Elliote Friedman's Oral History of the 2010-2011 Vancouver Canucks

[Mr. Canucklehead]

ok starting to read this thing. good on gillis for admitting his mistakes. hate to be steve bernier reading that though.

MIKE GILLIS (GM, 2008–2014) You’re not going to win in the playoffs if your top players are not elite-level, top-five-per-cent-in-the-league players. Our first meeting went kind of along those lines: What can we do to make sure that you guys are going to be the best and most productive you can possibly be? Who could we find to play with them? … They were fairly adamant that it didn’t need to be a right-handed shot. It didn’t need to be a big, tough guy. It needed to be a guy who could think and retrieve pucks, recognize what they were trying to do, how they were trying to play, and be smart enough to play that style. And we resisted that, [which] was a mistake.


also, can't believe ballard agreed to talk for this piece. if i was him i'd be like, you're mistaken elliotte, i never played for the canucks. i'm hoping there is dirty coming up...? like, man i should have never dated vigneault's daughter behind his back or something?

Yeah, surprised Ballard had such positive things to say about it. Especially given that Bruce Dowbiggin’s book “Ice Storm” said AV basically told Gillis “there’s no way in hell I’m playing Ballard again” in the SCF.

 

[Ozone]

Oh, for sure. The wounds are still fresh. It made me come away with an even more profound sadness for Aaron Rome, though.

Ahh..Rome.
You know what they say!

Yes, it still hurts my heart to think about (like the first girl I liked not dancing with me) but we move on.
Nope, still hurts.

Great article. Thanks for posting.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

love this quote by henrik

He wasn’t the fastest skater, didn’t have a great shot, but he was a student of the game. Maybe he didn’t think he was going to play with us, but he learned what he needed to do if he ever got the chance. That says a lot about him and the way he approached the game.

best description i've ever heard for him, he didn't think he was going to play with us, but he learned what he needed to do if he ever got the chance.

 

[vanuck]

2011 was always hard to look back on at first due to all the emotion involved. With time comes perspective, and for me it took a few years to come to the realization that injuries were the actual reason we lost to the Bruins in that series. Not the hit on Horton, not Burrows biting Bergeron, not because we were arrogant and underestimated opponents, not because our team wasn't tough enough to play the game in the trenches or got sucked into wasting needless energy scrumming it up or whatever. In the end it was injuries and the resultant fatigue that really did us in.

However, when you consider all the BS at the time - the circus that was going on due to the sycophantic Eastern media coverage, the controversies, plus the multiple issues with the way the series was being officiated (not to mention the UNPRECEDENTED conflict of interest going on with Colin Campbell and his son who was playing in the final) - it's hard to overlook all the negative too. This really is what I believe leads to so many bad memories from that time, despite all the highs and the great moments from that final.

If there had been none of that stuff, and we'd simply played a hard-fought 7-game series but lost in the end because we were too depleted, I think people could look back on it in more of a positive light - akin to the 1994 team. Instead, this fanbase came out of 2011 seemingly more bitter and jaded with the NHL because they felt their team got screwed, and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that way. I know I certainly started viewing everything with a little less passion and optimism and a little more disillusionment, something that certainly has NOT been helped by what we've seen out of the front office over the last 6 years.

I wish this organization hadn't been so fixated in trying to recapture the feeling of 2011, but had chosen to learn lessons from that era instead: knowing how to put a great team together around some core pieces via shrewd cap management and player evaluation, making use of data science and technology while not being afraid to try new things and be innovative in the search for success. 2011 should really be the benchmark for what this franchise should be trying to achieve, not just some long-lost mythical time period that will never come around again.

 

[PG Canuck]

Maybe I'm just wired different, but I have mostly fond memories of 2011. I remember just about every playoff goal (with help of my constant need to re-watch the run), the feeling I had for those goals...hell I even remember the weather at the time and cutting the grass in my Kesler tshirt etc. I remember like every small detail as we went along in 2011.

It's like a breakup for me - I usually remember all the good times instead of the bad times, like most people do. Not sure why that happens for me. While heartbroken, all the good memories come rushing back no matter how bad it got. Even though we lost, it was still the best Canucks team ever assembled and I am pretty happy I was able to experience a run like that. My dad talked about 1994, but it's nice to experience a run for yourself.

When Spring/playoff time rolls around, I always get some flashbacks to 2011. I love hockey in summer weather because it reminds me of the SCF run. I just hope to grow to love a Canucks team as much as I've loved that team.

I don't even hate the Bruins anymore...don't really care too much, except when Lucic still thinks he's relevant in today's game.

