Does this p*ss anyone else off?

[David]

First, let me offer congratulations to the Vancouver Canucks for a hard fought character-building victory against a very good Dallas team. The organization deserves a lot of praise. But doesn't it bother you that this city is 1,000 times more jacked up for a first round playoff victory than they were for a Grey Cup Championship?!? Don't you find it kind of sad (assuming you're rational enough to take a step back and look at the big picture here) that when the Leos win there's a quaint ceremony on the front steps of the Art Gallery, yet when the Canucks win a playoff round there's mass celebrations in bars, bedlam in the streets, and a media feeding frenzy?

Now before you respond (by rote) the propaganda we're inundated with from the mass media on an almost daily basis:

Vancouver is a hockey town
I AM Canadian
Hockey is a religion in this country
We Are All Canucks
Luongo is the best goalie on the planet

I know all that. But it doesn't make it right, and it really hits home how far the Lions still have to go before they're even remotely on an even footing on the Vancouver sporting landscape.

DH 8)

[Robbie]

Well said David, and your point is well taken.

I'll ask a question for clarification sake. Hopefully, you or others can answer this for me, because I really do not know this. Before I start to criticize the city of Vancouver for its lack of support for when the Lions win vs. when the Canucks win, I'd like to know how other Canadian cities with both CFL and NHL teams react when their respective teams win.

Would it be correct to say that the cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa react with more excitement when their respective Flames, Oilers, Maple Leafs, Canadiens, and Senators teams succeed in the playoffs than when their respective Stampeders, Eskimos, Argonauts, Alouettes, and formerly Renegades succeed in the playoffs?

[B.C.FAN]

Frankly, I didn't notice much hysteria tonight. I was resigned to an early Canuck exit and it wouldn't have bothered me. NBA playoffs are just getting going and football season is around the corner. Sure, more people follow the Canucks than the Lions but the bandwagon has had a rough ride lately.

[Rammer]

Calgary Flames practically shutdown the entire City when they make a run at Lord Stanley. Will I admire your dedication to strive for more from the Lions, you will never in your lifetime see the equivalent level of celebration for the Lions that you see for the Canucks. I accept that, the sooner you do the less stressed out about a situation that you cannot control will help you as well.

You also have to take into consideration that the emotion in hockey in the playoffs during a series rises considerably the longer the series goes, and a game seven, well there is no sport that holds a candle to backdrop of G7 that I know of.

[TheLionKing]

Frankly, I didn't notice much hysteria tonight. I was resigned to an early Canuck exit and it wouldn't have bothered me. .

If you saw the late night news, they showed pictures of Robson Street clog with cars with horns blaring. Where I live, there were cars driving by honking their horns, air horns, fans yelling..... and it's only one series.

[sj-roc]

Calgary Flames practically shutdown the entire City when they make a run at Lord Stanley. Will I admire your dedication to strive for more from the Lions, you will never in your lifetime see the equivalent level of celebration for the Lions that you see for the Canucks. I accept that, the sooner you do the less stressed out about a situation that you cannot control will help you as well.

You also have to take into consideration that the emotion in hockey in the playoffs during a series rises considerably the longer the series goes, and a game seven, well there is no sport that holds a candle to backdrop of G7 that I know of.

Not to mention that the CFL postseason as a whole is much shorter. Three games at most, and one hopes for only two. The Lions entire postseason last year spanned just over half as long as this one (of potentially four) series -- a mere eight days with widely spaced gaps between games, which simply isn't long enough or frequent enough to capture the imagination of the whole city, or to create as big an emotional roller coaster that a 20-25 game postseason could potentially offer over the course of eight weeks with games nearly every two to three days.

[Canuck_4_Life]

Let me put it this way: The Canucks have reached the Stanley Cup Final only 2 times in 36 years (not including this year) . Based on recent failures (Lidstrom's centre ice goal and the Canucks subsequent choke job, 2003 choke job vs Minnesota, losing Game 7 in OT to Calgary in 2004, missing the playoffs in 2006), Canuck fans who pack GM Place and party in the streets after a series win, are thriving for the excitement that Lions fans have tasted in farily recent times.

The Lions, on the other hand, have 5 Grey Cups in 52 years. The Lions franchise and their fans have tasted victory and the players have rings to prove it.

After the 2006 Western Final, we were pretty jacked up in the TG lot and Lionheart's Roofgater was off the hook.

Each franchise has had their fair share of ups and downs, it's just the younger members of the Canuck fan base may not have been old enough to remember 1994, whereas remembering November 2006 is a lot easier.

[David]

Calgary Flames practically shutdown the entire City when they make a run at Lord Stanley. Will I admire your dedication to strive for more from the Lions, you will never in your lifetime see the equivalent level of celebration for the Lions that you see for the Canucks. I accept that, the sooner you do the less stressed out about a situation that you cannot control will help you as well.

