Vancouver Canucks: More to a Season than Just the Playoffs
By David Joun
Of course the Vancouver Canucks want to make the playoffs.
The more the Vancouver Canucks struggle and slip away from the playoffs, the more the team and the city seem hungry for it. With just seven games left before the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline, all the talk in Vancouver is about the playoffs and how the veterans and the pending unrestricted free agents could find themselves on the way out from Vancouver.
But is the entire season really about the playoffs and the trade deadline frenzy?
Vancouver fans have a knack for being irrational, you know.
Especially for a Vancouver team with the youth movement in full swing, the highlight of the regular season should not be the anticipation of the playoffs, nor the endless drama and exhilaration surrounding the trade deadline.
Really, the main delicacy of the season is the development of the youth. Watching McCann’s Corsi For percentages climb up, watching Ben Hutton get his powerplay time, watching Jake Virtanen make a push after a disappointing World juniors — these are the underrated things that all Canucks fans should be on the lookout for.
It can hurt to watch the team sit so many places out of the playoffs. Therefore, it’s okay to dream about the playoffs, folks. I do too.
But there is even more to the 82-game marathon NHL season, beyond the wins, the losses, the trades, the playoffs, and the developing youngsters. It’s just that Vancouver is so obsessive with these things that nobody cares about anything else.
So here it is, this week’s edition of the Canucklehead Lament, on the four underrated storylines of the Canucks’ 2015-16 season. It is time to think outside the box, step away from the obsession over #tanknation or #playoffs, and quit talking about renting out a suite for the Canucks’ moms.
Next: Storyline No. 1: The Compensatory Pick