 

[MS]

I guess I’ve always been able to compartmentalize my feelings a bit on it. I’m able to still be furious about how badly that team got screwed by the league, officials and injuries, but also able to appreciate the incredible highs they contributed to the franchise. To each their own, I suppose.

I feel that way about 1994 and even the 2002-04 teams but 2011 is just different to me. Just everything about it was tarnished by how totally corrupt things were and the vendetta against this team from media and fans in other markets.

We had a 35-game stretch to close out that season and into the playoffs where we got a PP advantage over the other team once (in a blowout when LA gooned it up). This was the best possession team in the NHL built around discipline and PP dominance, and the games were essentially fixed against us. I can't take any joy in reliving it.

And the Rome suspension is probably the most corrupt thing to ever happen in the history of the NHL, and that's saying something. The father of a player on the opposing team and an ex-Canuck employee with a personal vendetta against the organization conspiring to deal out the most absurd suspension in NHL history for a clean hit 0.2 seconds late. I can't even talk about it without getting riled up and bitter.

 

[PG Canuck]

Reading the part about Kesler, Burrows and Bieksa has me teary eyed. I hope we have 3 dumb idiots that just had a presence and bromance like those guys had.

I miss those bastards on our roster. As new Canucks fans jump on board, and look back at Canucks history, they won't fully understand the love this city has for those three.

 

[Intoewsables]

O’NEILL They’d give it to each other mostly in the medical room. I think we were in Nashville [one] time, they’re sitting there talking. Daniel says to Henrik, “I’d trade you for Ryan Johansen in a heartbeat.” [Henrik] goes, “What?” Daniel goes, “You’re old and fat.”

 

[PG Canuck]

God damn. Just finished the entire thing.

I feel so bad for Aaron Rome. Hope he's doing well.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Reading the part about Kesler, Burrows and Bieksa has me teary eyed. I hope we have 3 dumb idiots that just had a presence and bromance like those guys had.

I miss those bastards on our roster. As new Canucks fans jump on board, and look back at Canucks history, they won't fully understand the love this city has for those three.

Something all of our best teams have had in common is some genuine larger than life personalities. Bieksa, Burrows and Kesler definitely gave that team a lot of humour, snarl and character.

Kesler and Lucic were chirping each other on Twitter last night. The animosity still runs deep there.

 

[bandwagonesque]

God damn. Just finished the entire thing.

I feel so bad for Aaron Rome. Hope he's doing well.

Aaron Rome never signed a two-way contract in his life, oddly enough. Looks like he made about $6-7 million over the course of his career. And from his comments since, it's clear he understands the suspension was disproportionate and not entirely his fault.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

O’NEILL They’d give it to each other mostly in the medical room. I think we were in Nashville [one] time, they’re sitting there talking. Daniel says to Henrik, “I’d trade you for Ryan Johansen in a heartbeat.” [Henrik] goes, “What?” Daniel goes, “You’re old and fat.”

speaking of, why does kesler go out of his way to hate on ryan johansen so much on his podcast?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Maybe I'm just wired different, but I have mostly fond memories of 2011. I remember just about every playoff goal (with help of my constant need to re-watch the run), the feeling I had for those goals...hell I even remember the weather at the time and cutting the grass in my Kesler tshirt etc. I remember like every small detail as we went along in 2011.

It's like a breakup for me - I usually remember all the good times instead of the bad times, like most people do. Not sure why that happens for me. While heartbroken, all the good memories come rushing back no matter how bad it got. Even though we lost, it was still the best Canucks team ever assembled and I am pretty happy I was able to experience a run like that. My dad talked about 1994, but it's nice to experience a run for yourself.

When Spring/playoff time rolls around, I always get some flashbacks to 2011. I love hockey in summer weather because it reminds me of the SCF run. I just hope to grow to love a Canucks team as much as I've loved that team.

