from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,
Let's pretend for a moment this is a normal hockey season and we didn't spend three months trying to make sense of the make-whole provision.
By the time we get to April in a normal season, you generally have an idea about a team's state of preparedness as it readies for the playoffs. You know if they're hot or cold; coming together or falling apart. You know if their stars are starring or slumping; if they're big enough or tough enough; if they have playoff-calibre goaltending.
It doesn't mean the outcome of the Stanley Cup tournament is predictable Far from it. But it does mean you can review the available evidence and form a logical argument about the team in question and its chances.
Which brings us around to your Vancouver Canucks. The beauty, and the curse, of this Canucks' season is it can mean anything you want it to mean. Want to make the case they're a Stanley Cup contender? That's easy. Aren't they on a 12-4-1 run with three games left on their schedule? And aren't they just two years removed from a trip to the final?
Are they hollow pretenders? Of course they are. Weren't they in a three-wins-in-11-games tailspin not too long ago? And weren't they knocked out of the first round last year?
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