It’s Been Too Long

Yeah, I know – almost 3 years to the day.  So sue me.  I stopped working on the site, and even trying to get the old site back up and running on the original URL for pretty much one reason, and one reason only.  Blogging about the Canucks wasn’t FUN anymore.  I wasn’t really enjoying it, so there wasn’t really a whole lot of point to doing it.

But now that I have the opportunity to do this again, I’m going to keep posting, and being active on Twitter (follow @CanuckNation, where I’m more active than on here).  Comment.  Or just read.  Whichever.

Which is not to say that the Canucks don’t frustrate the hell out of me at times, because they do.  But do I stop watching, or jump off the bandwagon?  Nah.  Not in my nature.  But I was so looking forward to last night’s game (my thoughts will be in the next post).  And now it’s time for me to get back to posting here, and adding another blog to the list of excellent Canucks blogs that there are out there.  And they’ve just gotten so much better over the last couple of years.

Which reminds me, gotta update that links list.

See What Happens When The Canucks Show Up?

When Christian Ehrhoff scored in the first minute of the game to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead, you have to admit that you’d seen this story before, and not had it end well.  Even after Kevin Bieksa doubled the score a few minutes later.  Been there, done that, and still wondered how the hell they managed to lose.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time.

People can complain all they want about the Canucks being the victims of a “conspiracy” to keep them out of the SCF because the NHL always wants the team the Canucks are facing to get through because it would be “better for the game”.  Seems like the most likely ones to spout these theories?  The mainstream media types, which gets the call-in regulars foaming.

Get over it.  The league didn’t want the Kings to get through because it would be better for the game.  They don’t want the Hawks to win because they’re a “team of destiny”.  They don’t want the Sharks to advance because it’ll help them live up to their billing.  Here’s what the league wants:  the two teams that are able to advance to the SCF because they win when they need to.  They can get it done.  If that’s the Canucks, then great.  If it’s someone else, well, that’s what next season is all about.  What fans of other teams whine when things don’t go their way?  (Leaf fans have a built-in excuse, so they don’t count). 

Now, when things don’t get called that should, it’s not a conspiracy against the Canucks.  It’s just incompetence on the part of the officials.  Or did they really think that Shane O’Brien just spontaneously started spouting blood from between his eyes?  Or that Daniel Sedin suddenly lost all feeling in both feet while he was skating?

Regardless.  The Canucks responded exactly the way that they should have.  They ignored it, and moved on.  Kept playing their game, and got a very well-deserved win, to extend this thing to at least a sixth game.  If the Canucks play their style, and get the Hawks to buy into it, they’ll win this series in seven games.  But if they play the Hawks style, the way they did for games three and four, this thing won’t end well.

We’ll have to see who the Canucks insert into the lineup after Sami Salo went down with a scary looking injury.  Sami has sat out for weeks with injuries that didn’t look nearly as bad as that one did.  So it unfortunately looks like his year is done.

It’s both a good sign when your defensemen can get three of your team’s goals, and also a bad sign.  Secondary scoring is good, but they have enough guys who get paid big bucks to put the puck in the net.  They need to do so.

Tuesday night’s gonna be fun.

Go Canucks Go.

No Jumping Off The Bandwagon Here

You can complain all you want about the calls or non-calls on Wednesday night, but when it all comes down to it, if the Canucks hadn’t played as poorly as they did, then the officials wouldn’t have come into play at all.

The Canucks defense was completely ineffective, failing to clear the rebounds that Roberto Luongo had trouble with, which was far too many.  Seeing as how that’s not his usual style, though, I don’t think that it’s going to be much of a concern for game 4 tonight.

Stupid penalties that WERE called, though, are a different matter.  Alex Burrows probably had a sinking feeling as he was skating towards the box after getting into a shoving match for no good reason. 

The power play was also a problem, as the Canucks had trouble maintaining possession of the puck when they had the man advantage.  They’d get the puck over the line, make a pass, lose the puck, and wind up chasing it back to their own end of the ice.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

They’re going to have to come up with a better effort tonight, and I think that they will.  Both teams have had their horrible nights (game 1 in the Hawks’ case) so tonight can live up to the billing that this series has had all along. 

Which will make for a very entertaining night indeed.

An Incomplete Game Means A Tied Series

Quite simply, the Canucks failed to show up for the entire sixty minutes on Monday night.  Jumping out to a 2-0 lead just 5 minutes into the game was a great start, and the look on some of the faces of those people in the United Center was absolutely great.  But the Hawks managed to get one back, and then it looked like the Canucks were going to be able to hold on.

