Though it was a tough way to lose the game, the Canucks can take solace in getting the game to overtime and earning the single point. Wait, what? That’s not how it works in the playoffs? The Canucks have been eliminated? That’s it? It’s over? Oh. I watched this game. Canucks 1 – 2 Kings [...]

It would be tough to overstate the impact that Daniel Sedin had in his return to the lineup Wednesday night, but I’m going to try: Daniel’s impact was the essence of impact itself; by the game’s end, Quebec’s MLS club had changed their name to the Montreal Daniel Sedin.

The guy made a difference, is what I’m saying. In his first game back from a concussion, Daniel had a game-high 11 shots attempted, over 20% of the Canucks’ shot creation. He and Henrik were on the ice for all 3 Vancouver goals, and although they only picked up points on the third, their presence on the ice opened up space for everyone else and gave the entire team a spark. And not just any spark — the Allspark, which gives life to Autobots, Decepticons, and other cold, lifeless mechanisms, such as the Canucks’ powerplay, which came suddenly to life, going 2-for-3 in this game. And I watched this game.

Apart from the scoreboard reading 1-0 when the final horn sounded, there wasn’t a single image in the Canucks and Kings Game 3 tilt quite as scary as a stunned Henrik Sedin weakly knocking at the bench door after being rocked by Dustin Brown.

It was a clean hit. Still, it was a huge hit that, as far as anyone knew at the time, had knocked Henrik out of the game and potentially the series. And thus, it necessitated a “response.”

Ah, the rhetoric of the response. It seems to me that when hockey fans call for a response, they’re hoping that the offending party will be beaten within an inch of his life but that he’ll emerge from it with little more than a lesson learned, effectively deterred and uninjured.

From what I gather, public sentiment is that the response the Canucks mounted wasn’t appropriate. This leads me to wonder what, exactly, Canuck fans wanted instead.

You have to give the Canucks some credit. In just two short seasons, they’ve managed to reduce the Presidents’ Trophy to nothing. Last year this team proved that clinching it doesn’t guarantee a Stanley Cup win; this year they’re on the brink of proving that neither does it guarantee even a single playoff win. That’s impressive.

But Canuck fans are not impressed, and with the number one seed in danger of being swept by the LA Kings, you can understand why they’re looking for somebody to blame right now.

I’d blame Duncan Keith, who knocked Daniel Sedin, Vancouver’s only true elite winger, out of the lineup on a dirty, predatory hit in the season’s final stretch. Considering what it did to the team’s line combinations, powerplay, and overall identity, I’d say Keith is a pretty good target for derision.

But to hear Canuck fans tell it, the real problem in this series is that Alain Vigneault is being outcoached as usual. I am gobsmacked by the thoughtlessness behind this line of rhetoric.

If you want to quibble with definitions, this game wasn’t technically a must-win game. Since the Canucks didn’t win, however, that makes Wednesday’s game an actual must-win game. In order to prevent that from happening, the Canucks needed to win this game, making it a proverbial, but not technical, must-win game. But, as mentioned, they didn’t muster a win.

Now I’m depressed and I think Harrison’s drunk (and he never drinks). On the plus side, all of Vancouver is now too despondent to leave the house, meaning The Bay won’t have to replace all their windows this year. Oh hell, now I’m making riot jokes: this is definitely the lowest of the low. I watched this game.

With Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know” at the height of its popularity (seriously, I’ve seen it on every television show I’ve watched this week), I figured it would only be a matter of time before some group of hockey fans somewhere gave it the playoff parody treatment. Sure enough, the inevitable has happened, and the group behind it are citizens of Canuck nation.

This video is the product of comedy team IFHT, whose name is best left as an unexplained acronym (for the same reason B.M.F.A, Martha Wainwright’s debut single, was). In a nice touch, the team takes it one step further than just parodying Gotye’s song, also styling their video after his, with face paint, awkward standing and a pretty girl yelling in their ear:

It’s no surprise to fans that the Canucks powerplay is struggling. After an incredible start to the season that saw the team once again lead the league in powerplay percentage, it crashed and burned in the second half of the season. The powerplay was 4-for-42 in their last 10 games, and that’s just an arbitrary round number of games to select. Other than a 4-for-11 outburst against the Boston Bruins, the Canucks powerplay hasn’t truly been good since December.

