And [gestures broadly] Quebec. As you would expect, all of these intramural hatreds get their fullest expression on ice. Hockey is our national sport. Sometimes you just get what you have between the Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks, where Toronto occasionally glances west in polite interest and the Vancouver fanbase wants to murder the entire Greater Toronto Area and drink their blood. For real! This is because, and I really do mean this, the Vancouver Canucks fanbase is a moon colony.
Every fanbase thinks on some level that the refs, the media, and the hockey gods are out to get them. This is natural and understandable. Vancouver thinks that Toronto, the league, the east coast hockey press, TSN, the Illuminati, and Bob Cole are out to subvert their hockey franchise through dark means, like 4PM local start times on Saturdays. Vancouver has still not forgiven the rest of Canada for not rallying around it in the Cup Final, ignoring the fact that a Canadian fanbases do not want each other to be happy and b the Canucks that year were one of the least likeable teams in NHL history.
Anyway, as you may recall, the Canucks lost that year, and Vancouver handled things with their typical restraint and grace, and then the team endured a spiral downward as the Sedin twins fell prey to Father Time.
Watching Swedish franchise legends retire without a Cup is something Leaf fans can empathize with. Pettersson is too good! Yeah, about that. It began in the first round when Raffi Torres obliterated Chicago's Brent Seabrook, a hit that fired up the Blackhawks, and continued through to Monday's loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of the Cup final. You can bet that there were many hockey fans who felt the butt-kicking was just deserts, especially after Rome sent Bruins forward Nathan Horton to the hospital with a "severe concussion," according to the Bruins.
The Canucks defenceman hit Horton after the puck was long, long gone, and the latter was carried off the ice on a stretcher. Rome received a four-game suspension - the stiffest in Cup final history - and did not escape NHL justice as Burrows did for biting Patrice Bergeron's finger in Game 1. Sort of like a girl In Game 3, centre Maxim Lapierre drew fire. Prior to the game, Bruins head coach Claude Julien said his antics were probably why he played for three teams this season, while during the contest, Dallas Stars forward Krys Barch took to Twitter with his thoughts.
I'd say that 90 per cent of the guys in the league want nothing to do with seeing them win. He plays more than any Canuck at even-strength despite the fact that he a turnover machine. Tyler Myers trying to cover his man without causing any chaos pic. No NHL team has an expected goals-for below 2. Myers is at 2. Myers is part of an aging defence that has trouble keeping up with fast-paced teams like the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the rookies in Jalen Chatfield and Olli Juolevi. Both have had okay moments, but Chatfield looks less like an NHL player with each passing game. The jury is still out on Juolevi, mainly because the coaching staff doesn't trust him. And, at the top of the depth chart, Quinn Hughes has continued to pile up the points, but teams are now checking him as they did in the playoffs.
Oh, and none of the Canucks forwards know how to play defence either. At some point, you cannot just shrug your shoulders and blame the personnel and management for failing to play defence. If you look at the most recent Stanley Cup Champions, what do you notice among their collective forward and defence groups? Take the Boston Bruins for example. That, despite the fact that year-old Jeremy Lauzon, who had 35 games of NHL experience heading into the season, is second on their team in ice time.
They also have another rookie in Jakub Zboril playing right now as well. The Canucks play an uptempo, run and gun style that is fun to watch.
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