Vancouver Canucks: Their first steps to greatness!

July is coming quickly and many teams in the NHL will be tasked with re-tooling, re-signing and re-deluding.

For some teams, the future is bright—this includes Philadelphia, Nashville, Washington, Montreal and Chicago.

But for others, the grave question of whether to push forward with the cards they have or blow it up and start over is looming like fruit.

We can talk about many, but of particular interest this off season is the Vancouver Canucks.

The tabla-rasa Mike Gillis has now will be quickly soiled with bullet points in the next four months.

It’s "enough is enough" time in the city by the Inlet, and the Nucks had better be poised to do something drastic.

Anyone who knows the history of Vancouver’s NHL franchise understands that there are some key things the Canucks must do to turn this canoe around.

And based on their actions since 1973, (not including the epic trade with St. Louis when they heisted 3 awesome players for Garth Butcher) there’s at least a 20 percent chance they might actually do them.

Now keep in mind, these are not things any other team would do. These are things the Canucks MUST do to even think about future success:

• Give up hope that Tony Tanti will somehow return to the line-up.
• Make a concerted effort to find NHL caliber players. 
• Make an even bigger effort to find players that realize there is no invisible force-field at the opponent’s blue-line.
• Explain to the team that the Goaltender is the “LAST” line of defense, not the “ONLY” line of defense.
• Begin realization that although it’s quite polite to offer the better player in the draft to the teams behind you, it’s not necessarily the best thing for your franchise.
• Embrace the concept that you should always trade for a GOOD player.
• Be suspicious! If another team offers you one of their players for any Canuck (except for Luongo) then it's a good sign there's something wrong with the player they are offering. Check for terminal cancer.
• Understand the word "TEAM" means you have to have more than one decent player.
• Take into account that if the puck goes in the net, it's possible that 5 other players on the ice at the time may bear some responsibility.
• Throw away the team model that states every player on your team should remind you of Thomas Gradin.
• There's no point protecting a player as a future prospect if they... how shall I put this? ...Ah, STINK?

It's all about baby steps, Vancouver. Start with these and you may have a chance... in about 26 years.

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