Can the Canucks Prevail in 2004?

Originally published in Rinkside in 2004

By Lucas Aykroyd

Heading into 2003-04, optimism among Vancouver Canucks fans was at an all-time high. Despite bowing to the Minnesota Wild in the second round of last year’s playoffs, the team had made great strides. Vancouver’s exciting, offensive-minded game paid off with a franchise-record 104 points in 2002-03, and its two superstar forwards were named to the NHL’s First All-Star Team. So how far off could the Stanley Cup be?

For much of this season, it looked as if the Canucks had sealed their reputation as one of the Western Conference’s true Cup contenders, with sellout crowds of 18,630 cheering them on nightly at GM Place. Showing an improved defensive awareness, the club flirted several times with the overall League lead in points. Vancouver also proved it could defeat elite opponents like New Jersey, Detroit and Colorado.

“We’ve done a lot of things that we wanted to accomplish this year in terms of our play, and we have a real cohesive group,” said Trevor Linden, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and fan favorite.

But the team’s makeup underwent significant changes around the March trading deadline as Todd Bertuzzi’s actions excluded him from playoff participation, obliging the Canucks to look elsewhere for offensive leadership. By acquiring two veteran snipers in Martin Rucinsky and Geoff Sanderson, Vancouver GM Brian Burke affirmed that his team is still poised to compete for a championship.

“We do have a shot at the Cup,” said starting netminder Dan Cloutier. “This team has gotten better every year since I’ve been here. I think this would be a great thing to do. The city has been waiting for it a long time.”

The Canucks faced adversity in the 2001 post-season after losing captain Markus Naslund with a broken leg during the stretch drive. That time, they fell to the Colorado Avalanche in four straight games in the opening round. But this group, primarily featuring the same players from three years ago, is more mature, and Burke is hoping that experience will have taught his squad how to elevate its game at crunch time.

“We haven’t achieved the type of playoff mindset that you need to win on a consistent level yet,” admitted head coach Marc Crawford. “We’ve shown the ability to get ourselves to a very, very high level. I think that in the playoffs you’re going to have ups and downs. It’s best if you don’t get too euphoric when you perform well, and likewise, when you don’t play as well as expected, you can’t overreact. Our team is definitely meeting that particular requirement. We’re constantly searching for that mix you need to win on a consistent basis.”

Burke and Crawford have formed one of the League’s most successful manager-coach partnerships. But Burke, a Harvard-trained lawyer in his sixth season helming the Canucks, has been the subject of debate lately. Despite the club’s dramatic improvement under his leadership, Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment has not yet offered to renew his contract. There’s speculation that senior management wants to see how the club fares in the playoffs before deciding whether to bring him back.

With any luck, Burke’s latest moves will pan out better than his pre-season transactions. Signing Magnus Arvedson looked like a nice move on paper, but the Swedish forward never recaptured the form that made him a Selke Trophy finalist with the Ottawa Senators in 1999. Plagued by injuries, the 32-year-old only played half the season and may now end up retiring.

Burke chose to retain one gritty winger in Brad May and drop another in Trent Klatt. But while May has stepped up in an enforcer’s role this year, Klatt has outperformed him offensively with the Los Angeles Kings.

Bringing Jiri Slegr back from Europe for his second tour of duty with Vancouver was a bust. The Czech rearguard spent most of the season in the press box, only emerging as a force at both ends of the rink when he was traded to Boston in January.

So how much will the acquisitions of Rucinsky and Sanderson boost the Canucks? Both are speedy, slick, and intelligent hockey players whose NHL experience dates back to 1991. But their playoff history leaves some question marks. In 76 career post-season games (28 for Rucinsky and 48 for Sanderson), they have combined for just 16 goals (eight apiece). Neither of them plays a physical style, which may make it hard for them to generate scoring opportunities when the checking gets tighter.

It was the inability of Canuck forwards to break free at key moments in the 2003 playoffs that proved to be their undoing. This year, the team realizes there’s no sense in complaining about officiating or opponents who like to clutch and grab. It’s just a matter of fighting through obstacles.

