So this is how it ends huh? Best team all regular-season. First President's Trophy in team history. Came back and bested your demons in the first round. Steam-rolled through the best the Western Conference had to offer. Win the first two games of your first Stanley Cup Final in 17 years. Then what? Just quit.
Boston started being physical? Oh Daniel and Henrik had a solution for that: don't go into the corners and don't go to the front of the net. Just stand off to the side, or take shots from terrible angles that have the worst percentages. My personal favorite though, no back-checking. That one is awesome.
There is a famous quote by Albert Einstein that is perfect for this situation: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." That was the Canucks Games 3 through 7. Shot after shot, after FREAKING shot from the sides and the points, either through too much traffic or not enough. No one was there for rebounds, and no one was there to get the team back on track.
Pierre McGuire illustrated it perfectly. After Boston's first goal the Boston bench was lively and talking, Vancouver's was dead silent. Good captains know how to keep their teams focus and attention where it needs to be. Great captains stop momentum shifts, and keep their team's in games when they shouldn't be. Bad captains? The perfect example, Henrik Sedin.
When the going got tough, he disappeared. Guess we should have seen this coming, he and his brother did the same thing in the first round against Chicago. They disappeared and relied on everyone else to carry them through. It was a disgrace and they are a disgrace, not only to the team but to the sport, and to every player who ever wore a Canucks jersey. It makes me sick to think he is a captain of the same team that Trevor Linden captained.
The Apathetic Twins aren't the only ones to blame here. Sami Salo was lackadaisical on almost everything he did. He looked as if he was going through the motions for a majority of the playoffs. Christian Ehrhoff spent most of his playoffs standing around watching opposing players make plays. Just like in Game 7 when he watched Patrice Bergeron take the puck down for a short-handed goal. And as much as it pains me to say, as good as Roberto looked, he failed them one too many times.
My number one quitter and person unfit for their position has to be Alain Vigneault. His constant changing of the roster made no sense. Neither did his constant changing of lines. You had most of these guys playing together all year and then you just switch them up inexplicably. I know a lot had to do with injuries, but a lot can be said for consistency.
Also the most energy he showed was down 3-0 halfway through the third period of Game 7. I guarantee you the locker room was dead silent in every intermission this post-season. He showed no ability to change his strategy at all throughout the playoffs, even when it was abundantly clear he had too. Lets not forget his awful ability to know when to pull Luongo. He still has no clue how to handle his goalie. I said it before and I will stop when it stops being true: This team won in spite of their coach.
If you would have put any top coach behind that bench I guarantee they wouldn't have let their team blow series leads like Alain did. Or have two chances to win the Cup and squander both because you have no idea how to make the correct adjustments. I would put money on the fact he spent more time determining if he would play Ballard, Rome or Alberts than he did coming up with a strategy for the entire team.
These of course are my opinions and what I believe the short-comings of this team were. You can believe whatever you want. But do me a favor, remember the Sedins reactions after Game 7. See if they have any tears in their eyes, or show any disappointment at all. Then tell me if I am over-reacting about their heart, effort, and determination.
