Vancouver Canucks Tickets

The Vancouver Canucks are a professional National Hockey League ice hockey team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canucks were 1975 Smythe division champions, but were generally mediocre for the first decade of their existence, missing the playoffs 6 times in their first 8 years. After a decent regular season, the Canucks became the Cinderella story of the 1982 playoffs and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history. However, they were promptly swept 4 games to none by the heavily favoured New York Islanders. After their improbable Stanley Cup run, the Canucks slipped back into mediocrity for the rest of the 1980s. After the Canucks incredible 1994 run, Vancouver continued to be a force for the next two seasons, acquiring Alexander Mogilny via trade to further improve their offence. In the 1997 off-season, the Canucks made a big splash and signed Mark Messier to a lucrative deal. This was thought to be the final piece of the puzzle in getting the Canucks back to the finals. However this was not the case, and the Canucks missed the playoffs for the rest of the decade. The 2005-2006 season began with much promise, with some hockey analysts picking the Canucks as Stanley Cup favorites. However, the team failed to meet expectations and completed the regular season in a disappointing 9th place in their Conference - narrowly missing a playoff position to the Edmonton Oilers. The season was characterized by under-achieving play, most notably in the first line (Naslund, Morrison, and Bertuzzi) that was expected to produce higher point totals under the new league rules. On April 25th, 2006, it was announced by Dave Nonis that Marc Crawford has been fired and no new replacement coach has been determined. Early speculation has Manitoba Moose head coach and former Montreal Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault and former Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Pat Quinn as contenders for the job. On Thursday, April 27, 2006, Crawford took some time to thank every person within the Canucks franchise for those who worked hard during his tenure as their head coach, especially Todd Bertuzzi, the team's right winger. On Tuesday, June 20, 2006, General Manager Dave Nonis held a press conference to announce the hiring of the franchise’s new coach Alain Vigneault. Three days later, he completed a blockbuster trade with the Florida Panthers, trading Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alex Auld for Roberto Luongo , Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft pick (Sergei Shirokov) of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.