The Vancouver Canucks: A Primer (Part 1)
This is a primer about the Vancouver Canucks.
Why, you might ask? Well, because I think that they're awesome, but also because I don't think enough people think that they're awesome. Also, because I want Chris to have a thorough understanding of who all these guys are before playoffs start. Also, withcrayons has been asking me about a couple of players on the Canucks, and would like to be able to know the names of the players that she's supposed to be hating. Since I'm all about embracing the hate, I acquiesced, and this is the result.
Special thanks to Charlie and Chris for being my sounding boards, and especially to Chris for coming up with some of the weirder parts of the player profiles.
A Brief History
There are a couple key things that every Vancouver Canucks fan should be aware of: 1) Mark Messier is scum, 2) Trevor Linden is a beautiful and amazing specimen of manhood, and 3) everyone hates the Canucks.
These are age old truisms of Canuck-dom, and you would do well to remember them (Even if you fall into the category of a Canuck-hater, you now know what to say to piss us off).
Now I could go into a long and detailed history of the franchise, and perhaps even mention the hockey team that was in Vancouver in the early 1900's. But that would be kind of boring. So instead, I'm going to give you a brief history of the Canucks' franchise, as told by the sweaters they have worn.
1970-1978
This was the first uniform worn by the Canucks, way back when they were formed. You might notice that they look eerily familiar, and that is because the Canucks new 3rd jersey has the same logo, and they brought out a heritage throwback jersey that looked pretty much exactly like this one for their 40th season.
During this stage in their existence, the Canucks kind of sucked. They made the playoffs only twice in this span, and didn't make it past the first round either time. Though, in one year (1994-5), they managed to win their new division. So I guess things weren't a total failure?
1978-1985
Known to the hockey world-at-large as the "Flying V" sweater, these uniforms saw an interesting time in the Canucks' history. Alternately seen as "glorious" and "awful", these are the sweaters that the Canucks wore in their first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Somehow, in 1982, despite having a regular season record below .500, the Canucks made it to the playoffs, and all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. There, they faced off against the New York Islanders, in the first ever coast-to-coast Finals. They were swept. If Adele had been around in 1982, this would have been the first "we could have had it all" moment.
1985-1989
Oh, the flying spaghetti sweaters. Or more officially, the "Flying Skate." These were dark times.
Perhaps the only two good things to happen during this horrendous sweater's era were two particular draft selections. In 1988, the Canucks had the second overall pick, and selected Trevor Linden from the Western Hockey League. The following year, in a highly controversial move, they drafted Russian Pavel Bure 113th overall. (It was debatable whether he was actually draft-eligible that year)
But yeah, otherwise, this sweater sucked.
1989-1997
Aka, the Trevor Linden era. After becoming the youngest captain in franchise history at 21, Linden and the Canucks began to go about the business of actually winning hockey games. Crazy talk, right?
They won back-to-back division titles starting in 1991-92, and Pavel Bure emerged as the teams first legitimate superstar, with two back-to-back 60-goal seasons.
Then, it was back to the Stanley Cup Finals time.
Oh, also, this was the start of the "DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER" era. Since, you know, he was captain of the Rangers at this point in time, and he was the one who got to raise the holy grail of hockey after a heartbreaking game 7 defeat for the Canucks.
Messier's raising of the cup ushered in some dark times for the Canucks, brightened only by their move into their present-day arena, and their trade of Alek Stojanov (if you just said who? I don't know either. He went to the minors) for Markus Naslund which was arguably one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.
1997-2007
This sweater was pretty awful, not going to lie. It meant terrible things for this beautiful franchise. It meant another chapter in the "DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER" saga. Because, for some unknown and terrible reason, they signed Mark Messier to a three-year deal in the summer of '97. Trevor Linden resigned his captaincy for Messier, which was a terrible decision, and things just went downhill from there.
Between coaching changes, locker room tensions, and dubious trades, the Messier Years were an awful time. Rather than being a great leader and a huge scorer, he was neither of those things, and just made a bad situation even worse. Trevor Linden was traded to the New York Islanders, then Pavel Bure demanded a trade, and was subsequently dealt to the Florida Panthers.
But! At the 1999 draft, GM Brian Burke somehow managed to acquire the 2nd and 3rd overall pick and draft a pair of Swedish twins. These twins will become important later.
Once the dark scurge of Messier left to rejoin his beloved Rangers, things started to work again for the Canucks. Markus Naslund, Brenden Morisson, and Todd Bertuzzi formed a powerful top line that became known as the "West Coast Express." They also got Trevor Linden back.
Some very bad things happened with Bertuzzi, but since this is a happy primer, I'm not going to get into them. Suffice to say, he was traded to the Florida Panthers (Noticing a pattern yet?).
Then there was a lockout and stuff.
So, pretty much everything that happened while the Canucks were stuck in this particular sweater sucked. DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER!
