Runnin' with the Devil

I decided to tackle this subject today as tomorrow will represent the biggest game in the history of the Vancouver Canucks' franchise to date, and I would like to focus all my ramblings on the set up for that biggest of the big games. So today, I'll sink my teeth into the subject that seems to have gripped the media and the fandom of the National Hockey League while we endure this excruciating two-day wait for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

I am referring to the notion of the Vancouver Canucks as the most hated team in the NHL.

Now, the concept of people hating our team should be nothing new. This is sports, after all, and it's competetive. Without even getting the oft-sensationalistic media involved with this, cities can develop and instant and profound dislike for one another. That's the nature of competition. Now, you add the media to that powder keg and things start to get crazy.

We live in a world where one of the most compelling storylines, no matter what the subject, is "good vs. evil". You can see it portrayed in just about every film or novel out there, even if they try to slide it by as "protagonist vs. antagonist". We can see it in our political system where, come election time, one party is also trying to cast themselves as the good guy whilst simultaneously casting their opposition as the root of all evil.

So it makes sense that on hockey's biggest stage, people are trying to find heroes and villains. This isn't new to the NHL, as the history of the league has been replete with these types of storylines for as long as it has existed. Vancouver fans need to look no further than two recent pieces of history to get their blood boiling: Mark Messier and Dustin Byfuglien.

Canuck fans remember Messier, to be certain. He was the Captain of the Hall of Fame-laden New York Rangers team that bounced the Canucks in seven hard-fought games in the 1994 Finals. The man that brought the Stanley Cup back to the Big Apple for the first time in 54 years. The man they call "The Captain--Capital T, Capital C".

But Canuck fans see red when his name is brought up, because they remember him taking an opportunity to nail Canuck captain Trevor Linden when he was down on the ice on all-fours in the dying seconds of Game 6 at the Pacific Coliseium, the play that prompted broadcaster Jim Robson to famously declare "he'll play, you know he'll play, he'll play on crutches!"

It didn't help matters that just a few short years later, Messier was acquired by the Canucks and made the team's Captain. It further didn't help when he lead the Canucks absolutely nowhere and bolted back to the Big Apple once his lucreative deal with the Canucks expired.

But more recently, let's look at Dustin Byfuglien. You could forgive many Canuck fans for simply not giving a damn about the league, the media and other fanbases crying foul over the Canucks' dirty tactics in this post-season. That would be because we had to deal with Dustin Byfuglien and his preposterously sized posterior for the past two years in the playoffs. He was allowed to run roughshod over Roberto Luongo, he taunted the Canucks and their fans, he rubbed our faces in our own failure. He was the epitome of an on-ice troll and an emotional demon for the Vancouver Canucks.

But how was he viewed to the rest of the hockey world? As a clutch playoff performer who came through in big moments.

So that brings us to this current edition of the Vancouver Canucks. I'm a Canucks fan and an admitted homer, but I am certainly not blind. This team has dove. They have cheapshotted. They have taunted. They have hacked, slashed and whacked. They have done whatever it takes to win, and in doing so, it's made them to other fans what Mark Messier and Dustin Byfuglien were to us.

But after 40 years of never winning a thing, maybe a change in style was just what the doctor ordered. You can look at almost any good team the Canucks have ever had, and the things they lacked were the things they have now--that willingness to do whatever it takes, no matter what that is, to win. The Championship drive.

So now they get universally reviled outside of Canuck Nation. So what? There's an old quote that every boo on the road is akin to a cheer. When you're hated outside of your own building, it means you are doing something right. And right now, the Canucks have every single one of their haters shaking in their boots. Because for 40-years whenever a discussion regarding the Canucks vs. Team X has taken place, the penultimate put down of the Canucks has always been "well, you guys have never won a Cup".

So the Canucks are now just 1 win away from taking away the biggest argument their detractors have had for four decades. That is no small thing.

So are we the most hated team in the league? A bunch of devils, sissies, pansies, divers, biters, whiners, trolls and cowards?

Maybe. But the more important question for the Canucks and their fans is, do we really give a damn?