I have to apologize for taking so long to enter a new post. You have to understand that I have been in mourning. No, I have not lost a family member, or been diagnosed with some terminal illness, but it has taken me a week to come to terms with the fact there will not be any post season hockey in Canuckland. Yes we still have the Jr. Team still playing and we wish them well, but for a city that had been told that "this was the year" the failure of the Vancouver Canucks to make it into the playoff has been a bitter pill to swallow.
When I moved here nine years ago, I remember how excited I was to live in an NHL town. I could hardly wait for the season to begin as I had intended to treat myself to several games, something I was not able to do back in the Maritimes. If I wanted to see an NHL game it was a 9 hour drive to Montreal or 8 hours to Boston. ( I did neither) Back then I was a Leaf fan. As was my Dad and Grandparents. Yes we loved the Leafs.
As playoff runs would begin, I would adorn my office with Leaf stuff and hang my son's GI Joe sized Matt Sundin figure, arms hosting a Stanley cup, just to get the gang in the station going. It was tons of fun. I would get anti Leaf email sent to me from all over the building. Someone had actually broke into my office and stole my Stanley cup and hung my Matts Sundin with a noose. All in good fun. Of course when the Leafs would get eliminated, I would be inidated with much smack talk from all of the Canuck fans in the building.
But as my time in Vancouver continued, the team here grew on me. I guess I thought I would rather see the cup paraded down Robson Street than Younge Street.
With that said, the Canucks were not exactly a top team. I had been here three seasons before they finally made the playoffs.
Fans here will regale you with stories of the great playoff run in 1994 when Vancouver came with in one game of winning it all. I had never experienced that kind of excitement, but was looking forward to it one day.
A few years ago during the playoffs car flags became a big part of the post season excitement. You would drive hiway 1 into Vancouver and you would loose count of the cars and trucks that would fly them. ( One day driving my reporter and I counted over 300)
Watching on TV you would hang on every play, every goal. It was to me the best time of the year.
But not this year.
As I have said in past posts, "hockey is a strange mistress" and this time she has left me feeling empty.
The horror, the horror, the horror.
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