Why the 1994 Canucks continue to be the most-loved losing team in B.C. sport history

When people in Vancouver talk toGino Odjick, there's one event they bring up to the former Vancouver Canuck more than any other.

"1994.All the time. I'm surprised they still remember us after all these years."

It was 25 years ago this month the Canucks faced off against the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals, ultimately losing in Game 7 by a single goal.

Twenty-five years on, players from that 1994 team still star in car commercials and get attention for playing in alumni games. They go on the radio and podcasts to talk about their fabledplayoff run. Their run was named as a "defining moment" in the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, there was a ceremony in their honour, and the New York Times even wrote about the team's enduring legacy.

All for a team that came up short.

"It's probably gone on a little too much,"said Wyatt Arndt, a hockey writer forThe Athletic and Daily Hive.

"I don't know if you've ever seen a team that never quite won it celebrated as much."

Overcoming the odds

There are a variety of reasons why so manycontinue to celebrate the 1994 playoff run.

One part centres around the very obvious fact thatthe Vancouver Canucks have never won a Stanley Cup.

But a big element is the way the team got to the finalsan underdog, that came back from a 3-1 deficit in the first round, winning several games in OT on their way.

"No question, there was a greater bond there, justthe way in which we got to the final," said Trevor Linden, the captain of the team and future president.

"It just captivated people's imaginations."

It's a key reason, argues Arndt, why many speak more fondly about the '94 team than the more recent 2011 playoff run, which also ended in a Game 7 loss (and more infamously, another Game 7 riot).

"That was one of the best teams the Canucks ever had ... and it felt like that was the year to win, whereas 1994, it was an underdog story," he said.

The power of nostalgia

But there's other elements at play. A large number of players chose to move back to Vancouver after they retired, even if they didn't grow up in B.C.,forming new community bondsand creating a perpetual feedback loop of warm memories.

"Vancouver is a beautiful place to stay and the fans are really good. We get to gowatch the games, and go play some alumni games to be part of that community," Odjick said.

And there's a cultural element as well:that playoff run was atPacific Coliseum, ina working-class east Vancouver neighbourhood, in an era when"Rock'em Sock'em" hockey was in vogue.

Today, theCanucks play in a downtown arena surrounded by condos, while the benchmark value of a single-family homein East Vancouveris $1.4 million.

"They didn't have the fans like they have now, it's a lot of the business class. It was more the working man that used to go to the games, and be affordable for everyone," said Odjick, whose pugilistic style of play is virtually unseen these days.

It's easy to make the rational argument that 25 years on, Vancouver sports fans should stop lionizing the team as much as they do.

But it still brings joy and opportunities to the players involved "it makes me smile when people come up to me," says Odjick and sometimes, fandom isn't meant to 100 per cent rational.

"I think in some areas of life too much nostalgia definitely can be too much of a crutch. I think though sports is almost built off ofcelebrating heroes and and looking back," said Arndt.

And if you think it's weird for a city to celebrate a 25-year-old team, remember: the suffering could be worse.

"People talk about never winning the Cup and negative comments that way. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't been in a Stanley Cup Final since [1967], when it was a six-team league," said Jim Robson, the longtime play-by-play voice of the team.

"There are always eras withthe ups and downs. Fans like to think of the ups rather than the downs."