Black Ice Vancouver

“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

I went and saw Inception yesterday and it has been knawing at my craw all day what it might take to break into the sub-concious of the Vancouver fanbase and plant a seed. THIS IS OUR YEAR VANCOUVER. The writing is on the wall. We got a Hart Trophy winner, 20-goal scorers coming our unholy openings and we got depth, DEPTH, down the middle (should Cody Hodgson take flight the plot bifurcates).

Raymond got his term and management got their money, so there is one more piece in an ever expanding arsenal. What else can an anorexic fan ask for? What more does one need?

Vancouver for so long has been hampered by a civic-wide parasite of negative self-talk. THEY’RE A BUNCH OF BUMS. LUONGO SUCKS. BURE IS GAY. Call it, the curse of Cyclone Taylor or the curse of the Denman Arena. Call it whatever. The fact is, every time “this is the year,” the team in question 1981, 1994, 2003, 2010 stumbles at some point in the post-season and the collective fan base loses confidence. Then, like a line of parasitic dominoes, the entire team loses their collective shit.

So getting back to Inception. What we need this year is a mantra: THIS IS OUR YEAR. We cannot waver from this accord. Ideas are too powerful, too dangerous if used incorrectly in this age.

The curious case of Sami Salo has turned what was once a head-scratching, head-shaking, WTF moment, into a casual understanding that the Fragile Finn has nothing less then a glass jaw. At some point in the season commentators will miss him because of a dip in numbers from the defence. This will pass.

There is no feeling so bad that it will not pass eventually.

Salo will be missed but he must be sent to the Albatross graveyard in the sky. His presence, much like Nathan LaFayette’s goal-post in ‘94, is far too much for the the fragile psyche of this city to handle.

In the interim let it be of comfort that MG has assemble THE TEAM and this is THE YEAR. Quite frankly because this is THE WINDOW.

If the Canucks don’t accomplish in the next two years what they are capable of doing than they can have another curse to draw on. One of a strange Finnish man who came all the way to Canada to gain his soul through hockey, but somehow lost his body in the process.