NHL: 10 Reasons 2012 Vancouver Canucks Were Just Like The Dark Knight Rises
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Okay, perhaps my first foray at creating a cross-over(seas) audience of the NHL for WhatCulture's readership didn't go over so well, but, like Loki smack-talking the Hulk, I don't know when to quit so let's give this another go by drawing another cinema blockbuster/hockey analogy. In 2012, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy was drawing to a close with The Dark Knight Rises and to say that fans of the previous 2 movies were eagerly awaiting this crowning achievement is an understatement. In the world of the NHL, the Vancouver Canucks had just completed their own back to back conquest of the league, winning their second straight President's Trophy for finishing first in the League, which is kind of like the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Picture compared to the Oscar for Best Picture. And much like how The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger impressed fans and non-fans alike in the previous installment, the Canucks had won a new batch of loyal hockey fans by coming within one game of winning the holiest of hockey holies, the Stanley Cup, before losing to the Big, Bad Boston Bruins four games to three in a best-of-seven, thanks to an angry 6 foot 8 Slovak named Zdeno Chara. 2012 was to be the year of the Canucks, much like The Dark Knight Rises was to finally achieve Oscar acceptance for Nolan. But something happened on the way to the awards gala; the Vancouver Canucks were destroyed by the eighth place Los Angeles Kings four games to one in the first round of the playoffs. Fans split between blaming the Canucks all-star goalie Roberto Luongo and defending him by pointing out that as a goaltender, he is not responsible for also scoring goals. The Dark Knight Rises was full of plot-holes, implausible leaps of faith and a crying Michael Caine. Fans on the internet were either deriding Nolan for such an anti-climatic finish to the trilogy to defending him for maintaining his vision and giving them something to feel passionate about. It would take a curious mind to link these two events together but luckily, that is what I am here for. Here are 10 similarities between Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and the NHL's 2012 Vancouver Canucks...