For fans of Canadian hockey that have been desperately hoping for some Canadian team - perhaps any Canadian team, to finally hoist the Stanley Cup and end the now 20-plus year drought - the longest in history - for no Canadian teams to have won the Cup, the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals stung particularly badly. That is true especially for fans of the Vancouver Canucks, because their team lost those Finals in heartbreaking fashion.
They had been getting better and better for years, with clear improvements in both play and results season after season, until they finally seemed to reach a peak in 2010-2011. They put together a massive undefeated streak that ranked as one of the longest such streaks in recent hockey history, en route to the best record in the NHL that season, at 54-19-9, good for 117 points and the Presidents Trophy (awarded to the team with the best regular season record). Vancouver had both the best rated offense and defense in the league that season. Everything seemed to click into place, and they entered the postseason with a head full of steam, as the top seed in the Western Conference. They then knocked off their long time tormentors, the defending Cup champions Chicago Blackhawks, in an epic playoff series that saw Vancouver take a 3-0 series lead, only to lose the next three, and barely escape to move on to the next round.
Still, that was good enough to get past their toughest rivals, scary as the series might have been, and they faced the Nashville Predators in the next round. They won more convincingly that time, taking the series in six. Then, they took a 3-1 lead against the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference Finals, and in an epic Game 5 that went to double overtime, they finally scored the winning goal to earn their ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals, which was where they obviously wanted and expected to be.
But they were determined to win, not just be in it. And for a while, it looked like that was exactly what they were going to do, too. They won their first two games at home, although they were tough games. Vancouver won both by a single goal.
When the series resumed in Boston, Vancouver got absolutely smoked, losing the two games by a combined score of 12-1. It seemed that they had lost their head of steam. But it was good to be back home, and Luongo had one of the best games of his life, given the tough circumstances, as he blanked Boston, and Vancouver won yet another game decided by one goal. The Canucks now held a 3-2 series lead, and needed only one more win to finally take the Stanley Cup home to Vancouver for the first time in franchise history.
Unfortunately, that was when things completely fell apart for both Robert Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks organization. The Boston Bruins were simply too tough at home in that series for the Canucks to be even remotely competitive in any of the games played there. Luongo played horribly for the part of Game 6 that he actually played in before being pulled. He had enjoyed a tremendous season that saw him flirting with being seen as an elite goalie, showing poise and tremendous improvement, but what he will be remembered for best was giving up 4 goals in a span of 4 minutes and fourteen seconds in the first period of Game 6, which is a Cup record, and the Canucks were never seriously in the game. Vancouver lost it 5-2, and a chance to end the series right then and there disappeared before the Canucks ever really got going.
The series was tied, but at least the decisive Game 7 was going to be played right at home in Vancouver, right? I mean, sure, the Canucks were terrible in Boston, but they were a stellar 10-3 in home games that postseason, and had beaten the Bruins specifically in all three games leading up to that decisive Game 7 in the Cup Finals. The Canucks were the favorites all season long, and historically, teams with home ice in Game 7 had a huge advantage, winning all but two of the decisive games. Everything seemed to point to a Vancouver win. So, advantage Vancouver, right?
Wrong. Luongo and the Canucks played about as terribly as anyone could have predicted, and the worst case scenario that nobody wanted to contemplate became a reality. Vancouver completely collapsed after being within reach of their first even Cup championship, and a dream season deteriorated into a nightmare in a hurry, as the Canucks were crushed, 4-0, before their home fans. Patrice Bergeron scored the first of two goals 14:37 into the first period to break the deadlock and give Boston that crucial early lead. When Boston forward Bard Marchand got his goal 12:13 into the second period, it gave the Bruins a solid 2-0 lead, it became increasingly clear that Vancouver was not on it's game. The Bruins dominated the game, with Bergeron scoring again later to build the lead to 3-0, and then Marchand also scoring yet again, this time into an empty net, to clinch the series, and the Cup, for the Boston Bruins. They, and not the stunned Canucks, who watched helplessly as the Bruins celebrated before the handshakes, then hoisted the Cup, all on Vancouver's home ice.
