Canucks Week!!

Well this week is Canucks week on The NHL Arena and Todays post is about canucks History.

I will post here what i posted there.

History Bites:
1970 - Vancouver's hockey roots go deep, one of the strongest teams in the old Pacific Coast Hockey Association was the Vancouver Millionaires who the Stanley Cup in 1915, and lost in the finals to the NHL Champions 4 other times before the PCHA disbanded. With the NHL's westward expansion it was inevitable that Vancouver would get a team. After failing to land one of the first expansion slots in 1967, Vancouver was awarded an NHL team in 1970. The Canucks would play their first game on October 9th losing to the Los Angeles Kings at the Pacific Coliseum 3-1 in a National Televised game. The Canucks would beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 2 nights later for their first win. The Canucks would go on to finish their first season which they played in the Eastern Division by finishing in 6th place with a typical expansion like record of 24-46-8.

1982 - sitting in 2nd place in the Smythe Division they were heading for their 4th straight playoff appearance, when their season took a strange turn on March 20th. Facing the Quebec Nordiques on the road Canucks Coach Harry Neale gets involved in an ugly brawl with Nordiques fans behind the bench. The NHL would suspend Neale for the playoffs forcing assistant Coach Roger Neilson to take over. Under Neilson the Canucks would suddenly play their best hockey of the season as they swept the Calgary Flames in 3 straight for their first ever playoffs series victory. In the Smythe Division Finals the Canucks would stay hot as they beat the Los Angeles Kings in 5 games to reach the Campbell Conference Finals. The Canucks magic rider under Roger Neilson would continue as they knocked off the Chicago Black Hawks in 5 games. Facing the 2-time defending Champion New York Islanders the Canucks had a chance to steal Game 1 on the road, as they went into overtime tied at 5. However, just a little over a minute into overtime the clock struck midnight on the Canucks Cinderella season, as Mike Bossy scored to give the Islanders a 6-5 win. The Islanders would go on to sweep the series in 4 games to win their third straight Stanley Cup.

Also 1982 - The tradition of "Towel Power" was started by the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL). During the 1982 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Canucks were playing the Chicago Black Hawks when Vancouver coach Roger Neilson, fed up with the performance of the officials in the game, placed a white towel on the end of a hockey stick and held it up in mock of Surrender (white flag).The Canucks players sitting on the bench followed suit, placing towels on the ends of their sticks until the bench resembled a laundry line. Although the Canucks lost that game 4–1, Neilson's actions inadvertently began quite a trend as, when the teams returned to Vancouver for the next game, many fans brought white towels to the game and began waving them above their heads. Referred to as Towel Power, this sparked the Canucks to win the next three games and the series, taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, which they eventually lost to the New York Islanders.
Red and blue towels, waved by fans of the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs respectively, followed the Towel Power trend. For the playoffs, fans of the Anaheim Ducks also wave "Fowl Towels". Now, towels are used by nearly every NHL team during the playoffs to create a sea of waving towels.
This tradition has since spread to other sports, and around the world.