I don't even hate the Bruins anymore...don't really care too much, except when Lucic still thinks he's relevant in today's game.

i think for me, re: thinking about 2011 and good and bad feelings, i think about that run and i remember my two childhood friends from vancouver coming over every other night to watch the games on my couch in toronto. one of them literally would get home from work, make dinner, put the kids to bed, then cross the dvp and drive from decently far east to way the fff out west so we could watch the playoffs together. and he'd pick up a snack to bring on the way. and those games ended really late, especially the san jose series.

yesterday totally randomly i made my five year old watch the burrows game seven goal. it was completely different from how i'd described it to him. it wasn't a breakaway like i remember, he didn't do the forehand backhand deke like i remembered, i was right that it was campoli's fault but in my memory a canuck had flipped it high and campoli had mis-timed gloving it down, sending burrows in alone. i also remembered burrows doing the bourdon salute, which didn't happen, or at least it wasn't shown on the cbc feed, which is what i would have watched at the time. the only thing that was accurate was oreskovich hilariously trying to get into the celebration but nobody making room for him. but you know, those aren't the details you remember. i will never in my life forget the feeling when frolik scored on that penalty shot or when luongo had to come back in or when chicago ended it in OT. i was at my friend's having thanksgiving dinner; her mom, who i hadn't seen since high school, was visiting. and i will never ever in my life forget the three of us just sitting there on my couch in total silence when burrows scored. we didn't yell, scream, celebrate, or anything. we just felt relieved and not nervous anymore and it was a beautiful feeling.

same with '94. i remember exactly where i was during game five. the dads at field hockey practice listening on the sidelines on a little hand radio and yelling to us that we were up 3-0. then getting into the car to go home and turning on cknw and it's 3-3. i remember exactly which subway i was in with my mom and her trying to get our order through to get home as fast as possible to catch the end of the game and as we're leaving someone walks in and says, bure just scored again, it's 6-3.

this isn't universal but i think my relationship with this team is a relationship of convenience. i lived and died for that '94 team from the moment these new bc guys ronning and courtnall pushed gretzky in the playoffs, and i lived and died for that gillis era team. but i think of it as like being in college and you can either date the girl who lives on your floor or this other girl you see once a week in your german lit class who seems totally awesome. 95% of the time you're going to end up dating the girl who lives on your floor. you won't always fall madly in love with the girl who lives on your floor, or you won't fall madly in love with all of the girls who live on all of your floors, but it's easy, they're there, and you might fall madly in love with one of them once and you might have a whirlwind passionate fling with another a couple of years later.

and so whatever, messier was here and i didn't really watch a lot of hockey, or naslund didn't score any goals against minnesota and then bertuzzi didn't try at all all year and then lost his mind one night in colorado. you invest what the team makes you invest. and as hard as it was to watch this team turn into total dogshit in the years after 2011, which has probably soured me way more than anything that happened in the finals, i kind of feel like it's not like winning game seven would have given me any more memories than i have. they still played the same amount of games, i still watched the same amount of hockey and hung out with my friends the same amount, and morons still lit downtown on fire. it would have felt good to have won that game, but now that it's almost ten years later i don't know how not winning it really materially impacts my life or how i watch hockey except every now and then someone on an internet message board throws it in my face and i get a little angry for a minute.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Yeah, surprised Ballard had such positive things to say about it. Especially given that Bruce Dowbiggin’s book “Ice Storm” said AV basically told Gillis “there’s no way in hell I’m playing Ballard again” in the SCF.

BALLARD That was the most fun professional hockey experience I’ve had and, as you know, for me personally, it wasn’t an ideal situation. There’s so many good people there and you could just tell from Day 1, it was a special group.

man that is one unbitter diplomatic dude. #freeballard

 

[polarbearcub]

Just read part 2. Great piece. Bitter sweet. I got over 1994. I don’t think I will fully get over 2011. Not until we win

 

[Intangibos]

I wonder if this will get Gillis a job somewhere.

I think he's selective and won't just take any GM job offered, but this seems to paint Gillis in a positive light (haven't gone through part 2 yet). I think he's enjoying retirement, but stuff like this by a guy like Friedman is the type of thing that might give Gillis cart blanche somewhere.

 

[demonic]

I decided to force myself to watch Game 7 last night, I figured a different kind of suffering might feel like a relief. It caused me a lot of anxiety, but I'm glad I got through it, it felt kind of cathartic. I originally watched the game in Bonn, Germany at 3AM on a bad internet connection after a 24 hour travel day, so I had blacked out on most of the details and this almost felt like watching it for the first time. A few random thoughts from that lens
- The Canucks came out flying and were unlucky not to score in the first. Thomas was good, but also really lucky
- Kesler was electric, maybe the best player on the ice. He had bursts of power and speed that looked like Mackinnon
- The Sedins played with heart and were more dangerous than I remembered, but this was absolutely the worst matchup possible for them, playing such a big and dirty team with no protection from the officials.
- The defense overall was pretty bad. I know Edler and Erhoff were playing through serious injuries, but Erhoff was a disaster and probably shouldn't have been playing. Bieksa and Alberts were pushing back and looked good, but where was Salo? Tanev looked decent
- The Chara/Seidenberg pairing was a brick wall
- Higgins was great, a couple of huge hits and some good chances. Ditto Hansen. Dumb penalty in the third, but he gave everything he had
- Lapierre did nothing, the fourth line in general was a liability. Sorry Manny.
- Burrows was bounced between the first and second line and had a few chances, but needed to finish
- Luongo was hard to grade in this one. You can't really fault him on the goals, but he didn't make many huge saves either. Boston really didn't generate a ton of chances, which is frustrating because this game was very winnable
- I had forgotten that Marchand was a rookie that year. I can't stand the guy, but what a performance.

