"With the injury to Sami Salo on Monday night, the 41st of his bruised and bumpy NHL career, you can already hear the cynical Vancouver fans saying, "Here we go again."

The history of fans waiting for the other shoe to drop and ultimately the final shoe is a longstanding tradition in this city, which may actually have some effect on the players despite their claims to the contrary.

But here's one for the cynics: What if it doesn't happen? What if there are no disasters? What if this team gets healthy and stays healthy throughout the playoffs? What if instead of having trouble making things happen in the tough going, the stars of this team finally break through all at the same time?

What if the Sedins produce like they've never produced in the post season? What if Roberto Luongo plays the way he did in the 2007 playoff and Ryan Kesler keeps flying the way he has for most of this season, and Alex Burrows has a good run? And so on and on.

Who is to say this has to turn out badly? You can already tell by the way this team has conducted itself all season that they have something very special in terms of leadership and professionalism. Every time you expect this team to let down and have it all unravel, they blow teams out and go on a run.

For the first time, they appear to have depth at every position. If Alex Edler, Andrew Alberts and Kevin Bieksa all get back in time for the playoffs, as expected, the back end is as bulletproof as you could possibly make it. Yes, you can never have enough defencemen and that saying will be said as often as it's tested in this league. But if they run out of D this year it would be God telling Vancouver: "Thou shalt not win." And it's time to believe in a just God."