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 The Vancouver Canucks are one game away from their third Stanley Cup finals appearance.
This will be their third chance at bringing the cup back to the starving fans of British Columbia. In Vancouver's previous two finals runs (1980 and 1994) the Canucks were not the favorites and surprised many along the way. This year's Canucks squad is different. They had the best record in the league and their playoff run this year has shown off how complete of a team they have. During the regular season Vancouver led the NHL in almost every category that mattered. Goals allowed, goals scored, power play, penalty killing, they could do it all. That diversity and completeness has been on display this playoff season. Having a roster loaded with talent helps, but they had almost the same roster in the past years, with a few exceptions. The difference? This year they can win playing any kind of game. During their second round series against Nashville the Canucks showed that they could thrive against a drag it out defensive squad. They beat the Predators at their own game. They threw their body around and pounded Nashville and scored timely goals to prevail. In Game 4 against San Jose, they showed that they could win a special teams game. It started by killing off five consecutive Sharks power plays in the first twenty-two minutes and was culminated by cashing on three consecutive five on three power plays of their own. That's all they needed to hang on and take control of the series. San Jose, who has a roster of snipers to rival anyone in the league, has only scored four even strength goals in the series. Two of those came when they were down four and another was on a terrible Roberto Luongo give away. Vancouver has controlled the Sharks when at even-strength, proving that they can match up with the best of them in that aspect of the game as well. The Vancouver fore-check has disrupted their opponents and getting through the neutral zone must feel like a small victory. This complete game has not been seen in Vancouver prior to this season. The lion-share of the credit goes to Executive of The Year candidate Mike Gillis. He learned from the past playoff shortfalls. He went out and got the defensive depth they needed, bringing in grinders like Manny Malhotra, Maxim Lapierre, Raffi Torres and Chris Higgins. Players like this have provided the glue that the Canucks needed. These roster spots, in the past, were held by guys like Wellwood, Bernier and Demitra who ended up being liabilities come post-season time. If the Canucks do end up winning the Cup this year, it will be because they finally learned that they needed to put together a roster deep enough to match any type of game and any type of opponent. So far they've done that and this is why they are knocking on Lord Stanley's front door.
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