Congratulations to Alain Vigneault

No, I'm not expecting a Congratulations call from Mike. Why? 

It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the New York Rangers have been in the Stanley Cup Finals. It's been so long hardly anyone remembers what happened way back in 1994. Except this.

And now they are heading back there, having replaced hard-nosed, awesome-goatee'd John Tortorella with all-time winningest Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, so you can bet this guy feels like a bit of a douche.

The NHL media can only milk Marty St.Louis' mother's death for so long and the amazing commitment to the Cup it symbolizes. Now prepare to be inundated with images and reflections of twenty years ago as a litany of players who played for the NHL's largest US North American market (per capita) magically materialize out of where ever former NHL players go after they retire.

Stephan Matteau in his natural habitat

While it was kind of sad to see a rather frail and gaunt-looking Mark Messier watching from the zamboni entrance like a Madison Square Garden rink employee, let's not forget that he's one of the proofs that current Canuck decisions are in no way a sign of the present, but rather a franchise long streak of a type of self-inflicted mortal gunshot wound. Ogie thinks we can now all agree that firing AV was not the stupidest thing the Canucks have done, but it's definitely nearing the Top 3.

Mess doing his usual thing...

But what's done is done. AV has moved on and became the most successsful (and still employed) Canuck this year. With a little bit of luck and a lot of foreshadowing, I'm betting the Canucks will be a 'come-back' team next year under the right coach yet-to-be-named. After all, if the Colorado Avalanche can go from 29th in the league to 3rd in one year, why not the Canucks? It's not like they are missing anyone from their core group of players that won 2 consecutive President's Trophies and 6 Northwest Division titles.

Oh yea, except Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider who teamed up to win the Canucks their only William Jennings trophy and subsequently were traded away for future triva answers; the 2013 9th overall pick (Bo Horvath), goalie Jacob Markstrom, forward Shaun Matthias and but really, who's fault is that?

Let's hope this isn't the new Face of the Franchise...

'Brian Burke' says Mike Gillis.
'Mike Gillis' says Everyone else.

And so it goes, Gillis has finally paid the price of his internal power struggle of who's really controlling the Canucks; the owner, the general manager, the coach or the players and with former player turned quasi-Canuck legend Trevor Linden becoming the face of ownership, Sir Francis Aquillini has managed to do one thing at least; keep the Canucks in the news and put the onus of winning on the players.

Only the closest hockey fans will know the true story of those final weeks/months of AV's Canucks career but it's safe to say that it came down to a classic power struggle. Ultimately, he made the decision to make Schneider a starter but it was Gillis who signed him to a starter goalie contract. It was also Gillis who gave Luongo that monster contract that made is so 'difficult' to move Luongo. Remember he and AV also made Luongo captain for a season? That was fun, if not a little embarrassingly stupid. Then when Eddie Lack (who?) started the Heritage Classic, it was becoming evident how much of a two-faced douche Luongo was. Seriously... you just came back from winning an Olympic Gold Medal in 'Holding Door Open' for Carey Price, making $10 million a year, lost the starting position once again and you're still whining you are being treated unfair.

Witness the perfect shit-eating grin...

Players are players, not decision makers. Look at Mark Messier. Remember how he quit the Rangers after he was passed over for AV last year? And now he's watching from the zamboni entrance instead of the Rangers box with former mentor now?

Feel the tension...

Roberto Luongo was trying to call the shots in Vancouver, obviously. He's a competitor and wanted to win. Nothing wrong with that but so does everyone else. Goaltending is becoming one of the most competitive positions in hockey; the parity of near every goalie in the last decade is scary. Schneider was just as good a goalie as Luongo, just as Lack and Markstrom and whoever else is in the Canucks goal any given night because they have a great team in front of him (Heck, even Ogie has a good chance of being a reasonably good goaltender for Vancouver with the size of the goalie equipment today).

But the crease is only built for one.

Gillis, having already handicapped the Canucks long-term with the Luongo contract should have traded Schneider before his contract was up. Problem solved. It's what a GM does. Without Schneider, AV would have had no choice but to play Luongo and who knows what would have happened.

Certainly not this. 

But Gillis didn't. He got greedy and the Canucks got Bo Horvath instead. And deciding that a great team needed a make-over because of 2 early play-off exits to 2 really great teams...well, that's just being petty. Bringing in Tortorella proved to be a Mike Keenan-sized mistake.

FOR THE LAST TIME, CANUCKS.  AVOID ANY NEW YORK RANGER LINK.

And please don't let this happen again...