Music: {allcanada} Canucks fans anxious for another magical spring

When a team is on top, head and shoulders above the rest, it is often our nature to look for weakness rather than celebrate achievement.

And so it's been for this season's Vancouver Canucks. But the Achilles heel has been terribly hard to find.

Had the Canucks not mucked up their penalty killing and finished 3rd instead of first they would have been the only team in 45 years to finish atop the league in wins, points, goals, goals against, power play and penalty killing.

OK, so they're not perfect but five out of six on the way to the best season in the 40-year history of the franchise isn't bad. Along the way they met every test in putting up the best home record, road record and streaks of 15, nine and two of seven games in which they didn't lose in regulation.

And for all of that they are rewarded with one whopping extra home game in each play-off series, if they need it.

Now this territory for the team and its fanbase is brand new. The Canucks enter the playoffs as the favourite Never before has their been such a nervous but hopeful anticipation of the playoffs. Never before has British Columbia had such a team, and the players best be handling it better than the fans .

You see there has long been a doomsday fearfulness on the West Coast when it comes to the NHL team. A fear of failure that comes from 40 years of faint hope and disappointment . This team is the exception in Vancouver, not the norm.

There have been 16 seasons when the team didn't even make the playoffs, another 14 when they lost in the first round. On a few occasions they made a surprise visit to Round 2 and only twice have they been to the third round or beyond.

The 1982 march to the final on the back of goaltender "King" Richard Brodeur came out of nowhere. Vancouver wasn't even a .500 team, but top clubs from Edmonton and Minnesota got knocked off in the first round and the Canucks didn't have to beat a team with a better record to make the final. When they got there the New York Islanders, in their glory days, were far too much and the series was over in four games.

Still, it was a magical spring in Vancouver when a band of ruffians and grinders lead by Roger Neilson marched through May at the Pacific Coliseum. People couldn't pick Anders Eldebrink out of a police line-up but he and his teammates became folk hero's and still are to this day.

Twelve years later in 1994, Pat Quinn's Canuck team was slightly better but still not a favourite. The Red Wings were upset in the first round and Vancouver nudged out Calgary, then beat Dallas and Toronto to reach the final for the second time only to lose a heartbreaking seven-game series to the New York Rangers.

That series and its's bitter taste lingers in the memory of fans. Excuses are still being made and conspiracy theories abound. Trevor Linden and the Canucks were robbed by the Rangers, the referees, the league, by Santa Claus. It just wasn't fair.

To this day if you want to see a Canuck fan's ears turn red, ask about the two days between Games 6 and 7 in the 1994 final. When the shaking stops you'll know the extra day was the league's way of resting the old Rangers and ensuring that a 54-year Stanley Cup drought in New York would end.

Some terribly bleak seasons followed the catastrophe and then came the Markus Naslund years. In the early 2000's the Canucks were one of the most exciting, high scoring teams in the league. But in 2003 they stumbled in the playoffs against the lowly Minnesota Wild and the next year when they were hailed as the best in hockey. Todd Bertuzzi took out Steve Moore, the team fell apart, was knocked out in the first round, and had to be dismantled .

And from that wreckage the present team was born and despite the occasional burst of outrage (See the Chicago series in the last two springs), the community has learned to embrace the group for it's quality and because it's largely homegrown.

The Sedins grew up on the West Coast and their children are Vancouverites. Players like Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Mason Raymond, Alex Edler and Kevin Bieksa were trained in the farm system. Even the coach Alain Vigneault (aka the Lozenge) is widely admired ... until such time as he loses.

So for the first time, no upset is required to pave the way, divine intervention while always welcome, might not be necessary. Finally a Canuck team with realistic championship aspirations. A team that will win or lose simply on it's own merit.

Even the team' harshest critics, its biggest fans, can't find a reason for failure around the corner.