the opposition.

Remarkably, in the 40 year history of the Canucks, there have been a fair number of these types of guys. In fact, you’d find that the unlikely Cup finalist team of ‘82 was filled with these types of guys. And the ‘94 Cup bridesmaids had plenty more than the current edition.

Like we said, we’re going to let our dedicated subscribers decide this one. Here are the rules:

We’ve determined a short list of 16 players (remarkably this was not that easy to do) and we’re going to run a little playdown (via daily poll questions) from 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1 just like Lord Stanley’s marathon to crown the “toughest Canuck”. If you’re thinking this is a just a lazy way of maintaining readership through the summer hockey doldrums, move to the front of the class. But rest assured, we’ve got plenty more tricks up our sleeve.

Before we roll out out the list of the 16 finalists and honourable mentions, for your reading pleasure, we present the dishonourable mentions:

Todd Bertuzzi - Okay Todd gets some credit for defending the honour of his bestest buddy and our team captain, Markus Naslund. He also gets our sympathy for the misfortune that turned a stupid, reckless play into the black eye the NHL didn’t need. But the bottom line was he had the opportunity to be the greatest power forward of his generation, but opted for sulking, floating and getting coaches fired instead. Not tough, mentally nor physically.
Mark Messier - The proclaimed “greatest leader in sport” arrived in Vancouver as the “messiah” and wound up as the “mess”-iah. We could (and will) deliver a lengthy rant about that gloomy era in Canuck history, but suffice is to say from a toughness standpoint we saw none of the Moose’s feared on-ice intimidation tactics. Though off the ice, he had little trouble scaring off Martin Gelinas, Kirk McLean, Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden. And some say Dave Scatchard.
Jarkko Ruutu - We had the pleasure of meeting Jarkko and he was as advertised, cockily brandishing his 2006 Olympic Silver Medal and hitting on everything in a skirt. While he was an endless agitator, there’s nothing tough about biting people.
Matt Cooke - If this guy was any kind of fighter, he could have saved two careers - Steve Moore’s and Todd Bertuzzi’s. In the first period of that infamous match-up, Cooke went after Moore for payback on the Naslund hit and promptly got his clock cleaned. Like we said, in our world, a component of toughness is respect of your teammates. We can’t imagine that this guy gets respect from anyone…
Willie Mitchell - This selection is bound to rankle a few of you. For that, we’re sorry. And don’t get us wrong, Willie was a valuable player here and a great guy in the community. And as reliable as he often was defensively, Sami Salo or Kevin Bieksa or Mattias Ohlund were much more likely to deliver physically. And when it came to dropping the gloves, he left that for Bieksa and Shane O’Brien. A good Canuck, but the on-ice toughness was not as advertised.

10:25pm
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(Notes: 1)

Filed under: canucks mike gillis todd bertuzzi mark messier alain vigneault matt cooke jarkko ruutu

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