On Friday night against the Los Angeles Kings, however, the team’s pwowerplay woes went from troubling to truly disastrous. On two Willie Mitchell holding penalties, the Canucks not only couldn’t score, but also gave up two shorthanded goals to Dustin Brown. It’s gotten to the point that fans everywhere wish the team could just decline the penalty and continue to play 5-on-5, where the Canucks have actually outscored the Kings 4-3 in the first two games.

Considering most people still think of the Canucks as a team that tries to draw penalties and beat you on the powerplay, including the Canucks themselves, it’s not surprising that this power outage has led to an identity crisis in Vancouver. Something needs to change and the Canucks can’t count on the return of Daniel Sedin. According to Kristin Reid, not only will Daniel not be travelling to Los Angeles with the team, he won’t be back for the rest of the series.

The Canucks may need to do something drastic. Here are 10 crazy ideas to fix the powerplay:

Stop.

Stop panicking.

Like you, I’m disappointed that the Canucks lost game one against the Kings on Wednesday, and I wasn’t impressed with how they played, beyond the performance of Roberto Luongo. But I’m not panicking and neither should you.

Apparently pointing out that some people hate the Canucks is considered news. Last week, the Toronto Star ran a column that quoted Mark Recchi, a Blackhawks fan, and a Calgary sports radio host and concluded that everyone hates the Canucks. The next day, the Toronto Sun suggested that the only reason to follow the Canucks was that even though they’re terrible human beings, they’re at least not boring.

That same story suggested that Canadian hockey fans should cheer for the Senators instead, because the Sedins have never taken snowmobiles to practice.

Seriously.

Then you have the silliness of the Kings’ official twitter account chirping Canucks fans about the rest of Canada hating the team. When even the teams from California are talking about how much everyone hates the Canucks, it must be true, right? It’s surely not possible that so many people could be wrong about something like this.

Apparently it is possible. Because an Angus Reid public opinion poll says that the Canucks are a long way from Canada’s most hated team. They’re not even close.

There were two contentious incidents on opening night of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the first, Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber punched Henrik Zetterberg in the back of the head, then went back again, driving Zetterberg’s head into the glass with such force that he cracked the Detroit forward’s helmet. For this, he was been fined $2500. In the second, Canucks’ fourth line winger Byron Bitz hit Kings winger Kyle Clifford from behind, driving his head into the glass.

For this, he’s been suspended 2 games. Here’s sheriff Shanahan, breaking down the first Canuck suspension of the 2011-12 campaign.

In case you’re still stewing with outrage over the sheer audacity of the Los Angeles Kings Twitter account, I want you to know that they have heard your cries. Thursday afternoon, the Kings apologized for the tweet, which was, of course, heinous. It was in poor taste to suggest the Sedins were women, claim Francophones such as Alain Vigneault and Alex Burrows should be exiled to France, call Cory Schneider a ginger, and make a riot joke all in one tweet.

Wait, that’s not what happened? They merely suggested the rest of Canada was rooting against the Canucks? Then why is the outrage-o-meter bordering on aneurysmal? Because that’s just true.

Earlier this week, I predicted that we might see a redemption narrative take shape this year in the national coverage, especially since the Canucks had scaled back the embellishment, Maxim Lapierre had become a fighter, and the whole group was tougher and less powerplay-reliant. But, one game into the Stanley Cup playoffs, I can already say that I was wrong.

I didn’t expect Byron Bitz to hit a guy in the head (and neither did he, judging from his contrition this morning); it was a surprise that Ryan Kesler decided to pick Game 1 of the postseason to ratchet up the fakery, something we’ve hardly seen at all from him this season; and I wholly underestimated the way that hating the Canucks had become a national pastime, something the Kings’ social media guy clearly gets, and Canuck fans might want to get used to.

I was promised prior to tonight’s game that playoff hockey is the best hockey. I don’t know about you, but I thought this particular game was pretty lousy. Now I can never trust again.

