A lot happened this summer, both for the Canucks and for us.
Let's start with us. As you may recall, we used to blog over at The Vancouver Sun. But they dumped us this summer. After what we felt were three truly glorious years together, someone must have told the newspaper we were still there, down in the basement, clutching our red staplers and drawing a paycheque. So they cut us loose.
Discouraged (and tired, since following the Canucks this closely wears you out physically, emotionally, and intellectually), we briefly debated shuttering the blog and moving onto other things. It was a tempestuous summer for both of us personally, and for a while, it made some sense. But then The Vancouver Courier offered to pay us, and that made more sense. So we're back.
We like the new home. Now that they pay us to think it, we think The Courier is a fabulous newspaper. It's also a real meat-and-potatoes outfit, so it's a fitting place to be covering Jim Benning's Canucks, a meat-and-potatoes team, for better or for worse. (For worse, says the stats community, not to mention anyone on the paleo diet, since meat is fine, but potatoes have a high glycemic index.)
It's hard to argue the Canucks are better now than they were last season, especially since you're bound to be drowned out by the snorts and chuckles of other fanbases. For example, here's an Oilers fan responding to Jim Benning's recent suggestion that the Canucks could be an 100-point team.
Hahaha Jim Benning believes he's has a 100 point playoff team....Thanks for making me spit my Cheerios everywhere you asshole. #NotHappening
— Joey Degner (@joeydegner) September 14, 2015
Again: this is an Oilers fan who thinks he can mock another team's management. An Oilers fan. His team may as well be run by the broken clock that inspired the idiom, and he thinks he can lip off the Canucks. What happened?
Simply, the Canucks were the winners of this summer's Laughtingstock Lottery, making a handful of eyebrow-raising moves that -- and this is where they really erred -- could be panned via shareable graphs and graphics.
That's fine. It doesn't mean much at this point. The Canucks are either going to be better or they're not, and if you people listened to yourselves, you'd realize you've been calling for them to be simultaneously good and bad for two years now. (Win! Get high draft picks!) You can't lose this season, even if the Canucks do often.
Despite all the noise this summer, we're excited about this year. It may be hard to argue the Canucks are better, but it's not impossible. They might be. A good Canucks team would be fun. But a bad Canucks team team will be fun too, since we don't follow the Canucks to see them win anyway -- we follow them to see what happens.
When you’re a laughing stock, make laughing soup.
Sure, we want them to win. But they never do. They never have. That's fine. You really shouldn't count on it. If it's the only thing that will satisfy you, it's probably best to get out now. Only one team in 30 can win it, and being the best team doesn't even guarantee it.
So, whatever about the Stanley Cup. There's lots to enjoy here anyway. The Canucks have a bunch of new players and prospects looking to convince fans and management that they should be part of the next core. They've got old guys desperate for one last shot. They've got another goaltending controversy brewing, whether they like it or not. They may have thought signing Ryan Miller would quiet things down, but committing to an overpaid starter that can't outplay his backups is the best recipe for noise.
Pass it to Bulis remains a blog looking for stuff to laugh about, and if this summer is any indication, we won't be starved for material at our new home. We're happy to be back, and we're happy to have you back, if you're back.
