The Canuck Way’s 10 most notable Vancouver Canucks moments of 2018

10. Fortnite Gate

Oh, the controversy on this one. Here is Canucks moment number 10. With a new leadership group ready to put its stamp on the team, they took a strange hill to die on. After a summer scandal broken by Jeff Marek about a prospect who won’t make the NHL because of video game addiction, Twitter sleuths thought it was Olli Juolevi (it wasn’t).

That probably led to banning Fortnite on the road. Michael Del Zotto declared it an issue (little did he know that he was a short trip away from multiple healthy scratches) and Bo Horvat did “right” by his veteran teammates and echoed those words.

It made no sense at the time and we will see how much of a difference it will make on their road record. Last season, the Canucks were 15-22-4 (points percentage of .415). So far, they are 10-9-3 (points percentage of .523). We’ll see how long that stands as the rest of the season is played.

Lastly, it had a funny back and forth with Patrik Laine, who pulled no punches when he heard what the Canucks were doing.

Canucks fans thought they had the last laugh when Laine had a slow start, but the Finnish sniper has been a tour de force this season as one of the league’s prolific goal scorers.

9. The Grit Wars

Our number nine moment happened on July 1st this year. Free agent frenzy is where general managers make horrendous mistakes and this one was no different. Signing twin contracts to Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel (4 years, $12 million), Canucks fans were split. The day was completed when Tim Schaller was brought in on a two-year deal ($3.8 million total).

The contracts for Roussel and Beagle were long. They were full of bonuses and were buyout proof. We had Canucks fans disgusted by the moves (yeah, right here) and others defending the moves. The team needed grit. Jim Benning assured their size would reduce injuries. Well, Roussel started the season with a concussion and Beagle has only played 17 games this season because he broke his forearm blocking a shot.

Regarding Roussel, I don’t have an issue with him. He’s a good energy guy, I love the accent and he is very gifable. Granted, he is probably a couple of concussions from early retirement, but his contract alone is fine. What’s not fine is spending almost $8 million on three fourth line players when you only need one. Schaller is a disaster and the Canucks had a better version of Beagle in Sutter, who is also four years younger. Thus the Grit Wars were born. Going one for three is not as bad as it could be, but it’s just another chapter in unnecessary signings.

8. Trevor Linden “amicably” parts ways with the Canucks

The positive ones are coming. I promise. Just two more and it’s all fun stuff from there. Just when you thought The Grit Wars were the biggest story of the summer, we have our number eight moment of 2018. The Icon. The President. Or as I liked to call him, The Shield.

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However you want to remember him, Trevor Linden made ripples in the Vancouver market when he “amicably” parted ways with the team. Was he fired? Did he quit. Each side will push their version of the story and after the smoke cleared and the dust settled, I think it was a little of column A and a little of column B.

Linden’s friends in the media did a good job making him look like a sympathetic figure. Like a king betrayed by the slimy words of

Petyr Baelish

John Weisbrod. Linden was just as responsible for the state of the team to that point as Benning, but there’s an old saying in Vancouver: Life moves fast.

From what we understood, Linden wanted more time to prepare a competitive team and Benning/Weisbrod were confident in a quick turn around. You know, the thing that was promised over four years ago. Linden figured it out too little too late and either removed himself from an untenable position or was fired for speaking out. Either way, it was another messy departure from someone who worked for the Aquilinis and no amount of live tweeting should erase that fact.

Except it did. Like I said. Life moves fast. Canucks fans have largely forgotten about it because of the team’s moderate level of success. Aquilini played a game of PR chicken with Canucks fans and he didn’t blink.

7. The second best prospect pool in the NHL

See, here is a positive moment from 2018 (kinda). The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked every prospect pool in the NHL. It was special at the end of August to hear that the Vancouver Canucks possessed the second strongest pool in the league in the seventh Canucks moment of the year.

Ignoring the asterisks i.e. no players in the NHL (especially ones who have already graduated), those were incredible bragging rights to have. Finally, after four lackluster seasons (the year they made the playoffs resulted in a disappointing first round exit), it was something fans to hang their hats on.

I had my issues with the asterisks, especially since the ranking was so top heavy thanks to their top two players. However, Canucks fans were happy. They had several prospects put up very good draft+1 seasons and the hype was building up for a potential Calder run in Utica. Then reality set in. The adjustment to the AHL was steep for most prospects, who saw early struggles.