2007-present
The most recent incarnation of the Canucks' sweaters have ushered in an era of awesomeness, only occasionally marred by dark times.
Huge personnel changes went down after the 2007-08 season, with the GM being fired and replaced by Mike Gillis. Trevor Linden retired. Marcus Naslund was let go via free agency.
For some reason, in 2008, the Canucks thought it would be a good idea to name their goalie, Roberto Luongo, team captain. This was technically against league rules, but the Canucks didn't care, and did it anyway. In retrospect, this was probably a silly idea, but Luongo was a big leader in the locker room at the time.
Oh, and also in '08, they thought that bringing in Mats Sundin was a good idea (it wasn't). You would have thought they learned their lesson during the DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER era about bringing in old Eastern Conference captains. No such luck.
This sweater has also overseen the birth and escalation of one of the greatest rivalries in hockey. For three consecutive post-seasons, beginning with the 2009 playoffs, the Canucks have met the Chicago Blackhawks.
Oh, and those twins that I mentioned earlier? That's Henrik and Daniel Sedin. You might have heard of them for such feats as winning back-to-back Art Ross Trophies. Also Henrik won the Hart Trophy for league MVP in 2010, and Daniel won the Ted Lindsay for MVP as voted by the players. They're kind of good. Oh, and Henrik is now captain, since the Canucks realized how stupid it was to have a captain who wasn't even allowed to talk to the refs during the game.
Then came the fairy-tale season. The 40th anniversary of the franchise's existence came during the 2010-11 season, which saw the Canucks win the President's Trophy as the best regular-season team. They made it all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, only to suffer a heartbreaking defeat. I'm pretty sure that Adele will be banned from all Vancouver airwaves during this year's post-season. "We could have had it all" is pretty much the best possible tagline to summarize this particular season for the Canucks.
But, the future is bright. The Canucks are a well-built team, with all the potential in the world. This could be our year.
If all of that was tl;dr, you should check out these two videos. They are pure GOLD, I say!
Things to note: 1) The Sedin twins pass a lot. 2) A LOT. 3)DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER.
and also
A couple things of note from this one: 1) The Canucks have had a series of terrible goalies. Two of whom now commentate games sometimes. It's kind of funny? 2) DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER.
Both of these videos reinforce the three basic tenets of Canuck-dom that I introduced at the very beginning of this Primer: 1) Mark Messier is scum, 2) Trevor Linden is a beautiful and amazing specimen of manhood, and 3) everyone hates the Canucks.
On to Part 2!
Why, you might ask? Well, because I think that they're awesome, but also because I don't think enough people think that they're awesome. Also, because I want Chris to have a thorough understanding of who all these guys are before playoffs start. Also, withcrayons has been asking me about a couple of players on the Canucks, and would like to be able to know the names of the players that she's supposed to be hating. Since I'm all about embracing the hate, I acquiesced, and this is the result.
Special thanks to Charlie and Chris for being my sounding boards, and especially to Chris for coming up with some of the weirder parts of the player profiles.
A Brief History
There are a couple key things that every Vancouver Canucks fan should be aware of: 1) Mark Messier is scum, 2) Trevor Linden is a beautiful and amazing specimen of manhood, and 3) everyone hates the Canucks.
These are age old truisms of Canuck-dom, and you would do well to remember them (Even if you fall into the category of a Canuck-hater, you now know what to say to piss us off).
Now I could go into a long and detailed history of the franchise, and perhaps even mention the hockey team that was in Vancouver in the early 1900's. But that would be kind of boring. So instead, I'm going to give you a brief history of the Canucks' franchise, as told by the sweaters they have worn.
1970-1978
This was the first uniform worn by the Canucks, way back when they were formed. You might notice that they look eerily familiar, and that is because the Canucks new 3rd jersey has the same logo, and they brought out a heritage throwback jersey that looked pretty much exactly like this one for their 40th season.
During this stage in their existence, the Canucks kind of sucked. They made the playoffs only twice in this span, and didn't make it past the first round either time. Though, in one year (1994-5), they managed to win their new division. So I guess things weren't a total failure?
1978-1985
Known to the hockey world-at-large as the "Flying V" sweater, these uniforms saw an interesting time in the Canucks' history. Alternately seen as "glorious" and "awful", these are the sweaters that the Canucks wore in their first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Somehow, in 1982, despite having a regular season record below .500, the Canucks made it to the playoffs, and all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. There, they faced off against the New York Islanders, in the first ever coast-to-coast Finals. They were swept. If Adele had been around in 1982, this would have been the first "we could have had it all" moment.
1985-1989
Oh, the flying spaghetti sweaters. Or more officially, the "Flying Skate." These were dark times.
Perhaps the only two good things to happen during this horrendous sweater's era were two particular draft selections. In 1988, the Canucks had the second overall pick, and selected Trevor Linden from the Western Hockey League. The following year, in a highly controversial move, they drafted Russian Pavel Bure 113th overall. (It was debatable whether he was actually draft-eligible that year)
But yeah, otherwise, this sweater sucked.
