2003-2004: BERTUZZI CAUSES CONTROVERSY; CANUCKS AND FLAMES MEET AGAIN
The upward progression of the club over the past five seasons had created the highest demand for Canucks regular season tickets ever. After selling out their final 31 home games and all eight home playoff games in 2002-03, season ticket subscriptions reached the 17,000 level this summer and a waiting list was created for the first time in franchise history.
18,630 jammed into GM Place on October 11 to see the Canucks beat Calgary 4-1. Rookie RW Jason King scored his first NHL goal in the third period, drawing assists from the Sedins in what would be the Canucks most productive line over the first couple of months of the season. Two nights later, G Johan Hedberg blanked Edmonton, 3-0, making him the second goaltender -- after Mike Fountain in 1996-97 -- to record a shutout in his Canucks debut. The Canucks lost their next two games and then went 7-0-2 in their next nine. This was despite the fact that the top line of Naslund, Morrison, and Bertuzzi was producing well below expectations. King, however, scored 11 goals in his first 19 games and was the talk of the town. But it was mostly team defence that was rescuing the club. Blamed for their failure in previous playoff experiences, improvement in that area was noted.
On November 18, the Canucks took to the ice at GM Place wearing “vintage” apparel, replicas of the blue, green, and white uniforms the club wore from 1972 to 1978. The night was made memorable with a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Montreal, punctuated by Mattias Ohlund’s overtime goal. It was the first of eleven games the Canucks would win in the extra frame over the course of the season, setting a new NHL record. After starting out with a 9-0-1 record in their first ten home games, the Canucks dropped a 5-3 decision to Toronto on November 22. They were a disappointing 12-13-6 on home ice the rest of the season. On December 9, a groin injury to Dan Cloutier created the strange scenario where UBC goaltender Chris Levesque was summoned to back-up Hedberg in a game against Pittsburgh. When Hedberg hit his head in a collision during the game, it looked as though the undergrad might make an appearance. Hedberg finished the game, although it was later learned he suffered a concussion in the collision, and he missed the next eight weeks. Markus Naslund showed signs of coming out of his slump by scoring all four Canuck goals in that game, including the overtime winner.
By February 16, Naslund was the leading scorer in the NHL and the Canucks trailed Colorado by one point in the Northwest Division. The teams met at Pepsi Center in Denver on that night and Daniel Sedin’s unassisted goal early in the third period was the only one of the game, and with the two points, the Canucks took over the division lead with 75 points. But the game had come at a cost. Late in the second period, Markus Naslund was levelled by Colorado rookie Steve Moore. The legality of the check was hotly debated, but there was no call on the play. Marc Crawford went on a post-game tirade, crying about “a cheap shot by a young kid on a captain” and Todd Bertuzzi and Brad May promised retribution for the hit. Naslund missed the next four games with a concussion and a wrist injury, during which time he lost the scoring lead. He was never the same for the rest of the season.
The teams met again in Denver on March 3. Again, Colorado led by a single point. Many were predicting blood, but under the watchful eye of Commissioner Gary Bettman and Vice-President Colin Campbell, the game went off without major incident, and ended in a 5-5 tie. Five days later, the teams met for the sixth and final time of the season, this time in Vancouver. It was Colorado’s first visit to GM Place since the Moore hit on Naslund—an incident that had been, by now, blown entirely out of proportion by Vancouver supporters. Still, this game was very important in the standings. Colorado had a one-point lead with each team having 14 games to play. But the Canucks stumbled and fell behind 5-0 in a first period that had five fights, including a bout between Matt Cooke and Steve Moore. The game was already becoming surreal. Early in the second, Brad May scored twice, and both goals were assisted by Trevor Linden. His first assist ended a 13-game scoring draught and made him the franchise’s all-time leading scorer with 1,111 points, eclipsing Stan Smyl’s record. This gave the fans a solitary reason to cheer on what was otherwise a dreadful night. The comeback was short-lived and early in the third period the Avalanche led 8-2. With the game out of reach, Todd Bertuzzi found himself on the ice with Moore and thought the time right to finally avenge the hit on Naslund. After failing to engage him in a fight, Bertuzzi grabbed the rookie’s sweater with his left hand and clobbered him in the head with his right. Moore tumbled to the ice with Bertuzzi and a pile of players landing on top of him, and a full-out line-brawl erupted. With Moore on the bottom of the pile, it was not until the brawl died down that it was realized he had been badly injured. Moore was carried off on a stretcher with his neck stabilized. The following day it was learned that he had three cracked vertebrae and a concussion and his future career in hockey would be uncertain. Bertuzzi was given a match penalty and was obviously going to face stiff discipline from the league. As it turned out, he was suspended for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs, and would have to be formally re-instated to play beyond that.
To complicate matters, the trade deadline was the following day and Brian Burke was forced into action to replace his star winger. He acquired D Marc Bergevin from Pittsburgh, RW Geoff Sanderson from Columbus, and RW Martin Rucinsky from the New York Rangers without giving up any regulars. Two days after the Colorado game, a meek air hung over the arena as the Canucks hosted the Minnesota Wild. Sanderson scored with 5:17 left to salvage a 1-1 tie. But the team was in a fog and after blowing a 4-2 lead to Columbus and losing 5-4 on March 21, the Canucks were 2-5-3-1 in the month of March and now trailed Colorado by five points with six games to play. Many figured the Canucks would have to run the table in order to win the division, and that is exactly what they did. As Colorado floundered down the stretch, the Canucks somehow re-composed themselves and finished the season with a superb 5-2 victory over Edmonton on April 3. The win gave the Canucks 101 points to clinch their first regular-season division crown in eleven years. Following the game, the players gave away their jerseys to lucky fans, and when Todd Bertuzzi came out to give away his, the 18,630 in attendance (the 80th consecutive home sell-out) gave him a five-minute standing ovation.
As the number three seed in the conference, the Canucks would be paired against their long-time playoff nemesis, the Calgary Flames. For the Flames, it was their first trip to the post-season in eight years and the inexperience showed early in game one, as Martin Rucinsky and Sami Salo each scored power-play markers in the first six minutes and the Canucks went on to win, 5-3. In game two, it was the Flames who came fast out of the gate, scoring twice in the first four minutes before the Canucks took over. Unfortunately, they met a wall in the Calgary net named Miikka Kiprusoff. He made 25 saves and only Markus Naslund’s second-period tally eluded him as the Flames evened the series.
The scene shifted to Calgary for game three, where late in a scoreless first period, Dan Cloutier stopped a shot by Oleg Saprykin, and was slow to get to his feet afterward. The play was eventually stopped, and Cloutier left the game with an apparent knee injury, not to return for the remainder of the series. At the time of his injury, he had an active shutout streak of 75:09. Johan Hedberg was beaten by Chris Simon early in the second period, but Naslund tied the game up a minute later. Early in the third period, Matt Cooke gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead, which they were able to hang onto to regain the series lead. After another scoreless first period in game four, the Canucks turned in a dreadful second period and the Flames ran up a 3-0 lead. The final score was 4-0 and the series was now a best-of-three.
