The Messy End Between Jim Benning and the Canucks, 1990 and 1991.

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,802
16,272
Maybe this isn't about the size thing... maybe this is a 25-year revenge plot. Build the bruins, beat the canucks and win the cup with the bruins, get hired by vancouver, then GUT US FROM WITHIN, laughing the whole time.

ooh i have a long, elaborate selfie post for this one too:

i mean, that's curse-level stuff right there. prospectus for an ibsen play, or a boston-themed martin scorsese movie:

- canucks trade young but slow-to-develop BC born power forward (#1) along with a high draft pick a year in the future (note: the team finished 4th worst in the league that season)

- canucks finish 3rd worst, other team drafts stalwart western league defenseman; but--- local BC-born future superstar center who was way better than pederson was on the table, albeit as a reach at #3 (who am i kidding? we would have taken western league defenseman/bust dean chynoweth with that pick)

[intermezzo: June 6, 1986 - trade in question; June 8, 2005 - young slow-to-develop power forward #1 inducted to hockey hall of fame; June 5, 2008 - stalwart western league defenseman announces retirement]

- 25 year later, canucks make the stanley cup finals. young slow-to-develop power forward #1 is now a reputedly influential front office guy on the other team after a HHOF career. his team has two young, developed power forwards who each resulted from the original trade (wesley --> samsonov pick --> lucic pick; wesley --> mclaren pick --> jeff jilsson --> brad boyes --> dennis wideman --> horton). his assistant GM is former canucks defenseman (#1) from the sucky pederson era.

- game 1 of the finals, best canucks defensemen gets injured delivering a hip check to other team's young, developed power forward #1 early in the second period, gets injured, out for the season



- game 3 of the finals, early in the first period, score tied 0-0, canucks up 2-0 in the series but down their best defensemen, with their next three biggest minute-eating d-men also nursing injuries (ehrhoff - shoulder; bieksa - MCL; edler - rumoured broken fingers; but sami salo----- surprisingly healthy), fill-in defenseman delivers hit on other team's young, developed power forward #2. ejected from the game, canucks implode defensively, other team's physical game woken up, lose 8-1.



- next day, former canucks defenseman #2 rules in favor of his son's team, suspends canucks fill-in defensemen for the year; canucks d pairs remain in disarray, lose three of the next four games.

[intermezzo: other team's fourth line agitator returns to lineup in victorious game 3 after many healthy scratches; after game 5 victory, in which other team's fourth line agitator played only four minutes, fourth line agitator averages an unprecedented >10'30" in lopsided game 6 and 7 victories, cited as a difference-maker in the series.

@2:50]


- organizational meltdown ensues; best core in team history gets dismantled over next three seasons; canucks brass, haunted by humiliating physical battles lost to other team, blame the loss on lack of toughness.

- three years later, former canucks defenseman #1, now canucks GM, overpays with a 3rd round pick for a fourth line agitator (#1).

- nine months later, former canucks defenseman #1 unfathomably re-signs fourth line agitator #1 for four years at $2.65 million per. justifies deal by praising agitator's mentorship of his young but slow-to-develop power forward (#2).[/B]

- two months later, former canucks defenseman #1 gives away young but slow-to-develop power forward #2, with a 5th round pick, for fourth line agitator #2 ($2.5 million cap hit); justifies the trade by saying fourth line agitator #2 will mentor the young kids. fourth line agitator #1 (and his $2.65 million cap hit) still at large.

















EDIT:

- five years later, financial audit reveals that former canucks defenseman #1 was a spy all along.
 
Last edited:

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
26,858
4,950
Vancouver
Visit site
Yeah people like to play up the 'stealth rebuild' conspiracy angle but what about the 'stealth sabotage for revenge' one? Not only did his career end in Vancouver, but he was a part of that Bruins team in 2011 where the series got really heated and there was a massive smear campaign to make Vancouver the bad guys.

