Canada’s last team left standing in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs is still supposed to be building toward its best days.
For the Vancouver Canucks, this season was all about taking that next step, which we took to mean just getting to the playoffs and leaving them with valuable lessons. Even a first-round exit wouldn’t have been unacceptable.
Now we’re wondering how far this can go. The Canucks, a team driven by a young core and without much playoff experience even from its 30-year-old netminder, are fresh off their latest upset — a six-game triumph over the St. Louis Blues that we could one day look back on as having more than one franchise defining moment. Their reward? A second-round matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights, who were finalists just two years ago and are the current odds favourites to win it all in 2020.
“With Vegas, they got a lot of strengths,” Canucks coach Travis Green said. “Speed is one of them. They’ve got skill, size. There are probably a lot of people who picked Vegas as one of the finalists for the Cup.
“Belief is just installed in your group. Part of it is talking about it, and not just the good things either. Being honest. But I do think our group has confidence in themselves going back to the beginning of the season. I don’t think anyone picked us to make the playoffs this past season and yet, inside the locker room, to a man I think we felt we were capable of making the playoffs. I think the belief started there.”
Look up and down the lineup and you’ll see someone who has had a key moment for these Canucks so far. From Elias Pettersson, who is second to Nathan MacKinnon in playoff scoring with 13 points in 10 games, to Tyler Motte, an unlikely goal scorer who had back-to-back two-goal games to close out the Blues series. From electrifying Quinn Hughes, who is opening everyone’s eyes to the fact that we need to get used to the idea of him being a Norris candidate before long, to Alexander Edler and Christopher Tanev, two grizzled veterans who are second and fourth in blocked shots these playoffs.
Jake Virtanen scored the tying goal in Game 5’s critical comeback against St. Louis. Troy Stecher scored two game-winners against the defending champs.
The Canucks got through the tight-checking and physical Blues and now draw a higher-tempo team in Vegas that has the league’s best 5-on-5 shot differential in both the regular season and playoffs this season. Vancouver ranked 25th in the regular season and is 20th in these playoffs by that measure. So of course, the same questions that were being asked about them last round are being raised again.
How can this inexperienced team that supposedly struggles with depth hang with an opponent whose window to win is so clearly open right now?
“When you hear rumblings of us being the underdogs obviously you want to prove people wrong,” said captain Bo Horvat, who himself had back-to-back two-goal games to open the St. Louis series. “I think that’s a lot of what drives people is proving people wrong and proving to yourself you can do it.”
Perhaps — perhaps — the Canucks could even start their Round 2 series with an early edge. Prior to Saturday’s Game 1 between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, Sportsnet’s Kevin Bieksa noted that often the team that starts on shorter rest comes out a little sharper and that’s exactly how the other West semifinal series started. Dallas, on one day’s rest, jumped out to an early lead and were the better team up and down in their 5-3 win.
Vegas comes into Round 2 on four days rest after knocking out the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, while the Canucks had only Saturday to recharge.
“Kinda happy just to get it going again,” Brandon Sutter said. “Maybe an extra day of rest would have been good but…when you’re rolling and playing well you just want to keep going. I think everyone seems to be. Obviously when you’re winning you feel confident, I don’t feel like you need too many days of practice. I’m ready to keep playing.”
This is the furthest any Canucks team has gone in the post-season since the 2011 run to the Stanley Cup Final. That team was at its peak and got there after three second round eliminations in four seasons. If the 2020 Canucks manage to get past Vegas, you might say they’re well ahead of schedule.
I’m not sure anyone would have predicted that last October.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