Rumours swirled the day of game five that Marc Crawford was going to start unproven rookie Alex Auld in goal for game five. Most dismissed these rumours, but Auld was indeed given the start, as the coach played a hunch. Auld turned in a solid performance, stopping a breakaway with a nifty poke-check and making 17 saves through two periods as the game was tied, 1-1. The Canucks outshot the Flames 12-2 in the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately, a shot by Calgary’s Andrew Ference hit the shaft of Jarome Iginla’s stick and beat Auld to give the Flames the eventual winning goal. The Canucks now faced elimination in game six, and came out strong. It looked like their dominant first period might go for naught, though, as they weren’t able to score until the final minute, when some fancy playmaking by the Sedins set up Jarkko Ruutu for the game’s opening goal. They kept rolling in the second period, as Daniel Sedin, Brad May, and Geoff Sanderson gave the Canucks a commanding 4-0 lead by the 10:15 mark. Only 16 seconds later, though, they caught a bad break. Oleg Saprykin tipped Robyn Regehr’s shot past Auld and into the net, but it went to video replay because it looked like a high stick. Despite video evidence which appeared to conclude that Saprykin’s stick was several inches above the cross-bar at the time of contact, the officals in the NHL’s “War Room” amazingly ruled the play “inconclusive” and the goal stood. The score was 4-2 by the end of the second. When ex-Canuck Martin Gelinas cut the lead to 4-3 at 1:14 of the third, the Saddledome was abuzz and the Canucks were in panic mode. Their shoddy play in the defensive zone gave the Flames several chances to score. Finally, at 7:04 to play, Chris Clark deflected Regehr’s shot through Auld’s legs and the game was tied. Incredibly, the game was headed for overtime. There were not a great number of chances in the first overtime period, but things really opened up in the second. Early in the period, Gelinas got a breakaway, but Auld again came up with a poke-check to thwart him. Later, Ville Nieminen hit the cross-bar. Then a clearly exhausted Jarome Iginla lost control of the puck on a two-on-one. For the first time in franchise history, the Canucks went to triple overtime in the playoffs. At 2:28 of the third overtime period, Brendan Morrison outwaited Kiprusoff and slid the puck past his outstretched glove just inside the post to end the longest game in Vancouver Canucks history. The teams would head back to Vancouver for a seventh and deciding game.
Both of the teams’ last two playoff encounters had gone to seventh games. In 1989 and 1994, the games had been played in Calgary. On 19 April, 2004, game seven was played at GM Place. The previous two seventh games had been two of the most exciting games in Canucks history. After the fourth scoreless first period of the series, this one didn’t seem to be living up to that standard at first. Almost thirteen minutes into a still scoreless second period, Craig Conroy stepped out of the penalty box, took a pass from Mathew Lombardi, and fed Jarome Iginla with a breakaway pass. Alex Auld had stopped the first two breakaways he had faced in the series, but Iginla beat him this time to give Calgary a 1-0 lead. The Canucks came to life after the goal and put on constant pressure for the last seven minutes of the period, but were unable to beat Kiprusoff. The pressure continued in the third period and finally, at 7:32, Matt Cooke scored to tie the score. Two minutes later, though, Cooke was hit by Andrew Ference, which forced the blade of his stick into the face of Rhett Warriner. The Calgary defenseman was cut, and Cooke was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking. On the power-play, Iginla scored his second of the game, converting on a rebound despite being checked in front of the net, to give the Flames a 2-1 lead with 9:46 to play. Things looked grim in Canuckland. They did get a late power-play, but when it was negated by an Ed Jovanovski cross-checking penalty with only 27 seconds to play, it looked like the end of the line. Iginla had a chance to get the hat trick shooting for the empty net but missed, and Mattias Ohlund picked up the puck behind his own net with 12 seconds left to make one last rush. Ohlund passed up to Markus Naslund at the blueline as Cooke slashed the stick out of Iginla’s hands. Iginla then tripped over his stick lying on the ice, which created an opening for Naslund, who turned on the after-burners. Naslund beat Steve Montador to the outside and took a bad-angle shot at Kiprusoff. It was stopped, but the rebound came to Cooke in front, who lifted the puck just under the cross-bar to tie the score with only 5.7 seconds to play. GM Place exploded and Canucks fans everywhere leapt to their feet and rejoiced at this amazing turn of events. Just like in 1989 and 1994, game seven was headed for overtime. The building was still abuzz after the intermission, but there was still the Jovanovski penalty to kill off. The Flames went to work right away on the power play. Iginla took a shot that Auld stopped. Gelinas got the rebound, and Auld flopped to stop that as well, but he was down and out as Gelinas picked up the puck again and deposited it in the back of the net at the 1:25 mark to end the game and the series in Calgary’s favour. After the elation of tying the game late in regulation, the sudden ending was a bitter disappointment for the Canucks. As was the case in ’89 and ’94, the series winner, the Flames this time, would advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. As the teams shook hands and the GM Place crowd filed out, Canucks fans everywhere were feeling the sting of another playoff let down and, with impending labour trouble, wondered when they’d get to see their team play again.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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