Little logic to season
By JIM TAYLOR -- Sun Media Columnist
Break out the bar grease, boys, we gotta get them wheels back on the bandwagon!
It is, of course, patently ridiculous that a team like the Vancouver Canucks (Our motto: "Win two in a row every couple of months whether we need it or not") should still have a shot at the National Hockey League playoffs after basically screwing up for 70 games. By now they should be dealing in tee times, rubber chicken and give-me-more-money-or-I-hold-my-breath-'til-I-die.
But no: Through the wonders of NHL scheduling and the unfathomable gullibility of the ticket-buying public, here they sit, 5-2 victors over the equally-unmighty Calgary Flames, mathematically within reach of a playoff spot and physically capable of causing better teams problems should they get there.
There is no logic to it.
When Ulysses S. Grant accepted Robert E. Lee's sword to end the War Between the States, did he hand it back and say, "Tell you what, Bob, how be we make it best-of-three?"
Did Evander Holyfield turn to the ref after the Mike Tyson fight and suggest they skip the TKO and go a few more rounds once poor old Mike had time to clear his head?
Did the judge lend Bruce McNall a few million so he could buy back the L.A. Kings?
This thing was supposed to be over. Certainly the Vancouver fans and media thought so. The slice-and-dice gang had already switched its laser from GM Pat Quinn ("How come he didn't make no trades at the deadline, huh? How come?) to coach Tom Renney ("Hey, he might have been a great coach with kids, but these guys are pros!") and speculation on whether he should be back for a second year given his mediocre results in the first.
Players (unnamed, of course) already have been given space to offer their criticisms of the new man. Suggestions (anonymous) have been put forth that if Renney comes back, Alexander Mogilny will not. As surely as the robin is the harbinger of spring, such sniping is the early warning of a team that has packed its jockstraps for the summer.
But here they sit, three points behind the Flames and Blackhawks in the battle for the right to scream "We're No. Eight!" with six games left -- one against the Flames, who have to play the 'Hawks twice. It could happen. And yesterday's final whistle had barely blown when B.C. hockey fans were in full and joyous reappraisal:
OK, Quinn didn't trade at the deadline, but he got Brian Noonan and Sergei Nemchinov a bit before that, and didn't they get the first two goals? And how about that Donald Brashear? Finally, some muscle whose first name isn't Gino.
And Renney? Look at the disciplined two-way game they played. Looks like they've finally bought into that defence-first system. OK, so he wasted three-quarters of the season fooling around with that weak-side lock thing, whatever the hell it was. But he adjusted, didn't he? And Mogilny scored and didn't look sulky at all, and Pavel might be back for the playoffs, and ...
For now, the race is on. The Canucks are a part of it and, whoever gets in gets to start even. Yogi was wrong. It ain't over when it's over. When it's over, that's when it starts over.
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