The part that pissed me off about the Canucks this year is that...you couldn't see the determination, the intensity, the desperation in their play. I love the Canucks and win or lose, I always will. I'm not happy that they lost but if they gave it their best effort, I'm sure most Canuck fans would be okay with it.

But it seemed like they never showed up. Sure, they won in LA but can you really say that was a solid effort by the team? 60% PK? If the Canucks were weather-men, they'd be fired. Louie and his rebounds?

Is this an effort any of those guys would be proud of? Can they really hold their heads up high? Losing isn't the end of the world...playing like you already lost is.

A surprising number of people don't know that Rocky actually lost in that first fight against Apollo Creed...but goddamn, there was a hell of a fight in that man and no one would fault him on any of it.

I mentioned it on Twitter and to friends...this team lacks a hero...a guy with heart and soul beyond just his skill and stats. Trevor Linden was a man like that. I thought Louie would be that guy after that first season in that series against Dallas and then again against Anaheim. I thought Kesler after what we witnessed in the Olympics...but none of those guys stepped up when we needed them the most. No one said "C'mon boys...hop on my back...we're going to win this thing even if I die right after."

I thought maybe Salo playing last night would lift his teammates but I guess even that didn't have any effect on the team. And I keep hearing that Kesler was hurt and maybe that's why he didn't do anything in the playoffs or the other theory floating around is he got his contract and now he doesn't give a shit. Who knows what the truth is with him and his lack of play and the play of other players like Burrows, one thing is for sure and that is the effort level wasn't elevated and the so called "depth" we had never showed up for this series.

And as for a new leader, a new captain, the only player I pictured on the current roster to have what it takes to be a captain was Willie but looks like he's not going to be back so who's really left?

I thought they both got counted out and by default the title stays with the championship belt.

heres what i think, serious the sedin twins are totally utterly useless & crap when it came to the playoffs, serious it is

i know theres many other reasons for the lost but i think thats a big reason right there, & another thing is the canucks are not even a stanley cup team & they don't even look like winners cuz they don't have the drive to become a stanley cup winning team, just like ronin said

Defensive corps exposed once again

Puck Daddy

Random trade proposal just thought up whilst taking a shower (its probably a terrible trade idea - that I kinda like). Now that the season is over, it's time to play some mock GM and dream up some deals.

I was thinking, since the "consensus" here is Luongo is no good, or not as good, or shouldn't be the captain, or just......blamed for the loss or something, let's get rid of him for fun, and trade for a gritty Canadian guy that can double as our new captain and bring us some grit. Which means we'll roll the dice on Schneider and hope he pans out, anyway.......

LUONGO for MIKE RICHARDS and Matt Carle

Salary (10/11 from nhlnumbers.com)

Luongo 10mil

Richards 6.4mil
Carle 3.5Mil (I know literally nothing about this guy, I just found his salary to match, and he's quite young)

There, we get a guy who played with Toews and Morrow in the Olympics, and we damn well need someone like that, providing us with the type of leadership championship teams usually possess, we'll no longer have to have a somewhat dumb gimmick of giving the captaincy to a goalie, and should Schneider let in a buncha goals, we can always make a case (somewhat) that Luongo wasn't exactly posting up shutouts in his sleep. And plus we get a dman here.

extra thing we can "do" in the offseason: Now we got ourselves a centre and Demo is off the books, lets try to get Lidstrom for a discount. Just get all the swedes on the team to call him all the time, hang out with him in Sweden, tell him all the great things about Vancouver, and persuade him to take a paycut and lead the Canucks to a Stanley Cup and be a local hero for all time, I think he'll bite. Just maybe.

I'm probably way off base here in terms of not doing proper research on players and salary, I have to say I am a bball fan first, but its still mad fun to play around with made up trades as I do in NHL 10. I think the city could be at a tipping point with Luongo, similar to Bure way back when, or even (gulp) Cloutier, it just seems we're lobbing quite a bit of undeserved criticism and he may not necessarily be taking it well. I was quite shocked when the fans jeered him like MTL did to Roy (kinda). Whether if its warranted or not is not really relevant, if we can convince someone else to take him, why not? Maybe the team needs a big jolt, and let's face it the Sedins aren't going anywhere...

