Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

EDMONTON -- The Vancouver Canucks have looked better and finished worse, this eldest Western Canadian franchise that still waits to have its name engraved on the Stanley Cup.

There were the Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden years, when the Canucks won back-to-back Smythe Division regular season titles but couldn’t get past the second round come springtime. In ’94 they came closer than any Canuck team has before or since, but fell one game short against the Rangers.

Then there was the year before the lockout of ’04, when Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison racked up 204 regular season points. Martin Gelinas and the Cinderella Calgary Flames became the story come playoff time however, as the Flames beat Vancouver in Game 7 overtime and went all the way to the Cup.

You can look at this edition of the Vancouver Canucks and find a hole or two, sure. But it was Pat Quinn who put it all in perspective Tuesday morning, before his Edmonton Oilers met the Canucks at Rexall Place.

"We all remember the last Oilers team that made it to the Cup," Quinn said. "They weren’t a real good team at the start of the playoffs, but they sure got good as the playoffs went on. Good enough to go four rounds, and get to a Game 7.

"Get in the dance, and you’ve got a chance."

So why can’t this be the Canucks’ year?

Why does it seem like everyone is talking Chicago, with their iffy goaltending? Or sneaky Detroit, a team that has played four grueling rounds the past two springs and has Jimmy Howard in goal?

San Jose chokes every year, and teams that make the playoffs after six seasons of missing out -- like Los Angeles and Phoenix -- never go very far.

Colorado? Nashville? Does anybody rate those clubs ahead Vancouver?

"People like to think they’re right. They overanalyze," said Canucks assistant coach Rick Bowness. "They come up with things that might be wrong. Might be."

In the Canucks case, the "mights" are clearly based on defence, where Willie Mitchell's absence with a concussion leaves Vancouver short its top shut-down defenceman. And perhaps now in goal, where Roberto Luongo -- becoming known in Vancouver chat rooms as Captain Hook -- let in three awful goals in a 3-2 loss to the Oilers Tuesday.

He's been pulled seven times this season, and would have been yanked again if coach Alain Vigneault wasn't growing concerned with this disturbing pattern. "I've got to get my swagger back," Luongo admitted after the loss.

So the Canucks aren't perfect, but, c'mon. It's the salary cap era -- there are no bulletproof teams anymore.

Jose Theodore and Cristobal Huet are testimony to that.

If the tumblers could fall into place for Edmonton in ’06 and Calgary in ’04, certainly this Canucks team is better than either of those clubs, with the post-season around the corner.

Why can’t the tumblers work for them too?

"We hope so," said Kyle Wellwood. "There are matchups you can get in the playoffs that are favourable, others that aren’t. We feel comfortable playing a seven-game series against anybody."

And why shouldn’t they?

Like we said there are no five-tool teams in the new economy. But Vancouver has goaltending, high-end scoring, depth in scoring, a good set of forwards who can grind their way through a tough playoff series, and enough offence and mobility on the back end.

"I’ve got respect for Luongo -- good chances start with the guy playing in the nets," Quinn said. "They’ve got the scoring to do it, and the guys who can play in the trenches. In the past, their defence hasn’t been healthy enough to get them there. But I like that team."

"We’re not worried about perception. We know what we have, and that’s what’s important," Bowness said. "When we’re healthy, we like our balance. We’ve got everything we need."

Since 1970, there has always been a reason why not for Vancouver.

But as the regular season wears down, and you start stacking up everyone else in the West against this Vancouver lineup, it’s hard not to say, "Why not this year?"

Why not Vancouver?