The Province

Award winners won everything but …

But in the end, what simply mattered the most was a Stanley Cup

- PATRICK JOHNSTON pjohnston@postmedia.com twitter.com/risingacti­on

As the Canucks celebrate their 50th season, we’re looking back at the moments that stand out as the biggest in franchise history on the ice and off, good and a few bad. We will highlight the top moments from the 1970s through November, the ’80s in December, the ’90s in January, the ’00s in February and the ’10s in March.

At the end of the day, there’s just no avoiding the fact that big “but” when you write anything about the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks.

They were dominant in goals for, goals against, on the power play, on the penalty kill, in goal.

They won a slew of awards. But they didn’t win the Stanley Cup.

Daniel Sedin won the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer and the Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL Players Associatio­n’s choice as the league’s most outstandin­g player. He was a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. Ryan Kesler won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider won the William M. Jennings Trophy for the league’s fewest goals against.

And coach Alain Vigneault was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

“Statistica­lly, they were just the most superior team in the league in almost every category,” Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy said this week. “Losing to Corey Perry for the Hart, I think we kind of agree that Daniel probably got jobbed a little bit, but I mean I guess if there’s one you want to win, it’s the one where the players vote. So I think he was happy with that, but it was just insane how that year any category looked at — and when people look back, even with fancy stats how dominant they were in terms of possession and shot share and all that stuff — it was just really remarkable from start to finish, and yet they didn’t have the one thing they really wanted.

“It’s a finicky, funny game.” On top of Sedin being recognized for his remarkable season — he lost the Hart to Perry, who scored 14 goals in the season’s final 12 games, a stretch that seems to have swayed the voters away from recognizin­g a Sedin two years in a row as the league’s MVP — Kesler was especially dominant. He scored 41 goals while facing the opposition’s top players.

“He was always getting those defensive-zone draws, along with Manny (Malhotra), because AV (Vigneault) was kind of one of the first coaches to really think about that, let’s give those draws to those two every time when we’re down in the defensive zone,” Murphy said. “It was pretty much Manny or Kes depending on what the shifts were like before that. And I think some coaches took from that thinking going forward.”

The Canucks weren’t considered to have a true No. 1 defenceman, but in hindsight Dan Hamhuis deserves a lot of credit for the influence he had on that lineup. The quiet competitor was signed in the summer of 2010 and was the best shutdown defenceman this town has ever seen.

When he was injured throwing a hip-check on the Bruins’ Milan Lucic in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final many, including former GM Mike Gillis as well as Murphy, argued that this was when the series truly turned.

There was just no replacing Hamhuis.

And it makes it interestin­g to ponder, nine years later, whether perhaps he should have had more considerat­ion for the James Norris Trophy as the league’s best blueliner.

Nicklas Lidstrom won, with Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber as finalists.

“I think probably the reason he didn’t were his offensive numbers,” Murphy said. “Defensivel­y, he was one of the premier shutdown guys at that time, but he didn’t put up a lot of offensive numbers and that’s what voters look at first, unfortunat­ely.

“But that’s the other thing with that team, that defence. We still say they’ve never had a true No. 1 D-man, right? But that team, they might have had six Number 2s and 3s.”

Their defensive prowess in front of the goalies went a long way toward Luongo (.928) and Schneider (.929) posting remarkable save percentage­s. The Canucks won 54 games that season. Most nights, it seemed a certainty they were going to win.

“They could be down two or three goals going into third period and you knew they were going to win,” Murphy said, finally.

“They’d just roll into town. You know how teams always say, ‘We only have to worry about ourselves?’ They did, because no teams can contain them.”

 ?? — GETTY IMAGES FILES ?? Goalies Roberto Luongo, left, and Cory Schneider gave the Canucks great netminding in 2010-11, and were rewarded for it at season’s end at the NHL Awards show with the William M. Jennings Trophy as the backstoppe­rs on the team with the fewest goals against.
— GETTY IMAGES FILES Goalies Roberto Luongo, left, and Cory Schneider gave the Canucks great netminding in 2010-11, and were rewarded for it at season’s end at the NHL Awards show with the William M. Jennings Trophy as the backstoppe­rs on the team with the fewest goals against.

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