Katie Maximick

By KATIE MAXIMICK

(Jim Robson travelling by plane with the Vancouver Canucks. Photo courtesy of canucks.com.)

"I think of the terrible downer it was to hear on the plane flying back to Vancouver in the middle of the night after the Stanley Cup Final in New York that there was a riot on Robson Street. I couldn't believe it. And when we landed at the airport, there's a large number of armed soldiers around the plane... They thought there'd be some incident out there, and we couldn't believe it -- we didn't know what city we were in."

And that was how hockey legend and former play-by-play announcer for the Canucks, Jim Robson, remembers the 1994 Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver.

"[This year] I would hope that they celebrate responsibly," Robson says laughing when asked how fans would react if the Canucks win the Cup this year.

"If they did it that time they might try to do it again. I worried about the Olympics that way too, but the Olympics turned out to be great."

If there was a year for the Canucks to finally win the Stanley Cup, hockey experts are saying this would be it, although a rocky round-one series versus Vancouver's Achilles heel, the Chicago Blackhawks, has quite a few fans (and maybe the team), a bit nervous about these odds.

"This team is very good," says Robson. "Their record is probably the best ever for a Canucks team, but to say it's the best team ever  is a little early perhaps."

And he would know. Robson has been covering the Canucks since the NHL expansion in 1970 until his retirement in 1999. He is still active with the Canucks organization, and is often turned to for historical and present analysis of the team.

Robson didn't seem as convinced of this year's shot at the Cup as the rest of the hockey experts I talked to -- not because he doesn't believe in the team, but because he has learned to stay grounded.

After covering the disappointing loss to the Rangers in 1994, can you blame him?

"It was something to come that close to winning a Cup in a seventh game in a final, then losing by a goal," he says. "That's pretty hard to take."

"It's so difficult to get to that level even," he continues. "Quite often when a team does, it sags right after that if they don't win the Cup, especially nowadays because it's such a competitive league, so it's so difficult to repeat."

(90s nostalgia: Robson and current CBC play-by-play announcer Jim Hughson. Photo courtesy of canucks.com)

Robson has seen a lot of Canucks' playoffs in his day, and he has a unique take on the modern version of the post-season.

"Today you have 16 teams that go into the playoffs, and any one of those could win the Cup," he says. "Some of the fans here seem to lose sight of that. They think, 'Oh well automatically because they had the number one record during the season [they'll win].' Well, last year Washington was the top team in the NHL and got knocked off in the first round. That's how competitive it is."

And Robson has a good point. The pressure in Vancouver for the Canucks to take home the Cup this year is high; so high in fact that many fans are disregarding the team's regular season success, saying, "the playoffs are a different beast. There's only one prize that matters."

Ultimately that's true, but can we really disregard Daniel's Art Ross, the Presidents' Trophy, the goalies' Jennings trophy and the immaculate regular season simply because the Cup is what matters in the end? Robson doesn't think that's fair.

"There's so much hype about the sport through television and the media, and the way the team is sold, that there's such an emphasis on this Stanley Cup thing. And I think it's too bad in a way, because it's taking away from the enjoyment of the game, win or lose, whoever's playing," he says. 

"And the emphasis on the Stanley Cup takes away from a lot of accomplishments that might not be a Stanley Cup."

Regardless of whether or not the Vancouver Canucks win the Cup on their 40th birthday, this team has had a fantastic and record-setting season that both fans and the 2010/2011 team should be proud of.

If this really is their year, Robson knows there are many, many Canucks fans out there who have been waiting decades to witness it.

"It would be great for the long-time fans," he says. "There are some who go back to even prior to the Pacific Coliseum days who still go to games, or at least follow them. They would be extremely happy."

But he still hopes Canucks Nation refrains from rioting again.

"The majority would just be thrilled with it all," he says, then adds with a chuckle, "And they'd celebrate accordingly."