1989-1997
Aka, the Trevor Linden era. After becoming the youngest captain in franchise history at 21, Linden and the Canucks began to go about the business of actually winning hockey games. Crazy talk, right?
They won back-to-back division titles starting in 1991-92, and Pavel Bure emerged as the teams first legitimate superstar, with two back-to-back 60-goal seasons.
Then, it was back to the Stanley Cup Finals time.
Oh, also, this was the start of the "DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER" era. Since, you know, he was captain of the Rangers at this point in time, and he was the one who got to raise the holy grail of hockey after a heartbreaking game 7 defeat for the Canucks.
Messier's raising of the cup ushered in some dark times for the Canucks, brightened only by their move into their present-day arena, and their trade of Alek Stojanov (if you just said who? I don't know either. He went to the minors) for Markus Naslund which was arguably one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.
1997-2007
This sweater was pretty awful, not going to lie. It meant terrible things for this beautiful franchise. It meant another chapter in the "DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER" saga. Because, for some unknown and terrible reason, they signed Mark Messier to a three-year deal in the summer of '97. Trevor Linden resigned his captaincy for Messier, which was a terrible decision, and things just went downhill from there.
Between coaching changes, locker room tensions, and dubious trades, the Messier Years were an awful time. Rather than being a great leader and a huge scorer, he was neither of those things, and just made a bad situation even worse. Trevor Linden was traded to the New York Islanders, then Pavel Bure demanded a trade, and was subsequently dealt to the Florida Panthers.
But! At the 1999 draft, GM Brian Burke somehow managed to acquire the 2nd and 3rd overall pick and draft a pair of Swedish twins. These twins will become important later.
Once the dark scurge of Messier left to rejoin his beloved Rangers, things started to work again for the Canucks. Markus Naslund, Brenden Morisson, and Todd Bertuzzi formed a powerful top line that became known as the "West Coast Express." They also got Trevor Linden back.
Some very bad things happened with Bertuzzi, but since this is a happy primer, I'm not going to get into them. Suffice to say, he was traded to the Florida Panthers (Noticing a pattern yet?).
Then there was a lockout and stuff.
So, pretty much everything that happened while the Canucks were stuck in this particular sweater sucked. DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER!
2007-present
The most recent incarnation of the Canucks' sweaters have ushered in an era of awesomeness, only occasionally marred by dark times.
Huge personnel changes went down after the 2007-08 season, with the GM being fired and replaced by Mike Gillis. Trevor Linden retired. Marcus Naslund was let go via free agency.
For some reason, in 2008, the Canucks thought it would be a good idea to name their goalie, Roberto Luongo, team captain. This was technically against league rules, but the Canucks didn't care, and did it anyway. In retrospect, this was probably a silly idea, but Luongo was a big leader in the locker room at the time.
Oh, and also in '08, they thought that bringing in Mats Sundin was a good idea (it wasn't). You would have thought they learned their lesson during the DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER era about bringing in old Eastern Conference captains. No such luck.
This sweater has also overseen the birth and escalation of one of the greatest rivalries in hockey. For three consecutive post-seasons, beginning with the 2009 playoffs, the Canucks have met the Chicago Blackhawks.
Oh, and those twins that I mentioned earlier? That's Henrik and Daniel Sedin. You might have heard of them for such feats as winning back-to-back Art Ross Trophies. Also Henrik won the Hart Trophy for league MVP in 2010, and Daniel won the Ted Lindsay for MVP as voted by the players. They're kind of good. Oh, and Henrik is now captain, since the Canucks realized how stupid it was to have a captain who wasn't even allowed to talk to the refs during the game.
Then came the fairy-tale season. The 40th anniversary of the franchise's existence came during the 2010-11 season, which saw the Canucks win the President's Trophy as the best regular-season team. They made it all the way to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, only to suffer a heartbreaking defeat. I'm pretty sure that Adele will be banned from all Vancouver airwaves during this year's post-season. "We could have had it all" is pretty much the best possible tagline to summarize this particular season for the Canucks.
But, the future is bright. The Canucks are a well-built team, with all the potential in the world. This could be our year.
If all of that was tl;dr, you should check out these two videos. They are pure GOLD, I say!
Click to viewThings to note: 1) The Sedin twins pass a lot. 2) A LOT. 3)DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER.
and also
A couple things of note from this one: 1) The Canucks have had a series of terrible goalies. Two of whom now commentate games sometimes. It's kind of funny? 2) DAMN YOU MARK MESSIER.
Both of these videos reinforce the three basic tenets of Canuck-dom that I introduced at the very beginning of this Primer: 1) Mark Messier is scum, 2) Trevor Linden is a beautiful and amazing specimen of manhood, and 3) everyone hates the Canucks.
On to Part 2!