Nov. 1, 1991 — By Mike Beamish
Quick. Somebody alert the eastern media. Wake up, you guys. The Vancouver Canucks, heretofore known as the blandest, losingest team in North American pro sports, have gone weird on us. They’re entertaining. They’re winning. They’re close to first place. The Vancouver Canucks. Imagine.
Sure, I know. You’re rolling your eyes. It’s hard to imagine the Canucks remaining there for long, right? But then again, why not?
If the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves can go from worst to first, if the Minnesota North Stars can reach the Stanley Cup finals, if the New Orleans Saints can lead the National Football League, if the Seattle Mariners can finish over .500, if Columbia University can win a U.S. college football game, if Gino Odjick can score on a penalty shot…Hold on to your helmets, but another one of the great sporting truths is about to come crashing down.
The Canucks have not only become a decent team, they led the Smythe Division with 13 points after eight games—three more than last year’s division champion Los Angeles Kings. What’s more, they’re playing as if they should be.Great starts don’t mean much if you’re the Oilers, Rangers, Bruins or Canadiens. But this is the Canucks, remember? Fifteen straight losing seasons. Two winning seasons in 21 years. Never had a player score 50 goals or 100 points in a season. Never had an all-star selection or an individual trophy winner. Lousy management. Ill-considered trades. Bad karma. Mediocre teams.
It’s possible that might be becoming a bad memory.This could be the team of the ’90s in the Smythe Division. Clearly, they’re the team of October, 1991.
Vancouver fans have learned to be skeptical. So when the Canucks got off to the best start in their history—5-1-0—the first inclination was to say, who have they beaten? San Jose (twice), Winnipeg, Toronto, and Buffalo.
But when the team tied Boston 3-3 Oct. 17—Bruin goalie Matt DelGuidice made more saves than Billy Graham—and whipped Calgary 5-2 Oct. 19—things got out of hand. New Canuck fans were running to catch up to the bandwagon.
The Canucks are doing things they haven’t in the past—scoring clutch goals, playing a disciplined game, getting stand-on-your-head goalkeeping from Kirk McLean and receiving quality leadership from captain Trevor Linden.
Linden, 21, may hold the key to a successful season. The second overall pick in 1988, Linden signed the most lucrative contract in franchise history Oct. 19 (four years, $3.7 million) with the understanding he is the central figure in the Canucks’ future.
On the ice, that is. Off the ice, it’s the omnipotent Pat Quinn, the man who has assembled the best Canucks’ team since 1982—the year Vancouver made an improbable run to the Stanley Cup finals. Quinn is demolishing the Canucks’ hard-earned reputation as losers.
“We’ve always taken solace in the fact we played good games against teams like Calgary, even though we didn’t usually win them,” Quinn says. “That’s not good enough any more. People are making a big thing about our start, but we really have no reason to be cocky.”
Vancouver is a franchise that has never known glory years, only a few glory weeks. The Canucks never won a playoff series, other than in the spring of ’82 when they beat the Flames, Kings and Blackhawks before going out in four straight to the Islanders in final.
But the Canucks’ regular-season record that year—30-33-17—was still on the minus side, and every team Vancouver defeated in the playoffs finished with fewer points. It was a fluke, plain and simple.
Vancouver’s only winning seasons came in 1974-75 (38-32-10) and 1975-76 (33-32-15). But put an asterisk in there. Washington and Kansas City, the latter joining Vancouver in the Smythe Division, entered the league in 1974. It was an easy time for the Canucks to fatten their record at the expense of weak expansion teams.The addition of San Jose in the Smythe—the Canucks play the Sharks seven times—almost guarantees Vancouver will be 10-12 points better this season. Making the playoffs shouldn’t be a problem.
Canuck management is strong after a period of instability. Hiring Quinn four years ago was one of Arthur Griffiths’ most sensible moves.Quinn was not the first choice—several top hockey men turned down the job—and the team’s progress has been painstakingly slow. The Canucks finished with 59, 74, 64 and 65 points in Quinn’s first four seasons.
When a typical January swoon last season raised the prospect of missing the playoffs for the third time in four years, Quinn fired coach Bob McCammon Jan. 31 and stepped behind the bench.He decided to remain as coach to closely monitor the team.“
We got something going last spring and I didn’t want to let it go,” Quinn says.When Quinn took over, his goal was to trade for more size and depth without sacrificing draft picks. The Canucks have had a long history of poor drafting and trading away young talent—Boston’s Cam Neely and Buffalo’s Rick Vaive are two examples.
While the draft has produced a couple of blue-chippers—Linden and Petr Nedved are the most prominent—Quinn’s biggest impact has been on the trading front.Only two players—defenseman Doug Lidster and right winger Jim Sandlak—remain from the team Quinn inherited. With the exception of center—where size is still lacking—the Canucks’ lineup is hulking and experienced, especially on defense.
The line with the most potential has right winger Linden and center Nedved playing with left winger Greg Adams.
Encouraged by regular ice time on the first line and power play, Nedved is rebounding nicely after a disappointing rookie season—just 16 points in 61 games.Last season, the Canucks used 10 rookies. This year there are none, and veterans Ryan Walter, David Babych and Randy Gregg were added over the summer.
“They were winners in Montreal (Walter) and Edmonton (Gregg) and they’ve brought some of that attitude to this team,” says Gino Odjick.
Nevertheless, Gregg has been unable to crack the starting defense—Lidster, Babych, Robert Dirk, Dana Murzyn, Gerald Diduck and Jyrki Lumme—which is big and difficult to penetrate.On the wings, Linden, Sandlak, Odjick, Sergio Momesso, Andrew McBain, Garry Valk and Jay Mazur have size and like to hit.
McLean compares this season’s no-fame defense to the one which finished with the third best defensive record in the NHL in 1988-89—the year the Canucks took the eventual champion Flames to overtime of the seventh game in their first-round playoff series.
Last season was McLean’s worst as a pro. A pulled groin, tendinitis in his wrist and inexplicable mistakes were the reasons behind the swoon. A Vezina Trophy finalist two years before, he was an anemic 10-22-3. But after five games this season, McLean was 5-0-0 with a 1.78 goals-against average. He won the NHL’s first player-of-the-week award.
There are plenty of theories about why the Canucks have failed over the years. An extensive travel schedule—especially in the early part of the season—has traditionally been blamed for the team’s annual January slump.
Quinn fought hard to adjust the team’s schedule this season, to give the team sufficient time to recover after returning from a road trip.
After going 4-1 on their first road trip, the Canucks returned home October 14 with the welcoming prospect of playing nine of their next 10 games at Pacific Coliseum. They’ll have four road games in November, each a single-game trip within the Smythe Division.
For the Canucks and their long-suffering fans, an institution may be about to crash and bum—the notion of the Canucks as perpetual losers. ■
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