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Trevor Linden ‘This Team Is Going To Win’

Trevor Linden Says The Canucks Organization Has NOT Contacted Him (Video)

Trevor Linden is tired of celebrating a loss as the greatest moment in Vancouver Canucks history.

Seventeen years after he captained the Canucks to their last Stanley Cup final and three years since his last game, Linden hopes this year’s team, still loaded with former teammates, can give the city something really worth commemorating.

As far as Linden is concerned, it’s time to relegate the Canucks’ 1994 run, which ended with a Game 7 loss to the New York Rangers, to the second-most memorable moment of the franchise’s 40-year history.

These current Canucks, he said, are capable of setting a better benchmark.

“This team I believe is going to win and they will be celebrated for all the right reasons,”
Linden told The Associated Press on Wednesday, a day after the Canucks clinched a finals berth with a 3-2 double-overtime win against the San Jose Sharks.

“And that’s winning. After 17 years, to be honest it isn’t a topic I was particularly comfortable talking about, the ’94 team. We didn’t win, right?

“Hopefully they take it one step further.”

Being four wins short of a Stanley Cup certainly didn’t mute the celebrations in Vancouver late Tuesday night. Thousands of fans streamed into a downtown strip for an impromptu street party while a few blocks away blue and green confetti was still falling onto Canucks players celebrating a dramatic win that gave them a chance to play for the Stanley Cup for just the third time in 40 years.

Inside the locker room, players rejoiced, too. But they also promised to make any partying brief. They know just getting to the finals isn’t enough.

Just as fans in the rink and on the street chanted, they too “want the Cup.”

First they need an opponent.

The Canucks were given Wednesday off, and Alex Burrows said the plan was to watch Boston play Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final in Tampa Bay later that night. Boston leads 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, which meant Burrows would be cheering for Tampa Bay for at least one game.

“Hopefully it goes four OT, then Game 7 and another four OT,” he joked.

While the Canucks were looking forward to some extra rest, the atmosphere around Vancouver was similar to last spring’s Olympics, which ended with Canada winning the gold medal in men’s hockey and a citywide street party into the wee hours of the night. Roberto Luongo backstopped that victory, too, but wasn’t ready to celebrate his first trip to the Stanley Cup final.

“A lot of guys in the locker room haven’t had a chance to be where we are right now, including myself,” Luongo said after 54 saves in the clincher. “Obviously we have the biggest step of all ahead of us. But right now we’re having the time of our lives and enjoying every step of the way.”

The city is with them stride for stride.

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