But a real defensive lapse led to the second Chicago goal.  Not really sure what the hell happened there, but I know that when Patrick Sharp walked around Roberto Luongo, who made kind of a feeble half-hearted attempt to stop the puck, Sharp had about three Canucks leaning on him, including Ryan Kesler, who gave him a shot after the goal, rather than BEFORE he put the puck in the net.

To be honest though, despite all the pressure that the Hawks put on the Canucks in the third period, I really thought that game was going to overtime.  Despite his play on the Sharp goal, I thought that Luongo was going to be able to steal one for the Canucks, and bring them home with a 2-0 lead in the series.

Ah well, not to be.  They’ll just have to take a 2-1 lead tonight.  So much has been said about how intimidating it can be to play in Chicago (more likely referring to the old Chicago Stadium).  But the Canucks had a better home ice record this year.  And yeah, the United Center might get loud, but there’s no shortage of Canucks fans willing to do their best to blow the roof of GM Place, either.

Prediction?  Canucks win, 4 – 2.  Anyone else?

First Game Easy. The Rest? Don’t Count On It.

Well, the Canucks certainly made that look easy, eh?  It’s too bad the rest of the series won’t be that simple.  Roberto Luongo didn’t have a spectacular game, but then, he didn’t need to.  Jumping out to a 5-0 lead certainly helps a team play with a lot more confidence.  Doesn’t hurt that the Hawks had to take a fair number of chances that they wouldn’t under normal circumstances either.

A few days ago, a Hawks blogger roundtable was held on BlackhawkUp, in which this response was posted to the question, “Looking ahead, what’s the most important factor or player in this series against the Canucks?”  A: “The main factor for the Blackhawks is to shut down the rest of Vancouver’s role players — Samuelsson, Kessler, Demitra, Burrows, et al — from making too big of an impact on this series. Samuelsson scored 11 points against Los Angeles and was a huge factor in the Canucks surviving that series. I’m more concerned with keeping their third and fourth line off the score sheet than worrying about what we already know will be difficult to contend with.”

So what happened last night?  Let’s review.  Henrik Sedin with one goal, and Daniel Sedin with one assist.  The rest of the scoring came from Mason Raymond, Kyle Wellwood, and Michael Grabner.  What was that about keeping the third and fourth lines off the score sheet?

And Dustin Byfuglien can just keep on playing just the way he did last night for the rest of the series.  Invisible works good for him.

Antti Niemi got pulled from the third period, with Cristobal Huet playing the rest of the game.  Seeing as how Joel Quennville is known for juggling lines at the drop of a hat, it’ll be interesting to see if he goes back to Huet, a guy who barely played in the last month of the regular season after losing his confidence.

The Canucks came out with a lot more jump than the Hawks, and I’m wondering if those predicting the Hawks in 5 are re-thinking their position.  If not, they certainly should be. 

Is it time to start thinking about the Canucks sweeping this series?  No, it’s not, because it ain’t gonna happen.  The Hawks are too good a team to suck as badly as they did last night for four straight games.  But if the Canucks could get out of Chicago with a 2-0 series lead, can you imagine GM Place on Wednesday night? 

Predictions For The Second Round

It’s probably been a couple of years since I’ve made predictions on all of the upcoming playoff series’, but thought I’d take a stab at it again.  There’s a lot of interesting matchups, and some seem like they’re easy on the surface, but if you really take a look at it, there’s a lot more involved.  So, without anything further, here we go:

Canucks vs Blackhawks

No point in drawing this one out and leaving it till the end.  The Canucks want revenge for what happened in the second round of last year’s playoffs.  No one feels it more than Roberto Luongo, and that counts for a lot.  Dustin Byfuglien notwithstanding.  Maybe someone knocking the guy on his ass a few times will get him away from the net.  Regardless, the Canucks’ scoring has improved vastly over last year, and their secondary scoring in the first round did exactly what it needed to get them through.  Now if Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler start scoring the way that they did during the regular season, this thing will be over in a hurry.

Not to say that this thing is going to be an easy series in any way, shape or form.  There’s going to be a lot of emotion come out, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a fight or two in the first game.  The first ten minutes or so will probably go a long way to show what this one’s going to be like.

Canucks in six.

Sharks vs Red Wings

How do you pick a winner here?  The Sharks were the best team in the west this year.  But they have a long and glorious history of flaming out in the playoffs.  The Red Wings are, well, the Red Wings.  They’ve made the Finals the last two years.  However, the Wings are getting not getting any younger, and they’re trying to ride a rookie goaltender through all of this.  Sure it’s been done before, but it ain’t going to be easy.

In the long run I think I’d have to side with the team that has an incredibly vast amount of playoff experience and go with Detroit.  And while I’m predicting that the Sharks will win a couple, they really won’t really be in this series.  They might win games three and five.

Wings in six.

