The responses come in rapid-fire succession, for good reason. Pointing out the pitfalls of substandard team performances during the course of any NHL season is commonplace for players. Cliches are the norm. And with their present-day personnel and past history, there's reason to believe that the Vancouver Canucks are more than comfortable and more than capable of challenging their critics to meet lofty expectations.

All that is easy for Chris Higgins to explain and he does it better than most. He's amiable, approachable and accountable.

The harder stuff comes when the winger reflects on what his special-needs older sister, Jeanne, endured growing up on Long Island in tiny Smithtown. It's why Higgins wore a pink T-shirt Feb. 28 in support of the national Anti-Bullying Day, held annually on the last Wednesday of February. He knows of the playground bullying that kids usually encounter - an uncomfortable and mentally draining passage through public school that is far too common - and he also knows that attacks in high school are often much worse.

Even though Higgins is the eldest of five siblings and his father, Robert, is a New York City firefighter and his younger brother, Kevin, is a New York City policeman, the family wasn't immune from bullies.

"I think you're lying if you think you haven't been bullied in the past," Higgins said. "Growing up, I certainly had it, and to see my sister coming home crying from school a couple of times, it really gets your blood boiling. She would usually get it on the bus on the way home from school. Those kind of kids are easier targets for the bullies in school and she's the nicest person in the world.

"I don't believe anyone needs to be treated like that."

The original Anti-Bullying Day was organized in Nova Scotia by high school students. They bought and distributed 50 pink shirts after a male Grade 9 student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt during the first day of school.

"It's the right message," Higgins said. "Hearing the story of how it started, a couple of leaders in that school stood up and really went against the curve. They showed a lot of character doing that."

As much as cyber-bullying has taken the sickening practice to another level - those who torment others while hiding behind the anonymity of a Twitter account - Higgins also sees progress on that front.

"It's encouraging to know how prevalent it is in the news now," he said. "It was never talked about. It was, 'Don't do it' and there's a big push in schools now to get that out of the social environment."