Despite the cap hit, Luongo's contract makes him un-tradeable, period. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but clearly, he can't raise his game to the level he needs to in the playoffs. The issues are mental and I don't know how you resolve that short of hiring a shrink.

Lidstrom will never leave the Wings franchise. Sundin left because he was treated like shit by the media, and management during his last year. The Wings have treated Lidstrom first-class all the way.

Damn......too bad eh.

I agree with his mental probs, which is unfortunate because we basically went all in on him......its weird how our media has a little New York and Boston (baseball) attitude towards our players, we're not a big city/market, I seriously don't know why the media is so tough. Kind of goes against the culture of the city but I digress.

Work your magic Gillis, just shake things up and don't try sign minor guys and try to butter em up (like Alberts).

Side note: I think I saw Kesler on the side of a milk carton the other day.

I was thinking that too a few weeks back. They spend all this money hiring a sleep therapist, capologist and all that...why not get Luongo a sports psychologist so he can get his head straight after a bad goal or two...or five.

Well, it's another season down. I guess it's time to retool and get rid of the dead weight and build a better team. I'd like to see a few more bigger guys on the lineup. It's also hard to believe a year or two ago, the Canucks had one of the deepest blue lines and now...well...we're down to 4...

Gillis definitely has his work cut out for him in the off season.

i was speechless last nite
i got really really hammered...
anyways...

WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE EFFORT LAST NIGHT. thats all I can say...

cuz it was worst than last year

It just seemed like they just could not play with Chicago. I mentioned this previously, but the only games they won seemed like when Chicago decided not to show up and we won.

Burrows or Kesler would've fit that role perfectly, but they disappeared in the playoffs just like last year.

Maybe I missed it, but why didn't they just double shifting the sedins like they did in the LA series. They are your best players you might as well ride them out. This way you can try to get away from the Keith/Seabrook pairing and tire out the checking line.

by the looks of our forward depths, i think we should trade hodgson + ____ for pietrangelo and backes lol

Give the C to someone else b/c clearly the distractions of having the C are getting to Lou. I'm not bashing him but we all know how much the sports media in Vancouver sucks and having them on your back everyday can't be good for your mental state. The media scrutiny really got to Naslund and it looks to be getting to Lou as well. A good example would be game 5 and how he avoided the media all day and pre-game, etc and he played great.

Let's look forward to what gillis will do in the summer
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who else were at the game last night ?

i think there was a fight after chicago's 3rd or 4th goal ... i was sitting across the ice so dont really know whats going on .. lol

There were a bunch of goons throwing beer at each other at the Upper Bowl.

Kesler injured his shoulder in the LA series. It doesn't appear that Burrows was injured, but maybe, he just can't step it up in the playoffs because he runs out of gas from going all out in the regular season.

About the Sedins, it's probably one of two things:

- Poor coaching
- Fatigue after being double-shifted in the LA series

I don't think the Sedins have conditioning problems, so I think poor coaching is to blame.

Yeah, I saw everyone looking over to section 120 in the lower bowl (we're up in 325) and security was breaking up the fight. People were more interested in the fight than the game. Everyone was looking at the fight long after it was over.

our star players went thru 82 games and olympics... so does the hawks (younger& more energy i assumed) ...

but i think fatigue might be one of the cause for poor performance. just a thought

it happend in the lower bowl ..hahaha. You're right, more people were interested in the fight than teh game at the moment.

I think there is also people tossing empty beer cup or garbage from upper bowl down to the lower bowl...almsot thought would be a riot .. lol

the players didnt play well and our fans didnt behave well, we were like those LA fans :D

Messier is looking for another goaltender for the world championships...the indirect invite for Luongo to join them...

Team 1040 said it last year when we lost to Chicago that every team that wins a cup seems to have an offensive defense-man. This is clearly something the Canucks do not have, and their should have been a trade throughout the post season or at the trade deadline to grab and offensive defense-man to carry a puck out of our end.

Its a pity that Luc Bourdon passed away as he would have fitted that position perfectly.