A Season to Remember: The Vancouver Canucks' Incredible 40th Year - Tapa blanda

Okay, they didn't quite win the Stanley Cup, but the Vancouver Canucks still made their fortieth season in the NHL one to remember for years to come. After spending much of those four decades racking up a record of futility matched by few other sports franchises, the Canucks came closer to hockey supremacy than any Canadian team in eighteen years and their regular season was still the best in the NHL--and the best ever in franchise history. And let's not forget the Sedin twins' amazing feat of becoming the first brothers to win back-to-back scoring titles in NHL history. That still leaves a lot for Canucks fans to celebrate, once the disappointment of losing Game Seven to the Boston Bruins wears off.

Part of the problem with the 2010-11 Canucks was that they were just so darn good. Unlike the two previous Canucks teams that battled for the Stanley Cup in 1982 and 1994, this team was not an underdog punching above its weight. This team had been fingered to win it all by experts before the season started and seemed to justify its heady buildup by winning the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best team during the regular season. It was expected to win the cup, and when it didn't, the disappointment was sharper than on previous trips to the final. But once the ice fog clears, the fortieth season will be recognized for the wonderful thing it was. How did the team's new management turn the NHL's long-time doormat into a champion? How good was that regular season, really? Are the Sedins for real, or are they just fair-weather skaters who will always disappear when the going gets tough? And what about Roberto Luongo--saviour or albatross? The team came so close--what bad breaks might have been avoided, what adjustments could have been made, what decisions--like playing backup goalie Cory Schneider in the final series--might have made the difference?

These are the kinds of questions that are best answered by a real expert, and Grant Kerr is a very rare kind of hockey expert--both a professional coach and a veteran hockey writer. His blow-by-blow insights into the Canucks' greatest season will entertain and satisfy every hockey fan and make A Season to Remember a must-have for every hockey library.

Grant Kerr is veteran Vancouver sports journalist and co-author with Greg Douglas of Canucks at 40: Our Game, Our Stories, Our Passion (Wiley). He is also assistant coach of the Coquitlam Express and winner of the 2007 Ernie Gare Memorial Trophy as the BC Hockey Coach of the Year. He lives in North Vancouver.