Canuck low-lights part 4 of an ongoing series in non-chronological order

Back to hockey;


(Full disclosure; i found this little bit in the drafts section of my blog written obviously before my Canadian hockey soul was once again crushed by the NHL.  Trying to keep the home fires burning, so to speak, i've finally edited it in a lackluster way and well, here you go) .

Over the years, I've heard plenty of reasons why the Canucks should win the Cup. 

All right, I lie.  I don't really hear any reasons why, other than people think that for some reason, Vancouver deserves a Stanley Cup because it's goddamn Vancouver.  Nothing could be worse for a city who's residents already have dangerous self-involved hockey ego issues to comparable to Montrealish embarrassing heights.  However the question really is; does the Canuck organization (in any incarnation) deserve their name on Stanley? 

Despite their recent back to back President's trophies, the answer is a quick No.  From their treatment of past players to present day fans, the faceless entity deserves little respect from that chalice that demands perfection, persistence and patience.  Insert P joke here...

I'm resigned, like i think most hockey fans are that there will be no hockey before at least christmas.  The NHL owners have put their foot down and said 'hey, we could be making more money if we weren't handing out insane amounts of money for marquee players' while the players are saying "Shea Weber? Who did he play for? What's my agent's number in Bermuda?"

So in an effort to remain interested in what's going to happen in my fantasy hockey pool, i've been reading 'I'm not making this up' by Al Strachan, which is great candid reading for behind-the-scenes hockey fans who like to hear more of what a player is like other than their stats and pending free agent status.

But back to the original question; does Vancouver deserve a Stanley Cup?

Exhibit A;

The story of Pavel Bure

One of the top three Russians to enter the NHL when the barriers were finally dropped, Bure was the superstar that Canuck fans always dreamed of and marketing executives drooled over.  Like Alex Mogilny and Sergei Federov before him, he was young, entertaining, and man, could he play.  I remember highlights of his first game against Winnipeg.  He was fast. Like really fast. If i need to tell you his nickname, you shouldn't be here.  But spoiler alert; he was traded to Florida with Bret Hedican, Brad Ference, and Vancouver's third-round choice in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft (Robert Fried) for Ed Jovanovski, Dave Gagner, Mike Brown, Kevin Weekes.  Why would Vancouver's first true superstar demand to be traded?  Probably since the way he was treated since the first day of his arrival.


The story goes that during the mess of trying to get Bure cleared from his duties to play for the Russian team, he traveled to LA to his agent's house, where he was expecting to meet up with Canuck representatives to help him with his transition to Canada.  Nobody contacted him for 10 days.  Finally he was contacted by Brian Burke who told him to sit tight, which meant another 2 weeks while the Canucks worked on the legalities of the deal. 
So you have this young kid, leaving his mother country to come play for you and you don't even have the respect to meet him as he comes off the plane in another country?  Then you don't even contact him for a week?
Now the fun really begins;
The Canucks were informed they had to pay $250,000 for Bure's rights to play for them.  They paid $200,000 and told Bure that he had to pay the other $50,000.  So, already they are off to a great start with someone who was to become their most prolific goal scorer in history.  He also asked to where number 96 to commeroate his arrival on Sept 6 to North America but apparently Pat 'Old School' Quinn had a problem with high jersey numbers (we will talk about Wayne Gretzky later).



i wonder how this ends up...

I have utmost respect for Pavel Bure, as does Shane Churla (now).  When talk of Bure wanting a trade began to hit the Vancouver papers, he was painted as being selfish and immature.  The Canucks failed to reward him for being the Calder Trophy winner (despite missing 17 games) by saying they would renegotiate his contract after the next season (which he went on to score 60 goals).  They basically told him that they were going to wait to see if that wasn't a 'fluke' season and postponed signing him because they weren't sure he was worth the money. Weren't sure he was worth the money...

Now anyone who can see the humor in that last sentence is more qualified to run the Canucks pocket books than the team managers at the time who were...let's see...Pat Quinn and Brian Burke. 

Wow. Small world.

So, he was finally able to leave the clutches of the Vancouver system to the sunnier confines of Florida and then New York where he retired, years too early from a multitude of knee operations that started from returning too soon from his first knee operation in Vancouver.  He is now a top official in the Russian Hockey League, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and one of the reasons why Vancouver is jinxed.