Everywhere in the forums, the media, and the guy who serves me curry at the food court is telling me how Luongo had played his last game as a Canuck and we will be going forward with Schneider in the coming season. I am told by the media and by Schneider supporters how this is a good thing and that Schneider is cheaper and younger and will become an elite goaltender next season. So we should bid adieu to Luongo, who has graciously step aside already, for the new shining young goaltender who will bring us to the promised land of being Stanley Cup Champions.

So let me get this straight. Luongo who gave six best years of his life to this franchise and helped give us two President trophy seasons and five playoff appearances in those six years is now shown the door because we have a new darling in net? Luongo showed the Canucks franchise loyalty when his contract was up by signing a cap friendly and long contract so that we no longer need to worry about any goaltending problems in the years to come. Luongo detractors would instead flip his long contract around to say it is more a chain around their fantasy dream team than what really is a cap friendly contract in the hope to build a Stanley Cup contender. When it is the fans turn to show Luongo loyalty, we quickly kick him to the curb and

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I've been following this team for quite some time now and although I do not know any of the players personally they're familiar names and there's a feeling that they're one of us boys from Vancouver.  So any time there's an injury to the roster there's always a type of empathy toward that player.  It may be selfish as part of me feels it hurts the teams' chances, but mostly as a human being I feel concern for another person's well being.  It's not the first time an injury is suffered in this sport.  Hamhuis, and Sammy are both still out (We could really use them now.) Horton is out with concussion symptoms.  Injury happens in hockey but as fans, we don't want to see anyone seriously hurt.  When Horton's head bounced awkwardly from the ice, I cringed.  When Chara hit Pacioretty into the pole, I cringed.  I think as a fan I hope that players don't get hurt playing a game that we all love.

But then there's the reaction by certain Boston fans' upon seeing a prone Raymond.  And they bought into the whole narrative that the Canucks are cheaters and embellishes and instead of being emphaizing for the health of another individual, they chanted flopper.  I can only imagine what Raymond's family is feeling or how Higgins and Kesler is feeling when they help their friend of the ice to those flopper chants. 

There's alot of talk about 'don't poke the bear' and how Rome injured Horton.  The same can be said about don't piss off a Canadian.  We burnt down your White House after all.

I have 15 minutes before work but feel upset enough to express my thoughts on Game 3.  To tell you the truth I stopped watching when we gave up the first short handed goal in the second while the rest of my friends continued to watch the train wreck of a game.  I have faith in the Canucks, but it's not blind faith and I wasn't going to let myself watch get emotionally attached until they prove that they could make a game out of it. 

They didn't.

After all the dust settled, it was worse than how I imagined it.  A 8-1 beatdown. 

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Our champions thought themselves invincible as they thought they had the heathen hawks of the east beaten. We as observers thought our champions could end the war in the home of our hated enemy. We thought it was done when their defender Seabrook fell in battle and that their battered defense would break. We thought Bolland, the one who gave us so many defeats in the past would be too weak to affect the outcome that we already set in stone.

We, observers of this epic war, committed hubris.

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As only mere hours lay away from the first of many battles with the heathen hawks of the east. I know many of you like myself are struck with anticipation and unease. Uncertainty cloud our minds and though we may say we have faith in our blessed warriors of the great northwest, deep down we remember the heart breaking losses we suffered to those heathens in years past.

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This is my first fanpost, I just felt compel to write something after seeing the result of the poll.

When I first saw the poll on testing Canucks faith, and the options were The Canucks are going to come back and They be fukt, I instinctively went toward the latter option.  The Blackhawks just seemed bigger, faster, and better than the Canucks.  We witnessed a drive to win in the Hawks that we wished we saw in our Nucks.  Down three games to one, and I paused from picking They're fukted, to take a look at the comments first.  There were already talks of rebuilding and getting rid of guys already.  The guys wanting to get rid of were the usual suspects; O Briens, Demitra, Bieska and a few others.  There were talks about hope for the future with Hodgson and Schinder, and hoping that next year would be better.

It was as if we have already lost.

