Vancouver Bids Farewell to Trevor Linden

It was an emotional evening at GM place tonight. There were other stories to be told, Iginla scored his 50th goal of the season, and the Canucks got blown out 7-1 in a technically meaningless game.

But to fans of the Vancouver Canucks this game was far from meaningless. Bitterness put aside from the stretch drive meltdown, this game was most likely one of the last to be played by a great Vancouver hockey player and an even better person.

Although he has yet to announce it, in all probability he has played his last NHL game in a great 20 year career.

As great a hockey player Linden was, he was an even better person. He has contributed so much of his time to the community for charitable organizations such as Canuck Place. He has an amazing reputation as an outstanding member of this community.

Trevor Linden, has always been my favourite hockey player. He always will be. I grew up in the Linden and Bure era of the Vancouver Canucks. I saw him in his prime. I still remember the electricity of the 94 playoff run. He truly lead his team into the war that was the playoffs that year. By the end of it he had 2 broken noses and was battered and bruised but still fought valiantly scoring the 2 goals in game 7.

He always had the ability to elevate his game at the most important time of the year. Guess who tied for the team lead in points last year in the playoffs?

But as much of a hockey fan I am now, I didn't really follow along as the dark days of the Canucks loomed in after the lockout season in the mid-nineties, with Keenan and Messier. An era many of us would love to forget. In fact, I basically stopped watching hockey when I heard Trevor Linden was traded.

Low and behold, the revival of the Canucks came back in the early 2000's, and seemed to coincide with the return of Trevor Linden. Needless to say I was ecstatic. The Canucks were back. My Canucks were back. My obsession for hockey rematerialized.

It didn't ever matter who was captain of the team. Trevor Linden will always be Captain Canuck to me.

Post Season Depression...

I saw the picture above at the Canucks Hockey Blog and only found it appropriate for this posting.

I'll reluctantly watch the last Canucks game of the season tonight. It'll probably be Linden's last game so I'll watch it out of respect.

Brad Ziemer from the sun had this story about tonight's game:

What the Canuck organization is billing as Fan Appreciation Night could well turn into Trevor Linden Appreciation Night at General Motors Place.

There's really no need to talk about more Canucks stories. But i have to highlight a great analysis by Jame's Mirtle in a recent post on the Canucks.

I always wondered if those guys in the east pay attention to the west. He hit the nail right on on the head.

I was most impressed with this section:

But I think, really, what it comes down to for Vancouver is a lack of leadership from a pretty vanilla group, and it's going to take a major overhaul to right that wrong. Hand the reins to the likes of Ryan Kesler and give ice time to players like Edler, deal some of that so-called defensive depth for someone who can play a first-line role on offence, and by all means either give Markus Naslund a salary befitting his role or part ways with him.

Check out the post it's a good one.

Canucks Douse Flames 6-2

I've been waiting all day to write this post. I was at the Foo Fighters concert last night, (which was awesome by the way) so I didn't get to watch the game live. However, I did PVR it. Man, am I glad I did. What a great game to watch.

Why can't we see an effort like that every night?

The Canucks Doused the Flames 6-2. Couldn't they have spread around the scoring a little bit? We could use some of those goals in the next few games...

Last night was a solid 40 minute game from every player on our squad. The first period was iffy. We were lucky to get out of it tied, but in the end I got to see some flashes of brilliance from our veteran leaders.

Last night Naslund played like a captain. He lead by example, he threw hits, hustled, and backchecked hard. He showed a level of determination and fire that I didn't think he had anymore. I want to see more. He was like the Naslund of old, but much more defensively responsible. To me, his goal at the end of the first sparked the team. Naslund was hungry for the net and dove to stuff that puck in as everybody crashed the net. That's the kind of goal you want your captain to score. It let them go into the intermission tied and not down. They were allowed to start fresh. My favourite Naslund moment last night was when Lombardi had a break to the net and Naslund backchecked and caught up to him and stripped him of the puck. There's very few people with the wheels to keep up with Lombardi, but Naslund did somehow.

Trevor Linden. Need I say more? He was fabulous. If he had gotten the hat trick the roof would have blown off GM place. The first goal was all patience and poise. Also it all happened because of an unbelievable play made by Ritchie to get him the puck, as he knocked the puck out of the air and laid a sneaky saucer pass right on Linden's stick. His second goal was just good positioning. Linden still and always will be my favourite Canuck.

I could rave on and on but my hat goes off to the entire team. Lou played great. Isbister, Pettinger, Cowan, all the role players played hard and battled like a hungry team. They got under Iginla's skin and capitalized on a Flames team that was down two key centers, Langkow and Conroy.

It's encouraging to see an effort put forth by your home team like that. But can we expect to see this on a regular basis? With Nashville losing to Detroit last night destiny is back in our hands. We need to run the table. Win and we're in.

I swear it's like they read my previous post and decided to prove me wrong. For the record, I'd be okay with that. I'm expecting good things. Hell I'm going to the game on Thursday, I better see good things. A Linden hat trick would make me happy.

In case you missed the game. Which was a hell of game, here are the highlights:

Canucks Dismantle Oil in a Textbook Roadgame

It was a real solid effort from the Canucks last night. I was proud to watch the team play with some poise for a change. Here's my laundry list from the game:

• Luongo - enough said. He's back in form and was amazing last night.

• Daniel, Kesler and Burrows are looking mighty dangerous and were by far the best line last night. Nice to see Daniel bump the scoring slump, even if it was a Tom Gilbert own goal.
  

• Mike Weaver had a really strong game doing all the little things well. He's a great depth defensemen for us and I admire how tough he plays for his size.
  

• Matt Pettinger's goal was awesome. He's making a good impact for the short time he's been here. Great wheels, offensive upside and finishes his checks.
  

• The Ryan Shannon/Taylor Pyatt rush was a great goal as well. Nice to see a speedier version of the Canucks with some of these young guys in there. Pyatt's back in the groove and hopefully continues his goal scoring streak tonight against Minnesota

• My favourite part of the night: Trevor Linden's short handed goal. The old man still has a scoring touch. We were in danger of letting the oil back into it but that marker sealed their fate as well as their playoff hopes. Vigneault better play Linden more down the stretch as this is his time of year. I've been pretty upset over Linden's playing time over the course of the season. No wonder he has a little bit of rust he only plays 4-5 minutes a game or sits in the press box while Brad Isbisiter takes his spot. Linden has far more to contribute to the team as a leader, penalty killer and shootout participant. Hmmm... how many times have we gone to a shootout this year? Don't forget what he can bring in the playoffs as well. He has 124 Playoff games and 99 Playoff points. Don't forget he was our leading scorer in the post season last year as well. Don't forget "the speech" as well:

Trevor Linden, who brings experience and wisdom to the Canuck dressing room, was responsible for a pre-game speech that sparked Vancouver and is thought to have led to the explosive first period that was witnessed on Saturday afternoon. Linden reportedly closed the locker room doors before the game, locking himself inside only with his teammates, and spoke to his team. The details of the speech have not, and will, not be shared publicly however the affect it had on every Canuck was, and is, evident.

"One of the reasons Trevor was back this year was his leadership qualities that he brings. He's the type of player that doesn't need a letter on his sweater to lead; he does it by example and sometimes, when he feels the need, he can do it vocally," said Coach Alain Vigneault who was not surprised by Linden's initiative on Saturday.

"We knew we were going to get a good quality person to help out our players, especially our young players as a great example, and he's been that throughout the year whether he has played or not and that's what we knew what we were going to get and obviously he's been giving us that since day one."

Now with that said. Vigneaut play him more we need him.

and if you missed last night's game here's the highlights: