A question for serious canuck fans.

[KnowItAll]

Which is more important or which would you be most excited by and celebrate the hardest over. Canadians winning Gold, or Canucks winning the cup.

I know at first thought, one would probably assume the Gold win to be the greater accomplishment, but when you think about it, maybe not. Canadians have won Gold in Olympics before, and I dont know how many Gold in world competition. They usually only have to beat out 11 or less other teams to do that. Canucks of course have not won yet, and would have to beat out 29 teams. I think I would trade one Gold win in for one Cup win, but maybe not this one being played here.

Of course, both back to back would be nice.

[WestCoastJoe]

If we win them both, I will say the Stanley Cup is the one that means the most to me. It is a possibly 28 game tournament with 16 teams. That is huge.

The Olympics is a short tournament, not easy to win, but nowhere near as difficult as winning the Stanley Cup IMO.

I will not choose, however. I will just wish to win the one that is right in front of us at that time.
................

Vancouver won the Stanley Cup with the Millionaires back in 1915. That counts. And the Vancouver Giants honoured the memory by wearing replica jerseys at a game I was fortunate to see this year.

[West Coast Blue Fan]

I'd take either one....its win-win

[Dan_Payne_fan!!]

yee

[TheLionKing]

Both

[kcin94]

Which is more important or which would you be most excited by and celebrate the hardest over. Canadians winning Gold, or Canucks winning the cup.

I know at first thought, one would probably assume the Gold win to be the greater accomplishment, but when you think about it, maybe not. Canadians have won Gold in Olympics before, and I dont know how many Gold in world competition. They usually only have to beat out 11 or less other teams to do that. Canucks of course have not won yet, and would have to beat out 29 teams. I think I would trade one Gold win in for one Cup win, but maybe not this one being played here.

Of course, both back to back would be nice.

I would probably get more excited about the Canucks, since it's something that isn't expected, and it's an accomplishment on it's won. I guess I got all wrapped up in the olympics that I really didn't get much more excited about the hockey gold than the rest of the gold medals that we got. I know that is not the previaling theme in the city.

[Robbie]

Hi KIA, about 15 months ago you presented this question:

Which is more important or which would you be most excited by and celebrate the hardest over. Canadians winning Gold, or Canucks winning the cup.

Now that the latter situation is closer to reality, that should give you a clear picture among the atmosphere in Vancouver now.

As I stated before, when the Olympic men's hockey team won the semi-final to advance to the gold medal game in 1992, 1994, before winning it in 2002, the atmosphere in Vancouver wasn't nearly as exciting and celebratory as when the Canucks made it to the finals in 1982 and 1994. The 2010 gold medal win was more celebratory given that the city hosted the Olympics, but even though the Canucks haven't advanced the third round (yet), the city has just as much excitement.

sj-roc made a good point one time in that one huge difference is there isn't much buildup for the Olympics as there is with the Stanley Cup playoffs. The 2010 Winter Olympics only lasted for 17 days, with the hockey tournament starting several days afterwards. And by the time the four stage, one-game elimination playoff games were played, it was on Feb. 23 and the stages were completed in only six days later on Feb. 28. Six days can hardly create any excitement buildup unlike the up to two months for the NHL playoffs, especially if it goes for a game 7 in the finals.

Gary Bettman once stated that the Stanley Cup is the hardest championship to win in North America and he makes a good point if you compare it with the other professional leagues in terms of the required games played to win the championship in each league. In the CFL, there are three one-game elimination stages with the top seeds getting a bye. In the NFL, there are four one-game elimination stages, with the top seeded teams getting a bye in the first round. In the MLS, it's three stages, with the first stage a best of two total goals. In the MLB, there are three rounds with the latter two a best of 7, and the first round a best of 5. The NBA and the NHL, there are four rounds with each one a best of 7. So the number of minimum and maximum games to play to win the championship would be:

CFL - Min: 2, Max: 3
NFL - Min: 3, Max: 4
MLS - Min: 4, Max: 4
MLB - Min: 11, Max: 19
NBA - Min: 16, Max: 28
NHL - Min: 16, Max: 28

Having said that, what is harder to win, the NBA championship or the Stanley Cup and which playoff run would cause more excitement? I guess with departure of the Grizzlies, Vancouver won't know. The NHL playoff system was identical to the NBA in that it was only a best of 5 for the first round. Personally, I was really glad that starting in the 1986-87 season the first round was changed to a best of 7 as well. Since then, there were some finalist/championship teams like the 1990 Edmonton Oilers, 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins, 1994 Vancouver Canucks who trailed by at least 3-2 in the first round and would have been eliminated had the playoff format not changed.

[West Coast Blue Fan]

The NBA is the same as NHL, it is 4 rounds of best of 7 series.

Surprised you bring up Olympic posts as you were cheering for Sweden over Canada as I recall.....because more Canucks were on Team Sweden. Are you cheering now for San Jose as they have more Canadian born players than the Canucks do?

[Robbie]

The NBA is the same as NHL, it is 4 rounds of best of 7 series.

Yes, I stand corrected.

Surprised you bring up Olympic posts as you were cheering for Sweden over Canada as I recall.....because more Canucks were on Team Sweden. Are you cheering now for San Jose as they have more Canadian born players than the Canucks do?

Nope.

[Toppy Vann]

Two different things entirely. Both are important. The Olympics is a short tourney. Winning a Stanley Cup is far more challenging than that.