Canucks Twitter showed its best side in Boudreau saga

Sportsnet

After a weekend of negativity, I’d like to take the opportunity to shine a light on something positive: Canucks Twitter.

Yes, you heard me right. Canucks Twitter.

It is maligned, ridiculed, even feared, but this weekend we saw the best of it. We saw the best of Canucks fans, the best of this community, and both deserve kudos for the way they stepped up and showed compassion and humanity in the absence of that from the club.

It started late last week, when it became apparent there wouldn’t be a mercy-firing and that Bruce Boudreau would coach the back-to-back games over the weekend.

Would love to hear multiple standing ovations for Bruce today & tomorrow.

Show your love & respect for a fantastic coach & even better human.

Want to hear some loud Bruce there it is, make him feel the love from the fans maybe even a thank you Bruce chant.#Canucks

— Ray Hatt (@Raymond_Hatt) January 21, 2023

The fans took their cues and delivered Friday even if the players didn’t in a lacklustre effort and loss to Colorado.

The Canucks weren’t winners, but our community had a cathartic moment at the rink.

Nights like tonight are such a great example of how wonderful the #Canucks fanbase is. If you give this city and its hockey team your absolute all, regardless of the outcome, the people will love you unconditionally. They always recognize heart and back you till the end for it.

— Lachlan Irvine (@LachInTheCrease) January 21, 2023

Lachlan is the Mayor of Rightville.

In the absence of Stanley Cup champions to lionize, this market has embraced those who did their best and got as close as they could. It’s why the ’94 team is still revered. They produced memories that still resonate, even if the ultimate prize escaped, and they formed a bond with the citizenry.

You talk to the likes of Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean or even guys like Stan Smyl and Richard Brodeur from the ’82 team, they can’t say enough about this community. They all came from elsewhere and chose to make their lives here after their playing days.

That says something about the hockey fans of Vancouver and British Columbia.

So did Saturday.

More outpouring for Bruce, and the unprecedented scene of an NHL coach taking it all in and tearfully savouring what will likely be his last game. It’s a moment that will live in infamy for the Canucks, yet live in the hearts and minds of everyone who was on the right side of this chapter.

It’s weird how all the “negativity” is mainly directed at people in the org who either take short cuts or act without integrity

— jokerfied leisure suit larionov (@failsonmcdonald) January 22, 2023

That’s now the game for Canucks Sports and Entertainment.

If ownership and hockey operations continues to think it can take shortcuts to contention, so be it.

We will grapple with those decisions on the level of fandom.

But show us you have integrity!

The company and its senior directors now have to prove to us that they are decent people, worthy of financial and emotional support.

Because for all the flak Canucks’ Twitter takes, this weekend prove that the cesspool is not online. It’s at Rogers Arena.