Roberto Luongo’s ceremony was good. It ought to nonetheless have been grander — the Vancouver Canucks ought to have retired his quantity.
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It was a pleasant ceremony.
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There’s no denying that. It was a step up from what the Canucks did within the final Ring of Honour ceremony for Alex Burrows in 2019.
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For Burrows’ evening, there was no MC, only a video narrated by the Sedins, and the voice of Al Murdoch welcoming the previous ahead to centre ice. Burrows himself gave a bit of speech, then Burrows’ title was unveiled.
It was quick and candy.
For Roberto Luongo on Thursday, there was a bit of extra pomp. It wasn’t to the extent of the Sedins’ retirement ceremony, however there have been nods in direction of a grander scene.
There was an MC — Cory Schneider. There have been the Sedins on the ice, in particular person. There was a big carpet.
And also you noticed these objects and all you possibly can suppose was: that is one of the best goalie in workforce historical past. In case you’re going to say he’s “among the finest” you say he’s among the finest in league historical past.
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He’s the Canucks’ fifth Hockey Corridor of Famer, after the Sedins, Pavel Bure and Pat Quinn.
Quinn was by no means going to get his quantity retired, his legacy is as a builder for the workforce, not as a participant.
And in order that leaves Luongo as a bizarre outlier: he’s the one former Canucks participant to obtain hockey’s highest honour who hasn’t had his quantity retired.
It’s unlucky that because the years go on, individuals will lookup and take into consideration, debate, the place Luongo’s title ought to be inside Rogers Enviornment.
If he’d had his quantity retired, there could be a lot much less debate about whether or not he ought to have had a lesser ceremony than there will probably be about whether or not he ought to have had a good larger ceremony than the one he had.
The opposite members of the Ring of Honour all have attention-grabbing tales to them. They do fill a particular class in Canucks lore.
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The Canucks have already set an ordinary for who will get their quantity retired: these are gamers who transcended Canucks lore. They’re greater than cult figures like Harold Snepsts or Burrows.
They’re gamers who outlined greatness of their time.
Luongo will lengthy be remembered as one of many nice Canucks. His quantity ought to be retired. And it’s foolish of the Canucks’ mind belief to have thought something much less.
The quantity bump
Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith are enjoying very nicely. An enormous a part of that’s the approach the workforce is defending in entrance of them.
They’re posting numbers which are among the many league’s greatest, and there’s each motive to suppose they’ll keep there.
It’s the scoring fee that’s wild.
The Canucks are again as much as scoring on 11.5 per cent of their 5 on 5 photographs. That’s sky excessive. They’re performing some attention-grabbing issues across the web — they’re one of the best within the NHL at scoring off rebounds, as an illustration — however the fee they’re scoring at is unprecedented in latest Canucks reminiscence.
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The scoring goes to recede once more some.
And the massive wins are going to turn out to be tighter wins. And a few of the tighter wins will turn out to be tighter losses.
The query is, how will the Canucks handle their approach by way of these tight losses? They’ve proven loads of coronary heart to date and so they’re one of many NHL’s robust groups this season; however are they a Cup contender but?
Me thinks not, but when they preserve knocking off prime groups, even after they’re a bit of down, like they’ve this week with Carolina, Tampa and Florida, they’re going to vary my thoughts.
Boeser’s fireplace
As soon as once more, there are few tales higher in Canucks land within the final, what, 20 years, than Boeser’s resurgence as an efficient purpose scorer. The very fact he’s blown previous all his earlier requirements, is nicely on target to lastly hit 30 targets and possibly even get to 40, is simply large.
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He’s an awesome story on the season and he’s going to stay so.
Miller’s honesty
Once I requested J.T. Miller final evening about how his ice time was down a bit of and whether or not he felt that may assist get by way of the powerful highway journey forward, he went in a route I didn’t count on.
He was extremely vital of his line’s efficiency, up towards the Panthers’ Sasha Barkov, one of many NHL’s nice two-way gamers.
I really thought his line was all proper on the evening, although they actually have been higher.
In a 4-0 win, I didn’t count on Miller to be so harsh on himself.
However he was, and credit score to him. He is aware of the laborious highway forward and the expectations he’s placed on himself aren’t unreasonable given the function he’s requested for and is getting. He’s there to cease the opposite workforce’s greatest gamers and he’s been fairly good at that his season.
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