Okay, sure, it’s not the Stanley Cup and nothing has the lustre of that Holy Grail. In fact, if you put a dozen NHL trophies on a table and asked fans to pick out the President’s Trophy from the lot, most would have to get close enough to read the engraving to be sure.

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Many Canucks fans find themselves staring at a 1-4 series loss in round 1 of 2012 playoffs and asking themselves: What happened?

There will be no shortage of theories, and no doubt many of them will be based solely on emotion and resort to blame throwing. None of those will be helpful.

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With three games left and a three way competition still underway for the President's Trophy, you have to like the Canucks chances of repeating as regular season champs.

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The Vancouver Canucks are in a slump. Eight of their last 10 games went into overtime or needed a shoot-out to determine the outcome, and one of the two games settled in regulation over that period was a loss. The Canucks are being outshot routinely, in eight of the last ten games, and often by a wide margin. They are entering far too many third periods behind and needing late game heroics to salvage a point or two. Their game is so far off that coach Vigneault has resorted to a lot of line shuffling in order to light a fire under his players' butts. He's even broken the cardinal rule and split up the twins who could hardly have played together much more in their hockey careers if they were conjoined twins.

And yet, for all those signs of a mid-season malaise, the Canucks are the hottest team in the league right now.

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It is hard to find a moment in an 82 game schedule that announces what a team is made of, what can be expected of them in the post season and the stretch drive. But if there is such a moment the Canucks' four game road trip that just ended was it.

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Don't look now, but there is a goaltending controversy. No, not in Vancouver... in Boston! The mighty Tim Thomas is facing a challenge to his number one position, again, from Tukka Rask.

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As the Vancouver Canucks jumped out to a 2 game lead in the Stanley Cup Final, I started to plan to write an article I wanted to post here on NM, but this is not that article.

What I wanted to write was an argument for why the 2010-2011 Vancouver Canucks had to be considered in any discussion as to which was the Best Team of All Time.

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If you ask any of the Vancouver Canucks players I am sure that to a man they will say:  "We haven't won anything yet."

It is the cliche response of professional athletes everywhere when they have their eyes on one trophy and one trophy alone... the championship trophy that in hockey is known as Lord Stanley's Cup.

While pretty well every Vancouver Canucks fan would be happy to settle for the Stanley Cup (especially after 40 years of bupkus) the fact is that the Canucks could win much, much more than that this year.

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With Henrik Sedin breaking into the league's upper tier last season by winning the scoring race, the Art Ross trophy that goes with it and the Hart trophy for league MVP that automatically seems to go to the highest scorer if it doesn’t go to a goalie, there are suddenly plenty of newly minted Sedin fans around.

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Juxtaposing the sudden media love-in over the 2010-2011 edition of the Vancouver Canucks (predictions for President's trophy and Stanley Cup championships are starting to pile up including The Hockey News and TSN) with the 40 years of frustration and disappointment Canuckleheads like me have suffered through, the frantic search for signs as to which way this season will go is on.

And where better to look for signs than in logos?

To wit: 

 via www.kuklaskorner.com

Vachon is known for its tasty treats and pastries, including the iconic Jos. Louis.  Both the Vachon chef icon and the Vancouver Canucks lumberjack icon show a mustachioed man's face, both wear hats and both are cradled in a 'V'.  There are differences (beard vs. no-beard, hand vs. no-hand, blue & green vs. red), but the similarities are too stark to miss.

So what exactly does this omen foretell?  Are the Canucks going to enjoy a cakewalk to Stanley Cup glory or will they be cream puffs once again?

Only the pastry chef knows for sure.

1.  All those whacky uniforms.  Sure, the Canucks got laughed at in their mustard yellow with the big 'V' neck, sure they've field tested every colour in the rainbow (except pink, erase that, don't mention it to them) by now.  But, heck, it is much more interesting than the most boring sports uniform in the entire cosmos:  the blue and white Toronto Maple Leafs train wreck.  (And what is more representative of hockey than a rink and stick?) 

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I was 11 years old when the NHL welcomed the Vancouver Canucks and the Buffalo Sabres into the fold for the 1970-71 season. 

Born and raised in Montreal and having lived for 12 years in Toronto, you might think I would be a die-hard Habs or Leafs fan.  Think again.

Back in the day the Habs won too often (and it wasn't entirely fair with preferential rules that allowed them to build up the amazing farm system and stock of young talent from which Sam Pollock engineered so many championships) and the Leafs had already started into what has been 43 years of boring, disappointing hockey (not to mention the most boring uniform in professional sports).

Being a proud Canadian, however, I wanted to cheer for a Canadian team... enter the Canucks!

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