Seidenberg was better than Chara throughout the playoffs.
Yes he was. Absolute beast.
one of the great what-ifs in canucks history: there were rumours that the canucks were interested in picking up seidenberg prior to the 2010 trade deadline. he would have replaced willie mitchell, who was out for the year after malkin concussed him on a hit from behind.
seidenberg and canucks defenseman christian ehrhoff played together and looked good in the olympics that spring. there was talk that ehrhoff was pushing for the canucks to pick up seidenberg, who eventually was traded to boston for basically a 2nd round pick and the promising late-blooming power forward byron bitz (a year later, after a series of disastrous injuries, bitz wasn't qualified by florida and the canucks signed him as a free agent, then waived him midseason).
from an article right before the '11 finals:
Ehrhoff and Seidenberg have spent more time playing alongside each other than against one another, but they'll put that friendship aside for the next couple weeks with a Stanley Cup on the line.
"He's only one year older than I am and I played with him on the junior national teams," Ehrhoff said. "He was my [defense] partner at the Olympics last year, so we know each other very well.
"When we play against each other we try to go for dinner or for coffee or something," Ehrhoff added.
"We talk a little bit during the season, but right now we're just focused on our team and we'll talk after the series is done."
Christian Ehrhoff, Dennis Seidenberg Put Friendship Aside As They Battle to Become Second German Player to Win Stanley Cup
instead, the canucks settle for large and not especially competent third pairing plug andrew alberts from the hurricanes, for a third round pick.
here's how that non-trade ended up shaking out:
- april 3, 2010: after putting up an impressive 9 points in 17 games after the trade, seidenberg accidentally gets his wrist slashed by nikolai kulemin's skate during a hit. he's out of the season. the bruins go on to get eliminated in the second round by philadelphia, during the infamous 3-0/3-4 series.
- may 11, 2010: the canucks also lose in the second round in six, to the blackhawks for the second year in a row. alberts averaged twelve and a half minutes during the playoffs. the blackhawks would go on to sweep san jose before beating philly in the finals, also in six games.
- june 5, 2010: the bruins re-sign seidenberg for four years at a $3.25 million cap hit.
- june 25, 2010: the canucks trade michael grabner, steve bernier, and a late first that would eventually become quinton howden to florida for keith ballard, who had two years left at a $3.3 million cap hit, and 6'3 forward victor oreskovich who disgraced himself and everyone else when he just stood there like an idiot and watched the melee that ensued after marchand low-bridged daniel sedin after the whistle in game four of the finals. (at the time, ballard was a decently well-regarded puck-moving #2/3 and had a reputation for never getting hurt, which was important because our defense corps was very injury prone, especially sami salo and kevin bieksa. we were cutting bait on willie mitchell because of his concussion issues, although many of us including me hated that decision. mitchell, of course, would sign with LA and in 2012 help eliminate us in the first round en route to the first of two cups in three years. he averaged 25 minutes a game in the 2012 playoffs.)
- july 1, 2010: we signed dan hamhuis as a UFA. due to tampering rules, we couldn't have known we were going to get hamhuis when we traded for ballard, though obviously we were planning to target him. having both hamhuis and ballard put us in a cap crunch, but with salo on IR for at least the first half of the season (he ended up coming back in february), we were able to make it work. later injuries to bieksa and edler, and some creative IR work by AGM laurence gilman, allowed us to stay under the cap, with the full top six of hamhuis, bieksa, edler, ehrhoff, ballard, and salo never playing a single game together until game one of the playoffs.
so what might have happened in an alternate scenario where vancouver ponies up to get seidenberg from the panthers at the 2010 deadline? keep in mind that the canucks LOVED trading with florida during mike gillis' tenure, with the ballard trade, the chris higgins trade, the david booth trade, and the second luongo trade, plus three minor trades involving darcy hordichuk, nathan paetsch, and sergei shirokov. and even after gillis was gone, tallon still had the canucks on auto-dial, as evidenced by the horrendous gudbranson trade and the later gudbranson trade-back that was aborted when jason demers exercised his NTC.
the bruins traded bitz and a high 2nd (36th) to florida for seidenberg, who was an impending UFA. garbage players craig weller and future terrible canuck matt bartkowski were also swapped. vancouver ended up trading bernier, grabner and a low 1st (27th) to florida for ballard and garbage player oreskovich. even though florida would end up waiving grabner during training camp a few months later (at which point he was picked up by the islanders and would score 34 goals, finishing 3rd for the calder), grabner, who was a recent first rounder, is probably the + value that differentiates ballard (2 years left) from seidenberg (rental). bernier was a rich man's byron bitz and the 1st was a little higher than the 2nd. i don't see why a bernier + 1st for seidenberg and oreskovich trade couldn't have happened.
if that happens, does seidenberg, who probably doesn't get freak-injured in this alternate scenario, solidify vancouver's d-corps during the 2010 playoffs? does a high-powered canucks team featuring a blueline of ehrhoff-seidenberg, edler-salo, o'brien-bieksa (ugh) have a better chance against the blackhawks? do they beat san jose (whom the blackhawks swept)? do they beat philly (who also lost to chicago in six)?
and do the canucks re-sign seidenberg and never make the ballard trade? the salaries are basically identical, with seidenberg being actually a little cheaper. there's still no guarantee they get hamhuis on july 1, but does gillis roll the dice with seidenberg already there, knowing that there's still always willie mitchell (wouldn't be signed until august) if hamhuis is a no go?
what do the 2011 canucks look like going into the finals with hamhuis-bieksa, seidenberg-ehrhoff, and edler-salo? assuming hamhuis still manages to get hurt in game two, how are vancouver's chances going forward with seidenberg-ehrhoff, edler-salo, and rome-bieksa (and then, assuming rome still gets suspended, seidenberg-salo, ehrhoff-bieksa, edler-tanev after game three)?
and given how banged up the canucks' forwards were in the finals, especially henrik and kesler, plus losing raymond completely in the first shift of game six, malhotra playing with one eye, and samuelsson already out for the year, wouldn't having a 34 goal scorer like grabner around be nice? they were playing jeff tambellini on the second line with higgins and kesler in games six and seven of the stanley cup finals.
/2011canucksfanfic
back on topic: speaking only about the finals, thomas gets too much credit from the majority, but way way way too little credit from others. he faced mostly muffins from the outside, but still it's not like he didn't make any saves, and it's not like he wasn't sharp when he had to be, one burrows goal notwithstanding. i had bergeron, chara, and as much as i hate to admit marchand ahead of thomas in importance during that series.
Some of you guys really need to either move on, get therapy or just pick another diversion. 
