The Canucks' All-Stars on a most-fun season

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Winning, in the end, cures all.

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That as much as anything else is the story for the Vancouver Canucks.

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It’s fair to say that the players are having fun. Being top of the league is hard to beat — and it gives them self-belief that maybe, just maybe, the season will end with a championship.

And so we turned to the Canucks five All-Star players — these discussions happened before the Canucks added a sixth All-Star in Elias Lindholm — and their All-Star coach for what’s been most fun about the season.

For Elias Pettersson, who blasted past 100 points last season for the first time in his career and is well on pace to do the same again this season, the results have been a great thing, but it really goes deeper than that.

It’s about delivering on the expectations the team set for themselves, even beyond the expectations that exist outside their dressing room, be it with fans or other prognosticators.

“We’ve taken care of what we needed to,” he said. Past seasons had fun moments, but this is fun and satisfying.

“The coaches only accept hard work,” he added. “It keeps everyone accountable.

“We’re winning for everyone. The fans are more excited. The culture change. There’s a lot of reasons why, but winning is a big part of it.”

J.T. Miller pointed to the team’s win total.

“We have 33 wins before the break. That’s awesome,” he said.

One suspects that being able to be one of the offensive leaders on a team that’s winning so much is pretty fun too.

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Delivering on their potential is leading to wins, is what’s most fun about this season Quinn Hughes says.

“It’s been hard here not winning. You want to be a winner, you want to feel like you’re making an impact. They draft you to do this. So I’d say that winning has just been great,” he said.

Brock Boeser has 30 goals and is having all kinds of on-ice personal success as well, but like Miller he pointed elsewhere, to the strength of the team’s culture as the biggest reason he’s having so much fun.

“How our team’s come together,” he said when asked about what has been the most-fun thing this season. “When some guys aren’t feeling it, other guys pick it up. And I think that’s the reason why we’ve had so much success. It’s nice when you can come to the rink and you have that feeling of everyone has each other’s back.”

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Thatcher Demko is never keen to talk about himself, so he gave a knowing smile last Saturday when asked if Boeser hitting 30 goals for the first time in his career was the most fun thing this season.

“Maybe he’ll hit 50,” he said.

Finally, there’s the head coach. It’s the second time Rick Tocchet has been an All-Star coach.

Having so many of his players selected to be All-Stars was the real highlight of the season so far. He saw it as a validation of what they’ve all been doing.

“I do nothing. I just sit back and I marvel at the skill,” he said. “And I’m proud to have five of our players. That’s awesome. That’s amazing. I mean, it’s good to see the crest being represented.”

OUT IN THE FIRST ROUND — Despite the vibes, the six Canucks had just a brief stay at All-Star weekend. Connor McDavid dominated the skills competition on Friday, winning the event and taking home the $1 million prize. And on Saturday, all six Canucks and their coach lost in the semi finals. Hughes served as captain for one team and picked Pettersson, Boeser, MIller and Demko as his teammates, with Tocchet as their coach. Lindholm ended up on Nathan MacKinnon’s team.

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