Question marks have replaced the exclamation marks of a 101-point season.
Despite the Vancouver Canucks hitting that lofty plateau last spring, post-season hope evaporated in a sobering six-game, first-round playoff loss to the Calgary Flames. It didn’t result in the makeover of an aging roster, just a face-lift — the Canucks traded for second-line centre Brandon Sutter and fourth-line grinder Brandon Prust and inked free-agent defenceman Matt Bartkowski. They lost size when free agent Shawn Matthias left for Toronto and Zack Kassian was shipped to Montreal in the Prust deal. Nick Bonino and Adam Clendening were packaged to Pittsburgh for Sutter.