Agreed. I remember the days when the Lions were the media darlings, drawing huge crowds to BC Place and the Canucks were lucky to get 11,000 at the Pacific Coliseum. It wasn't a lifetime ago yet we're not likely to ever see that again. Still, don't you think the pendulum has swung a little too far in the opposite direction?

A first-round NHL playoff series was exciting and all back then, and the city was fully behind its hockey team but, good God, it never reached the absurd proportions of civic boosterism of today when City Councillors wear Canucks jerseys - with their names stitched on the back no less - and wave white towels in the council chambers, the daily newspapers try to outdo each other with local stories on the biggest Canucks fans, the city's only newsradio station breaks into programming with every goal scored.....all for.....Round One.

Sorry to sound like a killjoy. I am happy to for the team and the city. Just upset with the disparity in interest that's all. Our Leos play their butts off, work tirelessly in the community, represent the city and province well and frankly, deserve more.

DH 8)

[Robbie]

You also have to take into consideration that the emotion in hockey in the playoffs during a series rises considerably the longer the series goes, and a game seven, well there is no sport that holds a candle to backdrop of G7 that I know of.

It's an interesting analysis on whether game sevens in the NHL playoffs draw more excitement than game sevens in the MLB and NBA, and why.

The NHL and NBA have a lot of similarities in their playoffs in that there are a total a four rounds, with a maximum of seven games in each round. Since the Grizzlies never made it into the playoffs during their time in Vancouver, I guess we'll never know how the city would react to an NBA championship run vs. a Stanley Cup run.

[pinkfreud]

First, let me offer congratulations to the Vancouver Canucks for a hard fought character-building victory against a very good Dallas team. The organization deserves a lot of praise. But doesn't it bother you that this city is 1,000 times more jacked up for a first round playoff victory than they were for a Grey Cup Championship?!? Don't you find it kind of sad (assuming you're rational enough to take a step back and look at the big picture here) that when the Leos win there's a quaint ceremony on the front steps of the Art Gallery, yet when the Canucks win a playoff round there's mass celebrations in bars, bedlam in the streets, and a media feeding frenzy?

Now before you respond (by rote) the propaganda we're inundated with from the mass media on an almost daily basis:

Vancouver is a hockey town
I AM Canadianlittle
Hockey is a religion in this country
We Are All Canucks
Luongo is the best goalie on the planet

I know all that. But it doesn't make it right, and it really hits home how far the Lions still have to go before they're even remotely on an even footing on the Vancouver sporting landscape.

DH 8)

I've been feeling exactly the same way. When I've seen all the car flags in the last couple of weeks, everyone wearing the jerseys, the excitement in GM Place, the references in the media, I feel really disappointed and a bit angry that people aren't as into the Lions. I've been watching the games, and I'm happy they won, and I'm all for any chance for Vancouverites to be excited about something. I too remember when there was as much support for the Lions and I long for the rest of the city/province to be that excited about football again. I don't think it's totally out of the question that that may happen one day, provided things line up in a way that causes the critical mass to view CFL football as a sport they want the identify with. The rest will follow.

[Lionut]

Good topic, and worth exploring. Obviously there are a number of factors at play here.

First off, this is Canada, and hockey is the proverbial 400 pound gorilla on the sports scene. It has always been that way, and I think we all accept that, some with more enthusiasm than others.

The passion for hockey, however, has been fuelled by modern media. Back in the day, there weren't two all sports cable TV channels, an all sports radio show, and the internet to fuel and boost the interest. Now, thanks to modern media, you can get your hockey fix 24/7. Those stations, in turn, have to talk about something, and the default setting is hockey. Further, companies now use interest in hockey to sell their products. It's all an ongoing cycle.

The nature of the sport dictates that there is a lot more tension and build up over the course of a Stanley Cup playoff run. You are talking about 20 games versus two, two months versus two weeks, etc. The emotional investment goes on for a lot longer as a result.

Finally, I think there is a bit of a "Spring fever" element to this as well. After a long, wet, cold winter, people are anxious to both get outside and get excited about something, and this meshes with it perfectly.

[Blue In BC]

Hockey has a higher profile because of the number of games played.

It's not possible for a football team to play an 80 + game schedule. So that brings more media and public attention.

In hockey, a team can play more games in the playoffs than a football team has all together if they play in the Grey Cup.

So not. It doesn't tick me off per se. Just a reality.

[SammyGreene]

A first-round NHL playoff series was exciting and all back then, and the city was fully behind its hockey team but, good God, it never reached the absurd proportions of civic boosterism of today when City Councillors wear Canucks jerseys - with their names stitched on the back no less - and wave white towels in the council chambers, the daily newspapers try to outdo each other with local stories on the biggest Canucks fans, the city's only newsradio station breaks into programming with every goal scored.....all for.....Round One. DH 8)

At my kids' elementary school, everyone is encouraged to wear Canucks gear on game days and a prize is awarded to the best dressed student. There is Canucks' playoff trivia on the classroom windows and huge "Go Canucks Go" banner at the school main entrance.

