So the Canucks season ended last night. Honestly, I want to say that it took me by surprise and bowled me over, but it wasn’t the case. Going into the series I was feeling strangely confident about the Canucks. Yes, they had been beaten by the Blackhawks last season, but this year was going to be different.

There was talk about the newfound purpose and focus the Canucks had and that they weren’t merely happy to have made it to the second round. Unfortunately, it didn’t do them a whole lot of good as Chicago slowly but surely took them over and curbstomped them.

By Game 3 things were largely decided. I wrote earlier that the Canucks needed to essentially nut up or shut up for Game 4 and show that they had the mental resiliency to bounce back and not take stupid penalties or let crappy officiating dictate things. Well, they came up with that 1 game too late, but by then, it wasn’t a matter of IF the Hawks could finish off the Canucks but when.

Yeah, I sound like a real fairweather fan here, but I’ll argue that the Canucks performance left a lot to be desired in the last couple games of the series. There were a number of problems dating back to the Kings series that served as huge warning signs.

The biggest for me? Alain Vigneault and the rest of the coaching staff’s decision to sit back and not do much about the penalty kill for three days. In the playoffs three days is a lot of time and taking that long to try and correct or address something could spell disaster.

I’m not necessarily arguing that the Canucks would’ve beaten the Blackhawks had they practiced three days earlier. Maybe getting on it earlier could’ve stomped out a problem before they started, maybe not. What I am arguing is that there seemed to be a real lack of preparation or evidence of a solid game plan with the Canucks, particularly against Chicago, a team they should’ve written a book or two on.

It could be seen in the way the Canucks got off of their game from Game 3 onwards. Daniel Sedin in particular was looking particularly surly and off his game, although other players were taking stupid penalties and costing the team. It could be seen with AV’s decision to bring back Ryan Johnson, who had missed over a month of playing time and put him out into the faltering penalty kill unit, opting to place a fourth liner making over a million dollars (and one who had been a fantastic disappointment in his time with Vancouver) out there in lieu of the Sedin twins, who had volunteered their services and had actually helped improve the penalty kill. It showed with AV’s decision to place Demitra in the press box and elevate Jannik Hansen to the second line…all while keeping Michael Grabner out of the mix, despite his showing some promise both in the limited minutes he had in the playoffs and with Ryan Kesler and Mason Raymond in the regular season…both of whom had rather disappointing playoff performances.

Roberto Luongo also faltered, especially when it counted. Watching the game last night, every goal was scored on the breakaway or on an odd-man rush. One of them being shorthanded. No matter how you slice it, last night was an absolutely disappointing performance from the Canucks star goaltender and has many fans nervously tugging their collars and wondering just what precisely has management gotten themselves into with this new super long contract.

And you know? I want to be positive and optimistic about things. It’s almost assured that the Canucks are going to be seeing an upgrade on their backend this offseason. Probably the biggest weakness of the Canucks was in the form of the defense: having Andrew Alberts, Kevin Bieksa and Shane O’Brien eating up significant minutes was a recipe for disaster, as evidenced last night. The good news is that there are pieces available to Mike Gillis to make a move for a defenseman: there’s goalie prospect Cory Schneider, plus some depth to Canucks forwards. Mason Raymond could be potentially moved with both Michael Grabner and Cody Hodgson knocking on the door. Gillis has most of his draft picks also at his disposal for next season (missing the second and third for the upcoming draft) so there’s some stuff there.

The Canucks do have a bright future ‘down on the farm’, too. Although Vancouver is still hurting from the loss of Luc Bourdon and lack the high level talent on the blueline that a player like Bourdon could’ve become, there are some promising players in the system, notably Jordan Schroeder, who went pro at the end of his NCAA year this season, defenseman Kevin Connauton, who jumped over to junior hockey this season after also playing in the NCAA and defenseman Yann Sauve who went to the Q Finals with the Saint John Sea Dogs. There’s also the aformentioned Cody Hodgson and a few other players kicking around the system.

Finally, there’s the fact that there are several Canucks who are up for awards for their work in the regular season. While it’s nice to get recognition for Canucks players, I’ll spin this in a way by saying that win or lose, Ryan Kesler and Henrik Sedin should use their fantastic regular seasons as motivation to perform better in the playoffs. Probably wishful thinking here, buuuuuuut it’d be nice to see some newfound motivation in the Canucks next season.

All that said, I’d like to say congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks and wish them all the best going into the Western Conference Final. I know it may sound treasonous, but being a long suffering fan of the Canucks, I can’t help but empathize with a team that had to suffer for so long under the yoke of former owner Bill Wirtz. Dude didn’t televise Hawks home games locally because he thought it’d help drive ticket sales, didn’t enjoy spending money on the team and was just a real prick of an owner.

Anyway, I’m rambling now. I’ll probably have a few pieces linked up on Canucks prospects, the draft, free agency and some other assorted stuff over the summer, but that’ll be about it. I hadn’t really blogged heavily on the Canucks before midway through this season and had a ton of fun, so I should be back again next season.