Canucks Third Round – Where were you in 1994 – 17 Years Ago?
Written by: Larry “The Nucks IceMan” Johnson
There are countless stories to write about after the Canucks defeated Nashville 2-1 to advance to the third round of the Stanley Cup. Imagine that, this hasn’t happened since 1994!
Ryan Kessler and his play (I can’t find the adjectives), the Sedins (Daniel) who finally made a difference, Kevin Bieksa and Dan Hamhuis’ play shutting down the Predators top line, the Canucks penalty kill only allowing one goal against or Mason Raymond‘s first goal of the play-offs. But those will have been written to death by the time you read mine.
There are some events in life that get stamped into our memories forever. Like you first: dog, bike, kiss, school-mate, or job. How about 9-11 or a Canucks run to the Stanley Cup? You can draw from these events in a New York minute and remember where you were, who you were with or the emotions that you felt.
So I decided to open up this thought provoking question. Where were you 17 years ago when the Canucks made it into the third round of the Stanley Cup play-offs?
I tweeted and texted that very question last night and received some interesting responses from some of the followers. Most of them are very young and these are some of their tweets and texts.
This text was from a young man that shares our Canucks season tickets. “I was in grade seven. Remember it like yesterday…Playing street hockey pretending to be Pavel Bure as I kicked the ball to my stick”.
“I wasn’t even born” tweeted one. “Yeah, in a way I’m somewhat thankful I wasn’t around for it! Watching them lose in the final would’ve been heartbreaking”, tweeted another.
I know for a fact that DRT would have been only around one or two, so this will be his first ride on this Canucks emotional rollercoaster. There are many of you reading who were in various grades of your schooling.
Some Canucks fans have moved away from British Columbia but still follow their team. And of course there are the new Canadians that have learned to appreciate the sport of hockey and support the Canucks.
For some of us, this third round will only be our third in 40 years. Think about that – 40 years! As you can see, this anomaly comes around as often as an eclipse of the sun. I too remember it vividly.
It hasn’t changed much since the last time. Oh sure, the players and style of play have changed, but the excitement and exhilaration that you receive, is like the endorphin rush of a “Runners High” after exercising. It’s still as intense.
Think about how you felt in game seven against Chicago, and then again in just about every game against Nashville, due to all the one goal games? Well, it just gets ramped up another few notches for the next round.
It’s not hard to see why hockey fans are so passionate about their teams. The Stanley Cup is the most difficult trophy to win in all of sports. A possible 28 games over four rounds, which involves a war of attrition in order to heist the coveted Cup.
As fans, we live this experience vicariously through the Canuck players and ride the emotionally highs and lows. Some of us have invested more money in a year for our season tickets, than we put aside for our personal retirement.
Some on lookers would say we have our priorities mixed up. Could be, but maybe they haven’t experienced the same passion that we have. It’s like an addiction.
Other types of fan investment include – time. There’s a saying that “everyones time is valuable.” If that’s so, then think about how much you spend either watching the games, reading the sporting news (paper or on-line), following the tweets, blogs, listening to TEAM 1040 radio, sports TV programs, a combination of the previously mentioned, or all of them.
How about the hours and hours of blogging that you may do? The blogging alone can take a minimum of 12 hours a week, gathering ideas, researching the information, sourcing the pictures, editing the finished product, publishing and replying on comments.
So, all of us as fans, no matter what our ages are, have a vested interest in how the Canucks do and of course, the outcome. That’s what I call the emotional investment.
For you fans that are experiencing this for the first time, live in the moment. Embrace and enjoy it, cheer loudly, fly your flag, display your colours, because it may be another 17 years – and that’s a very long time.
After the San Jose/Detroit series is over, and let’s hope it goes seven games, I will talk about how the Canucks match up.
Photo Credits – AP, Getty Images, Google Images and Yahoo Sports!
Footnote: By now most of you will have heard that the Manitoba Moose were eliminated in game seven in triple over-time – 2-1. Moose goaltender Eddie Lack made 55 saves. Lack was simply outstanding in the play-offs posting a 1.99 GAA. .932 Sv%, 2SO, winning six and losing five.
Several of the Moose players will be brought up to be with the Canucks. Chris Tanev, who was the team’s leading plus/minus with a +7 and also played 29 games with the Canucks, will certainly be there. I would also expect goaltender Eddie Lack, and hopefully centre Marco Rosa, who led the Moose in play-offs scoring (6G, 11A).
Canuck injuries in specific positions will dictate the other Moose players joining the team.
To catch all the news, updates and new articles as they occur, along with the Canucks farm team, the Manitoba Moose, you can follow me at http://twitter.com/nucksiceman (I love this tweeting because it’s like small 140 character articles).
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