Canucks: Ian Cole set to join unique playoff club

9 days ago

The Province

Ian Cole will play playoff hockey for his eighth team when things begin this weekend

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Published Apr 17, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 2 minute read

Ian Cole #82 of the Vancouver Canucks skates in on Drew Doughty #8 of the Los Angeles Kings during the first period at Crypto.com Arena on April 06, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Harry How /Getty Images

The NHL record for the most teams a player has made the playoffs with is eight.

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Only one player has ever hit this mark: former Vancouver Canucks centre Mike Sillinger.

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Sillinger joined the Canucks in a trade from the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at the trade deadline in 1996 and ended up playing six games for the Canucks in the playoffs that year, making Vancouver the second team he played in the post-season with. He went onto eight Stanley Cup playoffs with eight different teams.

And now Ian Cole is about to match that record. When he makes his 2024 Stanley Cup playoff debut, presumably in game one of the coming first round, Cole will have made the post-season with his eighth NHL franchise.

It’s a remarkable record. Without a doubt, Cole knows first hand how hard teams that make the playoffs have to work.

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And he knows it’s much harder than that to win the Stanley Cup.

Thatcher Demko #35 and Ian Cole #82 of the Vancouver Canucks defend Nazem Kadri #91 of the Calgary Flames during the third period of the NHL game at Rogers Arena on April 16, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Photo by Derek Cain /Getty Images

“You think you’re a good team?,” he recalled posing to his teammates early in the season.

They replied: “Yeah.”

And so he laid it out: “You think you’re a good player? Only shitty teams don’t make the playoffs. Teams that lose 10 games in a row.

“I was like, ‘don’t be shitty. Don’t lose 10 games in a row. You’re over .500, you should make the playoffs.’

“Don’t make it seem complicated, it’s not that hard.”

Brock Boeser said management adding a veteran who speaks from experience as forcefully as Cole has proven to be massive. He speaks from authority and then he goes out and does it.

“He’s a good leader. He’s a good communicator with guys. He always just goes to talk to guys, you know, during intermission, during a game. On whatever he thinks. He’s very smart. And obviously he’s super strong. Tough. Blocks shots. He’s been great,” Boeser said.

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For Cole, making the playoffs as often as he has has been about a lifetime of habits.

“Making the playoffs is the baseline,” he said.

In the playoffs, there’s no margin for error. Why should what you do in the regular season be any different? There’s no “I tried to do it” in Cole’s world.

Learn how to do it. Learn how to absorb pressure.

The regular season is just the warmup.

“We’re so much better at finding the high-percentage plays.”

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