“At that time of year, it’s not the easiest thing to do,” said Brendan Morrison. “There’s a lot of focus on defensive play. But you have to view it as a challenge. Every night, you have to go out there and beat the guy you’re up against and do everything you can to help the team win.”

“You look at last year when New Jersey, Anaheim, and Minnesota had a lot of success, and they all played well defensively,” added Canuck blueliner Sami Salo. “Doing that always gives you a great chance to win some games. That’s the biggest area for us heading into the playoffs. Also, we need to play a team game. That’s what we talk about before the games. Everybody has to be on the same page. It takes 20 guys pulling together in the dressing room to succeed.”

Looking at the team position by position, there’s reason for measured optimism. It starts in goal. Admittedly, Dan Cloutier’s netminding has provoked controversy ever since he allowed a Nicklas Lidstrom goal from center ice in the third game of a 2002 first-round clash with Detroit. The Canucks never recovered from that blow and lost in six games to the eventual Cup champions. Historically, Cloutier has surrendered about a goal per game more in the playoffs than in the regular season.

But then again, the 27-year-old native of Mont-Laurier, Quebec has improved his positioning and rebound control this year. While Cloutier has a naturally combative personality, he has gotten better at keeping his emotions in check. Now it’s time for him to prove his critics wrong. And his teammates believe he can deliver under pressure.

“He’s a great goalie, one of the best in the league,” said Daniel Sedin. “He hasn’t been the reason we lost in previous seasons, either.”

If Cloutier is unable to go the distance for any reason, the Canucks have a capable backup in Johan Hedberg. The veteran from Leksand, Sweden knows what it takes to win in the playoffs, as he carried the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Eastern Conference finals in 2001, posting a 2.30 GAA.

Due to a surprising rash of injuries, Hedberg hasn’t played as many games this year as projected. But he showed good signs of regaining his “A game” with first-star shutout performances versus St. Louis and Columbus down the stretch.

When Vancouver’s blueline corps is healthy, it’s one of the NHL’s most impressive. The return of Ed Jovanovski will be a major factor come playoff time. After recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered January 25 versus Nashville, this future Norris Trophy candidate is expected to provide a much-needed offensive injection. He led the team with seven goals in 14 playoff games last year. Jovanovski, 27, has the ability to dictate the pace and tone of a game with his spectacular rushes and his bone-crushing bodychecks.

In many ways, Mattias Ohlund’s contributions are just as important as Jovanovski’s. The 6-2, 220-pound Swedish defenseman logs more than 25 minutes a night on average, playing in every situation. Ohlund is invariably assigned to neutralize the other team’s top forward, whether it’s Peter Forsberg, Jarome Iginla, or Mike Modano. Sometimes that reduces his offensive opportunities, but it doesn’t bother the Pitea native, who knows his job will double in importance during the playoffs.

“I’m never going to be the highest-scoring defenseman in this league,” said Ohlund. “I try to make sure I play well defensively. That’s my main priority. When I get a chance, I like to jump up and join the offense, but my defensive play comes first.”

Other Canuck defensemen bring valuable skills that aren’t always widely recognized, and some of those skills should emerge in the post-season. Brent Sopel, who has had a career offensive year, boasts an almost uncanny ability to keep the puck onside at the offensive blueline. Sami Salo has delivered some of the best checks seen at GM Place this year, and his 100 mph slapshot intimidates goalies. Marek Malik can look gangly and awkward, but when he decides to pinch in offensively, he morphs into a great stickhandler and usually generates a scoring chance.

When you factor in the simple, reliable play of youngster Bryan Allen and veteran Marc Bergevin, plus the overall size of this core group of seven, it’s not hard to see why the Canucks have enjoyed one of their best defensive years ever. Now they just have to carry that on into the post-season.

The effectiveness of Vancouver’s forwards this spring may depend on how well they adapt to the tactics of their opponents. Speed and finesse, rather than toughness and grit, are the calling cards of their scoring aces.

