Of all the profiles done here to cover what caused the demise of a team in the playoffs, there hasn’t been one so plainly simple to draw up and point fingers at what went wrong. The Canucks issues were ultimately easy to figure out, their failure in the Stanley Cup finals was one that saw them go down without so much as a fight in Game 7.
What went wrong for the Vancouver Canucks? The paint-by-numbers crime scene investigation is pretty simple to follow.
1. Offense? What offense?
Eight goals in seven games in the finals. That’s all the Canucks could muster against Tim Thomas and the Bruins defense. Sure there was some bad luck and shots off the post but there were fanned on shots at open nets, inability to corral the puck in scoring opportunities and no wherewithal to fight harder against the Bruins to go for the goal.
The struggles of Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin in this series are going to haunt them until they’re able to win a Stanley Cup for themselves. Henrik finishes the Stanley Cup finals with just one goal and no assists while Daniel had one goal and one assist. For one former MVP and a current MVP candidate that’s patently inexcusable.
When you’re two of the best players in the game and your team’s fate rests on your production - you have to do better. The intimidation factor Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg threw at them with their physical play and positioning made them shy away from corners and pull back on their attack. Someone has to remind them that there is no fear in the Stanley Cup finals dojo.
2. Oh, Roberto
When your team isn’t scoring goals, your role as a goalie is to hold down the fort flawlessly to give your team that slight opening of being able to win games by scoring just one or two goals if possible. Roberto Luongo was able to do that twice in the finals shutting out the Bruins. He was able to hold things together well enough in Game 2 to open the door for Vancouver to come back from being down 2-1. In the other four games he lost, though, things did not go so well.
Luongo was pulled from two games in Boston while allowing a total of 15 goals on the road in parts of three games including a full 60 minutes worth of allowing eight goals in Game 3. Coming up that small in a road game is just not the mark of a championship team. Seeing Luongo get beaten in Game 7 by a great shot by Patrice Bergeron in the first period and then subsequently beaten thanks to a pair of freaky goals helped serve up all the psyche crushing a goalie needs to lose.
While no one will recall Luongo’s great games thanks to the team losing, his effort in the games he lost just was not on par with his play in Games 1, 2, and 5. That brand of inconsistency, even in spite of the Canucks inability to score, is maddening.
VANCOUVER, BC - JUNE 15: The Vancouver Canucks react after being defeated by the Boston Bruins in Game Seven of the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena on June 15, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4 to 0. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) Getty Images
The Canucks power play was one of their strengths all season long scoring 24.3% of the time during the 82-game haul of the regular season. In prior rounds of the playoffs they were solid again scoring 28.3% of the time with the man advantage. In the Stanley Cup finals though, things changed for the worse.
Vancouver went a paltry 2-33 on the power play in the finals helping drop their power play percentage overall in the playoffs to 20.4%. While that number will still look gaudy their 6% effectiveness in the finals is what will stick out like a sore thumb. In three different games in the finals their power play was morbidly terrible.
In Game 1 they went 0-6 but still won. In Games 3 and 4 however, their misery with the extra man hurt them badly. In Game 3 the power play was 0-8 and in Game 4 it was another 0-6 performance. In games where they needed goals by the bunches, they were afforded the opportunity to score them and failed miserably. That lack of execution and inability to produce was their ultimate undoing.
4. A lack of defensive cohesion
Coming into this series the Canucks defense was one of their points of pride and strength. As the series wore down, it began to be a microcosm of what they dealt with all through the season as injuries and suspensions took their toll. Dan Hamhuis’ Game 1 injury proved to be a killer as his defensive ability as a top four guy was lost and forced others into roles they’re not accustomed to.
Aaron Rome’s foolish hit on Nathan Horton not only ignited the Bruins but further weakened his own team’s depth forcing coach Alain Vigneault to figure out whether Keith Ballard or Chris Tanev was going to hurt them less. Having to rely on Andrew Alberts for key defensive stopping minutes isn’t really anyone’s ideal solution to winning games.
Add in Christian Ehrhoff’s bum shoulder and turnovers all over the ice as well as Alex Edler’s two broken fingers he played with in Game 7 and you’re left with a blue line corps that was stretched to its limits and gassed when it was all said and done. With so much shuffling even the Canucks’ tremendous depth was tested to the limits. Having these things come up in the finals where even the smallest mistakes get magnified made life impossible for Vancouver against a very tight and dedicated Bruins team.
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We know everyone will be eager to blow up parts of the Canucks and will be quick to throw certain big name players under the bus for not performing, but vast changes aren’t needed here. This team will learn by losing on this stage. Whether or not they’re psychologically capable of dealing with such a crushing defeat is the question here. Professional athletes should be able to bounce back from this but sometimes getting back to the Stanley Cup finals can prove to be just as hard as winning it. Coming out of the Western Conference, that road is always a bit trickier and physically demanding.
Vancouver will again be a top team, but until they get a bit tougher mentally and learn to knock it off with the overly dramatic play to win calls from the officials, life will be that much harder for them.