It’s difficult for a game to be entertaining when it’s bogged down by constant penalty calls. Approximately half of the first two periods of this game were spent with one of the two teams on the powerplay. It made for an extremely disjointed game that significantly lacked any sense of flow. So, essentially, me when I try to rap.

I watched this game.

Game one of the Canucks first round playoff series versus the Los Angeles Kings is starting in just a couple hours. To get you ready, I’ve compiled a plethora of numbers from these two teams in order to draw some comparisons. Ultimately, the numbers suggest that this will be a tougher series than the first-versus-eighth matchup would suggest.

From a report by Swedish website Allehanda.se: Daniel Sedin will not be playing in Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. According to Daniel’s father, Tommy (who is as it happens, Henrik’s father), the younger Sedin is still experiencing concussion symptoms.

While Daniel skated with the team in practice on Monday, he was not with the main group on Tuesday, skating instead in a shorter session with other players who were expected to miss the opening night of the playoffs. Tommy Sedin indicated that Daniel experienced a headache after Monday’s practice and has still not completely recovered from the concussion he received after being elbowed in the head by Duncan Keith.

It’s a tradition here at PITB to muster hatred for upcoming playoff opponents by mentally separating their nickname from all its good, positive pop culture associations. This is a tradition that dates all the way back to April of 2010 (when cars were powered by feet and dinosaurs and sabretooth tigers were kept as pets), as the Canucks were gearing up for a first round date with the Los Angeles Kings.

History has repeated itself, as you may know, and the Canucks find themselves preparing for a reprise of that series. (Sadly, without the possibility of Mikael Samuelsson catching fire or Shane O’Brien busting out the double guns.) With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to make like history and repeat ourselves as well by plucking one of our earliest posts from the archives and see if it still holds up. Here is, for your reading pleasure (or displeasure; these things are highly subjective), The Los Angeles Kings are Bad.

Saturday is the final day of the 2011-12 regular season, with all 30 teams playing their 82nd game of the year, including the Canucks, who host the Oilers. There’s still much to be decided. The 16 organizations heading to the first round of the postseason have all been established, but in many cases the clubs they’ll be meeting there have not.

This is especially true in the Western Conference, where zero of the 8 playoffs teams have clinched their seeding. Try to make sense of this: The Canucks currently sit in 1st, but they can still be passed by the 2nd place St. Louis Blues. The Phoenix Coyotes are holding down the Pacific Division lead and the automatic 3rd seed that comes with it, but with a loss, they can be overtaken by the winner of the Sharks and Kings’ Saturday evening affair. (Meanwhile, the loser of that game will finish 8th.) The Nashville Predators are in 4th, but they can still be passed by the 5th place Detroit Red Wings, who can still be passed by the 6th place Chicago Blackhawks. Still with me?

Normally, in cases like this, you could put on your fan blinders and avoid the confusion altogether, but simply focusing on what’s at stake for the home team will still yield a dizzying mess. Thankfully, PITB is here to help. Here’s a guide to what you, the Canuck fan, need to know about Saturday.

You may have noticed that the Canucks are all in a pretty good mood lately. Alain Vigneault’s most recent interview on the Team 1040 was a gigglefest shy of the sprightliest I’ve ever seen him. The sometimes surly Ryan Kesler was a downright delight when we spoke with him yesterday over the phone. Cory Schneider spent the entirety of After Hours doing impressions (his Barack Obama was especially sublime) and shadow puppets (Barack Shadow-bama was the highlight).

And frankly, why wouldn’t they be chipper? The Canucks prioritized not getting hurt over winning nearly a month ago — the only wrinkle in this plan being when Daniel Sedin leapt headfirst into Duncan Keith’s elbow like an idiot — and yet, somehow, a second consecutive Presidents’ Trophy is within their reach. And, more importantly, it sounds like pretty much everyone from Daniel to Aaron Volpatti will be ready for the playoffs. The outlook is positive.

In fact, the only problem the Canucks face now is determining who among this sudden plethora of healthy bodies will play in Game 1. It’s a good problem to have, of course, but it’s still going to be a tough call, especially on the back end. The Canucks’ defensive depth chart is a mess.