1988 - Canucks draft Franchise Player: Trevor Linden

1994 - Amidst the cloud of Petr Nedved's season long holdout the Canucks would play mediocre hockey all season. Eventually Nedved would be traded to the St. Louis Blues for Jeff Brown, Martin Gellinas, and Nathan LaFayette at the trade deadline. The Canucks would enter the playoffs as the 7th seed in the Western Conference after finishing 2nd in the newly rechristened Pacific Division with a record of 41-40-43. The Canucks appeared to be heading for another quick exit as they fell behind the Calgary Flames 3 games to 1. However, the Canucks would make a stunning comeback winning the next 3 games in overtime on goals by Geoff Courtnall, Trevor Linden, and Pavel Bure to extinguish the Flames in 7 games. Buoyed by 3 straight overtime wins the Canucks cruised past the Dallas Stars in 5 games to reach the Western Conference Finals. In the Conference Finals the Canucks would get off to a shaky start as they dropped Game 1 on the road to the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime. However, the Canucks would bounce back to take Game 2 on the road before establishing a 3-1 series lead with back-to-back shutouts by Goalie Kirk McLean. Game 5 would also be in Vancouver as the game went into overtime tied at 3. After a scoreless first overtime the Pacific Coliseum would be thrown into a frenzy 14 seconds into double overtime when Greg Adams beat Leafs goalie Felix Potvin to send the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd time in franchise history. In the Stanley Cup Finals the Canucks were a heavy underdog facing the New York Rangers. However, the Canucks would steal Game 1 on the road by scoring late in the 3rd prior to tie the game, and send it to overtime where Kirk McLean would keep the game tied before Greg Adams delivered the game winner with 34 seconds left in the first overtime. After the Rangers rebounded to take Game 2 the Canucks got off to a fast start in font of a loud Pacific Coliseum as Pavel Bure got the Canucks on the board early. However, Bure would take a bad penalty and would be given a game misconduct as the Rangers roared back to win 5-1. The Canucks would rebound to a take and early 2-0 lead in Game 4. After the Rangers got within 2-1 the Canucks continued to control the game, however, they could not get anything else past Rangers goalie Mike Richter, including a failed penalty shot by Bure late in the 3rd period. The Penalty Shot would end up being the turning point as the Rangers tied the game and won 4-2 to take a 3-1 series lead. However, the Canucks would not go down without a fight jumping out to a 3-0 lead in Game 5 in New York. The Rangers would battle back to tie the game at 3. . However the Canucks would reestablish their 3-goal lead by with 3 quick goals of their own to win 6-3. Back at the Pacific Coliseum for Game 6 the Canucks had all the momentum as the Rangers looked tired. The Canucks would win easily 4-1 to force a 7th game as Vancouver partied like they won the Stanley Cup. Mocking the Rangers as they went home shaken tied at 3 games apiece. However, back in New York for Game 7 the Rangers would take a 3-1 lead into the 3rd period. Trevor Linden would quickly cut the lead to 1 with his second goal of the game. For the last 15 minutes the Canucks threw everything they could at Rangers Goalie Mike Richter however, they would be unable to get the tying goal as the Rangers barely hung on to win the Cup with a 3-2 win. Sadly fans in Vancouver who partied like they won the Cup a few days earlier would riot giving the city an unneeded black eye, and tarnishing a great Canucks run.

1998 - Trevor Linden Traded to the New York Islanders for Bryan McCabe, Todd Bertuzzi and a third round draft Pick

2002 - Canucks trade 2002 first round to Washington for canucks Franchise player Trevor Linden

05/06 - Fan Favorites Ed Jovanovski signs with Phoenix Coyotes, and Jarkko Ruuto signs with Pittsburgh Penguins. That season was one of the worst in canuck history with the injury to Cloutier and Alex Auld doing the best he could filling the top spot. Canucks failed to make the Playoffs that season and prepared to make drastic changes to the team in the upcoming off-season.

06/07 - Dan Cloutier Traded to LA Kings, and General Manager Dave Nonis Trades Fan Favorite Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan Allen to Florida Panthers for Franchise Goalie: Roberto Luongo (AKA Luuuuu) arguably one of the best trades if not in Canucks history but NHL history. That season the canucks made team history by shattering many records with newly acquired goaltender Roberto Luongo. Breaking the all time Win record by a goalie previously held by Kirk McLean, also tying the NHL All-time record for most wins by a goalie at 47, tying Bernie Parent, only to have one less of the newly-set-that-season record of 48 by Martian Brodeur. The Canucks also shattered the all time most points by the team at 105 with 49 wins 26 Losses and 17 overtime/shootout losses. In only his first season as a Canucks, Roberto was nominated for the Hart MVP trophy, and the Vezina trophy, unfortunately loosing those to Sydney Crosby(Hart) and Martian Brodeur(Vezina).


If you would like to comment Please come Rattle the boards at The NHL Arena (Link found on side bar)

~Jessander