2003–04 Vancouver Canucks season

Regular season

The Canucks began their season with the top line of Brendan Morrison, Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi. The Sedin twins continued to develop and began seeing some success initially being paired with Jason King. With their initial team chemistry, Jason King plotting 12 goals and being named NHL Rookie of the Month in November. The trio briefly formed "The Mattress Line" (Two Twins and a King). The season looked promising with the Canucks being near the top of the standings. When February came along, the Canucks narrowly defeated the Colorado Avalanche 1-0 but it came at a cost with Avalanche forward Steve Moore hitting Canucks captain Markus Naslund resulting in Naslund getting a concussion and Moore not penalized. Many Canucks vowed revenge against Moore (notably Brad May). When the two teams met again in Denver on March 3 (with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in attendance), there were no incidents and both teams skated to a 5-5 draw. On March 8, however, in Vancouver, everything fell apart. The Avalanche jumped out to a 5-0 lead and Brad May cut the deficit to 5-2 while at the same time taunting Avalanche goalie David Aebischer after each goal. Bertuzzi made it his personal mission to go after Steve Moore and after trying (and failing) to incite him, sucker punched him and falling on top of him. Bertuzzi would be suspended the rest of the regular season and playoffs. The Canucks had some difficulty recovering from this incident and managed to win the Northwest Division on the final day of the regular season, their first division championship since the 1992-93 season.

Final standings

Playoffs

Western Conference Quarterfinals vs. (6) Calgary Flames

After splitting the first two games in Vancouver, Dan Cloutier was injured midway through Game 3 in Calgary. With backup Johan Hedberg playing in relief, Vancouver would also split Games 3 and 4 in Calgary. Alex Auld took over in goal starting in Game 5, which the Canucks lost 2-1. Facing elimination in Game 6, Brendan Morrison scored the winner in the third overtime period to force a Game 7 in Vancouver. In the series-deciding game, the Canucks found themselves down a goal and on the penalty kill in the last minute. With Auld on the bench for the extra attacker, winger Matt Cooke tied the game with 5.7 seconds left to force overtime. However, with Ed Jovanovski still in the penalty box, former Canuck Martin Gelinas eliminated the Canucks on the power play.

Schedule and results

Regular season

|- |1||October 9, 2003||4–1 || align="left"| Calgary Flames (2003–04) ||1–0–0–0 || |- |2||October 11, 2003||3–0 || align="left"| Edmonton Oilers (2003–04) ||2–0–0–0 || |- |3||October 13, 2003||2–3 || align="left"| @ Columbus Blue Jackets (2003–04) ||2–1–0–0 || |- |4||October 16, 2003||2–3 || align="left"| @ Detroit Red Wings (2003–04) ||2–2–0–0 || |- |5||October 18, 2003||2–2 OT|| align="left"| @ Minnesota Wild (2003–04) ||2–2–1–0 || |- |6||October 20, 2003||6–1 || align="left"| Buffalo Sabres (2003–04) ||3–2–1–0 || |- |7||October 22, 2003||3–2 || align="left"| St. Louis Blues (2003–04) ||4–2–1–0 || |- |8||October 26, 2003||3–3 OT|| align="left"| Phoenix Coyotes (2003–04) ||4–2–2–0 || |- |9||October 28, 2003||6–3 || align="left"| Columbus Blue Jackets (2003–04) ||5–2–2–0 || |- |10||October 30, 2003||3–1 || align="left"| @ Los Angeles Kings (2003–04) ||6–2–2–0 || |- |11||October 31, 2003||4–1 || align="left"| @ Phoenix Coyotes (2003–04) ||7–2–2–0 ||

| Legend:

Playoffs

|- | 1 || April 7 || Calgary || 3–5 || Vancouver || || Cloutier || 18,630 || Canucks lead 1–0 || |- | 2 || April 9 || Calgary || 2–1 || Vancouver || || Kiprusoff || 18,630 || Series tied 1–1 || |- | 3 || April 11 || Vancouver || 2–1 || Calgary || || Hedberg || 19,289 || Canucks lead 2–1 || |- | 4 || April 13 || Vancouver || 0–4 || Calgary || || Kiprusoff || 19,289 || Series tied 2–2 || |- | 5 || April 15 || Calgary || 2–1 || Vancouver || || Kiprusoff || 18,630 || Flames lead 3–2 || |- | 6 || April 17 || Vancouver || 5–4 || Calgary || 3OT || Auld || 19,289 || Series tied 3–3 || |- | 7 || April 19 || Calgary || 3–2 || Vancouver || OT || Kiprusoff || 18,630 || Flames win 4–3 ||

| Legend:

Player statistics

Scoring

• Position abbreviations: C = Centre; D = Defence; G = Goaltender; LW = Left wing; RW = Right wing
• • = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Canucks only.*
• • = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Canucks only.*

Goaltending

Awards and records

Awards

Milestones

Transactions

The Canucks were involved in the following transactions from June 10, 2003, the day after the deciding game of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, through June 7, 2004, the day of the deciding game of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.

