2011–12 Vancouver Canucks season
Despite their continuation of winning lengthy stretches of games within the last several weeks from early-March to early-April, the team did not play with the same heart they played with earlier in the season as the Canucks often played down to their competition by barely beating some of the weakest teams in the league as the offense seemed to disappear and the team was lucky to have maintained outstanding goaltending and defense that kept them in games and eventually leading them to their second consecutive Presidents' Trophy and second Presidents' Trophy in franchise history altogether on the final day of the season on April 7, when they defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3–0 and the top seeded Eastern Conference team and Presidents' Trophy runner-up New York Rangers lost their season finale the same day 4–1 against the Washington Capitals, ending their season with 109 points in the standings, two points behind the Canucks 111 points.
Despite entering the 2012 playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference for the second year in a row and the back-to-back Presidents' Trophy winners, the Canucks were upset in the first round in five games by the eight-seeded Los Angeles Kings, who would eventually go on to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history as the weeks went on.
In total, Vancouver selected eight players including David Honzík, Alexandre Grenier, Joseph LaBate, Ludwig Blomstrand, Frank Corrado, Pathrik Westerholm and Henrik Tommernes.
On June 21, 2011, True North Sports & Entertainment, the owners of the Manitoba Moose received Board of Governors approval to purchase and re-locate the Atlanta Thrashers.
[3] In addition, on April 8, 2011, it was announced that the Chilliwack Bruins of the Western Hockey League would be moving their franchise to Victoria, British Columbia.
Nicklas Jensen, David Honzik, Alexandre Grenier and Frank Corrado all took part in the Canucks rookie training camp and Young Stars tournament.
Much of the Vancouver Canucks roster were returning members from the 2010–11 season with the exception of Christian Ehrhoff and Raffi Torres, who both changed teams, through trade and free agency respectively, during the off-season.
Citing the shortened off-season due to their appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Vancouver Canucks management and coaching staff decided to give a majority of the veterans rest.
As a result players guaranteed roster spots in the regular season, such as Daniel and Henrik Sedin only played in two preseason games.
Prior to the start of the home opener the Canucks organization held a ceremony to celebrate their 2010–11 season and to thank the police officers, firemen and volunteers who helped the city recover after the Stanley Cup riot.
Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm were traded to the Florida Panthers on October 22, just hours after the Canucks defeated the Minnesota Wild.
The month of November opened with a six-game road trip beginning in Calgary, where the Canucks won the game by a score of 5–1.
However, the Canucks continued to battle inconsistency and were unable to sustain any momentum through the first two-thirds of the month where they compiled a record of 4–4 capped by a blowout loss to rival Chicago.
The Vancouver Canucks clinched the Presidents' Trophy for the second consecutive year and second time in franchise history, thus guaranteeing themselves home ice advantage for the duration of the playoffs regardless of how far they were to go.
Legend: Win Loss Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/− = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes
Note: GP = Games played; GS = Game Starts; TOI = Time on ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime losses; GA = Goals against; GAA= Goals against average; SA= Shots against; Sv% = Save percentage; SO= Shutouts †Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Canucks.
