We're Ready.

While I greatly appreciate Jon's post, especially his bringing back of a post filled with links which I really like, nothing he can say will change what is going to start happening tonight at 7 pm. The above picture of the Roger, waiting for fans to blow the roof off the place, has geared me up beyond belief. It's a simple image, to be sure, but to me it represents the hope that is filling every member of Orca Nation as we sit 6 hours from puck drop. 

This season the Canucks have celebrated their 40th year as a franchise. With just two appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals, both tragic losses, it has been 40 years of suffering and longing for greatness. If you know a Canuck fan, you know that these 40 years of suffering have left us with a horrible feeling of self-doubt, a sense of impending doom that has always been difficult for us to shake.

This season, though, the self-doubt has melted away. As Jon pointed out, the Twins are at the top of their game, Alex Burrows has stepped it up big time after starting the season on the IR (although, he's neither a bitch nor just now figuring out how to be a pro, as J suggests...hair pulling aside), and our top six defensivemen are objectively the best the league has to offer. While he may not know that Raymond will be playing the wing on the third line with mega-hyped youngster Cody Hodgson centering, I appreciate his grasp of my team's greatness this time around.

However, while he went ahead and annointed the Blackhawks as "America's Team," I think he made an omission, and I think he made it on purpose. He openly called my Canucks a group of stinky foreigners, after naming all the great non-US natives on the squad. It's interesting, because I know that Jon has heard of Ryan Kesler. I know that Jon knows he's from Livonia, Michigan. And, most of all, I know that Jon knows that Kes crushed 40 goals to celebrate the franchise's 40th anniversary this season. Kes has his own clothing line, is the face of a video game franchise, and hates the Blackhawks as much as anyone on the Vannie roster. He is as American as it gets.

I noticed, when reading Jon's post, that he didn't drop any predictions concerning the series, and I think I know why. He knows, as much as I do, that we are finally ready.

I'm really going to enjoy this, buddy.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē