1983 – 84 Vancouver Canucks season Offseason . The Canucks had the ninth overall pick in the Entry Draft and chose right - winger Cam Neely , who had just led the Portland Winterhawks to the Memorial Cup Championship . Neely tallied 31 points and 57 penalty minutes in 56 games his rookie season . Regular season . The second game of the season was a wild , shoot - out affair , with the Canucks beating the Minnesota North Stars 10 - 9 . Patrik Sundstrom scored the winning goal to go along with five assists in the game . His right winger , Tony Tanti , scored twice and added three helpers . Two nights later , in a 7 - 4 win over Toronto , Tanti scored three goals , all assisted by Sundstrom . The two would combine for a large piece of the Canucks ' offense this season and , along with Dave " Tiger " Williams on left wing , quickly establish themselves as the club ' s number one line . Tanti finished with a club - record 45 goals while Sundstrom tallied six assists and seven points ( both club records ) in a 9 - 5 win in Pittsburgh on February 29 , helping him in establishing a club record of 91 points . Williams again led the NHL in penalty minutes , racking up 294 . On December 10 , injuries to Richard Brodeur and John Garrett forced the Canucks to give rookie goalie Frank Caprice his first NHL start against the mighty Edmonton Oilers on " Hockey Night In Canada " . Things didn ’ t look good to start , when Pat Hughes beat him to the five - hole at the 16 second mark , but after that he stopped 41 of 42 shots , many coming off of the sticks of future Hall - of - Famers , and earned the game ’ s First Star in a 3 - 2 victory . Caprice then backstopped the Canucks to two more victories before suffering his first loss December 18 in Buffalo by a 3 - 2 score . That game in Buffalo began an awful 3 - 14 - 2 slide . During that miserable stretch , the Canucks managed a 3 - 3 tie in Los Angeles on January 4 , the game in which Thomas Gradin registered his 408th point as a Canuck to pass Don Lever as the club ' s all - time leading scorer . In the next three games , the Canucks lost in Minnesota , Chicago , and St . Louis by identical 2 - 0 scores , marking the first time that the team has been shut out in three consecutive games . On January 26 , following a game in which the Canucks lost 6 - 4 to Edmonton after leading 4 - 2 ( Wayne Gretzky recorded a point in his 51st straight game — the last game of his NHL record scoring streak ) , Roger Neilson was fired as coach . GM Harry Neale took over for the remainder of the season . The club won it ’ s first game under Neale , 4 - 0 over Philadelphia , thanks to a great performance by Brodeur and two points from Jean - Marc Lanthier in his NHL debut . They played respectably in the last 29 games ( 15 - 11 - 3 ) and finished with 73 points — in a tie for third place with Winnipeg . The Canucks , with more wins ( 32 - 31 ) , won the tiebreaker and drew Calgary , again , as a first - round playoff opponent . Playoffs . This series between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks followed a similar script as in 1983 . The Flames won the first two games at the Saddledome by 4 - 2 and 5 - 3 scores before the series shifted to Vancouver . In the third game , Doug Halward became the fifth defenseman ever to register a playoff hat - trick ( and the first Canuck player to do so ) as the Canucks thrashed the Flames 7 - 0 ; Brodeur got the shutout . Game Four was a one - sided affair in favour of the Flames in which Paul Reinhart became the " sixth " defenseman to record a playoff hat - trick . 5 - 1 was the score .