The Canucks and their fans have so much to be proud of

Game 7 losses are never easy to stomach, but the Vancouver Canucks left their fans with so much to be proud of.

This wasn’t the first Cinderella run in Vancouver Canucks history that ended in heartbreaking fashion.

The 1993-94 Canucks earned the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference with just 85 points. But of course, they caught fire at the right time and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final — falling to the star-studded and superior New York Rangers in Game 7.

Fast forward 26 years later. The 2019-20 Canucks went on a near-Cinderella run of their own. They needed just one more victory to set up a Western Conference Final showdown with the vulnerable Dallas Stars.

But it just wasn’t meant to be. Backup goalie Thatcher Demko single-handedly kept his team in Game 7 before Shea Theodore finally solved him on the power play with 6:08 to go in the third period. The Vegas Golden Knights tacked on two empty net goals to skate away with a 3-0 series-clinching victory.

And with that, the 2019-20 Canucks — like the 1993-94 squad — saw an unlikely and unforgettable run end with a heartbreaking Game 7 loss.

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It could take a few days — even weeks — for players, coaches, management, ownership and countless fans to get over this loss. Falling one game short of the final four is never easy to accept, after all.

But this team has so much to be proud of, and it’s safe to say that the general Vancouver fanbase isn’t the least bit disappointed with the Canucks’ 2019-20 performance.

Everybody knew that the Minnesota Wild were a winnable matchup in the qualifying round.

But the run didn’t end there. Vancouver also dethroned the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues in six games. And how many could have guessed that the Canucks would easily dominate them throughout the majority of the series?

Going into the second round, we all knew that the Golden Knights were a better team, and that the Canucks would need a lot to go their way in order to win this matchup.

When they went down 3-1 in the series, how many of us could have expected that Vancouver would manage to force a Game 7 without its No. 1 goalie in Jacob Markstrom, especially considering how much Vegas was dominating?

The Canucks went all the way to Game 7 against one of the premier Stanley Cup favourites, who could have easily pulled off a sweep. It just goes to show how determined and hungry this team is.

Vancouver fans should simply look at the 2008-09 Chicago Blackhawks, who fell to the older and more experienced Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Final. Chicago’s young stars gained valuable lessons and experience from that loss. They won the Stanley Cup the following year, and again in 2013 and 2015.

Or how about the 2007-08 Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost to that more experienced Detroit team in the Stanley Cup Final? One year later, Sidney Crosby and company learned from their mistakes and experience, defeating the Red Wings in the 2009 Stanley Cup Final.

This isn’t to say that the Canucks are going to come back and win the Stanley Cup next year. But the point is, every future championship winner must go through some growing pains and heartbreak in the playoffs.

This was a major step towards a Stanley Cup journey.

In short, 2019-20 wasn’t Vancouver’s time. Vegas was deeper, better and more built to win this series. But the end result doesn’t take away from the fact that the Canucks have so much to be proud of, and the fans can only look ahead towards an extremely promising future.