The NHL’s new playoff commercials have fallen a little flat. The theme is “Because it’s the Cup,” and the initial offering is designed to court the casual fan, portraying the NHL playoffs as a great excuse for gathering together socially. The line “Because in hockey, there are two halftimes” definitely made me cringe. What’s worse, “Two Halftimes” is the official title of the commercial.

Now the NHL has begun trotting out their team specific commercials, and they’re a bit more on the mark. The Canucks get a Sedin-centric commercial that is all about togetherness.

Hardcore Fans is an ongoing series where we spotlight the interesting and often crazy actions taken by otherwise normal and sane people in support of the Vancouver Canucks. We firmly believe that the Canucks have some of the best fans in the NHL and we want to point the metaphorical laser pointer at a few of them rather than in Miikka Kiprusoff’s eyes.

In this edition: Blake Rupert and his fabulous playoff beard.

Last night did not go down quite the way I had hoped. I watched this team win 54 games in the regular season. I watched Daniel Sedin win the Art Ross Trophy and Roberto Luongo win the Jennings. I watched this team vanquish their archnemesis in Chicago, then systematically do away with the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks. I watched this team win 15 of the necessary 16 games a team needs to win it all. And then, rather than watching that last win — the win where the Canucks hoist the Cup — like I truly, madly, and deeply believed I would, I watched this game.

At least in the first two games in Boston, the Canucks had the decency to have a good first period and give fans hope for a decent performance. No chance of that tonight, as the Canucks’ opening stanza was as painful as Vogon poetry. Everything fell apart faster than dominoes on a rowboat. Luongo ended up shot full of more holes than Daffy Duck. It was more depressing than Requiem for a Dream and had fewer enjoyable moments than Good Luck Chuck. In a word, it was awful. In two words, it was bloody awful. I hated watching it. But I did it for you. No, not you or you. But you. Yeah, you. For you, I watched this game.

The truth is, of course, that it doesn’t truly matter how a team wins the Stanley Cup, though I might object if the Canucks began wielding chainsaws and dismembering their opponents. If the Canucks win the Cup, people will remember Burrows more for his overtime gamewinning goals than his biting incident. Lapierre will be the player who scored the only goal in a crucial Game 5 victory. Luongo will be hailed for his 2 (or more) shutouts in the Final, Henrik will be praised for being only the second European captain to lead his team to the Cup, and it will be revealed that Kesler was playing with 72 separate injuries.

It doesn’t matter how you win; there are no style points in hockey.

But maybe there should be.

12 goals against in two games? A hot goaltender shutting out the Canucks in one of those games? Luongo getting pulled and talk of a goaltending controversy? This all sounds very familiar. In Round One, the Canucks lost the plot after going up 3-0 against the Blackhawks, losing 7-2 and 5-0. The hope was that the Canucks would learn their lesson from these two collapses. Instead, in the Stanley Cup Final, the Canucks stopped playing their game, losing 8-1 and now 4-0 tonight. It’s frustrating. It’s infuriating. It’s unwatchable. Therefore, I did the impossible: I watched this game.

I don’t think anybody could have foreseen the 8-1 drubbing the Bruins handed the Canucks yesterday. While some in Vancouver predicted a loss, most predicted a close loss, maybe another one-goal game with some late heroics. Instead, Canuck fans found their team on the wrong end of the second-worst blowout in Stanley Cup Final history. It was hard to take. There were tears of rage. Speaking of The Band, prior to the game, the air was electric, but when the final whistle went, the air was acoustic; it was like Dylan in reverse. Rogers Arena evolved from a viewing party into a Peanuts convention, with hordes of crestfallen fans doing the Charlie Brown all the way home. And as for me? Doctor says I’ve got a “mild mania”, which I think I developed when I watched this game:

It was what everyone was talking about, the feel good story of the season. A triumphant return to the ice in Game 2 after no one thought it would happen. It was the longest of longshots that he would be available for the Canucks in this game, but Alex Burrows wasn’t suspended for his alleged bite and was brilliant tonight. Oh, and Manny Malhotra came back from injury. I guess that was also a big deal. I watched this game.