Canucks and Beyond

Being the Favorite Doesn't Mean Much Anymore

04/12/2011 at 4:28pm EDT

In today’s Globe & Mail, Eric Duhatschek writes of upsets in the “age of parity”:

With the Vancouver Canucks going in as favourites, I was reminded a year in which they were the heavy underdogs and almost pulled off one of the most statistically mind-boggling upsets of all time.

It was 1989, in the opening round, and after finishing 43 points behind the first-place Calgary Flames, the Canucks took it all the way to overtime in the deciding game and lost on an iffy goal

43 points! Duhatschek notes it would have been “an upset for the ages.” Indeed. By contrast, Henrik Sedin points out how tight things are nowadays:

“A lot of people are looking at us as a big, big favourite. I mean, what are we, 15 points ahead of the eighth-place team? It’s nothing. It’s a point here and there. It’s a shootout win.”

Sedin brought up another great point: “It’s the same as last year when we played L.A. We were the big favourites in the first round - and they were two points behind us. It’s a little bit ridiculous the way media and fans look at it.”

Complete article here with some quotes from Roberto Luongo and Alex Burrows as well.

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Update: Just noticed I spelled ‘favourite’ wrong in the title (by Canadian dictionaries, anyway). Damn. You bloody Americans are brainwashing me… ;)

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