Markus Naslund needs no introduction as a perennial Art Ross Trophy candidate and the 2003 Lester Pearson Award winner as voted by his fellow NHLers. But the 30-year-old Swedish captain has yet to deliver his finest performance in the playoffs, as he’s been limited to seven goals in 26 career games. Will he find a way to score this year, or will he be forced to the perimeter? Naslund is prepared for the pressure, but he won’t emulate Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson by guaranteeing his team will win the Cup.

“I hope Daniel’s wrong, but I’m not going to go out and predict anything,” said Naslund. “I think that’s foolish. Ottawa’s obviously one of the candidates, but I think we have a good shot too.”

Linemate Brendan Morrison, whose playmaking will key the number one line, points out that the Canucks must avoid getting involved in lengthy series if they hope to still be playing hockey in June.

“Ideally, you’d like to keep it as short as possible. Obviously we couldn’t do that against St. Louis last year. We got down 3-1 in the series pretty quickly! But we have to look back at the Minnesota series and learn from it. When you have a team down 3-1, you can’t take anything for granted. You have to show a killer instinct and finish them off.”

The Sedin twins have shown more of a killer instinct this season than ever before, as both Daniel and Henrik have put up career numbers. At age 23, their speed and physical play have picked up too, and that bodes well for the playoffs. In any case, the boys from Ornskoldsvik have always enjoyed performing when the stakes are high.

“It’s been like that every post-season for us, in Sweden too,” said Daniel. “It’s just a great feeling to be in there. Every game is so important that it’s easy to focus.”

The physical approach and agitating presence of players like Matt Cooke, Jarkko Ruutu and Brad May is designed to throw opponents off their game. Artem Chubarov and Trevor Linden offer faceoff and penalty-killing expertise.

But ultimately, veteran checker Mike Keane may provide the most valuable ingredient. As one of only six players in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup with three different teams, Keane has appeared in 213 playoff games since 1989. No other Canuck even comes close. Keane was a big part of Marc Crawford’s 1996 championship squad in Colorado, and Crawford will expect him to function as both the voice of experience and a gritty role model in the coming playoffs.

“There are probably a lot of guys that have the same skill level as Mike, but he’s got the intangibles that make the difference,” said Linden, whose first post-season game of 2004 will be his 100th.

Linden is the lone remaining link to Vancouver’s previous shot at Cup glory. He captained the 1994 team that beat Calgary, Dallas, and Toronto before falling to the New York Rangers in the Finals.

In a way, it’s appropriate Linden took over from Stan Smyl as the club’s all-time scoring leader this year. Smyl wore the “C” for the 1982 Canucks, whose Cinderella run to the Finals inspired the famous “Towel Power” waving at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum. Calgary, Los Angeles and Chicago were Vancouver’s victims that year, but they couldn’t stop the New York Islanders from winning a third consecutive Stanley Cup.

It won’t be easy this year either. Of course, everyone will tell you that the current playoff run has nothing to do with history. But if you’ll concede that the Canucks seem to lose in the Finals every 12 years to top New York-area teams, perhaps they just need to drop one more to the New Jersey Devils in 2006, and the road will be clear for them to claim the silver chalice.

Crazy theory? Probably. But hey, anything is possible in the playoffs. And that’s essentially the attitude the Canucks will need to take as they strive to bring their fans a 2004 Stanley Cup parade along Robson Street in downtown Vancouver.

Big Dates in Vancouver Playoff History

April 15, 1975: The Canucks enjoy their first-ever playoff victory, beating Montreal 2-1 on a goal by Garry Monahan.

May 6, 1982: A 6-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks earns Vancouver its first Clarence Campbell Trophy and a Stanley Cup Finals matchup with the New York Islanders.

April 30, 1994: Pavel Bure’s spectacular double-overtime goal gives Vancouver a first-round victory over Calgary. It’s the team’s first-ever seven-game series win.

May 24, 1994: Greg Adams scores in sudden death to defeat Toronto in the Conference Finals and send Vancouver to the Finals with the New York Rangers.

April 22, 2003: Dan Cloutier makes 33 saves as Vancouver beats St. Louis 4-1, rallying from a 3-1 series deficit and advancing to the second round for the first time since 1995