Round One Game Seven: Canucks Eliminated
By Richard Eriksson on April 19, 2004 - 10:48pm
The deafening roar in the West End as Cooke scored to send game 7 into overtime turned into a stunned silence as Gelinas pounced not merely on a rebound, but on a rebound to a rebound. Or at least that's how I imagined the West End as I sat in a buddy's apartment in Burnaby. Jarome Iginla elevated his status to hockey superstar—not only is he tough and talented, but extremely charismatic: I heard that when the Calgary press was giving him a hard time about not scoring, he showed up at a press conference promissing to tell them why he was in a slump, and pointed to his back with a news paper article taped to it that speculated at length as to the reasons—as he scored two great-looking goals (Auld had no chance on either) and assisted on the overtime winner. They say the game has no marquee player anymore now that Gretzky and Lemieux are gone. But you need only look in Iginla's direction.
Now the hand-wringing begins. Did Crawford make a mistake in putting in rookie Alex Auld? Would the Canucks have won with Bertuzzi? Were the Canucks hiding the fact that a flu bug had taken a toll on the team during the series? (I actually heard that as a rumour.) The only fact that matters now is that the Canucks were beaten by a team that wanted it more because the Flames earned their playoff spot. They have striking similarities to the Canucks of four or five years ago. Young, talented, in the playoffs for the first time in years and loving every minute of it. Now we can officially welcome spring and everything it has to offer this city rather than wait for the next game and then sit on our butts for 3 hours. Don't get me wrong, I wanted the Canucks to win, and had predicted they would. I want the Flames to go all the way this year. I want to know that at least the Canucks were beaten by the very best team in the league, because if they aren't now, things are looking good for the Flames' future.
