The playoffs have started and (against all predictions back in October) the Canucks are looking like a real hockey team with potential to go at least two rounds. There are also many other interesting match-ups this year too. I think the Ottawa-Pittsburgh series will be fun, as will the Detroit-Calgary series.

The Canucks-Dallas game tonight turned out to be very, very exciting to watch. It was not exactly the dull, defensive game predicted by the pundits. Lots of offense and defense, four overtime periods, what else could a fan ask for? How about a win? The Sedin brothers deliver the winning goal to win 5-4. I wonder if anyone will have any strength left for Friday’s game?

It was really quite nice to see the whole game in high definition on CBC too, although we are looking forward to seeing the next game in person!

Its been tough to be a Canucks fan. The Canucks are the only Canadian team to never win a Stanley Cup (lost to the New York Islanders in 1982 and lost to the New York Rangers in 1996). This year has been particularly tough. The new GM, the new coach and many new players made the start of the season a bit uncertain. Nobody was sure how the team would come together or even if they could form a competitive team. The scoreboard showed mixed results through October and it only got worse into November. By Christmas everyone was hoping for an actual miracle to turn things around.

Christmas came and went. Suddenly, without any warning, the Canucks look like a winning team at the same time as many divisional rivals are starting to struggle. The Boxing Day win in Calgary at first looked like a fluke but fans were ready to believe. The Flames came to Vancouver the next night for a rematch. It promised to be a very exciting game; even the scalpers didn’t have tickets to sell. We were fortunate enough to have tickets and see first-hand an overtime win by the Canucks in a game that was maybe the very best game of the season.

Last night’s win against Edmonton really got the blood pumping. Sure Edmonton has been struggling lately but the Canucks looked really strong despite a rash of poor penalties in the second half of the last period. Could they make a serious run this year? Hope so!

By the way, while confirming my suspicion about the Canucks’ Stanley Cup woes at Wikipedia I found some really interesting trivia about the Cup and its misadventures. I suggest having a read yourself to check it out.

The new hockey season is well under way, promising many exciting games. We attended the Canucks home opener against the San Jose Sharks last Friday night. The score sounded much worse than it was (we lost 4 – 6) but it was an exciting show right up to the end.

We have new seats this year, opposite end of the rink from our seats last year but ten rows closer to the ice. We look down over Roberto Luongo in the first and third period, which means we get to see some really great goalie work. Overall we’re pretty happy but would really like to see a few wins…

The team is quite different this year, only nine players continue from last season. And much of the team comes up from the Manitoba Moose, same as the new coach Alain Vigneault. It’s like we have an AHL team playing in the NHL, and boy did they look like it on Friday night – the Sharks ran circles around them.

Fortunately there are seventy-plus games to go, and they didn’t look that bad on Friday. Tomorrow night is another home game, this time against Edmonton. Should be fun to watch, especially if they pull it together and play like the same team that played smart and fast hockey to open the season with a win in Detroit.

I’m usually regarded as a hockey fan by friends and family. Eileen and I had tickets to the Canucks games last season. All through the playoffs I’d dash out of work early to catch games when I could. I feverishly followed the standings all the way to the final round of the playoffs and watched Edmonton battle back from certain disaster. It was tremendously exciting, especially Game 7 where it really could have gone either way – at least that is what the Edmonton fans are telling themselves even today. :^)

But then the Stanley Cup was won, and I was done with hockey. It was a combination of hockey overload plus the fact that it was Edmonton rather than the Canucks I was watching make a tremendous run for the Stanley Cup. I really was tired of hockey. We got mail from the Canucks organization inviting us to spend a lot of money on tickets for next year. I was really close to saying “nah, we’ll catch a game or two and watch them on TV and see what happens”. I was tired of hockey, especially the ever-the-losers Canucks.

Then, a few things transpired. First was our new coach Alain Vigneault (not a surprising choice). More significantly, Todd Bertuzzi gets traded in return for Roberto Luongo – a fantastic goalie. I thought we paid more than we got but we got rid of Bertuzzi and picked up the most promising young goalie in the league today, so maybe it works out ok after all. The latest rumors say that our other goalie Dan Cloutier is also up for trade; undoubtably there is more in the works too.

The team will look very different next year. I think its a shame we traded away Brian Allen and Alex Auld and we might not be able to re-sign Ed Jovanaski but overall I’m happy that the core of the team is being rebuilt.

We signed up for tickets again next season and I’m eagerly awaiting the start of the new season. Maybe they could start a little early this year?

It’s happened. Marc Crawford is now the former head coach of the Canucks. Not really surprising. I don’t know if he is really to blame for the mess of this last season (especially since Christmas) but at the end of the day, the coach is the guy who is supposed to get the players to play. He couldn’t get the job done so he is gone.

Now the speculation begins about the next coach. I hope its not Pat Quinn.