Great season for the Canucks.

The only thing that's gutting is the fact that Boston completely owned us and our entire team wasn't able to step up when it counted. It sucks that at the end of the day, canucks hater have all the ammo they need to shoot us while we're down (blow-out losses, HUGE goal differential, Lu's inconsistencies, sedin getting punched and doing nothing, burrows' bite, lu's "jab" at thomas' goaltending then proceeding to shit the bed in game 6, daniel's failed guarantee, shutout in game 7).

Of course at the end of the day this is my team and I will always be proud and supportive. I just wish we had gone out fighting tooth and nail to the bitter end instead of getting blown out in all those losses.

Good job to the bruins. I had no problems at all seeing them hoist the cup. In fact, I was happy for them because they clearly wanted it more than us and deserved it based on how well they played.

hodgson is not suitable for 4th line center.

lol

haters have nothing on the canucks our team was playing with some pretty bad injuries

still so heart broken from the loss, its like everything was within grasp and they just let it get taken away from them

so close yet so far.

Great season, great playoffs. Injuries definitely played a major role, but the Bruins had them too. They played every game with a ton of heart and, sadly, deserved to win the Cup. Tim Thomas was un-freaking-believable.

Awesome thread. See you guys in the 2011-2012 thread shortly. Free Agency is only a couple of weeks away.

Keep your heads up. The core will remain and look what MG has done for us this year alone. Future is bright.

Go Canucks!

Injury news floating in now from various hockey sources...

Ryan Kesler torn groin, Alex Edler broken fingers, Christian Ehrhoff separated shoulder, Chris Higgins broken foot. Dan Hamhuis groin/abdominal tears.

Amazingly, Sami Salo made it through relatively unscathed.

yup. here are some known injuries.


samuelson
(key player that can switch with burrows to provide a different look on the Sedine line)

hamhuis
(key shutdown pairing with bieksa)

rome
(solid and experienced dman that can lay some hard hits)

raymond
(chemistry with kesler on the second line with a lot of speed)

kesler
(wasn't performing at 100% due to a leg (?) injury)


these injuries pretty much killed our depth and boston just had more than us.

i guess vancouver host olympic and didnt win the stanley cup this year..

too much stats talk before, to a point it annoyed me

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5739/...1106992987.jpg
:fullofwin:

forgot about Luongo - pussy hurt!

Lets see wat Gillis does now. I hope Ehrhoff stays.

http://canucks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=566128

now that it's finally over, i'm actually rather excited to see what happens in the next couple of weeks. with free agency only 15 days away, it's almost like the 11/12 season is already here :D

Apart from the regular bumps & bruises, I'm curious what kind of injuries Boston players were suffering from (besides Horton)...

canucks been blaming injuries for years
it's pretty amazing when boston loses the leading scorer, they don't bitch about injuries once and end up winning the stanley cup embarrassing luongo by scoring 4-8 goals a game when they win

After sleeping it over and re-assessing the series RATIONALLY, I honestly don't think it would've mattered as much as people think if Schneider had started a game or two or all in the SCF. I am disappointed that Loungo couldn't make the timely saves to boost the team in the final game and I am equally disappointed in how the players responded in spite of the goals Lu let in. The Canucks have been so good at being able to play from behind all season but when it mattered most, they fell apart at varying speeds.

I am amazed at how goal-starved the Canucks became considering the chances we had, and we had plenty of them. Thomas was amazing and Schneider probably would've given the team in front of him more confidence but surely the Canucks would've been able to muster more than the 8 goals they scored all series, even if they still lost in the end. The difference between Boston and Vancouver was that Boston was able to bury their chances when they got them. As good as Thomas was, too many of his saves were easy, with the Canucks making many lazy shots on goal.

From the beginning puck drop, the feeling I had was that the Canucks were going to be in tough all game and Loungo looked uneasy in the crease again. Fact of the matter is, Boston was the better team all the way through. It would've been monumental if the Canucks found a way to win Game 7, but in a way I would've felt that we stole the cup away from the better team. A win is a win but it's hard to think if it weren't for those timely goals from Torres and Burrows, the series would've been long over. I don't feel quite as bad as I would've thought after losing, considering we really didn't deserve to win based on what I saw.

The off-season is going to be exciting. I don't think drastic changes are needed, but I do believe that for one, Kesler has earned the right to have better wingers play for him as Raymond has been a huge disappointment especially since much of Kesler's success this season was generated by himself. The same questions will continue to haunt the goaltending and whether Loungo is the right goalie. He will be difficult to move with his contract so I wouldn't even consider anything happening unless it's on his own accord.

The likes of Tamby, Hodgson and Schneider will have to be addressed. The last thing we want to do is mismanage their growth and frankly, the lustre of Hodgson is starting to go and our bag of prospects are thin. To play someone like Glass when you're emptying the tank is appalling.

Still, even though we lost, at least I will not have to hear the morons they call Glenn Healy, Craig Simpson, Doug Maclean, Don Cherry, Mike Milbury and the likes for a few months and we are finally done away with the worst officiated playoffs I have ever seen.

I would disgree with most of what you said. First goal, Lu wasn't focused and made no effort to try to make any save. Only thing going for him was that the shot went post and in. I don't think he expected anyone to be able to get a shot away.

Second goal he thought he was Thomas and over played Marchand. He tried to kick off the goal post before realizing how far out he was. Unlike Thomas, the D men cover the back door where as Daniel knocked Lu down. But the ultimate burn is if you watch the replays carefully, Lu actually made the first save since Marchand didn't tuck the puck in, but somehow the puck bounced off of Lu's body and slid under the outstretched arm.

