You can read the full story by Nancy Macdonald HERE
but this excerpt pretty much sums it up:

Disgust for Vancouver crystallized in a single moment last June, when Daniel Sedin allowed Brad Marchand—generously listed at five foot nine—to smack him in the face again and again like an inflatable clown. Marchand landed no less than six punches. Sedin just stood there as the Boston rookie speed-bagged his face. Questions about the team’s toughness have only escalated since. This spring, the Sedins, along with Toronto’s Phil Kessel, were labelled hockey’s “most easily intimidated” players in a Sports Illustrated poll. The Canucks aren’t quite the pushovers they’re made out to be, but they were one of the league’s least penalized teams this season, and the only NHL squad that didn’t receive supplementary discipline. Neither stat is considered an honour. The Canucks, “gutless” and “unwilling to drop their sticks,” according to Chicago Daily Herald columnist Barry Rozner, are a “disgrace to the game.” New hire Sammy Pahlsson, about the closest thing they’ve got to a bruiser, is . . . also Swedish.

For years, everyone in hockey has lambasted (General Manager Mike) Gillis for refusing to add enforcers to the lineup, widely seen as Vancouver’s gaping flaw. Gillis, however, sees hockey “evolving to a more highly skilled game.” There’s no room in Vancouver for “one-dimensional” players who “can’t contribute.” Indeed, this year, several teams, including Toronto, followed his lead, dumping their enforcers, fourth-line fighters who log seven minutes a night. T

The Canucks are written off as too pretty—like Vancouver itself. Life is better in Lotusland, with its booming economy, world’s No. 1 city status and year-round kayaking; and let’s face it, that rankles. The regional rivalry that cleaves the country from east to west has meanwhile been aggravated with the upstart West flipping the balance of power on its head. The country’s new economic engine and now, a hockey powerhouse, too? Partly because of the perception that its success has come at the cost of Ontario, the West has become an easy target for resentment. This makes it easy for Canadians to hate a hockey team from their own country. These reasons don’t stand up to scrutiny—but the prettiest girl in school is also a target of hatred, and it all boils down to jealousy.


http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/04/16/canucks-nation/

"booming economy?"  Proof the writer hasn't been here in awhile.

Newsflash:  

Most of Canada is too busy working to pay off huge mortgages and high taxes to worry about an out-of-town hockey team.

An alert media would be constantly pressuring and embarrassing the various levels of government to ease pressure on suffering Canadians.

But no, they write a time-wasting article about hockey teams.

And they wonder why circulation is down. :o

We do? I'm "out east" and I'm staying up quite late to cheer on this team.

Go LA Go...

Anybody but Vancouver. The way they play represents everything wrong in hockey. They've perenially lost to teams like Chicago (two and three years ago) and Boston (last year) and LA (this year) when those teams were "Men" more than the Canucks were. They're soft, scared and refuse to be physical in the right ways. The only time you'll see them doing anything physical is after the play is over, when they bite, pull hair, slash or any other manner of cheap tactics. There's a reason Ryan Whitney of the Oilers said "95% of the guys in the league want no part of these guys winning". And a comment about Max Lapierre: "I don't think he has an ounce of man in him. I'd be embarrassed if I were his father."