I certainly can't recall this type of hype for round one of the playoffs. Hell... I remember getting tickets on game day in 1982 for the 2nd round series clinching win over LA or 11,000 of us rattling around the Coliseum in ’86 when Gretzky and the Oilers took them out in the first round.

Everyone has brought up some excellent points of why the Canucks/hockey's popularity is where it is today. I do believe the interest went to another level with Canada's win at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Orca Bay is also a well-oiled machine that knows how to market its product even when seasons end on a sour note.

The Lions have made major strides the last 4 or 5 years to get their interest back up to being a solid No. 2 in this town. They just need to continue to take steps in that direction and plan their marketing accordingly around the Canucks. Example: Don't run season ticket print ads right now.

Look what's happened to the Giants' attendance going head-to-head with the Canucks in the playoffs. 5,700 last Saturday must have been one of their smallest crowds of the season. Toigo is missing out on significant revenue he benefitted from the last two years with the lockout and the Canucks missing the playoffs. The Memorial Cup will be way on the backburner should the Canucks still be playing in the conference finals in mid-May.

And the poor Whitecaps have to launch their season at the same time the Stanley Cup playoffs get underway. The Lions should consider themselves lucky from that standpoint and even more so this year with the start of the season being pushed back further.

[Tighthead]

Frankly, I don't want a bunch of bandwagon yahoos coming late to the dance. Many of the flag waving Canucks fans are not hockey fans (obviously, many Canucks fans are also great hockey fans, but they tend to be more low key), but they don't want to be left out of the celebrations.

I know that most Lions fans understand and love football, and hurt in the bad times as much as they revel in the good times. I don't want some poser city councillor who doesn't know what a first down is waving orange and black pom poms.

[Hambone]

As I submit this I'd say that your answer lies in all of the above. Other posters have covered a variety of very valid points. Vancouver's reaction to the Canucks' current success versus their reaction to a Lions' Grey Cup run should not be taken as a slight on the Leos. It's merely a reflection where the game of hockey fits into Joe Canadian's sports psyche. You'd find it to be the same in any city that has both an NHL and CFL team. It's not a Vancouver-centric thing.

When you look at the very different dynamics of seasons, playoff formats etc between the two leagues it's becomes very easy to see how easy it is for a city to get caught up in an NHL playoff run. In comparison the CFL playoffs can be almost anti-climactic, especially for BC in recent years. Getting into the CFL playoffs is relatively easy given 3/4 of the teams make it. In the NHL nearly 1/2 of the teams don't make it and many are still on the bubble going into the final 4 or 5 games. In that regard you can have a pretty good NHL team and still miss the playoffs. But a very average to mediocre CFL team can easily make the post-season. With games happening every day the final weeks of the regular season can be an emotional roller coaster for fans as things change daily and the season builds to a crescendo. In the CFL the 1 game per week scenario doesn't lend itself to building that sort of emotion. You get some during a given weekend then it quickly ebbs while the league is inactive for 5 days until the following week's games begin.

The same goes once the playoffs begin. Two or three days after the season ends the playoffs begin with teams playing every second day. Like the tail end of the season as a round of playoffs progresses the emotions build, especially in a series like the Canucks just completed. As games are played and won or lost it can be easy for a city and indeed province to feel the need to "rally around the troops". Switch over to the CFL and it's impossible to build that same sort of emotion. Look at the Lions last year. They had first place clinched by what? Thanksgiving? They wouldn't play another meaningful game for 6 weeks. When it came time for BC to play their playoff game they were already 2 weeks removed from the regular season. Then 3 hours later it's either over or you go to the Grey Cup. Again another week long lull with no games to keep the momentum up.

Then you have the Canuck factor. 2 trips to the Stanley Cup final in 36 years. Outside of those 2 ventures deep simply winning a playoff round has been a challenge. This is only the 7th time in those 36 years that they've won their opening playoff series. Those 2 trips to the Cup final remain the only 2 times they've advanced beyond the second round. The Lions have been to the big game 7 times in the past 24 years and have 4 Grey Cup rings to show for it. The Lions have been to the Grey Cup as many times as the Canucks have made it to the second round of the playoffs. Merely advancing a round means there is still hope

Finally there is the Canadian factor adding to the dynamic. A Canadian team wins the Grey Cup every year. No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since 1993. So I think there's that added emotion that the Canucks advancing gives hope to a parade for Lord Stanley's goblet on Canadian soil instead of merely sticking it back in the HHOF.