This is from a life long Canucks fan. From a guy that bled through an early lifetime of mediocrity in the 80’s where the most success in a given season was a 1st round playoff drubbing to the Oilers! In those days, the Canucks were the whipping boy of every Wayne Gretzky milestone.
The Canucks’ greatest accomplishment in those days was having the greatest jersey of all time in all sports both professional and amateur in the beloved Flying V jersey! I was too young to remember the ’82 Cup run, so all I have is that amazing Flying V jersey.
We’re not cursed as Canucks fans. We have no BoSox, “Curse of the Babe” or Chicago Cub “Curse of the Billy Goat.” We would have had to won something before to have a curse. At least the Cubs have won a World Series, even if it was over 100 years ago. As of now, the Canucks are 0 for 39 for Stanley Cups.
As a Canuck’s fan, I have memories of the 1989 1st Round series vs. Calgary and Stan Smyl’s breakaway in overtime of Game 7 stopped by Mike Vernon. A stone cold save. This was followed up by Joel Otto’s goal kicked in to beat the Canuckles! I was a 13-year old kid blankly staring at my black and white rabbit-ear antenna TV for 20 minutes after that damn Otto goal.
Or how bout Matt Cooke’s game tying goal with 5 seconds left in 2004 in Game 7 vs. Calgary? I was living in Toronto at the time with the goal scored at 1:00 AM because of the time change. I woke up my roommate J-Paq because of the ruckus, where he just gave up and watched the end of the game with me. When Cooke scored, the cheers woke up the rest of the house. The crowd at GM Place was going nuts.
No one will ever forget the 1994 Cup run! There was Pavel’s Game 7 overtime goal v. Calgary to culminate a 3-1 comeback with 3 straight overtime wins in the 1st Round. There was Greg Adams’ Game 5 overtime goal in the conference finals vs. Toronto with Jim Robson’s classic call of, “Greg Adams! Greg Adams! …..the Vancouver Canucks are going to the Staaaan-leeeee Cup Fiiiii-nals!!!” That alone gives me chills remembering that moment!
J-Dawg, holler at your boy here, and give us some witness smack! J-Dawg was in the freaking building when Greg Adams! Greg Adams! Scored! Scored! Woooooooooo! Epic chills!
And of course there’s the whole Stanley Cup Finals in ‘94 vs. the New York Rangers with Greg Adams’ overtime goal in Game 1! There’s the Canucks forcing Game 7 after being down 3-1 in the series, culminated by the Game 6 victory leading to the classic end of game picture with an exhausted and bloody Trevor Linden embracing the embattled Captain Kirk McLean!
These are all cherished memories! Yes Canuck’s Haters, these are cherished memories of losing!
Now……on the other side of this whole existence as a Canucks fan is the presence of:
Canucks Bandwagon Fan!
All you Canuck Haters….YES! we have the biggest bandwagon fans in all of sport. I am embarrassed by that fan who jumps on and off the bandwagon and at all times is expecting bad things to happen. This is enhanced by the incessant rhetoric of Canucks Bandwagon Fan calling in all of the time on the TEAM 1040 and the weasel-ly voiced devils-advocate banter of Blake Price!
But these 40 years of Vancouver Canuck history are filled with the above memories. Filled with the Roger Neilson’s “white towel” moment in their 1982 Stanley Cup Run. Bleeding through these moments is a rush, and I would never trade these memories for any other fan’s championship memories. Because, we gotta have a Cup winning moment soon! It’s a bloody numbers game! (My apologies Cubs fan…..talk about a long numbers game for you…….and for me. As a Cubs fan as well, I admit my glutton for punishment)
So 2 Things Canucks fan:
1. If you bleed the green and blue or the old school orange and red, then keep bringing it tonight!
2. If you’re a card carrying member of the “Canucks Bandwagon Fan” club, then jump the eff aboard! When you do, do so by bleeding through every shot and every second of tonight’s game and leave the skeptisim at the door!
Because tonight is huge. The 3-0 lead is gone and we are the whipping boys and girls of every non-Canucks fan out there. So keep bringing the Smack all you Canuck Haters, because we would be doing the same thing if your precious team choked away a 3-0 lead.
That’s just it. The Canucks choked away a 3-0 lead. They’ve lost 2 straight years in the playoffs to these same Chicago Sh!#hawks. These demons have to be exorcised! And we need every fan to jump on board and keep the freaking faith!
The energy and electricity is palpable for tonight’s Game 7. Ride that wave! If we lose, then at worst we’re 0 for 40, and there will always be next year as the ol’ Brooklyn Dodgers fan used to say.
If we win, I’ll be seeing you on Granville and Robson later tonight.
Drop the damn puck already!
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