Don't Stop Believing

In the wake of the travesty that was Game 5 between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday evening, there are bound to be some questions. If you listen carefully, you can also hear the persistent thud-thud-thudding of people falling off the blue and white bandwagon. To steal a line from the TV series "Breaking In" (great show, by the way), the rallying cry appears to be: "Panic! Panic as hard as you can!"

I went through some of the comments in my old high school yearbook recently. One of my friends wrote to "keep up that irrepressible good mood". I have widely been known to be an optimist, a glass-half-full type of guy. So in the wake of all this overwhelming (however justified) negativity, I'm going to put my happy face on and look on the bright side.

Roberto Luongo(he of the 9 goals against in his last two playoff games) was just named as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy today. The Vezina is awarded to the top goaltender as voted by the General Managers of the 30 NHL Teams. This is quite a feat. Luongo tied for the league lead in wins(38), while posting a 2.14 Goals Against Average and a Save Percentage of .928. Those put him in top 5 in the league territory. He also posted 4 shutouts. It's also important to remember that prior to the meltdowns of Games 4 and 5, Luongo's playoff numbers were a sparking 3-0, 1.67 G.A.A and a .944 SVP. It's amazing how things can change on a day-to-day basis.

Yesterday, Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis was named a finalist for the NHL's Executive of the Year award. Gillis came into his position straight from being a player agent, and has consistently iced a high performing team. The real challenge for him--and everyone in the Canuck organization--is to continue that high performance in the playoffs (I'll get to that in a moment).

Couple these recent recognitions with the fact that Daniel Sedin won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Luongo will share the William M. Jennings Trophy with back-up Cory Schneider for having allowed the fewest goals against in the league. And it is also expected that Daniel Sedin will be in the running for the Hart Memorial Trophy (awarded to the league's Most Valuable Player), and Ryan Kesler will be in the running for the Frank J. Selke Trophy (awarded to the forward who also excels in the defensive aspects of the game).

Now, a pessimist can say "that's all in the regular season"! And they would have an excellent point.

But here's my counter point. The Vancouver Canucks have not left anything to the last minute. If anything, Chicago has been guilty of that. Vancouver put the screws to the Blackhawks for the first three games and built themselves a comfortable lead, while also buying themselves a very important commodity: time. They have the time to sort through these hiccups and persevere through the controversy.

"How will they face such a controversy?" the pessimist might ask. Another excellent point.

"The same way they have all season" would be my answer. One such example is that the Canucks were 6th in the NHL for man-games lost to injury. Their blueline in particular was completely decimated with injury. None of Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis or Keith Ballard eclipsed 70 games. Andrew Alberts didn't hit 50. Sami Salo didn't hit 20. The Canucks played through injuries not just to bit part players, but to key members of their team. And all they did was finish first overall in the NHL.

The bottom line is that the Canucks haven't forgotten any of this. Roberto Luongo has not forgotten overnight how to play goal. Daniel Sedin has not forgotten how to score and play like his team's MVP. And Ryan Kesler has not forgotten how to be one of the best shutdown forwards in the game. And the Vancouver Canucks as a whole have not forgotten how to play the game of hockey.

They are on their heels, to be sure. But they have already done themselves the biggest favour they could have by building up a 3-0 series lead. The Blackhawks have won two consecutive games in convincing fashion, but the Vancouver Canucks could still send them packing on Sunday evening. What would we remember about this series then?

As a collective group, we need to take a deep breath. Don't stop believing in this group.