Forty Years, No Cup in B.C.

It might be the Curse of Steve Moore, but that would only cover the playoff failures that have occurred over the past seven years.

In all, the Vancouver Canucks have hit the 40-year mark in terms of unsuccessfully trying to capture the Stanley Cup. So many good players, two Cup final appearances, one horrific incident that stained the game forever in 2004, a lifetime of disappointments. From Orland Kurtenbach to Henrik Sedin, the Canucks have tried it every which way and have yet to come up with the winning formula.

The 2009-10 season ended exactly the way last season ended, with a one-sided blowout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks last night at GM Place by a 5-1 score. Just as Roberto Luongo couldn't deliver top-notch goaltending last spring, he couldn't do it again this spring, outplayed by Finnish rookie Antti Niemi in Game 6 with the Canucks facing elimination.

The Hawks go through to the Western Conference final for the second straight year, and will face the San Jose Sharks as the two best teams in the west have pushed their way into the Final Four. It should be a terrific series, with two big lines - Joe Thornton between Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau for the Sharks, Jonathan Toews-Patrick Kane-Dustin Byfuglien for the Hawks - set to go head-to-head.

Chicago's blue-chip defensive pair of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook made a huge difference against the Canucks, and they'll need all the rest they can get before the Western Conference final begins in California.

For Vancouver, a blueline that some experts warned last fall was too brittle proved to be just that. Willie Mitchell was lost before the playoffs began, Sami Salo was hobbled before last night and Alexander Edler went down in the first period after a big hit by Byfuglien. GM Mike Gillis chose to spend his big dollars on Luongo - whose 12-year extension kicks in next season - and forwards Henrik and Daniel Sedin, leaving the club without anything like a Keith or a Seabrook on the back end. Kevin Bieksa, Christian Erhoff and Shane O'Brien were all game last night, but that's not an elite blueline.

Head coach Alain Vigneault could be faulted for not dressing seven D-men last night, and after four years on the job without getting out of the second round, he may find his time in Vancouver is up.

None of the Canucks big stars came through, yet the club is married to all of them for the long term. Luongo is no longer considered one of the best goalies in the game and will make $10 million next year, the first of his $64 million pact. The Sedin twins, probably signed to below market value at $6.1 per season each, have four more years on their deals. Ryan Kesler, who didn't score a goal against Chicago or do much at all, sees his six-year, $30 million contract kick in next season.

The blueline is thin, although Edler looks like a comer. You might wonder if a good puck handler like the very available Tomas Kaberle could benefit the 'Nucks. Kyle Wellwood did his best but isn't a consistent point producer and Pavol Demitra was a huge disappointment based on how well he played for Slovakia at the Olympics in Vancouver. In the end, this was a team that couldn't win in the pressure cooker of playing on home ice. Team Canada may have won Olympic gold with Luongo in net at GM Place, but the Canucks were 0-3 there against the Hawks, surrendering 17 goals in those three games.

The tragic flaw of this team is that it was completely built around the belief that Luongo was one of the greatest goalies ever to play. They made him captain, and gave him a monster contract, and the result is a netminder who couldn't handle the weight and at 31, isn't as good as he was three years ago.

Now the franchise enters its fifth decade, still waiting for a championship.

Leafs Keep Front Office Together

It's not that Dave Nonis wasn't impressed with the Tampa Bay Lightning and new owner Jeff Vinik.

"Whoever the successful candidate for that job is, he's going to be in an excellent position with that ownership group," said Nonis today.

After going through the interview process with the Bolts as they look for someone to succeed Brian Lawton as the club's general manager, Nonis has instead decided to sign a new two-year deal with the Leafs as senior vice-president and director of hockey operations.

The deal locks Nonis in through the 2011-12 season with no out, even if another GM opening becomes available.

"I'm very lucky. I have more to say about our team than some GMs do," said Nonis of his unique position as Brian Burke's right hand man. "It's not a job that's comparable with other positions around the league."

Nonis' decision was partly professional, partly personal. He and his wife, Susan, live with their 16-year-old son Nicholas on a farm in Point Roberts, Washington, about 30 kilometres outside of Vancouver. Nonis played college hockey at the University of Maine and was captain of that team for two years, and his son plays AAA hockey and has aspirations of his own.

"To disrupt his situation for me right now wasn't the right thing to do," said Nonis. 

Nonis also believes the job he came to Toronto to do remains incomplete.

