Vancouver Canucks: Will the Season Be a Failure Without a Stanley Cup Win?

In 2011, the Vancouver Canucks season came down to one game to determine if it had been a successful season or not. When the puck dropped in Game 7 between the Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks, Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault's job was on the line, and the core of the Canucks team was as well. It was the third consecutive year the Blackhawks and Canucks had met in the playoffs and with Chicago winning the past two series, the Canucks had to win.

When Alexandre Burrows scored that heroic overtime winner that evening at Rogers Arena, most would deem winning the first-round series against Chicago as having a successful season. Getting to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011, however, has expectations in 2012 at an all-time high.

If the Vancouver Canucks fail to win the Stanley Cup this season, it will be considered a failure.

The Canucks' window of opportunity to win a Stanley Cup with the core group of players it has now, including the Sedin brothers, Ryan Kesler, Alexandre Burrows, Sami Salo, Roberto Luongo, Kevin Bieksa and Alex Edler, is quickly drawing to a close. If they plan on winning with this group they only have a couple more seasons at best to do so.

The Canucks fan base is quickly growing impatient with the team's lack of success in the postseason as they have yet to win a Cup in the 41-year history of the team. 

A team can only have so much regular season success before impatience sets in and fans become frustrated with lack of production in the playoffs where all the regular-season success means nothing. Sure, a Presidents' Trophy as the best team points-wise in the league is nice to have in the trophy case, but nothing compares to having your name on the Stanley Cup.

The Vancouver Canucks have been far too successful in the past decade to not win a Cup, and this season is probably their best shot at a Cup in the near future. Everyone from management, to the common fan knows this and if the team is unable to win the Cup in 2012, it will be more than disappointment in years past, but be seen as a failure of a season. It could be such a failure that significant changes to the team are made this offseason.

Vancouver must win the Stanley Cup this season if they want 2011-12 viewed as a success, otherwise nothing they did this season will matter in history.

John Bain is a Bleacher Report Featured Columnist.

Follow him on Twitter: @JohnBainSports.