The Canucks entered the NHL in 1970 as Vancouver’s professional hockey team. Canada already had two very successful franchises in Toronto and Montreal, both of which had won the Stanley Cup multiple times and Montreal was already a dynasty. The Canucks had very high expectations to live up to, being a Canadian hockey franchise.
From the start, management adopted a tough style of play, selecting tough players who could handle the gritty nature of professional hockey. There is a saying among Canadians regarding hockey that goes, “I went to see a fight last night and a hockey game broke out.” This is an ironic reference to the number of fights that occur in hockey, blood-soaked brawls that can almost be counted in every game. It’s become part of the sport, the fans love it, and if a referee tries to stop a fight before it’s over, the fans boo him loudly and bitterly. Attendance tickets and revenue are down so the league and management are no longer trying to stop fights, they let fighters fight and the arena changes from a hockey arena to a fight arena as soon as a fight starts.
A spotlight illuminates the fighters and follows them around the rink, players from both teams cheer on their teammates, players on the bench bang their hockey sticks against the rink walls in support, the fans go wild, everyone stands up, and “fight-style” music pours from the arena’s speakers. It’s big business and the league knows it.
It’s this culture that the Vancouver Canucks launched their franchise into, and clearly management had a plan to capitalize on it. It could be argued whether management ever had any plans to win in the first place, or whether they opted for a guaranteed draw for fans by drafting a team full of fighters. Either way, one thing is clear, the Vancouver Canucks rarely, if ever, lost a fight. This made them wildly popular with their fans and the rest of the league’s fans, who loved to watch a game featuring Vancouver as they knew they would be treated to at least one barbaric display of brutality.
Over the years, times have changed, and while brawls have remained popular, teams have managed to build a degree of toughness into their roster enough to take on any fight that comes along, while also putting a skilled team on the line. the ice capable of winning games. The concept of “team enforcer” was born, where each team designated a designated tough guy, whose job it was to make sure that the team’s skilled players were not intimidated or mistreated beyond normal. His job was essentially to be the team’s police officer.
As this trend took hold, teams like the Canucks lost popularity as fans recognized that they didn’t have to sacrifice quality for toughness, that they could have it all. So the Vancouver Canucks had to change, and they changed. They began to recruit skillful players from Europe and Russia, and the team began to win. However, it was a transition and it took time, but in the 1980s they weren’t just in the playoffs, they were winning and advancing to the next round, and in 1982 they reached the Stanley Cup final, for the first time. It didn’t, but it showed the Canucks and the league that the Canucks had arrived and were a quality, skillful team.
During this time, the Canucks fan base grew in size, loyalty, and knowledge. Websites and blogs dedicated to the Canucks were easy to find, and forums discussing the Canucks were active with speculation and breaking news. The typical Vancouver blogger was a hockey player, as Vancouver has dozens of amateur leagues and “beer leagues” where hockey isn’t just a sport, it’s a religion. As a result, Vancouver blogs are rich sources of hockey information, where trade rumours, management direction and upcoming games are discussed extensively.
Today, the Vancouver Canucks are considered one of the top franchises in the NHL and have established themselves as a first-class organization that any player would be proud to play for. Their history as a tough team doesn’t hurt them one bit, as the fighting culture remains strong in hockey, so strong that hockey commentators regularly debate which team’s enforcer is the toughest in the league. They usually don’t have to argue much, as Executors love to challenge each other, in fact, in almost every game. So these disputes are resolved like all hockey disputes, on the ice.