With every team that makes it to the Stanley Cup final there is a story to be told. For the Vancouver Canucks they went into the start of this season as one of the favorites to be in the final, and they followed it up with a Presidents Trophy winning season. So they went into the Playoffs as the favorites to be in the Final, and lo and behold they have now found themselves there.

That hasn’t always been the case for teams in that position, as only 9 teams since 1986, when they started awarding the Presidents Trophy, have gone to the Stanley Cup Final. Perhaps better percentages though lie with the Canucks, as 7 of those 9 teams have won the Cup when they got there, and one of those teams that lost was the 94-95 Red Wings who played in lockout shortened year.

There have been some intriguing, lucky, and downright surreal moments that have brought the Canucks to this position they are now in. Last summer after another heart breaking loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs, the Canucks retooled in a big way, by remaking their defense by trading for Keith Ballard, and then signing Dan Hamhuis as a free agent. This was to give them a more mobile defense and one that would make them a faster team as a whole, however with these signings they were in danger of being over the cap with all the D they already had, so there was much speculation that the odd man out was going to be Kevin Bieksa.

Bieksa was coming off of a couple of injury plagued sub par seasons, so in trading Bieksa they might gain some more depth on their bottom 6 forwards. However almost immediately afterwards a freak accident happened to Sami Salo while playing ball hockey in Finland where he tore his achilles tendon. So the Canucks were spared Salo’s salary and thus were able to keep Bieksa, who has had a tremendous Playoff run, paired with the newly acquired Hamhuis. Bieksa has 5 goals, 9 points, and a league leading plus 10, as they’ve shut down the oppositions top forwards. That’s not to mention one of the most surreal goals in the Stanley Cup history to send the Canucks to the final. All of that may never had been if Salo had never decided to play a little pick up in the summer.

Throughout the season the Canucks showed their dominance over the rest of the league, but there were challenges along the way. Their biggest asset, their depth on D, was put to the test when they first lost Alex Edler to back surgery; Dan Hamhuis to a concussion, and many other sporadic injuries that forced the Canucks to use 13 different defensemen throughout the year. That kind of stat you usually find of a struggling team, not the one that wins the President Trophy.

With these injuries they were given a little bit of wiggle room at the trade deadline in which they picked up Chris Higgins and Maxim Lapierre who were projected to fill out their 3rd and 4th lines. Then Manny Malholtra went down with an ugly eye injury that suddenly moved Lapierre up to 3rd line centre, and since Malholtra was one of their top faceoff men, Lapierre would be thrust into that duty as well. Higgins has also stepped up in these playoffs, moving up to the 2nd line with Ryan Kesler where they dominated the Nashville Predators in the 2nd round, and will probably stay there now that Samuelsson is out with an injury. So all of those injuries fell into place to give the Canucks some key pieces, and bizarrely enough when the playoffs started the Canucks played with their top 6 defensemen for the first time all season, giving them an embarrassment of riches.

If the story of the players wasn’t strange enough, look at the story of the first round of the playoffs this year. The Chicago Blackhawks were once again up against the Vancouver Canucks, so even after a dominant season, the Canucks still had to face their arch enemy in the first round. Things started off great for the Canucks as they went up 3 games to none, a commanding lead, and one in which local papers even boldly predicted a sweep on the cover. Even though this Blackhawk team was devoid of some of the gritty enemies of previous years in Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd, there was another one that was still on the team, but he wouldn’t make his appearance until Game 4 and that was Dave Bolland.

Bolland’s presence seemingly jolted the Blackhawks as they stormed back to win the next three games to set up one of the all-time great game sevens in league history. Even in that game, poised to win, holding and 1-0 lead late in the third period, and on the power play, Jonathan Toews scored shorthanded to send the game and Vancouver fans hearts into overtime. Alex Burrows eventually ended this dramatic series but it was one that may never have happened. Leading up to the playoffs the Blackhawks were in a dogfight to make the final spot, in one game down 3-0 against the St. Louis Blues, Marian Hossa scored a controversial goal in which it looked like he kicked the puck in the net, that goal would lead the Blackhawks back for a crucial win in which they would need every single point. In the last game of the season the Blackhawks lost to the Red Wings in what looked to finish them off, however the Dallas Stars were unable to beat the lowly Minnesota Wild, one of the worst teams in the league, which enabled the Blackhawks to sneak into the playoffs, and set up that series against the Canucks.

In each of the 3 series the Canucks have played, they have had to endure some lessons. After beating the Blackhawks they overcame a big obstacle that gave them something Canucks teams of the past haven’t had: confidence. Yet they still found ways to lose in the second round against the Predators before they were able to close it out in six games. Closing that series out before the Red Wings/Shark series was crucial to what happened in the third round which saw the reemergence of Henrik Sedin, who previously looked injured. The extra time off helped the Canucks to heal, but also wore down an already beat up Sharks team. So when the Canucks had the Sharks on the ropes in Game 5, that extra rest may have helped the Canucks to bury them in a thrilling overtime victory.

Add all of these events up and they lead to where the Canucks are, their job isn’t done, and they won’t be satisfied, and won’t want to let down an opportunity to complete a story that has had so fascinating aspects to it. If they are able to do that it’ll be a momentous moment as it’s something the franchise has never done in its 40 year history.

originially posted at betfair.net