Official 2008-09 Vancouver Canucks Season Thread

Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:09 am

Six years ago at this time, all the Canucks needed was a regulation tie against the LA Kings who were out of the playoffs to finish first in their division. But blew it late in the 3rd to allow the Avalanche take their ninth division title.

Today, either a Canucks regulation tie against Colorado or a Flames loss against Edmonton will give the Canucks the title.

Do you think the Canucks will pull it off today?

Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:19 am

I think the Avs embarrassed them badly enough last weekend, they'll manage it, and in grand fashion - the Avs are in for a beating the likes of which they haven't seen in a LONG time!

Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:18 pm

I think the Phlegms threw last nights game to avoid the Ducks

Shameful

Canucks running and gunning so far

Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:26 pm

Perhaps not nearly as an exciting way, congratulations to the Canucks for being Northwest Division Champions for 2009!

Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:39 pm

Right after I pressed the submitted button, the Canucks managed to win in OT. But just like the regulation 0-0 tie, the OT goal looked like anti-climatic. The regular season ended up with:

* The Canucks break the plateau again with 100 points.

* Both Sedins are indeed identical twins, with 82 points each.

* Yet another win and shutout for Luongo, which will give a boost for him the Vezina trophy.

* In GM Place, the Canucks can now add another banner into their collection from the rafters, and hopefully two more soon.

Go Canucks in the playoffs!

Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:35 pm

Robbie wrote:* In GM Place, the Canucks can now add another banner into their collection from the rafters, and hopefully two more soon.

I'm sorry Robbie, but with all due respect to the Canucks and their accomplishments this season, hanging a banner for finishing 1st in a 5 team division in a 30 team league is incredibly hokey IMO. I happened to be in Minneapolis this year for the Wild's home opener vs Boston. They had a big banner-raising ceremony for winning the Northwest Division last year and I couldn't help but feel it was incredibly lame to do so. There is only one banner that matters. A Western Conference Champions banner is the "kissing your sister" banner. The Northwest Division banner is the "kissing your sister and she slips you the tongue" banner. Both are nice, but pretty much meaningless without the Stanley Cup banner to go with them.

As an aside I was planning on traveling through Vancouver on Wednesday and started thinking about taking in Game 1 on Wednesday. Looks like playoff fever has definitely kicked in. Cheapest seat in the house is $102.50 + taxes, Ticketmaster charges etc but they are sold out. Cheapest single seat I can across would run $180 for 5 rows up in the upper deck around the faceoff circles overlooking the Canuck goal. End seats in the lower bowl will run $250.00 each when the dust settles.

Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:15 pm

Nice banners. They remind me of being valedictorian at summer school, and framing my "participant" ribbons from track meets.

Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:08 am

Hambone wrote:As an aside I was planning on traveling through Vancouver on Wednesday and started thinking about taking in Game 1 on Wednesday. Looks like playoff fever has definitely kicked in. Cheapest seat in the house is $102.50 + taxes, Ticketmaster charges etc but they are sold out. Cheapest single seat I can across would run $180 for 5 rows up in the upper deck around the faceoff circles overlooking the Canuck goal. End seats in the lower bowl will run $250.00 each when the dust settles.

Well, if you make it a day earlier, you can catch Game 7 of the Giants/Chiefs second-round series. Tickets are still just $19 and $21. Should be a wicked one, too - Game 6 last night went to double-OT, and Game 5 last Friday went to 6:05 of 4OT!

Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:53 am

Soundy wrote:
Hambone wrote:As an aside I was planning on traveling through Vancouver on Wednesday and started thinking about taking in Game 1 on Wednesday. Looks like playoff fever has definitely kicked in. Cheapest seat in the house is $102.50 + taxes, Ticketmaster charges etc but they are sold out. Cheapest single seat I can across would run $180 for 5 rows up in the upper deck around the faceoff circles overlooking the Canuck goal. End seats in the lower bowl will run $250.00 each when the dust settles.
Well, if you make it a day earlier, you can catch Game 7 of the Giants/Chiefs second-round series. Tickets are still just $19 and $21. Should be a wicked one, too - Game 6 last night went to double-OT, and Game 5 last Friday went to 6:05 of 4OT!

Not a bad thought but no can do Soundy. Due to an appointment Tuesday afternoon I wouldn't be able to leave town until Wednesday morning. However I don't follow CHL hockey at all until it's time to do my scouting for the rookie draft portion of our keeper hockey pool. I regularly frequent the pub directly across the street from the CN Centre here in PG and have taken in maybe 2 Cougar games in the last 5 or 6 years. Of course close to a decade of bad to mediocre hockey with no signs of things turning around will do that. Several times I was offered freebies this season including a free ducat to one of the luxury boxes and turned them down. I used to take in a half dozen per year but can't be bothered now or at least until the Cougars finally start icing a product worth watching. The fallout is since I don't follow the local team I don't have reason to follow any of the rest either. I was working out of Brandon for 4 months this past season and could only get up the initiative to watch 1 Wheaties game but twice drove the 9 hours to Minneapolis to watch Wild games and also went into Winnipeg to watch a Moose game.

Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:16 am

Hmm, yeah, I noticed the stands there in PG were pretty empty, when watching games 3 and 4 of the Giants/Cougars series... now I know who to blame

Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:37 pm

Soundy wrote:Hmm, yeah, I noticed the stands there in PG were pretty empty, when watching games 3 and 4 of the Giants/Cougars series... now I know who to blame

I may have a fat ass but I can still only fill one seat at a time.

Of course getting outscored something like 17-3 in the first two games of the series doesn't exactly promote ticket sales when the action returns home. The local armchair experts in the pub were wondering if it was possible to get swept 2-0 in a 4 game series.

It's actually kind of sad how the interest has fallen. It seems like only yesterday when Cougar fans were jamming every Ticketmaster switchboard across Canada trying desperately to get playoff tickets. But that was during their improbable playoff run back in the late 90s. I think the final 50/50 draw at the end of that run paid out close to $15K to the winner which was crazy considering capacity including standing room maxed out at 5995. The fans here have all but turned their backs on the Brodsky family ownership group, and in particular Brodsky's son-in-law and GM Dallas Thompson. As long as Thompson is in charge most of the locals will be from Missouri.....Show Me. If the Cougars find themselves battling for 1st or 2nd in their division then the people will start coming back, but not until then. However should Brodsky punt Thompson aside and bring in a "super-boss" type to have total control as GM and Coach, somebody like Marc Habscheid or local product Don Nachbaur, they will likely see immediate benefit at the turnstiles. There has been some speculation here re: Habscheid being interested in joining in such a capacity and possibly buying a minority ownership stake. Apparently he does have a long relationship with the Brodsky family. As a buddy who still regularly attends says "they need to replace Thompson and give him a new title like VP in Charge of Servicing Brandi." Brandi is Rick Brodsky's daughter, Thompson's wife and also the team's Business Manager. I don't think the locals have any issues with her, but definitely have no confidence in her hubby's ability to turn things around.

As we've often seen in other sports there can become a time when an organization's management becomes a marketing anchor. In some ways the situation here reminds me of the demise of the Ottawa Renegades or the dark days of the Chicago Blackhawks. Those teams would still draw the hardcore fans but couldn't overcome the negative impact that the Gliebermans placed on the 'Gades or the combination of owner Bill Wirtz and GM Bob Pulford placed on the Hawks' marketplace. As long as those guys were in charge a lot of people weren't buying.

Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:48 pm

Hambone wrote:I'm sorry Robbie, but with all due respect to the Canucks and their accomplishments this season, hanging a banner for finishing 1st in a 5 team division in a 30 team league is incredibly hokey IMO. Both are nice, but pretty much meaningless without the Stanley Cup banner to go with them.

I suppose for a team that hasn't won too much in their history, then division and conference championships are all they have to go for as a consolation. Even if a team has won a fair amount of championships like the Edmonton Oilers, they still put on banners for division, conference, and Presidents championships.

I think the only team that does not have banners for conference/division championships is the Montreal Canadiens as they only have banners for Stanley Cup championships in Molson Centre. The reason being they have so many banners that there's no room for additional banners.

Until the day that another team wins so many Stanley Cup banners, it lookslike conference/division banners are there to stay.

Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:48 pm

Speaking of banners, the Canucks banners were all replaced the start of the 2007 season, just like how the Lions replaced their banners as well. What do you think of them?

I like the Lions banners given the fact that the logo in the banner matched the year it was used (1964, 1985, etc.)

But for the new Canucks banners, they all used the current blue-green colour scheme. That certain doesn't match the Black-Yellow scheme used from the late 70's to the mid 90's, nor the Black-Red-Blue scheme after that.

And unlike the older banners, the logo does not appear in the new banner. I suppose because the alternate logo is used just as often as the primary

logo, they decided not to include either logo in the new banner.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:49 am

I actually wish they would include the logo each banner was won under. Even if the colors don't match...

And speaking of COLORS I saw this and thought a Canucks thread on Lionbackers was the purrfect place for it, apologies if it has been posted already.

Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:33 pm

Am I drunk or are there no playoff talk in this thread? Weird...

sharks and clucks are about to go into overtime... what a sorry assed sack of losers those sharks are. Man am I glad I'm not a fan of those brain dead dead beats. That one should be over in a few minutes.. looks like the Canucks get the Black Hawks... Bring it on!

Official 2008-09 Vancouver Canucks Season Thread

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