After 40 years of virtual futility, everyone in Vancouver really wants that cup.
VANCOUVER - Guys like Mikael Samuelsson, who've won a Stanley Cup elsewhere, can talk a patient game.
"This franchise has been knocking on the door for a couple years," the Vancouver winger said on Tuesday, the day before his Canucks set sail on The Great Voyage. "(We're a) good team. Let's keep knocking. Sooner or later they've got to let you in."
Here in (Soon To Be) Title Town, British Columbia, there aren't a lot of people flying "sooner or later" flags from the rear windows of their hybrids. It's been 40 years of "sooner or later" out here.
Now they've got the best team in hockey, and the time has come to start using that three letter word.
Altogether everyone: "N-O-W!"
"If we put our A game on the ice, we're going to win most games," reasoned Henrik Sedin. "(There might be) the off game here or there where we're not going to have the bounces, or they're going to be great on the power play. But over a seven game series, we like our chances."
Henrik is well aware of the destination this spring.
They've hung around base camp long enough, these Canucks. This time, it's summit or bust.
"You're not going to be seen as a great player until you've won something. This franchise has never done that," Henrik admitted. "That's the big difference in playing here, than maybe in Detroit, or Chicago…"
"From Day 1, no one is doubting them. (Here), we have to prove we can win. We know that, and we are past the point where we're tired of it. We know that's the way it is, and we can only do one thing to change that. That is to win."
The Sedin brothers are, in fact, the perfect metaphor for the entire Canucks franchise.
They were expected to carry the load well before they were truly ready. Just as this Canucks team - as with any Canadian market - was treated as championship material long before it truly was.
"It's not a burden," Henrik said of the expectations, taking the question into the context of him and Daniel. "It was a burden, maybe, our first couple years. We had tough series' against Dallas and Anaheim (in '07), and all the talk was starting at that time. But we have to remember that in our first couple of years we played 10 or 11 minutes."
And that's where the confidence comes from this spring.
Like the Sedins in '07, the Canucks weren't necessarily ready to get past Chicago these past two springs. Let alone win four rounds.
Now, they are.
"We feel good about our team, that we're a pretty solid team when we play the right way," said Alex Burrows. "We haven't found the top of the mountain this year for no reason. We got there, we worked hard. I don't see how that will change."
Well, if you squint real hard - or if you've watched playoff hockey for any length of time - you could perhaps come up with a few plausible scenarios under which a President's Trophy-winning season doesn't constitute an open highway right into the Stanley Cup Final.
They probably couldn't see a first round exit in Washington last season, or in San Jose the year before; or Detroit, in '06.
Yet, three of the last five President's Trophy winners lost in Round 1. Only one of the last seven winners - the Cup-winning Red Wings in '08 - have even made it to the Stanley Cup final.
So that trophy the Canucks worked so hard for - and $2.15 plus HST - will get you a grande coffee at Starbucks out here. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Our first opponent is the defending Stanley Cup champions," Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said Tuesday, as a big smile crossed his lips. "We worked all year long to finish first, and we're getting the Cup champion. It doesn't get much better than that."
Someday, of course, he's hoping another coach is faux-lamenting the same fact; that the mighty Canucks are coming to town, with all the intangibles that are inherent in winning Big Stanley.
"They've proven they can play on the big stage, and play through the adversity, the challenges, the pressure that comes with winning four rounds to get your hands on the big prize," Vigneault said of the Blackhawks. "We think we can do it. We're going to set out starting (Wednesday) and try and prove it."
We asked Samuelsson if back-to-back second-round exits have made Vancouver hungrier than everyone else.
His response? "Everybody wants to win the Stanley Cup."
Perhaps; but "everybody" doesn't have 40 years of mostly futility hanging around.
Here in Vancouver, everybody really wants that Cup. And you probably don't want to be one of the guys who fails to deliver.
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for Sportsnet.ca
