The Vancouver Canucks lost an awful, humiliating game last night to the lowly Nashville Predators to extend their pitiful home losing streaks to 8 games. What was so difficult to watch last night was that the Canucks gave up a 3-1 second period lead to surrender 4 unanswered goals (one into an empty net) to choke away what should have been an easy home win (Nashville had only scored 2 or more goals 9 times).
Mats Sundin looked awful. As seen in the report below, he cut several of his shifts short while his linemates were still going. He continued to take lazy penalties. Most importantly, he continues to be a non-factor one month after he signed with the Vancouver Canucks to play less than half a season for 5 million dollars.
http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090129.WBhockeyblog20090129083353/WBStory/WBhockeyblog
I have never liked the idea of signing Sundin; but because I did not pile on previously, I would not be one saying “I told you so” right now. Still, the concept of bringing in a veteran star as the “messiah” of the hockey club has failed before (hello, Mark Messier!), and is seemingly going to fail again this time around (the Canucks had 1 win since Sundin joined them). It is time management begin to understand the method of doing things just does NOT work, no matter what professional sports you are talking about.
Hockey and football are arguably the most team-oriented sport that relies so heavily on a mutual commitment and ownership of responsibility. With the current parity in both the NHL and the NFL, a “star” can only do you so much. The Dallas Cowboys have a star-studded lineup, and they did not even make the playoffs. The Arizona Cardinals were deemed the “worst-ever playoff team,” and they will be competing for football’s supremacy this Sunday. The difference? A team whose players are committed to one another, are accountable to one another, and would go to war for the sake of the person sitting next to you in the locker room.
I have been a Vancouver Canuck fan for over 20 years, so I gather I can say I know the history of this team quite a bit. Look back at arguably the best-ever Canucks team, the 1994 team that was one goal away from winning the Stanley Cup. Sure, Pavel Bure was a prominent player on that team, but the true heart of that team lied in the likes of Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean, Greg Adams, Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall, Martin Gelinas, Murray Craven, Sergio Momesso, Jyrki Lumme, Gerald Diduck, Dana Murzyn, Bret Hedican… the star player was the game-breaker who can come through for you every now and then, but you need to have a team who will stand up for one another, who would lay their bodies down to make it work.
The current version of the Vancouver Canucks had that same aura before the Sundin signing: Roberto Luongo was the backbone of the team, but he just quietly goes about his business, and so did the rest of the team. Ever since the Sundin signing, it is as if the team adapted the notion that their saviour has arrived, and no one needs to be committed anymore… When a player who has not played for eight months chose to not even skate during the all-star break, the vibe rubs on in the wrong way in the locker room.
Sorry to say this, but I think this season will go down as a bust...
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