With another Canucks season upon us, what better time to read Never Boring, about my favourite hockey team?
And yeah, Ed Willes' new book really is never boring. The former Province sports columnist entertains with 50-plus years of Canucks stories, from the 1960s start of the franchise to the Cup-chasing promise of today's team, with all the ups and downs of years between.
Willes says the team "has been haunted by dark and unnatural forces since its inception,” and he's not wrong. Bad drafting and trades are big reasons why the Canucks have never won a Stanley Cup, sadly, and Willes dives deep into team history to reveal many key "what if" moments in the book's 12 chapters.
Like, what if the carnival wheel had landed on the Canucks number at the 1970 amateur draft? What if Stan McCammon wasn't an impatient, insulting jerk with Wayne Gretzky and actually got him to sign with the Canucks in the mid-1990s? What if Todd Bertuzzi had gone for a line change and not sucker-punched Steve Moore? What if Dan Hamhuis hadn't hip-checked Milan Lucic in the 2011 Cup Final instead of injuring himself? What if Aaron Rome's late hit hadn't fired up the Bruins to come back from two games down?
Longtime Canucks fans will feel the pain of those questions and others as Willes explores team history with wit, sarcasm, clarity and grade-A research.
Of course, questions remain about the current roster as the Canucks look to end 54 years of losing – or, more accurately, not winning. The book's final chapter puts this into perspective: What if the hockey gods are finally tired of messing with the Canucks?
We can only hope. JOCBID is the acronym I've embraced: Just One Cup Before I Die.
From Harbour Publishing, the 288-page Never Boring: The Up and Down History of the Vancouver Canucks is sold for $28.95 on harbourpublishing.com.
