What tested your resolve the most as a die hard fan of this team?

[awalk]

Benning and Weisbrod 

[iceman1964]

On 7/2/2024 at 8:51 PM, The Brock Star said:

Hi fellow Canucks fans! I've been doing a ton of reflecting on this past season we had. I don't think there's any debate that this season was one of the greatest seasons in franchise history. We were given 0 chance out of the gate by almost every media pundit in the league, only to take the league by storm all year round, and take the cup finalists in the playoffs to one accidental Zadorov shot block preventing overtime of game 7. I've been a fan of this team all 29 years I've been on this earth, and this was by far the most exciting season I can remember since 2011, and there are so many moments I will never forget, such as 2 goals in 12 seconds, or JT's game 5 heroics, or the unexpected dominance of Silovs. 

I've come to the conclusion that part of what made this season so special for all of us was the decade of incompetence we had to endure previously. We were a laughing stock in the NHL essentially from 2012 when we choked in the first round of the playoffs, to last season when we fell flat out of the gate and got Bruce canned in a brutal way. That is 11 long years of mediocrity. There were some good moments in there absolutely such as the 2020 run, but overall it was a dark era as a Canucks fan watching the team get progressively worse. For us die hards, we have stuck through a lot over the last decade, and it got me wondering: as a die hard Canucks fan, what was the point in your Canucks fandom that tested your resolve the most? 

For myself, 2012 jumps to mind. Fresh off game 7 of the cup finals, the Canucks came back relatively the same, add David Booth and minus Ehrhoff and Samuelsson. Edler took over Ehrhoff's spot on the back end and did well, and Booth had a solid first season as a new addition to the top 6. We beat Boston in their own barn, and the team won the Presidents Trophy a second year in a row. We had every right as fans to believe we could get back to the finals. As the season went along though, after the Boston game the wheels slowly started to fall off the wagon. The Hodgson/Kassian deal was one of the worst timed deals in franchise history that evaporated our secondary scoring. Daniel Sedin got injured (f*** Keith), and the Canucks essentially gasped into the playoffs, and proceeded to lay one of the biggest eggs in franchise history in round 1 against the up and coming Kings. It was the worst choke by a Presidents Trophy team in history at the time, and made me realize that we wouldn't win with that core. The wheels continued to fall off bit by bit in the seasons following, and we slipped into our own decade of darkness, but for me I knew the drop off was coming as soon as LA booted us. That was the hardest loss next to game 7 in 2011 for me as a fan, and I would say where my resolve was most tested as a fan.

How about for others here?

 I was really upset on how unbalanced our team has been, I was pretty choked at us losing Zadorov but felt a bit better on the news about Desharnais and picking up some other grittier players.

 I was surprised we made it past the Preds after they manhandled us really badly, seems like management didn't miss that part and got us some toughness so that won't happen to us again. I was surprised actually, I was pretty down about it since season built teams that lack toughness (grit) to get through the playoffs never get far. 

[Alflives]

The years of the “moran” running the club. 

[Rip The Mesh]

Travis Green's pre and post game chats.

[ABNuck]

Game 2 / Round 1 of the 2015 Playoffs:

Watching Bieksa rag-doll Sam Bennett reminded me of a grown man beating up his teenaged son. Then Burrows going after Gaudreau (5'9"), only to have Kris Russell (5'10") step in and take a beating from Burrows...

 

Hey, I get that we wanted to toughen up for the playoffs after the Bruins beat down physically...but I was not proud one bit to see our boys abandon hockey and behave like a bunch of thugs to a smaller and younger team. Yes it was embarrassing to lose to them, but even more embarrassed at the WAY we lost...no class, no dignity and no sportsmanship whatsoever. I have always felt that the Canucks were held to a higher standard. I respected them more losing to Boston than I did to Calgary and I still remember that game to this day. Lowest point as a Canucks Fan for me.

 

Close second for me was the 2020 Winter Classic...Dallas vs Nashville (who gives a sh!t). Here we have 2 teams both celebrating their 50th season (VAN vs BUF)...a natural built in rivalry game if ever there was one. And it could be held outdoors in Buffalo easily. Fracking HATE the NHL for wasting that marketing opportunity. Would have been a great honor for both teams, and a massive highlight marking 50 years in the NHL...instead we got...who fracking cares who we got. Such a waste.

 

[Reznor]

The Messier era. While at first it was pretty exciting to get a player with his storied history, the team was thrown into really ill feeling turmoil and weren't really a true "team" for a few years as a result. More like a bunch of guys playing for themselves.

 

To be fair, the Canucks were a middling team at that time, and came out of it ok with the development of the WCE, but those were dark years.

 

My second least favorite time was when we had the goalie controversy with Luongo and Schneider. 2 top goalies so poorly mismanaged that we ended up losing both. At least Marky had a couple decent years with us...