Trades

Players acquired

Players lost

Signings

Draft picks

Vancouver's draft picks at the 2003 NHL entry draft held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Notes

References

References

1. "2003-04 Vancouver Canucks Schedule and Results".
2. "Postseason All-Star Teams".
3. (April 6, 2004). "Martin St. Louis & Marek Malik Share Plus/Minus Award".
4. "NHL All-Star Game Starting Lineups by Year (since 1986)".
5. "2004 NHL All-Star Game Rosters".
6. (November 10, 2003). "AUCOIN NAMED DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK".
7. (December 1, 2003). "Naslund Named NHL Offensive Player Of The Week".
8. (December 2, 2003). "Jason King Named NHL Rookie Of The Month For November".
9. (April 3, 2004). "Canucks Season Ending Awards Announced".
10. "2003-04 NHL Debuts".
11. "Hockey Transactions Search Results".
12. (July 25, 2003). "Canucks Acquire Defenceman Martin Grenier From Phoenix".
13. (August 25, 2003). "Canucks Acquire Goaltender Johan Hedberg".
14. (October 30, 2003). "Canucks Acquire Forward Sean Pronger".
15. (December 17, 2003). "Canucks Acquire Wade Brookbank".
16. (January 17, 2004). "Canucks Trade Slegr To Boston For Future Considerations".
17. (February 16, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Sarno From Edmonton For Moss".
18. (March 9, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Martin Rucinsky From The Rangers".
19. (March 9, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Geoff Sanderson From Columbus".
20. (March 9, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Marc Bergevin From Pittsburgh".
21. (March 9, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Sylvain Blouin From Montreal".
22. (March 9, 2004). "Canucks Acquire Sergei Varlamov From St. Louis".
23. (July 30, 2003). "Canucks Sign Forward Jesse Schultz".
24. (August 6, 2003). "Canucks Agree To Terms With Free Agent Defenceman Dallas Eakins".
25. (September 4, 2003). "Canucks Agree To Terms With Free Agent Defenceman Jiri Slegr".
26. (September 10, 2003). "Canucks Agree To Terms With Free Agent Forward Magnus Arvedson".
27. (October 8, 2003). "Canucks Sign Mike Keane".
28. (November 1, 2003). "Canucks Claim Baumgartner From Pittsburgh".
29. (December 31, 2003). "Canucks Re-Acquire Wade Brookbank".
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31. {{hockey-reference. v/vasilhe01. Herberts Vasilijevs, retrieved May 31, 2022
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33. (July 3, 2003). "Jackets gain some speed, nab Marchant from Oilers".
34. (July 8, 2003). "Klatt Signs Deal With Kings".
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38. (September 5, 2003). "Blues sign veteran D Baron".
39. (September 10, 2003). "Grizzlies Sign Three Players".
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43. (December 19, 2003). "SENATORS RE-ASSIGN EMERY AND CLAIM BROOKBANK OFF WAIVERS".
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47. (May 26, 2004). "Dallas Eakins Retires".
48. {{hockey-reference. p/prongse01. Sean Pronger, retrieved May 31, 2022
49. (July 3, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Forward Jarkko Ruutu".
50. (July 11, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Winger Brad May".
51. (July 14, 2003). "Canucks Sign Defenceman Kiril Koltsov".
52. (July 15, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Goaltender Dan Cloutier".
53. (July 15, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Defenceman Marek Malik".
54. (July 17, 2003). "Canucks Re-sign Forward Mats Lindgren".
55. (July 17, 2003). "Canucks Re-sign Defenceman Sami Salo".
56. (July 28, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Forward Daniel Sedin".
57. (July 28, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Forward Henrik Sedin".
58. (July 30, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Defenceman Nolan Baumgartner".
59. "Bryan Allen: Transactions & Injuries".
60. (August 1, 2003). "Canucks Re-Sign Forward Artem Chubarov".
61. (August 18, 2003). "Canucks Sign 2003 1st Round Pick Ryan Kesler".
62. (September 11, 2003). "Transactions".
63. "TYLER BOUCK".
64. "PAT KAVANAGH".
65. "ZENITH KOMARNISKI".
66. "CHRIS NIELSEN".
67. (October 26, 2003). "Canucks Reach New Agreement With Todd Bertuzzi Through 2006-07 Season".
68. "2003 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com".