What Went Wrong: Analyzing Luongo, Questioning Character and What Needs to Change

After a week of mourning, I have finally cleared my head in order to properly assess the demise of the 2009-2010 Vancouver Canucks. After surviving a scare against the Los Angeles Kings, the Canucks proved that they weren’t quite the dominating force they had come to be in the regular season. To add to that disappointment, the frustration and irritability shown by the Canucks could only be rivalled by some fan’s immature response to failure.

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. The Vancouver Canucks 2010 season has been a tale of two teams, and unfortunately for the Canucks their regular season performance was far superior in comparison to their playoff success.  The regular season edition of the Canucks battled through injuries, distractions and an awful Olympic schedule on route to another Northwest Division Title and 100 point season, finishing with 103. The playoff edition however was unable to improve on last season’s devastating second round loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, in fact the Canucks lost in Game Six to the same Chicago Blackhawks exactly a year to the day that the Canucks were eliminated from the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

What changed? Captain Roberto Luongo believes improvement was made…or something like that, right Captain?

Some disturbing quotes from the Canucks captain, and supposed best player:

• “Not like last year, I battled for 60 minutes, kept it under seven goals, so improvement was made”

You can literally here some reporters giggle immediately after Luongo uttered those inspiring words, unfortunately I’m fairly sure Luongo wasn’t kidding at the time. That’s exactly the message I want my captain to send after a devastating loss: it could have been worse.

• “I don’t really have any answers for you, I mean we thought we had a good game plan coming in to the series and I thought we started off the series really well…”

You did have a good game plan, in fact a fairly simple one. It was executed to perfection in game one, and then the wheels fell right off the wagon, seems fitting for a city of fans that couldn’t stay on the band wagon for more than a game either.

• “At the end of the day I don’t think they are a better team than us, but maybe a smarter team that knows how to win”

Finally the Captain starts to make sense, The Chicago Blackhawks simply executed their game plan with much more consistency than the Canucks, while both teams had a shot at winning the series the Canucks simply played their way out of the playoffs with wave after wave of undisciplined penalties and costly turnovers. While Luongo is correct in identifying the Blackhawks ability to win games, his judgement of who the better team is baffles me. The team that wins more often IS the better team, period. That’s what the playoffs is about, playing through whatever adversity may come your way in order to win at all cost. The Canucks, as proclaimed by our captain, have shown they have yet to fully grasp that concept.

It is no surprise the Canucks have followed in the footsteps of their captain in the playoffs, however as a goaltender that performs best when focused and calm, Roberto Luongo simply cannot afford to be answering questions night in and night out as the Canucks captain. He signed the extension, he’s here to stay, one way or another the Canucks cannot afford to continue with Luongo as their captain, he’s simply not the man for the job.

In fact, he wasn’t even the Canucks best player this season, so why does he have the C stitched on his sweater drawn on his mask? I will get into the debate more over the summer, but for now I’m not convinced the Canucks can win in the playoffs with Luongo as captain.

No Heart, Hart TBD

As the Art Ross Trophy Winner Henrik Sedin proved he can dominate in the NHL, however in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NHL’s second season, Henrik and twin brother Daniel were simply not the same calm, cool, and effective scorers they were in the regular season.

The Sedin’s simply couldn’t overcome the tight checking of Dave Bolland, Kris Versteeg and Andrew Ladd. When they did, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were often there to clean up behind their forwards, not to be done by Antti Niemi as the last line of defence. The Sedins, similarly to their captain simply failed to elevate their game in the post season, a recurring theme among the Canucks skaters.

In fact, I have more fingers than Canuck skaters who had impressive playoff performances.

Kyle Wellwood, Christian Ehrhoff, Sami Salo, Alex Edler, Mikael Samuelsson, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen, Steve Bernier, and I’m being generous. Not exactly the usually suspects now is it?

Note:  thumbs count as fingers, smart [Wayne]!

The Canucks best players were simply bested again by the talented Chicago Blackhawks, while on paper the skill of both teams may be very equal, the effort and compete level of the Blackhawks simply dominated the Canucks consistently.

Battered, Bruised and Broken

Beginning with Evgeni Malkin’s newly controversial hit on Willie Mitchell that has kept the Canuck defenseman out of the lineup ever since, the Canucks defensive corps has simply not been deep or tough enough to overcome mounting adversity this season. Christian Ehrhoff and Alex Edler were both impressive for stretches during the playoffs, but without a supporting cast to effectively stop the speed, skill and will of the Blackhawks the Canucks were doomed to again be victimized by Chicago, even with gold medal winner Roberto Luongo behind them.

It was the same familiar story, Dustin Byfuglien parked in front of Luongo and got into the heads of both the Canuck captain and his defensive partners with ease, and after the ‘Hawks proved they could score with a blue collar work ethic the talent of the Blackhawks overcame the Canucks.

After Byfuglien stuck it to the Canucks and the fans at GM Place (myself included) in game three with a hat trick, Jonathan Toews and the ‘Hawks responded with another hat trick game for Mr. Serious. There’s a captain leading by example, and he’s only 22 years old.

With the duo of Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane, some guy who keeps making the Cup Final named Marian and rover Duncan Keith, the Blackhawks simply overwhelmed the Canucks defence too often.

The Will Must Be Stronger Than the Skill

For the second series, in the second year in a row, the Chicago Blackhawks simply outworked, outsmarted and outplayed the Vancouver Canucks. On paper heading into the series the Canucks and ‘Hawks were arguably two very equal teams, however the game plan effectively implemented by the Blackhawks from game two onward simply was too much for the easily frustrated Canucks.

While all the right things were said throughout the series, the Vancouver Canucks simply allowed the Blackhawks to get under their skin through verbal and physical abuse. The Blackhawks’ relentless drive to win simply overpowered the Canucks will to exact revenge on their playoff rivals.

Throughout the Canucks lineup questions will be raised during the summer over the compete level, intensity and ability of the Canucks skaters, and unfortunately the criticism is well deserved. It may be hard to explain why or where the Canucks went wrong in the playoffs this season; however the simple fact is that something has to change before this Canucks team can progress any further in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Similarly to the San Jose Sharks, the Canucks have to learn from previous playoff losses in order to move on, unfortunately for the Canucks that may have to include a change in captaincy, even if Luongo loves the pressure.

Constructive Summer

After adding key components like Christian Ehrhoff and Mikael Samuelsson, Mike Gillis needs to make the necessary additions (even if by subtraction) in order to elevate his team to the next level. The major pieces of the puzzle are there, however the Canucks must look to build a team that can not only play consistent, successful regular season hockey, but can elevate their game to a new level in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in order to one day bring a Cup to the west coast. After featuring The Hold Steady heading into game five, I only can only hope the opening track “Constructive Summer” to their 2008 album “Stay Positive” is a sign of movement in the right direction heading into the 2011 season.

So that lays to rest another upsetting season cut short at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks. Speaking of cut short, my playoff beard was starting to get on my nerves, but who knows – maybe all it needed was the third round to come through?

A bit of a patchy mess