"If you look at our roster now and compare it to 16 months ago, it's not only different, it's younger and better," he said. "But we've still got lots of work to do. The job is not done by a longshot. There are more pieces to add."

The Leafs have signed a number of free agents already since being eliminated, including goalies Jussi Rynnas and Brent Scrivens. The Leafs are still looking at 24-year-old Czech centre Roman Cervenka, who played for the Czech Republic at the Vancouver Olympics, but won't make a decision until after the world championships.

As it stands, the next big date for the Leafs will be July 1st and the unrestricted free agent period.

"We'll be busy, and I think we can add some pieces that can help us," he said. "But I think the bigger pieces are probably going to come through trades. We just have to be patient."

Could be a Wild Three Days

On their own, none will shake the tectonic plates of our hockey-mad country.

But together? Man, that could be wild.

On Tuesday night, we'll find out whether the Vancouver Canucks can force a seventh and deciding game in their second round series with the Chicago Blackhawks, which would be on Thursday. At the same time, a city council meeting in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, could decide to wave buh-bye to the Coyotes and pave the way for the team to be relocated to Winnipeg.

On Wednesday night, the Montreal Canadiens will try to record their second upset of these Stanley Cup playoffs by knocking off the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 down in Pennsylvania. 

So, at least in theory, by late Thursday night you could have both the Canadiens and the Canucks headed to the NHL's Final Four, and the Coyotes headed to Manitoba.

Talk about breaking news.

Out of all of these, none are necessarily a safe bet. 

The Habs are underdogs on the road. Ditto for the Canucks if they can even make it to Game 7.

Finally, the NHL seems determined to do everything and anything humanly possible to keep the league's presence in Arizona, and you have to wonder if that might even include owning and operating the team for another season.

As of last night, it appeared talks between Ice Edge Holdings and Glendale had broken down, and Ice Edge is, we're led to believe, the last ownership candidate with an interest in keeping the team in the Phoenix area.

You have to feel for the taxpayers of Glendale. They got suckered into building this arena, and now, if they let the Coyotes go, they'll be left without a major tenant.

Then again, if they bend over and do what it takes to keep the team, they may be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars, and may end up getting sued by various texpayer groups.

Billionaire David Thomson, meanwhile, is apparently ready to stroke a cheque that would return the Coyotes to Winnipeg from whence they were lifted 14 years ago. 

So none of this may happen, all of it could happen, or maybe one - Habs win, Canucks win, Winnipeg wins - could happen.

A wild three days ahead, indeed.

Growin' Up

To a large degree, success in the Stanley Cup playoffs is determined less by what you're willing to do and more by what you're willing to take.

In that light, the Vancouver Canucks may finally have grown up last night. Then again, we'll see. The Canucks ability in Game 5 last night to put away all the nonsense and stop trying to get even in their individual battles with various members of the Chicago Blackhawks may have been just a one-game thing. To advance, they've got to do it twice more against the Hawks, then start the process all over again against the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference final.

One game does not a new attitude make.

But the Canucks, teetering on the verge of what would have been a very embarrassing second round playoff exit, looked smart and resourceful in a solid 4-1 win over the Hawks in the Windy City. Instead of Shane O'Brien and Alex Burrows beating their chests and skating a constant path to the penalty box, it was Dustin Byfuglien taking bad penalties that cost his team.

The Hawks, understand, are hockey's mouthiest team, which only works particularly well if a) they get a lead and b) if you let them get to you. Once they fell behind 2-0 in the first period all the chirping in the world from Adam Burish and Dave Bolland and Kris Versteeg couldn't help them, and specifically couldn't help them beat Roberto Luongo.

Luongo actually seemed to fill the captain's role last night, improving his game and thus leading by example in a tough game in a tough building. It was a little like the Olympics in which Luongo was staked to at least a 2-0 lead in every game he played. Give the man two goals to work with and it seems to stiffen his resolve. Put him in a hole and sometimes it seems he begins to unravel before any of his teammates.

The Canucks joined the Sharks in showing a new level of maturity on the weekend, with San Jose discarding all the doubts and the playoff demons to push past the Detroit Red Wings and through to the conference final. After Joe Thornton and linemates Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley were collectively held to a goal in the first round against Colorado, it was Thornton and Marleau who led the way in Game 5 against the Wings and put the Sharks over the top.

Don't forget Evgeny Nabokov, hammered in the previous game, but very solid in the clincher.

The Sharks used home ice to prove they were playoff ready. The Canucks used the road, and now have to prove they can be that team again back at GM Place.

Another Coyotes Sale Blows Up

It now appears that one way or another, the Phoenix Coyotes are going to be playing games in Canada next season.

That could occur if the Ice Edge Holdings group, now back in the game, is able to purchase the team, as that group is still believed to want to hold at least five games a season in Saskatoon and the rest in Arizona.

Or, the entire kit and kaboodle could yet end up in Winnipeg with the rebirth of the Jets. It's not impossible Manitoba could welcome the team it lost as early as later this month.

Wild. Crazy. But nothing seems too bizarre for this oddball situation any more.

ESPN.com was reporting late Thursday night that the agreement between the City of Glendale and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf was dead, and that Glendale, which had voted against Ice Edge and in favour of Reinsdorf several weeks ago, had reached out to Ice Edge again. Even the NHL, however, has questioned the ability of Ice Edge to put the funding together to buy the team, and ESPN.com reported that the NHL would place a number of conditions on the sale, including Glendale having to agree to cover any operating losses next season.

If Ice Edge can't strike a deal, the ESPN.com report indicated that Canadian billionaire David Thomson has a purchase agreement ready to sign that would see the team shift operations to Winnipeg.

Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz said it's "just a matter of time" before the city gets an NHL team. Even if it's not the Coyotes, Katz said this week he believes a team will be in Winnipeg within three years.

The impressive first round playoff performance by the Coyotes that saw huge crowds attend the club's games against the Detroit Red Wings apparently weren't enough to keep Reinsdorf in the game, or to make his proposed deal acceptable. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said as recently as Monday that he still hoped a deal could be struck to keep the team in Phoenix, but that he had no deadline on when a purchase could be completed.

The NHL operated the team this season after defeating an attempt by Waterloo billionaire Jim Balsillie to buy the club out of bankruptcy and move it to Hamilton. Ice Edge, meanwhile, struck a letter of agreement with the league last fall to buy the team, but couldn't close the deal.

If the team is to move, that decision would likely have to be made by next month at the latest. It's not clear how Glendale would react if the team was sold by the NHL to non-Phoenix interests since a lease still exists for the club to operate out of the Glendale arena. The NHL, however, has maintained for months that if a buyer can't be found, it would be prepared to break the lease and move the team.

Thursday Mail Bag

Interesting idea. General manager of the year.

Why not? Everyone else gets recognized and, quite frankly, there's more than one of the other existing awards that could go and nobody would miss it.

The Selke? Best defensive forward, basically created for Bob Gainey. Total guesswork on behalf of the writers. Too often it goes to players who don't even play against the best players on the other team.

The Lady Byng? An anachronism, a throwback to another time. More often than not, it serves as a consolation award for those who aren't finalists for the bigger trophies.

Do we really need the Vezina and the Jennings?

Then there's the Hart and the newly named Ted Lindsay Award, formerly the Lester B. Pearson Award. The NHLPA wants you to believe it’s vital for them to get their players to vote on the MVP since they play the game and people who don't have no idea what they're talking about.

Really. Guess that's why the writers who vote for the Hart have the same three finalists as the Ted. What unique insight. One trophy would be enough.

Having a GM award, it seems to me, at least recognizes something of relevance not currently covered by another trophy.

The Sam Pollock? To me, it doesn't necessarily have to be named in honor of a former GM. Just somebody worth honoring. Don't forget, Art Ross never won an NHL scoring title. James Norris was never a defenceman, let alone the NHL's best. Bill Jennings sure had nothing to do with goaltending and Lady Byng, while she might have once seen a game, was not a forerunner to Hayley Wickenheiser.

I'm thinking Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Jean Beliveau and Gordie Howe all deserve to be immortalized on some trophy at some point.

So pick one of those and I'd be happy, and I'm certain this year's finalists - George McPhee (Washington), Don Maloney (Phoenix) and David Poile (Nashville) would feel honored.

Or name it the Red Fisher Trophy after the great Montreal sportswriter. Guy's been running the Habs for decades, anyway.

Now on to this week's mailbag:

Q: What should happen when the outcome of a game is determined by a blatant official error and not by the players ? In Detroit/ San Jose game one, Franzen was high-sticked, took nine stitches and a tripping penalty when there was absolutely no contact except his forehead. On the resulting power play, San Jose scored the winning goal. Should this game be replayed?

Glenn Hills, Maple

A: No. Of course not. When you find a sport that's officiated and never contains human error, let me know. Part of the game.