We saw one prospect head back to Europe due to a lack of ice time and a controversy over development. Worse of all, Olli Juolevi had his season cut short by a knee surgery. And with a promising start, it’s a shame he couldn’t build more momentum in such an important development year.

A prospect pool can be like a double edged sword. Things look amazing until they meet the AHL. Canucks fans were used to prospects bypassing the AHL rather quickly. Watching them struggle was a new feeling. It made some of us rethink and not rush to pencil every draft pick into the lineup. But hey, second best prospect pool, right?

6. Selecting Quinn Hughes seventh overall

Okay, it’s all positive from here. The Canucks’ number six moment of 2018 was selecting Quinn Hughes seventh overall. Having that selection was nerve-racking. Personally, my friends and I weren’t sure if Hughes would drop to our selection in the draft.

But then we saw the magic unfold. We saw the draft go against most of the rankings. Seeing teams draft for position. One of the big names in the top three dropped to Detroit, which was probably my biggest fear for taking Quinn Hughes. They got Zadina and my eyes lit up when Hughes’ name was still on the board.

Seeing Weisbrod giddily make his way to the stage already gave it away, but I didn’t care. I wanted Quinn Hughes from that the draft and that’s exactly who the Canucks selected. He is so dynamic and skilled and watching Team USA at the World Juniors, he really is the backbone of that team. Shut him down and your team has a problem. The Canucks might want to make note of that when they are insulating him at the NHL level.

Don’t be fooled by Brian Burke’s small body comments. The kid has the skill to overcome the difference in size. Hughes is the future of the Canucks defence and will be another incredible first round pick to watch. I just wish we had at least one more of him on the back end. And to think, some people wanted to trade that pick away for Noah Hanifin. Shame on you if you did. Shame.

5. Shotgun Jake takes us by storm

You all saw this one coming. Not just because The Canuck Way’s Chris Faber is a champion of the movement. Not just because it’s fun to watch Jake Virtanen score a bunch of goals sprinkled over a few months. Our fifth Canucks moment of 2018 is one of the many reasons why this season is fun: Shotgun Jake.

What started off as a crazy radio take from Halford and Brough blossomed into a phenomenon that has reached all Canucks fans. When I can go to work and see people walking around in Shotgun Jake T-shirts, it puts a smile on my face. Virtanen knows this market so well, embracing the movement along with his teammates.

I love the creativity we are seeing in this market. The conflict between purists and those willing to accept virtually anything has been a spectacle that amplifies the experience with Canucks Twitter as well as The Athletties. The videos, the fails and the all around fun being had is making it more and more fun to be a Canucks fan. And when you step back, I guess that’s what it’s really about.

This market is tough on Jake (I’m no stranger to that), but is nice to see him make those improvements and have more trust from his coach in more situational use. He may never live up to his draft position, but you want depth players like Jake Virtanen. Guys like him are difficult to come by via trade and get pretty expensive on July 1st. Looks like we all have more beer to buy in 2019.

4. Bo Horvat becomes “The Guy”

Coming it at number four is Bo Horvat. The Grit Wars was supposed to address centre depth to help Horvat since he had to be the team’s number one centre with little support. At the time, we didn’t know that Pettersson was ready to play as the second line centre right away. In fact, we were dreading seeing Pettersson stapled to Sutter to start the season.

But what is undersold during this season is how good Bo Horvat has been. Most teams crumple when they lose two of their centres. To compound things, the team had no choice but to have two rookies play down the middle.

Horvat is playing out of his damn mind. This is his best hockey and this is the Horvat that was lying underneath the surface. The team wasn’t 100% convinced that Horvat could handle all situations and he has answered the call. Well, except the penalty kill, but let’s not lose our head of steam.

Huncho had to do the work of two centres. Let’s get that out of the way. He had to function as a scoring line and a checking line. Horvat took most of the team’s faceoffs and 53% of them (thank you Manny Malhotra). Horvat leads the NHL with 1023 faceoffs and we are halfway through the season! The guy in second took 923.

Not to mention the random assortment of wingers due to injuries. Horvat has been a beast and a leader. Just put the “C” on his sweater already.

3. Elias Pettersson arrives

As we get to the top three, it should be no surprise who you see at this point. Elias Pettersson is a legendary rookie in Canucks lore. The first prospect to create his own religion. While Brock Boeser was humiliating goaltenders last year, Pettersson has humbled a league around him.

