Three Little Words: "It's Been Worse"

(Gah! Higgins once again uses his speed and tenacity to hijack my opening)

After last night's "ironic scrimmage" by the Canucks (I like to imagine they thought they were above such trivial things as winning hockey games for a night), the left coast is once again flipping out over a bad effort. Not saying the Canucks didn't look bad, they did. Aside from Dan Hamhuis getting his first of the season and Maxim Lapierre trying to "Royal Rumble" Cal Clutterbuck into the Canucks bench (not to mention Clutterbuck's all class accidental cheap shot to the refs face as he was trying to break it up) there were no "highlights" to speak of. Except this. I can't stress enough that this happened.



The "Shanny Signal" is shining bright in the sky, Clutterbuck's in trouble.

(Shanahan: "Not tolerating bullcrap" since 2011)


Everywhere I turn I see brief, snippy three word opinions of the game, the team and the season:

"Sky is falling".

"Where's the defence?"

"Bad in October".

"Trade everyone anywhere".

There is a three word mantra I use at times like this (you know, after one bad loss and two big wins) to stay positive and put things in perspective:

It's been worse.

(Oh hello there, worst thing ever. I didn't hear you come in)

There was a time where the Canucks were populated by a bunch of overpaid babies who couldn't even make the playoffs, let alone get to within 1 game (and 5 goals) of the Stanley Cup. I have followed this team through light and dark and there is no time I can remember darker than when that "chip eating dream killer" infiltrated our team and ripped it apart from the inside during the late '90s.

(As opposed to the "soul eating dream killer")

You remember a little over a decade ago we had a team captained by Mark Messier and coached by Mike Keenan? Those were tough days to be a Canuck fan. I think deep down we all secretly hated that team. I made a vow in 1994 that I would never actively cheer for anything Mark Messier did. Thankfully, he did nothing here worth cheering about so I held up my end of it.

People are lighting their torches and getting ready to storm Gillis' office over a 6-6-1 start? C'mon folks this is not a 25 game season. There is a lot of hockey left to play and with all the pieces we have in place, even with the occasional loss I still find plenty to cheer about. If we wind up with a record lower than the '98 squad's 23-47-12 debacle, by all means I will abandon my "It's been worse" mantra.

("Potvin was here" would definitely make me appreciate the things I have now)

The Canucks are coming off the best year in team history, they have the vast majority of those pieces back and I can look up and down the roster and say that win or lose, this is a team to cheer for. Things will come together, we were never going to run the table and go 81-0-1 (got to be a little realistic, there would be a tie in there somewhere) so if they drop 10 straight, and 8 of those games are against Columbus, then maybe I will start to freak out a little. Until then, just keep reminding yourself:

It's been worse.

Thanks for Reading

- jB

I am motioning to change the phrase "like white on rice" to "like j.Bowman on twitter". I have a special place in my heart for doomed causes. (@jbowmancouver)

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