Q: I know this question is a bit premature, but i'm really curious. Say if the Canadiens happen to win the cup the year (which I hope does happen). Who gets to lift the cup first It's always the captain, but with no captain on the team, what happens with that?

Brian A, Summerside, PEI

A: The Habs have three assistants, Brian Gionta, Hal Gill and Andrei Markov. Markov isn't playing because of injury, but those three would figure it out amongst themselves or do it together. If I were Gionta and Hill, both first year Habs, I'd give the honor to Markov.

The last NHL team to win the Cup without a captain, by the way, was apparently the 1972 Boston Bruins. That was the year before Johnny Bucyk, who had worn the "C" in 1967, started wearing it again. Why there was no captain in between is something I'm trying to figure out. (Okay, here's the info on the Bruins supplied by Boston Globe writer Kevin Dupont. When deal was made with Chicago to bring in Phil Esposito, Harry Sinden wanted the team to craft its own identity. So Bucyk went from wearing the "C" to one of four players with an "A." Espo, Ted Green and Eddie Westfall were the others. Bucyk got the "C" back in '73 when the Bruins began losing players to the WHA. So there you have it.)

Q: Hi Damien,

A couple of trvia-type questions. Hope you can clarify.

1. Towel waving at hockey games, every home team does it. My recollection is that this started back in 1982 when Vancouver played the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup finals. Roger Nelson held up a towel in mock surrender to the referees when he was frustrated with calls against the Canucks. Following that game, Vancouver fans started bringing towels to games as a sign of support. Is my memory serving me correctly?

2. I recently saw a promo for CBC and their hockey coverage. They showed a clip of Paul Henderson scoring his famous goal against the Soviets. If I remember correctly, CTV carried those games back in '72, not CBC. Your thoughts?

Keep up the great work.

Frank Comery, Sault Ste. Marie

A: I think you're right on both counts. The towel waving may also have been a carryover from other sports. CBC, meanwhile, may have purchased the rights to the '72 series at some point. (Correction: Am informed by broadcasting guru John Shannon that both CBC and CTV carried games in that series. Apologies.)

Q: Hello Damien,

My question concerns the integrity of the NHL's playoff scheduling for Round 2. Montreal and Detroit both had to start their second round series with just 2 days rest while all of the teams who finished their series in 6 games will start 1-2 days after the Canadiens and Wings.

Furthermore, Montreal must play Game 2 of their series 40 hours after ending Game 1 while the Wings get an extra day off. How fair is this for the integrity of the league and for a level playing field for all of the participants? This schedule is highly unfair to both Montreal and Detroit, but especially Montreal.

Thank you,

Rob Hisnay, Burlington, Vermont

A: I can see you point to some degree but there are so many variables in playoff scheduling, primarily arena availability, that's its hard to criticize. Moreover, both the Wings and Habs went to a seventh game in their first round series, and there's always been a cost to that. To me, the real unfairness is the amount of travel the western teams have to do compared to the east. That is much more likely to make a difference over the course of the post-season.

Q: Hi Damien, I am intrigued by players like Dustin Byfuglien and Marc-Andre Bergeron who flip-flop between forward and defence roles on their respective teams. To me it seems a player like this is an incredible asset to a team and can be very useful in the event of injury/penalty trouble. Are there many other players in the league who have a similar role on their team? How much value do you put on a player like this, and why don't you think more teams try to develop/seek out someone with such versatility

Kevin Mattiacci, Ottawa

A: Teams might like to have somebody able to do this but they're not easy to find. There are many cases of defencemen taking shifts as forwards, but not as many the other way around. Byfuglien might be the best now. In recent memory, Sergei Fedorov might have been the most accomplished because of his fabulous skating ability. For better or worse, most players are identified as forwards or defencemen now at such a young age they just don't get the chance to play both.

Q: Hey Damien, Who would you rather have on your team: Colton Orr or Rick Rypien

Donny Constans, Burlington

A: I, being a proponent of getting rid of fighting, might not be the best judge of this. Can I say neither? Anyways, Orr's a heavyweight and Rypien's a middleweight, so it's apples and oranges. Neither one's much of a player, although Rypien's nine goals in 110 career games is more impressive, I suppose, than Orr's eight in 327. Would either be in the league if there wasn't fighting? Orr had 23 fighting majors this year, Rypien 16, so I'm guessing the answer would be a resounding no.

The Short Memories of the Hockey World

Lou Lamoriello loves to surprise people, and he loves the history and traditions of the Montreal Canadiens.

