I think there's a lot of answers to this, and I think that's a good thing. I don't think you can look at any one thing in isolation and say "that's the reason we rebounded". It's a combination of factors.
From where I sit, it started with hiring Linden to steer the ship. That started the chain reaction of hiring Jim Benning and subsequently Willie Desjardins. These three together shaped the direction the franchise decided to go this year, which was a re-tool/reload rather than a full fledged rebuild. And the goal was the playoffs, as it should be.
On the ice, the resurgence of the Twins is huge. Some folks were ready to write them off after last year, and John Tortorella tried to blame last season on the team's "core" by saying they were done. Watching them bounce back and be the go-to guys has been a treat, but they haven't been alone. Radim Vrbata has been head and shoulders the best addition to the team, and he's shown that he can gel with guys not named Sedin as well.
On the blueline, the Edler/Tanev pairing has been massive. This is even more important given the season that Hamhuis and Bieksa have had; those two really haven't been themselves, so having Edler and Tanev establish themselves as a legitimate shutdown pairing was critical. But credit has to go to the entire blueline for surviving our rash of injuries - Yannick Weber is one guy who really stepped up, but even maligned guys like Luca Sbisa logged some huge minutes in that stretch and played at a serviceable level.
Ryan Miller provided a lot of wins for us, and I still maintain a lot of the criticism directed his way was unfair. He played well for the most part. But I find it difficult to argue with how Eddie Lack has played since he went down. It's been a gruelling stretch for Lack and the Canucks have been fighting tooth and nail to get into their playoff spot. He had some bumps along the way, but by and large, he gave the team a chance to win every game and was outright superb on many nights.
There will likely be some handwringing about who to turn to in the post-season, but from where I sit - and I said this weeks ago - you can't toss in a cold goaltender to start the playoffs, especially when the guy currently playing is a very, very large part of why you're in the playoffs in the first place. The net has to be Lack's until such time as he shows he can't handle it. (hopefully that last part doesn't happen)
In short...I think it was a real team effort, top to bottom, to make this season what it has been so far. Here's hoping that continues on into the post-season!
