Vancouver Canucks: Now Is the Time to Jump on the Bandwagon
With the Vancouver Canucks approaching rock bottom, now is the moment to jump on the bandwagon and earn legitimate fan cred.
We all know how it works: when a team is successful, everyone has hats and shirts and selfies at the stadium. But string together several sub-par seasons, as the Vancouver Canucks have done, and the crowds dwindle, the hats stay on the rack, and Twitter becomes a den of depression.
Surviving those lean years to be there when the tides turn — watching your team become a winner again — is the sweet nectar of true fandom. You have to pay the price now for the real euphoria later. And with another lacklustre finish to the 2016-17 season, the Canucks are surely setting us up for the euphoria of the 2021-22 Stanley Cup run.
A Glimpse of the Future
Yes, the 2021-22 Vancouver Canucks are going to have a surprise Art Ross contender in Brock Boeser. But, you’ll remember the dark days of 2016-17 when Mike Chaput played on the top line.
That future Canucks team will get scoring from three lines, anchored by Nico Hischier (if they get lucky), Bo Horvat and Jonathan Dahlen in that order, and a fourth line centred by a steady grinder with some finish, like Brendan Gaunce. But you’ll remember late 2017 when Bo nearly carried the team on his own, Gaunce was going to be exposed to the Vegas expansion draft, and Dahlen was just a name we heard when the Canucks sold off the beloved Alex Burrows.
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In 2021, you will be able to purchase a Nikita Tryamkin shirsey, celebrating the most popular defenseman of a generation. You will remind your friends that back in 2017, no such shirsey existed.
The Delayed Rebuild
Much ink has been spilled over the course of the last three seasons over the question of ‘the rebuild.’ Upper management has been criticized for not recognizing in 2014-15 that it was time to blow it up and start fresh. As a result of the decision to ‘retool’ and try to remain competitive, the Canucks have become a basement-dweller with little hope of actually being competitive in the near future.
As criticism goes, this is the low-hanging fruit. It’s easy to complain after three disappointing seasons, but the logic at the time didn’t seem so flawed. In 2014, the Sedins looked fresh and focused, the veteran core was having fun and enjoying the game again, and by season’s end the Vancouver Canucks had won 48 games, finished second in the Pacific Division, and scored the sixth-most goals in the NHL.
We all know that season ended with an early exit from the playoffs and it’s been dismal ever since. We can forgive management for holding off on the rebuild at first, but one thing is clear: even if they won’t use ‘the r-word,’ the rebuild is now on.
Preaching Hope
Yes, the Dark Ages are upon us. The Sedins, probably the best players to ever wear a Canucks uniform, are declining in their sunset years. Most of the veterans have been moved, and the young core is only beginning to come together, several years away from its prime. Conflicting messages from upper management and the coaching staff about how to deploy and develop younger players suggest that a regime change behind the bench will likely play out over the summer. Any new coach coming in will have to understand that this team is a long way from a playoff run.
But it will happen.
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The development of Horvat into a mature, legitimate NHL all-star at age 21 is the most important outcome of the past three seasons. Bo will be a cornerstone of the future team, modeling Sedin-like consistency and accountability, and will probably exceed Ryan Kesler as the Canucks’ best second-line centre of the modern era.
His influence has already contributed to significant improvements in the play of Sven Baertchi and Markus Granlund, and the pool of prospects who might join those three players in the top six is impressive: Brock Boeser, Nikolay Goldobin, Jonathan Dahlen, Adam Guadette, even Reid Boucher and Jake Virtanen who may yet emerge as top-six forwards.
Meanwhile, on the back end, Tryamkin and Troy Stetcher both look like future top-four defenders and will soon be joined by some combination of Olli Juolevi, Jordan Subban or perhaps Guillaume Brisebois, to say nothing of Ben Hutton, whose ceiling likely has not yet been reached.
And since this core isn’t going to materialize for a few years yet, there are probably at least two very high first-round picks ahead of us, so a few of the stars of 2021-22 aren’t even in the organization yet.
All Aboard!
I promise that you will enjoy the next Golden Age even more if you stick around for a few more seasons of Luca Sbisa giveaways and Loui Eriksson missed nets. The bandwagon needs bodies, and if you get on now, you may be able to get a good seat.
In four years, when it’s getting crowded and people are crammed in and there is standing room only, you’ll be comfy and content, knowing that you were sitting in this chair when Jayson Megna played with the Sedins.
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“Jayson who?”
“It doesn’t matter,” you’ll say to the bandwagon hopper in a Boeser jersey. “You wouldn’t remember.”