I feel there is always a time and place to talk about rebuilding.  In fact, we have all summer to talk about the future of the Canucks, just like last year.  Even though I didn't post last year, I was here reading and looked forward to this season.  It was exciting to see our Canucks going undefeated in the pre-season, but only to fizzle in the beginning of the real season.  There was excitiment when the Canucks started to win, and horror when Daniel Sedin was injured.  There was the emergence of Henrik proving his critics wrong, and also dreading of the road trip from hell. 

There were so many ups and downs for these Canucks this season, but at the end of the day, we saw the Northwest division champions and Henrik the first in Canuck history to become NHL scoring champion. 

This was when I remember a distant memory, when I was a child in 1994.  I remember watching the 1st round of the playoffs between the Canucks and the Flames on TV.  It was a different time then, it was before the Internet, much less forums or polls.  It was a different time.  We were down three games to one heading into Calgary and I was pretty depressed.  My dad never really followed hockey and before the game started, he asked me how were the Canucks doing.  I told him we were down three to one.  My dad replied, well I guess this year's Canucks aren't very good.  Better luck next year. 

A part of me wanted to agree with my dad.  It was logical to think that the Canucks didn't have a chance, but a bigger part of me refused to.  I thought to myself the game hasn't even been played yet, and we're talking about next year?  I couldn't bring myself to agreeing with him.  I told my dad, no and that the Canucks were going to come back.  I remember he smiled and told me not to get my hopes up.

That year in that first round.  The Canucks did come back and they beat the Flames in OT in Game 7.  I found myself today looking for some clip of that comeback on youtube. 
 I found it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMoAj1L9uo.  It was narrated by Don Cherry of all people.  But the part that struck me was what Cherry said at the 2:13 mark.

"Can you believe it, down three one and come back to win.  Pat never gave up on them I'll tell ya.  What a win."

Am I saying that the Canucks will come back to win like in 1994?

No.

It was a different time, a different team, and a different game.  Things are so much different now, and the chance of the Canucks beating a Blackhawks team this good is slim.  It's so easy to poke holes in our team.  Lou isn't making the big saves, we can't kill penalties, our defense is rag tag, and there's no size and toughness in our top 6.  There's no logical reason to think that we have a chance to win.

But faith doesn't need to be justified through logic.  In fact, faith often goes against logic and reason.  Faith can also be a very powerful thing.  It can push people for that extra inch even when that inch may seem out of reach.  It can push people through when it is against the odds to do so.  Faith is beyond reason.  And that comes to the question in the poll.  The poll wasn't asking, "Is it logical for the Canucks to win?" instead it is " Testing Canucks fan' faith level".  This isn't a poll on the Canucks but on us as fans.  The real question was, "Have we, Canucks fans, given up on our Canucks when times are tough?" And times can't get any tougher than down three to one in the playoffs.  When I framed the poll like this, it was easy for me to choose The Canucks are going to come back.  I don't know if the Nucks can come back in this, but I am not going to give up on them until the bitter end and I am hell not going to give up on them before the puck even dropped in game 5.  I keep thinking about that scene in the new Rocky film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5OookwOoY

"But somewhere on the line, you changed.  You stopped being you.  You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you, you're no good.  And when things got hard, you start looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. 

Let me tell you something you already know, the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanetly if you let it.  You me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life.  But it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward.  That's how winning is done! 

Now if you know what you're worth, go out and get what you're worth, but you have got to be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers because of him or her or anybody.  Cowards do that and that ain't you!  You're better than that!

I'm always going to love you, no matter what.  No matter what happens.  You're my son, you're my blood.  You're the best thing in my life.  But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life. "

It would be easy to give up on the Canucks and start talking about rebuilding and the future.  In fact we have all summer to talk and debate about all the different problems that need to be addressed that has been uncovered so openly in this year's playoffs. 

But that day is not today.

Today we believe that the Canucks will not go quietly to the golf courses.
Today we believe that the Canucks can come back.

Today we don't give up on our team.

Go Canucks Go!