Now it's extremely unlikely that for his first gig in the top spot he's going to want to intentionally screw up the team because then he'd likely never work again, but coming in you gotta wonder if he didn't hold some guys like Kesler/Bieksa/Burrows with a certain level of contempt. Kesler he ditched as soon as he could, Bieksa he jerked around a bit this summer telling him he was going to San Jose for a few weeks then pulling out over a rather trivial detail, and it's believed Burrows was asked to waive his NTC the first summer but he said no.
 

CanaFan

Registered User
Feb 19, 2010
19,887
5,849
BC
Yeah people like to play up the 'stealth rebuild' conspiracy angle but what about the 'stealth sabotage for revenge' one? Not only did his career end in Vancouver, but he was a part of that Bruins team in 2011 where the series got really heated and there was a massive smear campaign to make Vancouver the bad guys.

Now it's extremely unlikely that for his first gig in the top spot he's going to want to intentionally screw up the team because then he'd likely never work again, but coming in you gotta wonder if he didn't hold some guys like Kesler/Bieksa/Burrows with a certain level of contempt. Kesler he ditched as soon as he could, Bieksa he jerked around a bit this summer telling him he was going to San Jose for a few weeks then pulling out over a rather trivial detail, and it's believed Burrows was asked to waive his NTC the first summer but he said no.

Revenge at the expense of your future career, earnings, and self-respect?

Sure why not. Cause **** logic and self-interest.
 

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,802
16,272
miller for three years at $18 million, hastily trading kesler and not getting the #10 pick back, sbisa and dorsett for $10.8/3 and $10.6 million/4, forsling or clendening for nothing, throwing away lack for nothing, kassian for prust, sutter for $21.875/5 with a NTC.

Sure why not. Cause **** logic and self-interest.
 

CanaFan

Registered User
Feb 19, 2010
19,887
5,849
BC
miller for three years at $18 million, hastily trading kesler and not getting the #10 pick back, sbisa and dorsett for $10.8/3 and $10.6 million/4, forsling or clendening for nothing, throwing away lack for nothing, kassian for prust, sutter for $21.875/5 with a NTC.

Sure why not. Cause **** logic and self-interest.

Being deluded and bad at your job does not conflict with logic and self-interest.

Being clear minded and yet choosing to intentionally make yourself appear deluded and bad at your job does.
 

Strangelove

HFBoards Sponsor
Sponsor
Feb 27, 2002
2,057
1,027
Awesome bump. Thank you. Never read this thread before. :laugh:

Now where's my tin foil... I gotsta make me a hat.

These guys are just scratching the surface Eddy!

Listen up Buttercup:

At the exact moment Kennedy sat down to meet with Mikoyan

... both Jim Benning and Mike Babcock were born!

LOOK IT UP!!

And people say the Illuminati don't have a sense of humour. :shakehead

I have a LOT more to say about this subject, but... they... monitor the internet.

For more, please meet me at the Princeton beer parlour at 4pm on Tuesday.

I am 6'4" and will be wearing a leather jacket.

Call me "Lola" so I know it's you....
 

drax0s

Registered User
Mar 18, 2014
3,727
2,893
Vancouver, BC.
These guys are just scratching the surface Eddy!

Listen up Buttercup:

At the exact moment Kennedy sat down to meet with Mikoyan

... both Jim Benning and Mike Babcock were born!

LOOK IT UP!!
Oh my goodness. If you take the word "Benning" and substitute in numbers for letters, you get 2 5 14 14 9 14 7, which when you add up is 56, which when added is... *11*, the EXACT year we lost in the Finals and this whole thing began!
 

Eddy Punch Clock

Jack Adams 2028
Jun 13, 2007
13,126
1,823
Chillbillyville
Oh my goodness. If you take the word "Benning" and substitute in numbers for letters, you get 2 5 14 14 9 14 7, which when you add up is 56, which when added is... *11*, the EXACT year we lost in the Finals and this whole thing began!

And this being the 56th response in this thread. :amazed:

Did you also know that there are exactly 11 letters in the name Strange Love?!? :amazed: :amazed:
 

greasy goals

Registered User
Mar 7, 2014
252
0
82b55b79f355179add5af283411826c2.jpg
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad