Jim Benning didn’t really make any friends this summer. (Well. He made one. But he paid a lot for him.) His moves were baffling at times, and by the end, trying to understand him was too much effort. It was far easier, as it often is, to just make fun of him. So people did. Boy, did they ever.
That’s when something strange happened. Rather than blow our tops and go after anyone who would dare say an unkind word about our team, we Canucks fans mostly smiled and nodded. It was hard to believe this was the same group who still holds a grudge against the entire CBC because the man who holds Don Cherry’s hand said Alex Burrows was a weiner. Et tu, Vancouvé?
This is on Benning too. By trading the beloved Eddie Lack, he lost so much goodwill with the fanbase that he left himself open to undefended criticism from all corners, even the touchy Pacific Northwest. But that’s okay. Benning didn’t move Eddie Lack to make friends. My theory: he did it so you people would shut up about Eddie Lack.
As evidence, I turn to one Alexandre Burrows, who said it first. From NHL.com:
"With the goalie controversy we had with Luongo and Schneider, they didn't want to have a similar controversy with Miller and Lack," Burrows said. "They signed Ryan Miller for three years, but Lack had a strong finish to the season when Miller was out with a knee injury. They traded Lack away and there were some fans who wanted a better return on the trade, but was it possible? They're not on the phone like the GM."
Ever the team player, Burrows does some quality defending here, explaining that, yes, a better return is always ideal, but unless you were on the phone weighing your options, your concept of “better” isn’t based on anything but fantasy. We can all agree that a better deal would have been better. But was it possible? Hard to say.
At least in terms of the return for Lack. The readymade response to this line of rhetoric is simple: the better deal was trading Ryan Miller instead, and Benning did foolishly disclose (or, at least, claim) that they got calls on Miller too. But this Burrows quote speaks to that too. Again:
“With the goalie controversy we had with Luongo and Schneider, they didn't want to have a similar controversy with Miller and Lack.”
And there it is. Eddie Lack was popular, all right -- too popular. The Canucks are allergic to goaltending controversies at this point. After the Luongo saga, all they wanted was a quiet crease. They were all to happy to keep their starter from the media on game days. Fewer quotes, fewer controversies.
But they underestimated Lack, a lightning rod for attention, now the go-to for game day goalie quotes. This city already can’t get enough of its backups, and the Canucks gave them a handsome, photogenic, likeable, funny, social media-savvy number two. That’s a nightmare scenario, and it got even worse when Miller went down with injury. By season’s end, the Lack lovefest was so out of control that even the sky-is-falling print columnists were writing paeans to the backup.
It was too much. The people were too into him. And when it came time to decide which of the perfectly serviceable trio of goalies had to be moved to make room for the other two, the Canucks saw a way to make a move and silence the goalie drama all at once.
Sure, you’re upset now. But he did it for your own good, Vancouver. One day you’ll thank him.
