1992–93 Vancouver Canucks | |
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Smythe Division champions
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Division | 1st Smythe |
Conference | 3rd Campbell |
1992–93 record | 46–29–9 |
Home record | 27–11–4 |
Road record | 19–18–5 |
Goals for | 346 |
Goals against | 278 |
Team information | |
General Manager | Pat Quinn |
Coach | Pat Quinn |
Captain | Trevor Linden |
Alternate captains |
Doug Lidster Ryan Walter |
Arena | Pacific Coliseum |
Average attendance | 15,418 |
Team leaders | |
Goals | Pavel Bure (60) |
Assists | Cliff Ronning (56) |
Points | Pavel Bure (110) |
Penalties in minutes | Gino Odjick (370) |
Plus/minus |
(+): Pavel Bure (+35) (–): Ryan Walter (–2) |
Wins | Kirk McLean (28) |
Goals against average | Kay Whitmore (3.10) |
The 1992–93 Vancouver Canucks season was the Canucks' 23rd NHL season.
On September 21, Jim Robson, who had called Canucks play-by-play action since their WHL days, was given the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for excellence in hockey broadcasting and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Canucks were looking to build on the successes of the previous season, but they would have to do so without their top line centre. Instead of re-signing with the Canucks and having Sovintersport (the governing sports body in the former Soviet Union) continue to draw a portion of his salary, Igor Larionov decided to play the year in Lugano, Switzerland, and then return to the NHL the following season. With the loss of Larionov, more production would be hoped for from Petr Nedved, who was entering his third NHL season.
Keeping the rest of their cast in order, for the most part, the Canucks won their first four games, outscoring the opposition 24–9. They slumped back to .500 in early November but then exploded, going 20–5–2 in 27 games. During that time, Nedved racked up a club-record point-scoring streak. He recorded 24 points in 15 games before being held pointless in a 5–2 win over Montreal on December 27. On January 19, a first-place showdown took place at Pacific Coliseum, as the Canucks (with 61 points), had a chance to overtake Pittsburgh as the league's top team. However, the Canucks lost 5–2 and would never again get a chance to jump into first overall. The game also ended the club's amazing 18-game home unbeaten streak (16–0–2). Pavel Bure was scoring goals at an unprecedented pace for a Canuck and was voted to start in the 1993 NHL All-Star Game with 246,447 fan votes. On March 1, in a neutral-site game in Hamilton against Buffalo, Bure became the first Canuck to score 50 goals in a season. Grant Fuhr was the goaltender and RW Dixon Ward and Robert Dirk drew the assists on the goal in a 5–2 win for the Canucks. Exactly a month later, Bure scored on Tampa Bay's Pat Jablonski to become the first Canuck to record 100 points in a season. He would then record his 60th goal into an empty-net in a 6–3 win over Calgary on April 11, a game in which the Canucks clinched the division title for the second straight year. It was Bure's last goal of the season to go with 50 assists for 110 points—15th in the league. The day after Bure recorded his 100th point, long-time owner Frank Griffiths was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builder's Category. Griffiths had owned the Canucks for 19 years now, although his son Arthur Griffiths had gradually taken over the day-to-day running of the team over the past decade. A couple of other noteworthy accomplishments took place that spring. Ryan Walter played in his 1,000th NHL game on March 20 in a 7–2 home loss to the New York Islanders, and Kirk McLean recorded his 127th victory as a Canuck on April 7, passing Richard Brodeur as the Canucks all-time wins leader, in a 5–4 overtime victory over Edmonton. The Canucks beat Los Angeles 8–6 on April 15, the final game of the season, to record their 46th victory and 100th and 101st points of the season. It was the first time the team eclipsed the century-mark in points. It was also the first time that there were six 70-point scorers on the team. Bure, Cliff Ronning (85), Geoff Courtnall (77), C Murray Craven (77), Trevor Linden (72), and Nedved (71) all reached that mark. As well, Gino Odjick broke his own team penalty-minutes record (370). The Canucks finished 4th in the league in goals with 346, had four 30-goal scorers, and led the league in most even-strength goals scored, with 249.