“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.

Well I think that Gags and McIntyre summed up the weekend with their respective columns pretty well.

Basically the Canucks are going to have dust off their blue-collar game in order to weather injuries to Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra, Sami Salo and Mathew Schnieder. The loss of these four giants seem utterly drastic right now.

And their road game needs to improve from it’s current 0-4 graveyard in order to survive the 14 road-trip-from-hell-thanks-to-the-fucking-olympiad-bullshit-bullshit.

Seeing Calgary pummel the Canucks looked like it might be a regular occurance this season, but after destroying Calgary in the first 2 games last year (remember the Ripper had a pair of goals) this start should realign the balance of power for the rest of the season.

It’s a crap-shoot with these clowns. And speaking of shooting for shit the Canucks have the worst shooting-percentage in the league right now despite being 2nd in shots-on-goal, they are 18th in shooting-percentage.

It makes you think that under Coach Vee’s affable grin he must know that all the soul searching in world won’t produce an accuracte shot.

Oh well, just keep shooting the puck on net, hope for the lucky bounces.

(Here is were I don’t talk about the win against Minnesota on Saturday. The Canucks should have won 7-1 but barely eked out a one goal advantage after shooting everything they owned at a spectacular Backstromm. Kesler played his best game of the season but it still left me wanting more, um, goals)

And then that Russian vs. the Computer of a game against Edmonton.

Going 0-for on the power-play against a team with zero stars takes the Canucks from proverbial bad to proverbial worst.

And if you can’t depress the matter even more, it looks like Luongo is starting to pick up his games. But if the Canucks can’t find scoring (notice the talk of Vancouver’s cause celeb the past few years — secondary scoring — has gone silent) then we may harken back to three seasons ago whereby Louie stands on his head for the team, the team manufactures 2-1 wins down the stretch, clinches the division and subsequently qualifies for one more 2nd round exit (for the ages).

This is the depth of our history folks.

If you were depressed for any reason beside the Canucks before this weekend commenced, leave it to the boys in blue to drain all traces of serotonin from the system.

Next Up – Chicago