December 17 in Review...

Wednesday was a truly special day for the Vancouver Canucks franchise and their heart and soul for 16 years, Trevor Linden.

As pretty much the entire city knows by now, prior to the game vs the Edmonton Oilers, the Canucks honoured their former captain in a ceremony to retire his #16.

Linden wiped away a tear as he watched his #16 raised to the rafters in front of a capacity crowd cheering loudly at GM Place.

Linden said “This is an incredible day…to the fans of Vancouver and the province of B.C., it’s hard to express my gratitude to you tonight….thank you for letting me into your lives…for being incredible, passionate hockey fans”.

Linden’s jersey joins Stan Smyl’s #12 as the only two Canuck jerseys to be retired by the club. Linden is the second all time leading scorer of the Canucks franchise.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was also on hand to celebrate the occasion. There were video tributes from former coach and general manager Pat Quinn, former teammates Markus Naslund and Brendan Morisson, professional golfer Mike Weir and former two time NBA MVP Steve Nash.

After all the ceremonies and a lengthy delay, the current edition of the Canucks honoured Linden in their own way by conjuring up a 4-2 victory over the Oilers. Craig Mactavish’s crew was reeling from a 9-2 loss the previous night at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks. The boys from Oil Country, obviously embarrassed from the thrashing the night before, came out hard, but after the first couple of shifts the Canucks persisted and on the strength of a couple fortunate bounces in the second period were able to prevail on Trevor Linden night.

The lack of overall intensity from the Oilers, especially after getting routed the night before, was surprising to say the least. Could this be the end of Mactavish’s tenure in the Alberta capital?

Canucks next matchup will be at home on Hockey Night in Canada against the red hot Chicago Blackhawks.