Third goal I have no idea what Lu was doing. The puck was there and he didn't play it agressively. Possibly to avoid the impact with Burgeron and Erhoff. But by playing back, that led to the puck being pushed in from all the forward momentum.

If you run the numbers, the Canucks played 82 regular season games, and a total of 25 playoff games. Lu played in over 80 games this season. I would not be surprised if Lu was burnt out going into the final series.

But overall I still call this a sucessful season and cannot wait to see what happens in the next few weeks.
Who was playing injured and how bad.
Resigning UFA/RFA's
New signings
Draft Day
Training camp.

I'm in the same position as you.

I saw it all as a little boy when i was 12 during the 94 run.

I'm not 28 and after watching the game last night - its too painful to go on.

I'm sad to say that I hope I can see a championship team in my lifetime or even my children's

Maybe when I'm 50.

Our core will be pretty much the same in the upcoming season, don't worry. We still got a shot at it
Posted via RS Mobile

I normally don't post too much but here are my thoughts for the season.

Overall: It was a great run. Presidents Trophy, Art Ross, Jennings, Probably some awards in different categories. Would have been great if we topped it off with a cup.
Just heartbreaking seeing that we were that close but couldn't muster any effort in the most important game of the season and most likely franchise history.

You can blame it all on the injuries, officiating, Sedins or Luongo or even Kesler but in the end it comes to how bad you wanted the cup. Boston wanted it bad and they played to deserve it (Thomas was amazing and Marchaud as much as you hate him is a big game player - he proved it at World Juniors for the Canadian team and proved it again last night)

What I want to see going forward:
1. Coaching Change. As much as I like AV's claim demeanor - I find him very lack luster , frustrating and not motivating. There were times in the Playoff series were he was evidently out coached (Chicago and Boston). He just absolutely refuses to make the right calls at the right time - timeouts or pulling goalie and he takes the longest time to adjust our gameplan accordingly. Evidence was last night, we had the same stupid plays at the end of neutral zone with the chip-in's to offense (Bruins D well adjusted to this and never really let us set-up). He also favours the same players over and over again (Rome and Glass?????)
2. Find someone to play with Kesler. When the Sedins get shout out - it's all on Kesler. He was a 1 man wrecking crew in the NSH series but I generally felt bad for him. All the heart and effort but no one to play with.
3. Let the kids play. It's time to let the kids (Hodgson, Tanev, Schneider, Schroeder, Shirokov) play. In every deep team, you need to have guys who are on their ELC step up, push the pace, fight for a spot on the team and make a statement. Boston had Lucic and Marchaud. While the Red Wing's team of the Early 2000's had their star players and Dats and Zetterberg in the wings ready to lead the way.

Personally, I see this season and the SC experience as a stepping stone for us for next year. I see signs and glimpse of how Detroit won their cup in early 2000 (they were swept 4-0 earlier!).

Hell it even took Crosby 2 tries to get a cup.

With some tweaks and moves here and there. I can see us going all the way and taking it next year.

Hats off to the Canucks for an amazing season, new franchise records set, deep playoff run and I can't wait for the next season to start.

Game 7 obviously didn't go the way we wanted but anyone who can hate on their own team for making it to the finals and game 7 at that is more than welcome to jump off the wagon and stay off.

After the loss last night, I was obviously sad and pessimistically thought that I`d be well into my 40`s the next time we have a chance to go on a run like this again. With all that went well this season, it was hard to believe that this year was NOT going to happen.

After a night to think and get some perspective, things really are not as bad as a lot of us think. Back in 94, our team made the run that nobody imagined they would have made. They had a lot of guys step up at the right times only to disappear into oblivion a couple years after. It did not help that that team was also blown up within a few years of that happening.

I do NOT see this happening with the 2011 version of the team. We were strong all season, and with the current management team and culture, I have a strong belief that the team will only get stronger moving forward. We lost to a team that wanted it more in the finals, and while I believe the boys gave it all they had I am willing to chalk this run up to a learning experience as well. With a couple of more favourable bounces in any of the games we gave away to Boston, the end result could have easily been different and who knows what the outcome may have been. There is only so much one can do to prepare oneself for the cup run, you control your own destiny but at the end of the day your destiny answers to puck luck. I was waiting for the bounces to start going our way towards the end of the series, but they never did.

While the nostalgic Canuck fan in me thinks these runs happen only once every 15 years, the realist Canuck fan tells me we will have good opportunities to make this same run for at least the next 2-3 years. WE as fans need to embrace that this team in the foreseeable future is good enough to have the potential to do some damage. WE need to embrace the mentality of regular winners, not the `we got into the finals by some fluke and wont have another chance in a long time`mentality and get nervously anxious everytime we are up against adversity.

The future looks arguably brighter after this season than it has any other previous season. And UFA is only 2 weeks away, when has the team ever had only 2 weeks to prepare for UFA! Training camp will start in just over 2 months, and my rollerhockey regular season is two-thirds through...this is a really short offseason.

Let the summer truly begin!

Yeah, totally agree.

The way how this team is built whether its the players, development, stigma and culture it really looks good going forward.

And yes its 2 weeks until Free Agency, about 1 month for draft and 3 months until pre-season. This off season will be quick and we will be out and about ready to go in October.

Same boat here.

Born in 82 so I obviously knew nothing about that run

Was in grade 7 during the 94 run and I was super sad

28 turning 29 soon and this one hurts more not only because I've been waiting over 20 years to see us raise the cup but also because we were actually favorites to win it.

I'm still very proud of the boys and had an awesome season of watching hockey. I will still support them just as much as I've ever had but this will still take some time to for me to recover.