Team History

1996-1997: WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN

Fan favorite Martin Gelinas scored 35 goals during the '96-'97 season.

It was once again time for Pat Quinn to hire another coach, and this time he hired Tom Renney, who had guided the Kamloops Blazers to a Memorial Cup Championship in 1993 and Team Canada to a silver medal in the 1994 Olympics. The loss of free-agent Cliff Ronning to Phoenix on July 1 left a big question mark at centre. In the front office, Arthur Griffiths sold his remaining shares in Orca Bay to John McCaw but remained on the Board of Directors.

After ten months to recover from his injury, Pavel Bure seemed back in top form and ready to dazzle fans once again. In the first game of the season, however, Bure would slide head-first into the end boards at a high speed after being upended en route to the Calgary goal. Though he would continue playing, it was clear that all was not right. After being in and out of the lineup all season, Bure would finally be forced out for the season after a 6-2 loss in Colorado on March 12. Captain Trevor Linden saw his consecutive games streak come to an end at 512 when he injured his elbow in a 4-3 loss in Philadelphia on February 23. After being 24-22-2 at the end of January and in fourth place in the conference, the Canucks had sunk to tenth place and seemed sure to miss the playoffs for the first time in seven years. A strong finish (6-1-3) would give them a final total of 77 points, good for ninth place, four points behind Edmonton and Chicago who were tied for seventh and eighth. Gino Odjick took a minor penalty in the final game to up his minutes total to 371, which was first in the league and broke his own franchise record by one minute. Alexander Mogilny once again paced the team in scoring, but slipped to 73 points. The only bright spot seemed to be the play of Martin Gelinas, who recorded his second straight 30 goal season to lead the team in goals (35) and finished second to Mogilny with 68 points. His inspiring two-way play earned his way into the hearts of the fans and also earned him the team MVP award. But there would be no playoffs in Vancouver.