Penguins vs Canadiens

The Sens didn’t provide much of a challenge to the Penguins.  Or maybe it was just the fact that Sidney Crosby was so dominating in the first round.  The Habs pulled off the upset of the playoffs this year.  Regardless of whatever else happens for the final three rounds. 

But Jaroslav Halak is NOT going to be able to do what he did to the Caps for a whole series against Pittsburgh.  As much as I’d love to see the Habs go deep into the playoffs, I have a feeling that they’re about to get run over by the Sidney Crosby express.

The Habs will win a couple, but like the Sharks, they really won’t be in this series all that much.

Pens in six.

Bruins vs Flyers

I can remember when the Flyers and Bruins played in the Stanley Cup Finals back in the mid-70s.  Absolutely brutal.  While I don’t think that this series will be like those ones were, I think that this one has the potential to be the most emotional series in the second round. 

Particularly if the Bruins play the way that they did during their series with the Sabres.

This is going to be a long, drawn out series and I really would be surprised if it did anything other than go the full seven games.  Which of course would lead to the Bruins getting their matchup against Matt Cooke and the Penguins.  Which could, in my opinion could be an even more interesting ECF than the Pens and Capitals would have been.

Bruins in seven.

Canucks 2nd Round Playoff Schedule

The second round begins on Friday for the Canucks in Chicago.  If there’s anything good about this, it’s not having to wait until 7pm for the game to start.

1. Friday, April 30 – 5pm – Vancouver @ Chicago
2. Sunday, May 2 – 5pm – Vancouver @ Chicago
3. Tuesday, May 4 – 7pm – Chicago @ Vancouver
4. Thursday, May 6 – 7pm – Chicago @ Vancouver
5. Saturday, May 8 – 5pm – Vancouver @ Chicago (if necessary)
6. Monday, May 10 – 7pm – Chicago @ Vancouver (if necessary)
7. Wednesday, May 12 – TBD – Vancouver @ Chicago (if necessary)

Friday seems like a long way off now.  Time for the media to get worked up in to a froth over this second round match-up.  Gonna be good.

Go Canucks Go.

Canucks Advance

As was pointed out on TEAM 1040 this morning, the Canucks got all kinds of scoring from those who weren’t really counted on to provide it.  Sure the Sedins picked up right where they left off at the end of the regular season.  And yeah, Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler only got one apiece (and empty netters at that), but Mikael Samuelsson led all scorers in the post season.  And who would have thought that Steve Bernier would pick up four goals in six games?

If Roberto Luongo keeps getting stronger, which he did as the series went on, the Sedins and Samuelsson keep doing what they’ve been doing, and Alex Burrows starts scoring the way that he did in the regular season, the Canucks are going to go deep into the playoffs this year.

Do they still have some issues?  Sure.  The penalty kill, while it’s been much better the last couple of games, still needs to be ironed out so that they don’t wind up with another game where every time the Canucks are shorthanded they give up a goal.  That will end your season really fast as you get later into the playoffs.  Roberto Luongo also needs to be consistent, which he is starting to show signs of doing.  Getting pulled from a game (particularly in the playoffs) would tend to have that sort of an affect on a guy like him.

The Canucks could know as early as tonight who they’ll be facing in the next round of the playoffs.  If the Hawks beat the Preds, the Canucks get to face the Hawks again, in a rematch of last year’s second round.  But if Nashville wins, it’s the winner of the Phoenix – Detroit series.  The Coyotes give the impression that they’re going to find some way to win, no matter how improbable it seems.  Kind of like the Canucks teams of ‘82 and ‘94.  The Red Wings have massive amounts of deep playoff experience, but age may be starting to creep up on them finally. 

Personally, I’d like to see the Canucks play Chicago again, if for no other reason than Luongo can finally get the image of last year’s game 6 out of his mind, and move on.  It’d be a hell of a series.  Particularly if they can find some way to take Dustin Byfuglien on his ass, and out of the series. 

But, more on that when we know for sure.  In the meantime, this is going to be the temporary home for CanuckNation.ca for the time being.  Some hosting issues have come up that I’m working to resolve, but may not be be able to get worked out before the end of the season.  The site will have a new look next fall anyway, so I may just go ahead and keep posting here until the end of the playoffs this year, and then tighten up the design for next season during the summer.

And now, some thoughts from various places around the Canucks and Kings blogs.

• Another Third Period Rally Helps Canucks Advance – Nucks Misconduct
• A Farewell To Kings, Thanks to Jekyll, Not Hyde – Canuck Puck
• Canucks Beat Kings 4-2 – LAKings.com
• Why – Jewels From the Crown
• Kings 2, Canucks 4: So That’s How It Ends – Purple Crushed Velvet