Canucks: Thrilling 2020 playoff run is only the start of a promising future

The Vancouver Canucks’ 2020 playoff run was not a case of lightning in a bottle. It was the start of an extremely bright future.

Vancouver Canucks fans had to wait nine long years for another playoff run, and they knew to embrace every second of the thrilling 2020 journey.

The team officially ended a five-year playoff drought by eliminating the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round. But simply ending the drought wasn’t enough for head coach Travis Green and company.

The Canucks absolutely took it to the St. Louis Blues in round one, eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions in six games. With that, Vancouver ended another drought, having recorded its first playoff series victory in nine years.

But Vancouver’s unexpected and improbable run came to an end on Friday night, when they lost a Game 7 heartbreaker to the Vegas Golden Knights by a final score of 3-0. If it weren’t for Thatcher Demko‘s heroics in Games 5 and 6, the Canucks wouldn’t have even made it a seventh game.

Game 7 losses are never easy, of course. But the loss to Vegas especially stings, because the Canucks would have faced a very beatable and vulnerable Dallas Stars team in the Western Conference Final. And rallying from a 3-1 deficit against of the NHL’s elite teams would have surely gone down as one of the greatest NHL comebacks in recent memory.

But when the dust settles on the crushing Game 7 loss, the Canucks and their fans will let the 2020 playoff run serve as a reminder that the future for this team is just starting now.

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Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes proved to be valuable and clutch playoff performers. As Jasmine Yen ofThe Canuck Way wrote here, the core has displayed a true championship mentality.

And the likes of Pettersson, Boeser and Hughes haven’t even hit their primes yet. All three of them are only going to get better from here.

Whether its Demko or Jacob Markstrom, the Canucks will have a reliable goalie who can steal them games on any given night.

Take a quick look at the Pacific Division, too.

The Calgary Flames haven’t won a playoff series in five years despite a stacked group, and changes appear to be on the way there.

The Edmonton Oilers are one of the league’s most flawed teams. Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl can’t carry the team by themselves. Edmonton only needs more quality top-nine forwards, at least two top-four blueliners and a capable starting goalie.

The Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are all in rebuilding phases that will take several years to complete. The rebuilding Arizona Coyotes will move to the Central Division in 2021-22, with the expansion Seattle Kraken franchise taking their spot in the Pacific Division.

Hard to envision Seattle emerging as a powerhouse as quickly as the Golden Knights. NHL GMs will surely learn from their mistakes in their handling of the 2017 expansion draft that helped Vegas build a contender in very short time.

This all means that Vancouver has a clear path to lock down one of the top three spots in the Pacific Division for the next few years. And as evidenced by their ability to push the series to seven games, you know the Canucks are capable of defeating the Golden Knights.

Add it all up, and it’s safe to say that 2020 wasn’t merely one lucky run. Rather, it was the start of a very promising future for the Canucks.