2010/2011 Canucks

[AdvancedPressure]

Hello! Over the past couple of months I've spent a bit of time on this forum, and I must say it has become one my favorite boards to browse as a long time Canucks fan.

Recently I got to thinking about the 2010/2011 Canucks; in specific, their first round playoff series versus Chicago. We all know the history between the two teams at the time and, of course, we all remember Alex Burrows' iconic OT goal to "slay the dragon." Now, that being said, I often wonder how differently things would unfolded for that Canucks team had they lost in that Game 7 OT. What do you think would have happened? How do you think Gillis responds? Do they blow it up over the summer? Fire Vigneault? Trade Luongo? I'm curious to hear opinions. Thank you!

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[Reverend Mayhem]

I watched that season religiously, I'm of the simple belief that most everything that happened later (Kesler, Luongo trades, AV fired etc) would have happened sooner. Burrows probably goes as well. Hard to see guys like Bieksa and the Sedins going though. We would have gotten huge returns as well.

Which sounds fine, until you realize we would've gotten draft picks back and that was easily the worst spot of Gillis-era Canucks hockey ops. That 2010 draft list alone makes me queasy.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

epic tear down and rebuild around cody and schneids

that said, i think hamhuis, ballard, and the sedins all had trade protection so it wouldn't have been pretty. but i'm pretty sure kesler's hadn't kicked in yet.

 

[AdvancedPressure]

epic tear down and rebuild around cody and schneids

that said, i think hamhuis, ballard, and the sedins all had trade protection so it wouldn't have been pretty. but i'm pretty sure kesler's hadn't kicked in yet.

Interesting! I never realized that about Kesler and the NMC. Thinking back, I wonder what kind of haul they could've gotten in return for him in the 2011 offseason when he was coming off of his monster 10/11 season. You have to imagine it would have been substantial. Certainly more then they eventually ended up getting for him anyways.

After Vancouver lost to Boston Gillis looked to add toughness and grit. The Canucks were seen as soft, and a lot of people thought they were outmuscled by Boston in that series. Had they lost to Chicago, the narrative most certainly would've been that the team lacked "intangibles." I think Gillis looks at adding someone with those Toews like "intangibles." Perhaps they look at someone like Mike Richards, for example. It would have been interesting to see how the team would've looked in the 2011/2012 season.

 

[Jyrki21]

The (perfectly realistic) idea that there may have been a teardown of a team more than capable of winning the Cup, basically because one team scored before the other in a coin-flip short stretch of a single hockey game, basically just proves how stupid sports-thinking is when applied to the real world.

 

[rypper]

There might have been pressure from ownership to fire the coach, make changes, etc but I think Gillis would have bucked that and gone all in on the next season.

Maybe he would have found a way to get Ehrhoff extended. Moved out picks for playoff performers. etc.

Him wanting to blow up the team in 2013 made sense after losses to the Kings and Sharks. But a little premature immediately after the cup run.

 

[vancityluongo]

AV would definitely be gone. I think either the Sedins or Luongo would be the primary casualties but not both. Daniel actually had a pretty good series against Chicago, and they're obviously both coming off Art Ross wins at this point, so it's probably Luongo who goes, especially with Schneider around.

So who does Luongo get traded for? Hard to say - maybe a defenseman? Or maybe Gillis tries for a mini re-tool and asks Columbus for the Jeff Carter package - Voracek and the pick that became Couturier. . Or maybe it's not a re-tool, and Gillis cashes in on Hodgson sooner; getting one of his other rumoured targets (it's been so long lol I only remember Kyle Clifford, Karl Alzner and Kassian now). Then, maybe it's Carter coming back, allowing Philly to avoid the 9-year Bryzgalov deal (lmao). Let's go with that. Luongo + Hodgson for Jeff Carter and Sergei Bobrovsky (hedging the Schneider bet).

Looking at how that offseason went down, I wonder if we'd also have gone after Michael Ryder harder - we've heard from Gillis since confirming that they were after him. Gonna pretend that means we don't sign Sturm and keep Samuelsson, thereby avoiding the David Booth era from ever taking place.

That gets you going into 2011-2012 with:

Sedin - Sedin - Ryder
Raymond - Carter - Samuelsson
Higgins - Kesler - Burrows
Lapierre - Malhotra - Hansen
Weise/Ebbett

Hamhuis - Bieksa
Edler - Salo
Ballard - Rome
Alberts

Schneider
Bobrovsky

That team could've squeaked one out in 2012, and if not, definitely looks much better in 2013 than what we had. What a nice thought lmao.