With shocking swiftness, a season that had seemed to promise so much ended in bitter disappointment, and it is probably telling that what that series will always be best remember for were the riots from hugely disappointed Vancouver fans immediately after the game. There were an estimated 100,000 fans packing the streets of Vancouver on that day, eagerly anticipating their team's first ever Cup championship. Instead, they suffered through a heartbreaking loss by their team on the ice, which set off riots that captured world attention afterward.
In a quote from a Sporting News article by Craign Custance immediately after the game (see link below), Luongo showed just how disappointed he and the entire organization was:
“We’re devastated as a team. We worked hard all year to get to this point, and this is a tough one to take,” Luongo said. “It was back and forth the whole time, we’re two good teams, we were holding our home ice, and it came down to the last game and they got a couple of bounces and we didn’t. That was pretty much the ball game.”
Steve Nash, the basketball star, told rioting Vancouver fans that they needed to calm down, and promised that the Canucks and their fans would have their day. And Vancouver was an extremely talented club with solid playoff experience now, so it seemed that he might just be proven right. Vancouver had one of the most effective offenses in the league that season, as well as one of the toughest defenses, and skated to a solid 51-22-9, good for 111 points and, once again, the Presidents Trophy, achieving the best regular season record for a second season in a row.
But it was a different story in the playoffs, however. The Canucks were heavily favored against the Los Angeles Kings, but they were clearly in trouble after losing both of the first games at home by an identical score of 4-2. They then got blanked in Game 3. The Canucks managed to win Game 4 at Los Angeles, avoiding the sweep, but lost in overtime when the series returned to Vancouver. Once again, the Canucks and their fans watched an opposing team celebrate a playoff series win on their home ice. That one win to avoid the sweep is the one and only postseason win for the Canucks since that epic 2011 Stanley Cup Finals series.
Vancouver was still quite good the next season, although a notch or two down from previous regular seasons, winning their division with a 26-15-7 record during the strike-shortened season. But they got swept by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the playoffs.
This season, the Canucks are struggling just trying to remain in the playoff race, and it is not at all guaranteed that they will qualify. If the season ended at this very moment, in fact, they would not make it.
So, the Vancouver Canucks are looking to make changes, and try to make the most of what remains from a highly talented roster just a few short years ago. To find a spark again, if you will. But they needed to make changes, and one of the most notable changes that they made was to trade their starting goalie from the 2011 Cup run. That's right, Robert Luongo is no longer a Canuck, returning to the Florida Panthers. He did win an Olympic gold medal in Vancouver during the 2010 games, and got another gold medal last month in the Sochi games, although this time, he did so as a back-up. But it is getting hard to imagine him having another golden opportunity at the Stanley Cup, like he did in 2011.
Luongo shared his thought on the trade, and his time with the Vancouver Canucks in an article by Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports:
“There were ups and downs, no doubt about it,” Luongo told TSN Radio. “I think it was a pretty successful run. What’s going to hurt the most is making the Stanley Cup final and not winning it. That’s the thing I’m going to regret for a long time.”
Well, let's see if the trade is beneficial to Vancouver, Luongo, and the Florida Panthers. But one thing is for sure: Loungo and the Canucks came close to realizing their dreams together, enjoying some incredible success. But they also suffered through some terrible disappointments, and with this news that the Canucks have traded Luongo, it is clearly the end of an era for both Robert Luongo, and the Vancouver Canucks.
Here are a couple of articles that greatly assisted me in writing this blog entry, and from which both of the quotes used in this blog entry were taken:
"Traded back to Panthers: Roberto Luongo returns to Florida sunshine as sorry Canucks saga finally comes to end" by Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports, March 4, 2014:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/traded-back-to-panthers--roberto-luongo-returns-to-florida-sunshine-as-sorry-canucks-saga-finally-comes-to-end-015850699-nhl.html
"Boston Bruins beat Vancouver Canucks in Game 7, win Stanley Cup" by Craig Custance of the Sporting News, June 15, 2011:
http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/feed/2011-05/canucksbruins/story/boston-bruins-beat-vancouver-canucks-in-game-7-win-stanley-cup
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