CanucksArmy top 5 of 2022: Rutherford’s early interview, Canucks players’ reaction to the Hamonic trade, and more
This year at canucks army, We thought it would be fun to take a look back and dive into the dates of our most read stories of the year.
Tomorrow, on New Year’s Eve, we’ll be listing the top 25 of the year, but today we thought we’d tease it with a slightly more in-depth look at the top five stories from the last calendar year.
So without further ado, here are the top 5 articles of the year here at Canuck’s Army!
5. “Canucks President Jim Rutherford on Trade Plans, Riots and Elias Pettersson’s Struggles” by Lachlan Irvine on January 2, 2022
What a difference (almost) a year makes.
Shortly after his hiring, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford did an interview on Sportsnet 650 in which he discussed his leadership style and how the Canucks planned to approach the rest of last season and beyond.
In the interview, Rutherford spoke about the shortlist of candidates he had to fill the Canucks’ then-vacant general manager position.
Discussing the then ailing Elias Pettersson, among others, Rutherford expressed confidence that the young Swedish striker would eventually turn the tide.
“I think he’s made progress in the right direction compared to the first 20 games or so,” Rutherford said. “He’s making some progress, although not as fast as we’d all like. But we know it’s there. He’s done it before. And he just has to keep working on it.”
Pettersson actually kept working on it, and the result is that he now leads the Canucks in points.
When Rutherford speaks, people listen. That’s no different now than it was at the start of 2022, and that’s why this article lands in our fifth spot.
4. “Report: San Jose Sharks Terminate Evander Kane’s Contract After Traveling to Vancouver While Positive for COVID-19” by Zach Laing on January 8, 2022
That was a truly bizarre story, as one report came out The Athletics Kevin Kurz that the San Jose Sharks terminated Evander Kane’s contract after he traveled to his hometown of Vancouver while he was COVID-19 positive.
Kane was also suspended by the NHL for 21 games earlier this season after presenting a fake vaccination card to circumvent league rules.
After the Sharks canceled his contract, the Edmonton Oilers swooped in to pick him up and re-signed Kane last offseason.
3. “The Arizona Coyotes Are Out of Control and It’s Time for the NHL to Take Action” by Noah Strang on May 22, 2022
CanucksArmy writers are all known for different things. Stephan is known for his long thought provoking, Faber for prospects, Lachlan for goalie stuff, Cody for Abbotsford tracking, Michael for telling us why the Canucks statistically won or lost games, and of course Wyatt for that he made me stay up too late to edit The Stanchies.
But Noah has emerged as one of those writers more willing to speak his mind without apologies and shoot from the hip. When something is on his mind, he doesn’t hesitate to put pen to paper and say it the way he sees it. More than one of his editorials will appear in tomorrow’s top 25, but this one, on the Arizona Coyotes’ situation in the arena, lands in our third spot.
In the comment, Noah wrote:
“The NHL already plays the role of a little brother in the North American sports world, lagging behind the MLB, NFL and NBA in every conceivable metric. Hockey is a great product, but the fact remains that it doesn’t sell in every American market, and trying to force it leads to embarrassing situations like this that only attack the league’s legitimacy.
“How could you argue that the NHL produces a product of the same quality as these other leagues when one of the franchises is set on a college campus? The Coyotes’ situation has continued to deteriorate and it is time for the NHL to step in and take serious action before disaster strikes.”
There’s more in the full article, of course, but you get the idea. People clearly appreciated what Noah had to say because this was one of our most shared articles and one of the most time spent reading Canuck’s Army this year.
2. “Tampa Bay Lightning announcer calls Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau an ‘idiot,’ live on air” by David Quadrelli on March 14, 2022
Hello, I know him!
Like many of you, I watched the Canucks take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 13, 2022. I was in the press box for that game, a 2-1 loss for the Canucks on home ice, which means I didn’t watch or listen to any broadcasts of it.
But when I got home that night, I saw a clip of Tampa’s color commentator Bobby Taylor on Twitter doing the rounds all over social media.
In the clip, Taylor responds to Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau, asking officials for an explanation as to why a high-pitched call rated Tampa defenseman Jan Rutta was reviewed and withdrawn. The narrator calls Boudreau an “idiot”.
It was bizarre and unprofessional, and apparently people love that sort of thing because this was our second most viewed article of the year.
1. “Report: Several Canucks players say dressing room atmosphere is ‘a breath of fresh air’ without hamonic” by Mike Gould on March 23, 2022
Speaking of bizarre — this is the third time we’ve used that word to describe our top five stories — the reaction when Travis Hamonic was brought from the Canucks to the Ottawa Senators was unlike anything we’ve had before had seen.
We’ve seen former players like Marc Methot talk about hearing about Hamonic being a “different bird”.
