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Canucks' 50th season celebration a qualified success & Marketplace launches |
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For the past couple of years, the Vancouver Canucks organization had the 50th season in 2019-20 circled as a time for celebration.
There was no way to anticipate that a global pandemic would end that season prematurely. But all things considered, the year (to date) has to be considered a success.
The club's celebration nights were all very well received, especially the Sedins' jersey retirement night. The once-maligned Black Skate jersey now gets more love than it ever did back in the 90s. And Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes have accomplished the near-impossible, drawing enough attention from fans and journalists across North America that the Canucks are now generally perceived as an exciting young team with a bright future ahead.
Heck — I'm even hearing some hockey experts picking the Canucks as a sleeper team that might potentially do some damage if and when the NHL's summer tournament gets underway.
Sure, there are still some challenges. Drama in the executive suite, some bloated contracts and probably a salary-cap crunch that lies ahead as the league and the players try to work out how they're going to keep their organization functioning after the massive revenue loss that has been caused by the pandemic.
But anytime you get down about the Canucks, just take a look at their expansion cousins, the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres may have won that wheel-spin back in 1970 that brought them Gilbert Perreault, but it has been a loooong time since they've had much other good luck. The way they lost the 1999 Stanley Cup Final to the Dallas Stars on Brett Hull's skate-in-the-crease goal might even be more heartbreaking than the Canucks' two Game 7 finals losses.
While the Canucks are campaigning to be a playoff hub city this summer and working on logistics for training camp, the Sabres are already several weeks into an offseason that could potentially last for another six months.
On Tuesday, the club announced that it's using this extended pause to revamp its front office, firing general manager Jason Botterill and his two assistants, Randy Sexton and Steve Greeley.
The Canucks' four seasons without a playoff appearance may seem like an eternity, but the Sabres' 13th-place finish in the Eastern Conference this year now has them at nine years — one off the league's all-time playoff futility record. Their last postseason appearance was a seven-game loss to Philadelphia back in 2011, the same year the Canucks last won a playoff series. Buffalo hasn't won a round since the year Alain Vigneault won his Jack Adams Award in his first season with the Canucks, in 2006-07.
I've been thinking a lot about Vigneault this week, as he seems to be the leading candidate for the Adams again this season after the impressive turnaround he has engineered in Philadelphia.
Since that 2006-07 season, the Canucks have been through four head coaches and three general managers — Nonis, Gillis and Benning. The Sabres went through 16-year runs with coach Lindy Ruff and GM Darcy Regier, who both lasted until 2013. Since then, they've gone through five coaches and new hire Kevyn Adams will be their third GM.
If you were following this space during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey — and at other times, too — you know that I'm an unabashed fan of Ralph Krueger and even tried for awhile to manipulate the time/space continuum to get him behind the bench here in Vancouver. I do think Krueger's an asset in Buffalo, and if he wants to work with Adams, then maybe this is a positive step forward for the club. But there's still a lot of work ahead to even make the Sabres look like a playoff contender, let alone get back to competing in the playoffs.
For more on Botterill, including some of the key mis-steps that likely led to his dismissal, as well as some background on new GM Kevyn Adams, here's my Forbes story:
Here in Vancouver, the Canucks have not yet opened Rogers Arena for team workouts, but they have started using the facility as a food hub they're calling Canucks Marketplace.
The Marketplace opens this Wednesday and will be open from noon till 7 p.m. from Wednesday to Sunday each week, for delivery, drive-thru or walk-up pickup of restaurant meals, meal kits and fresh provisions. It's a partnership that includes Rogers Arena catering, restaurants like Blue Water Cafe and Elisa that the Aquilini family owns through its Toptable group, and other outlets like Dirty Apron, Cafe Medina and Earnest Ice Cream.
Whether you're craving Cafe Medina's famous Belgian Waffles or a Rogers Arena hot dog, Canucks marketplace has you covered. Beverages and merchandise are also available.
To close today — I haven't had a chance to watch this yet, but Dan Murphy has a new chat with J.T. Miller up at Sportsnet. Should be worth your time!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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