FTN! (A Letter to the Canucks)

*Warning: this post contains buckets of hate. Read at your own discretion.


No, that does not stand for "Food Television Network."


“I’d say 90 percent of the guys in the league want nothing to do with seeing them win,” [Ryan] Whitney said a few hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. “There’s no doubting their team’s pretty amazing. But who makes up that team makes them so tough to like that it’s frustrating to see them doing this well.”


Them, obviously, refers to the Vancouver Canucks. I've watched hockey for probably 14 or 15 years now. Evidently, my memories 14 or 15 years ago are not very good; but it doesn't take away the fact that I, at the very least, have been aware that this game existed for that long. My earliest memory is in 1997, when Todd Marchant scored the overtime winner against Dallas in game 7. Part of the reason why I remember was because of the reaction I saw and heard. I was positioned a few meters in front of the TV - my dad to my left. When Marchant scored the goal, my dad went crazy; the reaction from these images that I saw on the TV and what I could hear made sure that it was a historic moment. Doug Weight said it best during his retirement interview this past week:


"We were paying $40 million dollars less than the salary of the team you are playing in the playoffs, and you are 30 points behind them, but we ended up beating two of those teams and it was a proud moment for me."


It took me, probably, another 10 years to understand what that really meant for a team that is barely clinging on to beat a powerhouse that was the Stars back then. Unfortunately, as an Oilers fan, there haven't been many glorious memories to remember in the span of my lifetime.


The segway back to how this is relative to the Vancouver Canucks is easy. Being at the age of 20, there is a good range in both directions - old and young - of "fans" that can relate to hockey as much as I can. The Canucks have missed the playoffs, in the last 15 years, more times than they have made it passed the second round. The team has made the finals, for what is now, the third time in their 40 year history; none of the trips to the finals have won them a cup. To put this into perspective, in the ~30 years that the Oilers have been in the NHL, they have won five championships, losing in the finals twice. It's true that pretty much all of the Oilers' glory came in the 80s, but when you put everything into perspective, a championship is a championship.


Yet, the fans who claim the Vancouver Canucks as a team that are going to be the next dynasty have no idea what a winning franchise means or looks like. It's amazing, listening to the Canuck fans, rave about how amazing the team is. A few years ago, I was talking to a fan about their team. He told me that if they signed Mats Sundin, they'd win the cup. The tone in his voice sounded like if there was anything that couldn't be more sure in this world, that that would be it: Sundin helping the Canucks win the cup. At the time, I laughed so hard at the prospect of having an "old and average, passed his prime" player being the saviour of a franchise's playoff hopes. I don't need to speak of what happened the year after. Props to him for predicting that the Canucks did, indeed, sign Sundin though.


Ryan Whitney describes the Canucks organization perfectly. If you want to read the rest of the article from which I took his quote from, click here. The majority of people in this world are not NHL players, so we can't legitimately say, and back up, the opinion that an organization is a joke. Whitney, however, is a pro hockey player; and what he said in that article is backed up by, according to him, 90% of the league - and probably the rest of the hockey world too. What I can do though, is speak on behalf of the fans.


I've come to know quite a few Canuck fans in my life. I think it is fair to generalize their fans, because they're all the same. The only exception would be those that were prior to the '94 cup run they had. Last time I checked, you would probably have to be born in the '80s at the latest to really have any memory of that year. I was born in 1991, and my earliest hockey memory came at the age of 6, so no one born around the time I was would have any recollection of being alive in 1994, let alone being aware of the cup run and its significance. Don't worry, I do in fact know some of these "pre-cup run" fans; they are great people and great fans.


For quite a while, I was confused as to why Canuck fans are so irritating. They're often acting like they're in some exclusive elite club of fanatics. Not only are their chins always up, they like it that way too. I've seen instances where people were talking about not liking the idea that Canucks are the most likely team to bring the cup back to Canada, Canucks fans would arrogantly troll in and say "good, that's the way I like it." Strangely enough, not too many other fans are so as full of themselves as the Canuck fans are. No fans of other teams that I know come close to the amount of arrogance that these fans have - unless, of course, they are trolling.


But you know what? Forget what I just said. Forget I said anything. I could've ranted on for pages more, but that won't do any good. This post has already become way too long. And if you skipped everything, I hope you catch onto this section, here. The modern era of Canuck fans have no idea what winning is like. No idea. The only experience of winning that they have is the Canadian Olympic teams. So, this cockiness that has come out of nowhere, is probably a result of seeing some regular season success.


As a conclusion, these fans are just trying to feel good by taking whatever successes they can get. So be it. Why not? Let's give them all the glory. After all, these poor people don't know what it's like to be in the limelight. So, let's just give it to them; feed them all they can eat. Bloat them. Knowing their personalities, they're just going to grow higher and higher. Again, so be it. Inevitably, the higher you go, the harder you fall. And when the day finally comes for their organization to come tumbling down, we'll have some good hockey fans, at last. When that happens, or how hard they will fall, nobody knows. But until then, we're stuck with this organization and the fans. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're the best team in the league right now. So why not have them win the cup?

Canuck - noun.

a. a Canadian

I guess they are representing the entire country. Go Canucks!

LOL... Yeah right.