 

[EpochLink]

I’ll never ever watch game 7 in its entirety nor watch any highlights.

Until this team wins a cup, I can’t watch to bare that Game.

 

[bossram]

I wonder if this will get Gillis a job somewhere.

I think he's selective and won't just take any GM job offered, but this seems to paint Gillis in a positive light (haven't gone through part 2 yet). I think he's enjoying retirement, but stuff like this by a guy like Friedman is the type of thing that might give Gillis cart blanche somewhere.

Yep.

I wonder if Seattle would ask him to come on as a President/VP. They already seem to be very forward-thinking in terms of what they want to do with analytics, and seem to be putting together a room full of different opinions - something Gillis seems to highly value.

And you can't get more carte blanche than a brand new franchise.

 

[timw33]

I’ll never ever watch game 7 in its entirety nor watch any highlights.

Until this team wins a cup, I can’t watch to bare that Game.

I can't get past when Chara blocks that sure-thing goal from Burrows early on.

 

[thekernel]

I’ll never ever watch game 7 in its entirety nor watch any highlights.

Until this team wins a cup, I can’t watch to bare that Game.

Yep. They played it on CBC a couple of years ago or something....I remember watching Higgins (I think?) getting stoned by Thomas when the game was 0-0, had to turn it off there.

2011 was always hard to look back on at first due to all the emotion involved. With time comes perspective, and for me it took a few years to come to the realization that injuries were the actual reason we lost to the Bruins in that series. Not the hit on Horton, not Burrows biting Bergeron, not because we were arrogant and underestimated opponents, not because our team wasn't tough enough to play the game in the trenches or got sucked into wasting needless energy scrumming it up or whatever. In the end it was injuries and the resultant fatigue that really did us in.

However, when you consider all the BS at the time - the circus that was going on due to the sycophantic Eastern media coverage, the controversies, plus the multiple issues with the way the series was being officiated (not to mention the UNPRECEDENTED conflict of interest going on with Colin Campbell and his son who was playing in the final) - it's hard to overlook all the negative too. This really is what I believe leads to so many bad memories from that time, despite all the highs and the great moments from that final.

If there had been none of that stuff, and we'd simply played a hard-fought 7-game series but lost in the end because we were too depleted, I think people could look back on it in more of a positive light - akin to the 1994 team. Instead, this fanbase came out of 2011 seemingly more bitter and jaded with the NHL because they felt their team got screwed, and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that way.

The bad memories really do feel like injustice. It's like a Twilight Zone episode, just how many things have to go absurdly wrong for the best team in the world to win 15 games but not 16....and have the whole world applaud your opponents as if they were the good guys...especially with that massive conflict of interest....Bruins had carte blanche to operate outside the rulebook cuz the whole league and media were in their pocket...that's what makes it so salty for me. They didn't earn it, they outright swindled it...

 

[thekernel]

AHEM all that said, the article is excellent, the kind of journalism we need in times when there's nothing to really report about.

The quote that struck me the most was Hammer talking about 2012, how expectations were so high that it reduced the magic. I distinctly remember feeling that way about that year. To them, and to so many fans, anything less than the cup was a failure. How many times do we see athletes reflecting on their careers, wishing they had lived more in the moment....

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Excellent article. I found Part II to be better than Part I because he walks us through that magical playoff run in great detail. Still opens up the wounds and makes you feel bad about how that team never won the Cup. They were so damn good.

Even almost a decade later it still stings just a little bit. Mostly because we were so damn close. One less injury in our top six/four and...

Alas, we'll rewrite history one day. Here's hoping Petersson makes it so.

 

[Bougieman]

You know, in all these years... I never once thought about how hard what happened must have been for Aaron Rome. I sure realize it now.

 

[rypper]

speaking of, why does kesler go out of his way to hate on ryan johansen so much on his podcast?

They've had some nasty battles on the ice, that have spilled over into the media/off ice.