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?