Where were you Tuesday night when history was made? For only the third time in its 40-year history, the Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup final. This remarkable season and playoff run have been amazing. A 54-win season, 117 points, tops in the NHL and the best record in the league served as just a taste for Canucks fans. Expectations were high heading into the playoffs, and the boys have certainly not disappointed.
After going up 3-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks in round one, the Hawks battled back to tie the series, setting up a do-or-die game seven. With Canucks fans throughout the province on the edge of their seats and holding their collective breath, Alex Burrows scored five minutes into overtime, sending the defending Cup champs packing and the Canucks on to round two.
A six-game win over Nashville put the Canucks into the conference final against the San Jose Sharks, where the Canucks harpooned the Sharks in five games, thanks to a double overtime winner in the clinching game Tuesday night from Kevin Bieksa. The Canucks now await the winner of the Eastern Conference final between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins.
My money is on Boston to wrap the series tonight (Friday) at home in game seven, but the Lightning are a pesky and resilient bunch, having staved off elimination four times already in these playoffs. But, whether it's the Lightning or the Bruins, the Canucks will be the clear favourites when the Cup final starts next week.
Four more wins - that is all the Canucks need to make history and hoist the Stanley Cup. It's kind of surreal to think that all we need is four more wins, but those wins will be the toughest to get.
For hockey fans, heck, sports fans, it doesn't get much better than this.
I have to admit that during the Chicago series and almost blowing a 3-0 lead, I had my doubts the Canucks could pull this off. But that was a character-building series, and Vancouver has stepped it up every game since.
The only thing I can compare this playoff run to is 1994 when the Canucks lost in seven games to the New York Rangers. I was not living in B.C. in 1982 and was quite young, so I don't remember much about the first Cup run, but '94 is burned into my memory.
Game six at the Pacific Coliseum is quite possibly the greatest hockey game I have seen in person. There was an energy in the building that night that was indescribable. The noise was so loud, I swear you couldn't hear the guy next to you. The celebration and the atmosphere in the city and the province was electric. I'm getting those feelings again this time around.
Some people in this office question my sanity level when it comes to my love of sports. I'm a sports nut, and I wear my passion for my favourite teams on my sleeve. But moments like this are what make sports so fantastic. The Canucks run to the Cup brings people together in celebration. Can we remember what we all felt last February during the Winter Olympics? The pure joy of sport, the collective feelings of happiness and being a part of something special, that's what it's all about. If I can convert our editorial assistant Heather Till, who greeted me Tuesday morning with a Bieksa chant as I walked up the stairs to my office, then I've done my job.
We are all Canucks - enjoy the next two weeks. It's time to bring Lord Stanley home!