The best bet might be to just ask Spencer Gillis on Twitter hahah.

 

[Hit the post]

Duncan Keith's elbow on Daniel Sedin made an otherwise REALLY tough task of beating the Kings in the 2011/12 season pretty much impossible. Imagine our chances with an EP operating at far less than 100% in any given playoff round (much less against the Kings in their prime).

 

[AdvancedPressure]

Duncan Keith's elbow on Daniel Sedin made an otherwise REALLY tough task of beating the Kings in the 2011/12 season pretty much impossible. Imagine our chances with an EP operating at far less than 100% in any given playoff round (much less against the Kings in their prime).

AV would definitely be gone. I think either the Sedins or Luongo would be the primary casualties but not both. Daniel actually had a pretty good series against Chicago, and they're obviously both coming off Art Ross wins at this point, so it's probably Luongo who goes, especially with Schneider around.

So who does Luongo get traded for? Hard to say - maybe a defenseman? Or maybe Gillis tries for a mini re-tool and asks Columbus for the Jeff Carter package - Voracek and the pick that became Couturier. . Or maybe it's not a re-tool, and Gillis cashes in on Hodgson sooner; getting one of his other rumoured targets (it's been so long lol I only remember Kyle Clifford, Karl Alzner and Kassian now). Then, maybe it's Carter coming back, allowing Philly to avoid the 9-year Bryzgalov deal (lmao). Let's go with that. Luongo + Hodgson for Jeff Carter and Sergei Bobrovsky (hedging the Schneider bet).

Looking at how that offseason went down, I wonder if we'd also have gone after Michael Ryder harder - we've heard from Gillis since confirming that they were after him. Gonna pretend that means we don't sign Sturm and keep Samuelsson, thereby avoiding the David Booth era from ever taking place.

That gets you going into 2011-2012 with:

Sedin - Sedin - Ryder
Raymond - Carter - Samuelsson
Higgins - Kesler - Burrows
Lapierre - Malhotra - Hansen
Weise/Ebbett

Hamhuis - Bieksa
Edler - Salo
Ballard - Rome
Alberts

Schneider
Bobrovsky

That team could've squeaked one out in 2012, and if not, definitely looks much better in 2013 than what we had. What a nice thought lmao.

The best bet might be to just ask Spencer Gillis on Twitter hahah.

I'm trying to remember the teams who were looking for a starter around that time. Edmonton, Toronto? Also, didn't Lu have a NMC? I think that would've really impacted his trade value (along with the crazy term on his contract). Still, I really wonder if the team would have been better off going into 2011/2012 with Schneider as the starter, plus whatever assets they were able to return from shipping Luongo out).

Also, if they fire Vigneault (which I agree would have most likely happened) who replaces him?

 

[Pip]

Yeah I’d imagine Luongo would only waive to play in Florida at that point in time.

 

[vanuck]

I still believe Gillis wasn't the type of guy to overreact and blow things up even if we'd lost to Chicago in 2011. It just wasn't his management style; he was always rational and took his time in making the best decisions for the club, even if he was criticized for taking so long to do so - we can see evidence of this in the Luongo trade that eventually really did go down. He was smart enough to recognize that this was still a really good team that got unlucky and maybe just needed a minor tweak. Plus we all forget that we were missing prime Malhotra - a huge part of the Canucks' success - for essentially the entire playoffs which forced us to basically run 3 lines, so there's that too. I would certainly hope Gillis realized that we needed more insurance up front in terms of top 9 center depth.

No doubt there'd have been pressure from ownership to make changes though. I could see AV being fired and maybe even Luongo being traded for a return that would help us at center. Perhaps to Philly for one of Richards/Carter given their goaltending issues at the time?

That 1st round matchup was just brutally unfortunate for us however... the Hawks had been underperforming all season by the percentages but were still a really strong possession team - i.e. they were not a typical 8th seed. Add in the very recent and painful playoff history against CHI plus the psychological aspect of facing them as the supposed clear "favourite" and it all just alluded to a potential nightmare waiting to happen.

To this day I still wonder how badly the rumoured norovirus going through the Canucks' dressing room at the time affected our play. I don't think we've ever gotten an answer as to whether it was true but you only have to look at the Blues in the 2020 playoffs to see what kind of an impact health can have on your fortunes.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

I think most assumed AV was gone if they lost that game. It would have been his third straight series loss to Chicago and another early playoff exit.

 

[Jyrki21]

I think most assumed AV was gone if they lost that game. It would have been his third straight series loss to Chicago and another early playoff exit.

Wait, is second round an "early exit" or a huge achievement? I've been getting some very mixed messaging.