Put those two together, and you might have an unexpected name pop up as a possible candidate to be the next coach of Lamoriello's New Jersey Devils, probably the best coaching vacancy in the game right now.

Having the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins playing in a playoff series this week brought to mind the fact that Michel Therrien coached both clubs, and in fact coached the Pens to the Stanley Cup final just two springs ago.

Yet while everybody is talking up minor league coaches like Scott Arniel and Guy Boucher, or even a veteran like Ken Hitchcock, Therrien's name is oddly absent from the rumour mill.

Chalk that one up to the short memory of the hockey world.

Therrien, in other words, seems perfect for Lamoriello, who has surprised the industry twice by hiring Jacques Lemaire, and fired a few coaches when it was least expected, as well.

Lamoriello's most successful coach have all had links to the Habs, no surprise given Lamoriello's days playing baseball in Quebec as a young man and his fascination with the Montreal organization.

Along with Lemaire, Larry Robinson and Pat Burns also won Cups in Jersey. Therrien, meanwhile, coached the Canadiens from 2000 to 2003 before being fired 46 games into the 2002-03 season. 

He went on to coach in Pittsburgh's minor league system before being elevated to guide the Penguins where he coached parts of four seasons before being replaced by Dan Bylsma last season.

Therrien is regarded as a gruff, no nonsense coach, and one with a history of emotional outbursts, either planned or spontaneous. He lives forever in YouTube fame for going off on the Penguins shortly after he arrival, saying their "goal was to be the worst defensive team in the league," saying they were "soft" and that "a lot of guys don't care."

But look at the coaching record. Pretty good. He brought a lot of structure to the Penguins, turned them from a bad team to a good team - albeit with Sidney Crosby in the lineup - and got along with his young superstar rather well.

He's only 46 years old and has nearly two decades of coaching experience in the QMJHL, AHL and NHL.

He's about as proven a commodity in the coaching fraternity who available right now. He'd probably help in Tampa Bay or Atlanta, but New Jersey looks like the perfect fit.

Sharks Showing New Bite

It took the San Jose Sharks more than a year to get to this point, more than a year of being a convenient punchline in many a hockey joke. Heck, when the Washington Capitals were struggling a long in the playoffs before being dismissed by the Habs, I joked that they were playing nervous hockey without conviction, just like the Sharks.

But now Joe Thornton and crew - Joe Pavelski and crew? - have jumped on the tired Detroit Red Wings for two quick wins in their conference semi. I suggested in the that stages of the regular season when it appeared the Sharks might face the Wings in the first round that getting past the two-time Western Conference champs might just be the antidote for San Jose's playoff yips, and maybe that is going to be played out now, albeit in the second round.

Now, the Wings are far from finished. Having picked them to win it all, I can't back away from them now, and they just need to hold serve at home to get back in this series.

That said, they also need to win either four straight against the Sharks, or four out of five, to survive and move on to the conference final. Unless Jimmy Howard gets hot, something he was not in Games 1 and 2, that's going to be tough, particularly with the two-headed monster of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg partially decapitated with Zetterberg struggling to produce.

San Jose, meanwhile, nursed a pair of one-goal leads to the finish line in each of the first two games, not looking at all like a team afraid of success. Pavelski has been the star, and in so doing, with the Sharks still winning, has allowed Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau to gradually find their game without being asked every single day why they're not producing.

Eventually, Pavelski will cool. It will be at that point that the Thornton line will need to heat up, and it could come this week in Motown.

Right now, it looks like the turning point for the Sharks may have come in Game 4 of their opening round series against Colorado after they lost Game 3 in overtime on Dan Boyle's own goal. At that point, it would have been easy for the Sharks to roll their eyes and wonder if this was just the same old script playing itself out again. But they won the fourth game in OT with Pavelski potting the winner and haven't lost a game since.

The assessment of many prior to these playoffs was that this would be the final litmus test for several Sharks, primarily Thornton and Marleau. Instead, what we may be finding out is that what those two needed wasn't necessarily more big game prowes. Maybe they just needed help.

So we'll see this week at The Joe. The Wings will want Game 3 and then hope that puts in the minds of the Sharks the memories of blown playoffs past. But home ice hasn't been especially kind to Mike Babcock's group so far in the post-season, and its worth noting their best performance to date came in Game 7 against Phoenix out in the desert.

Now, they've got an opponent that's tired of being the butt of everyone's joke. That can be a powerful thing.