You just got to love the modern age that we live in. To capture everything Pettersson does in 4K is incredible and even if you can’t run his clips at that resolution, high definition can still show the kind of magic he can create on the ice.

Pettersson is compared to every great player in this game, past and present. His media death stares have become part of the folklore and after 35 games, we haven’t seen everything from him yet. With all due respect to Rasmus Dahlin, Brady Tkachuk and Miro Heiskanen, Pettersson is absolutely destroying the rookie scoring race.

I thought it wasn’t fair to expect Pettersson to replace the production of both Sedins, but he’s nearly doing that. Pettersson is truly one of the best rookies this franchise has ever seen. I have to give it to the amateur scouts involved. They had the balls to fight for this kid and convince Benning to select him at fifth overall. No other team ahead of Vancouver had the stomach for it. Fine, I’ll give the hat tip to Benning too, even if the pick would have been interesting if Cale Makar was available as well.

2. Brock Boeser at the All Star Game

Okay, the picture gave it way. The second most notable Canucks moment of 2018 was Brock Boeser at the All Star Game. This could have been the tail end of his rookie season and his head to head with Mathew Barzal, but the injury that ended it and the slow down in production softens it.

That’s why we are setting our sites on what he did in Tampa Bay. I mentioned this in projecting who will be at the All Star Game, but what Boeser did put the East on notice.

That moment turned a seemingly one-horse race into an awesome head to head down the stretch. Well, until Boeser’s unfortunate injury. He was one of the few shining lights from last season and it all built up towards the All Star Game.

It wasn’t just goaltenders who became weary of his mighty shot. Defensive players and forwards were not fond of having to block that laser beam. Boeser could break bones with that shot and all goalies would see are those golden locks celebrating at the bench.

A shot so impressive that Pettersson spent an entire a year breaking his own shot into 12 components and mastering each one. Pettersson never credited Boeser with doing that, but look at the friendship forged between them. He must have heard about Boeser’s shot before coming over from Sweden. Okay, I’m projecting a little, but Canucks fans were salivating at the thought of having two booming snipers on the power play.

That All Star Game put a lot of eyes on the Canucks and it makes sense why people outside our market took notice of Pettersson a lot faster than they did with Boeser. That and Pettersson is just carving up the NHL. However, I think Boeser’s rookie season grabbed attention. He was the MVP after all. Sportsnet made a documentary about The Flow (which was great). His skill, shot, character and kindness define him and that was on full display that weekend.

1. Canucks fans bid farewell to the Sedin Twins

The featured image gave it away, but how could this not be the number one Canucks moment of 2018? They were everything and anything for this franchise. Two of the greatest players to wear the black, blue, maroon that became the blue and green.

Things were not going to be the same without Henrik and Daniel Sedin. We’re just about at 3000 words and I’ll be honest, I could write a whole lot of these two. I think TCW alum Tyler Shipley covered it the best when they played their final game.

We won’t see a duo quite like the Twins ever again. They are future Hall of Famers and I know every fanbase says this about beloved players, but they are the best players to have never won the Stanley Cup. And I don’t think anyone deserved to win it more than those two. The Sedins defined an era. Near identical stats, both hitting 1000 points. It’s the kind of storybook ending that is almost scripted, especially that Arizona Game. Seriously, check the box score.

The NHL was also nice enough to give the King Clancy Memorial Trophy to both Twins. How fitting that both get to share one more achievement before concluding their phenomenal careers. It’s also funny to see the same people who dragged their names through the mud pretend that they respected them all along. I’ll just say Corey Perry and Hart Trophy and you’ll know what I mean.

But this moment signified a tremendous change. During the season, the torch was being passed to the next generation and I would have loved to see these two play with Pettersson. So would Thomas Gradin. The “what if” game is fun, but we all get a cathartic closure here. The Twins got to leave on their own terms, which is something of luxury for most hockey players.

I will miss them and they will always have a special place in all of our hearts. Fantastic hockey players, terrific leaders and probably the best human beings to join our hockey community. If this is getting you a little misty eyed, I get it. I’ll just leave you the quote used in the broadcast of their final game: “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.” From all of us at The Canuck Way, we say goodbye to 2018 and wish all of you a happy new year.