The Vancouver Canucks did everything right on Tuesday night. They played a perfect home game against the Seattle Kraken, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the massive scoreboard watching that the Canucks had to do in this final week of the season. While Vancouver was holding on to a 3-1 lead over Seattle, Dallas and Vegas finished regulation tied 2-2, giving both teams points. Vancouver’s only hope was a tie with Dallas at 93 points for the second and final wildcard spot, but with the Dallas shootout victory over Vegas, Vancouver’s mathematical window finally closed.
It was a very tumultuous year for the Canucks, beginning the season with their worst start since the dreaded “Messier Years” of the late 1990s, the slump of star forward Elias Pettersson, and a penalty kill that was on pace to be the worst in the entire 105 year history of the National Hockey League. On December 5th, Vancouver finally cleaned house, firing Head Coach Travis Green and General Manager Jim Benning. Benning would initially be replaced by Interim-GM and Canucks legend Stan Smyl, later replaced by new Director of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford, before Patrick Allvin was finally hired as the permanent General Manager of the Canucks. On the bench, the Canucks turned to Bruce Boudreau. In their first game under Boudreau, the Canucks shut out the Los Angeles Kings 4-0, and “Bruce There It Is” was born at Rogers Arena. Vancouver went 8-0-1 in their first nine games under Boudreau, clawing their way back up the Western Conference standings. Although the Canucks got very close, they simply could not overcome their atrocious start to the year.
In the coming summer, there are big changes expected to come to the Canucks roster, and it’s still up in the air if Bruce Boudreau will be brought back as head coach. But as the saying in Vancouver has gone for the past 52 years;
“Eh, there’s always next year.”
(Photo: Vancouver Canucks / twitter.com/canucks)