The recent movie “300” chronicled the story of that number of Spartans withstanding the onslaught of a million Persians. Somehow, I think Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo can relate to that tale – that is, if the ending was reversed.

In last night’s do-or-die game for the Canucks, everyone on their roster not wearing uniform No. 1 shamed themselves in an insipid and listless performance. It was unsettling to see a professional team go into that good night so tamely – typically, the team with the series lead has to first survive a hellacious assault in the opening exchanges of a possible elimination game. Instead, the Anaheim Ducks were rarely threatened on their leisurely stroll to the Western Conference Final.

Don’t let the fact that the Ducks needed double-overtime to win fool you. That was more down to their inability to finish off their chances (as well as Luongo’s heroic - albeit futile - performance) than any resistance offered by their adversaries. Anaheim outshot Vancouver 63-27, including 16-4 over the two extra sessions. Keep in mind that seven of Vancouver’s shots came on the power play, including five on one 5-on-3 power play on which they could not capitalize.

When Samuel Pahlsson finally solved Luongo 14 seconds into the second stanza, the watching fans could be forgiven if they thought that there was no way back for Vancouver. The problem is, Anaheim themselves seemed to share that sentiment. Despite their clear advantage, they didn’t seem that interested in delivering the killer blow. They got away with it for most of the came, until a crucial late sequence almost undid all of their good work.

With less than ten minutes left in the third period, Vancouver got the tying goal that they surely did not deserve. Earlier, I had joked to my roommate that perhaps the Canucks should throw on their little-used fourth-line players – perhaps they could succeed where high-priced stars Markus Naslund, Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin had failed miserably. Sure enough, Alexandre Burrows scored with the kind of scappy, ugly goal that the Canucks had not gotten all series long.

So, the Canucks found themselves back into a game that they should have lost 6-0 or 7-0 by all rights. Again, in an elimination game, the usual outcome is that a late tying goal fires up that team, and gives them a better chance to win in the overtime than the side that blew the lead. In this case though, the Canucks continued to play like a vandal had dulled all of their skates and broken all of their sticks. There was certainly an aura of inevitability in the air, despite Luongo’s performance. In fact, the only way it looked like Vancouver would win was if somehow their noble goaltender skated the length of the ice and took a shot on goal himself.