Can the 'Nucks Bounce Back?

They were so close. The Vancouver Canucks came within one game of winning the Stanley Cup, something that has never been accomplished in the 41 year history of the Canadian based organization. One game, four goals. Yes, coming so close and failing, not to mention on your own home ice, is heartbreaking, but don't forget, everyone gets over it eventually. The veteran Canucks still have most of the roster that won them the Presidents Trophy (1st place in the league) with a 117 point regular season intact, and they will be back with more motivation. Coming so close makes people want to work so much harder to get to that point that eluded them only months ago. The Canucks witnessed two groups of people parading around on the Rogers Arena ice in the past two year. One was team Canada winning the gold medal in the Olympics and the other was the Boston Bruins in June parading around while hoisting hockey's holy grail over their heads (just pointing out that when Bruins captain Zdeno Chara held e Cup, it was the highest that it has ever been, 6'10"). Although some of the Canucks were on the Canadian team that won the gold in 2010, none of them were celebrating a Stanley Cup victory this year. The Canucks still have Roberto Luongo, whose stellar play earned him a Vezina Trophy nominee for league's best goalie (although he did lose to Bruins goalie Tim Thomas), and Luongo will most likely be great again in net for the Vancouver team. That is in the regular season. Come playoffs, Luongo's play tends to slip a bit, most notably this past postseason. If his playoff performance does not start to improve , the Stanley Cup Runners-up will have a tough time getting anywhere, and Luongo could even be in danger of losing his job to Cory Schneider, who is a reliable goalie that also performed marvelously when called upon in the regular season and the playoffs.