Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

No shoppers tell grocery owners how to bag produce. But everyone in Vancouver is a hockey expert.

VANCOUVER — Sami Salo skated off the practice ice and walked past the growing media mob in the Canucks room, as he made his way to his dressing room stall.

When he got there he took off his gloves and helmet, and strapped on a white surgical mask. He looked more like a guy riding a Tokyo subway than a Finnish defenceman in the National Hockey League.

"Well, I heard someone say today that I had an infection," he reasoned. "I don’t want you (media) guys to get it."

This is life as a Vancouver Canuck. Salo had talked to someone who had talked to someone, who heard somewhere that Salo was sick. So, he must be sick.

When you are Sami Salo, and you have missed time because you were bitten by a snake on a Finnish golf course, you are a walking rumour in a town like this. Because Vancouver is obsessed with their hockey team today, and it will only get worse as the Canucks’ playoff run matures.

There is a difference between a Canadian hockey market whose team makes the playoffs (Montreal), and a Canadian hockey market whose team has a chance to go to the Stanley Cup final. Here in Vancouver, after a practice run at the playoffs last season, the Canucks have finally caught up to the locals’ evaluation of their talents.

"Look at the goals we’ve scored this year (272, more than every team in the NHL except Washington). Look at our goal differential," marveled goaltender Roberto Luongo. "No doubt this is the best chance we’ve had since I’ve been here."

Not that, in the eyes of the average Canadian hometown hockey fan, there isn’t room for a few improvements.

"A couple of years ago we’re playing Dallas (in the playoffs)," recalled defenceman Kevin Bieksa. "There was the same grocery store teller who was giving all of us tips.

"A lot of us live in the same (Yaletown) area," Bieksa continued. "This guy, he had his opinion on how all of us should play. He wanted me to play more physical. I said, ‘I’m getting five hits a game!?! ’ He says, ‘Yes, but you’ve got to stay out of the penalty box.’"

They don’t care what they know. They just know that they care.

Nobody ever goes into that guy’s grocery and tells him how to bag produce. But everyone in Vancouver — in Canada — is a hockey expert. It comes with the passport.

Of course, that perceived expertise — and no one is more guilty of that than us sports writers — causes us to see more flaws, the longer we watch a player or team. We are all guilty of dwelling on Luongo’s recent struggles, rather than ask the simple, obvious question: Who would you rather have in your nets in Round 1? Roberto Luongo or Jonathan Quick?

"Personally, I don’t pay attention to that (negative) stuff," said Luongo, who says he doesn’t read the papers or watch the sports shows. "The only time hear about is when I do my (media) scrums. It’s part of playing in a Canadian city. But it’s a great place to play when you’re winning."

As the 2010 playoffs open, we have to look back 16 seasons to find the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup. It is so overtly cruel, really, when you consider how much it means in each of the six Canadian cities that house NHL teams.

But instead, cities like Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Raleigh, Dallas and Denver have all held the kind of parades that this town would kill to hold.

Is it just that there is too much love? Too many grocery store Toe Blakes? Too much scrutiny for the poor players to bear?

"No," Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said emphatically, sniffing out an excuse wrapped inside a question. "The New York Yankees — I’ve got to think they’ve got some scrutiny on them. Look, there are a whole lot of other pro sports where the athletes (face heavy scrutiny). They perform."

And so will the Canucks. Or they’ll catch hell at the Quickie Mart.