Go Big or Go Home

*Game six preview as posted on the CLS mini-blog Canucks vs. Blackhawks.*

This is it. Game 6 in Chicago. The Blackhawks are up 3-2 on the series and can close the deal tonight.

After a more exciting Game 5, the Blackhawks won 4-2. Why? Because they wanted it more. They were the hungrier team and really showed how badly they want to win the game. And the Canucks took dumb penalties at bad times during the game.

*As an aside, the fans that threw the garbage on the ice, they were ridiculous. That was just plain stupid.*

The Canucks will have to play the best game of the series tonight if they want to have a chance at winning. They still need to get their top line to show up because so far in the series, the Sedins and Burrows has all but disappeared. Nice Houdini act boys, but now is the time to show up. Someone should remind the Sedins that if they want that big contract, they may want to put a huge night tonight.

Great video I found from a Vancouver fan named Parksy...

Game Three: Canucks Silence United Center

Woooo!

Yesterday I checked the temperature in Vancouver, and the sky was falling. Fans started to get nervous, and people were getting ready to jump off the band wagon. The Canucks faced adversity playing against the Blackhawks and lost home ice. Going into the United Center, last night was going to be a hard game to play. Not only were we coming off of a loss in Vancouver, but we had a rash of injuries (Salo and Demitra).

A quick penalty in the first was taken by Vaananen on a cross check on Kane sent a message to the Hawks being in Luongo's kitchen. The first powerplay, the Blackhawks came on strong and after 4 attempts, the Canucks were still not able to clear the puck out of the zone. But 1 minute into the powerplay, Byfuglien took the Hawks off of the pp. Later in the period, from a pinch from Bieksa, to a pass to Kesler, which made Khabibulin commit to Kesler who made a quick no look pass to Mason Raymond, who went top shelf and scored! Man that was a run on sentence. Usually you look for the other team to respond after a goal, instead Bolland takes a delay of game penalty. Patrick Kane takes a late penalty that will carry on to the 2nd.

During the Kane penalty in the 3rd, Bernier was able to knock in a rebound from a shot from Alex Edler, it's 2-0. Silence in the United Center. Kesler did what needed to be done on Kane, go hard on him against the boards. Both Kesler and Brouwer head off to the box. Henrik Sedin gets a wrist shot on Khabibulin and the puck trickles through Bulin's 5-hole into the net, 3-0. 2 minutes later Daniel Sedin takes a retarded penalty, tripping on a puck that would have been icing. Brian Campbell who has been skating like he's in the ice capades tonight gets a goal, crap 3-1.

The third begins with another dumb delay of game penalty from Edler. We all know how safe a 2 or 3 goal lead is when playing the Blackhawks, so here is the game changer powerplay for Chicago. Luongo makes a great save on Bolland. Later in the period, Raymond gets ANOTHER delay of game penalty, that's 3 tonight combine for both teams, but the Canucks kill it off. The rest of the period had the Hawks try to make a come back, but the team just couldn't rally back like they did in game 1 and 2. The fans in the United Center were quiet through much of the 3rd period.

Notes:
-Pyatt was back on the 3rd line playing a strong game after missing games due to the death of his fiancee
-the Canucks' defense was playing much better tonight and moved the puck well
-Bieksa played a strong 27:54 and really showed that he could step up his game
-Bieksa's D pairing, Shane O'Brien also played a solid game
-the Blackhawks' powerplay didn't look good. They kept passing and looking for the perfect shot and were not able to get pucks on net.
-Duncan Keith played a terrible game
-Patrick Kane only played 14:22 (with only 2:56 in the 2nd period), and Toews 16:36
-Nice punch from Burrows on a Hawk player on the bench, and then the stick back in the face of Burrows.

Next game: Thursday in Chicago, Canucks are up 2-1 in the series.

6 wins down. 10 to go.

Game Three in the Windy City

*Game three preview as posted on the CLS mini-blog Canucks vs. Blackhawks.*

So after 2 games in Vancity, the Hawks have taken home ice advantage. After outplaying the Canucks in Game 2, the sky is falling in Vancouver. A guy at my work is already wanting to sell his tickets to game 5. Bandwagoners. It's not like the Canucks are down 3-1 in the series, no, we have a split. Ok, so we have now lost the home ice advantage, and yes we are now going into one of the (recently) loudest buildings in the NHL, but whatever, it's called adversity. I didn't sit through games at GM Place during their 9 game losing streak to give up on them after 1 loss. The Canucks were on an 8 game winning streak before Saturday night, something had to give. Even Boston and Detroit lost, only the Caps are up 2-0 in their series. The parity from each of the series' and the numbers from that Crovechkin match-up has Bettman grinning ear to ear these days.














What else makes Mr. Bettman smile? Celebrity bandwagoners.

Obviously it would be great for the Canucks to win both road games, but realistically I would like for them to steal one on the road and come back home even.

Game 2 the Blackhawks just outplayed the Canucks. The Canucks scored two goals, on the powerplay, lost a D man and then just decided to pack it in. By the time the Hawks scored twice in the 2nd period, the fans started to revolt. If only I had called security on the fan nazi sitting behind me earlier. Just a heads up, if you behind me at a game, DON'T tell me I have to cheer or try to rally the troups to join your dumb chants, it ain't happening. If being down 5-2 doesn't motivate the players to score goals, your scratchy bitchy voice ain't doing it.

Looking ahead, the Canucks have gone to Chicago without Sami Salo who can be arguably one of the Canucks' best defencemen. Besides the fact we will miss his rocket of a shot from the point, his defensive pairing with Mitchell will be shaken up. Ossi Vaananen will draw into the lineup to replace him, but it won't be the same for the team that has been weak on their play in the defensive zone.

In other injury news, Demitra didn't practice today, which led to speculation that he is also injured from the hit with Campbell. In a perfect non-injury world, Pyatt would draw in to replace Hordichuk on the 4th line, but instead he might move on to the 3rd and Raymond moving up to the wing on the 2nd. All this remains to be seen tomorrow, and Pyatt playing is purely speculation on my part, but since there was an almost loss, and then a loss, I can't see why you wouldn't play him if he's ready.

To the Chicago fans, man Seabrook is playing like he's superhuman. I only hate because I'd love him on my team.

Luongo issued a challege for the guys to "step up as a team" and I think they will. Maybe Vancouver won't see a win tomorrow, but a good game would make up for the fact that we gotta skip out of work early to catch the 5pm start.

Game 1: Canucks WIN!

*As posted on CLS: Canucks v. Blackhawks*















Am I a little late with the 1st game recap? Yes. But after last night, well I was not able to hammer this thing out after the festivities, and a thing called work got in the way today, but better late than never.

What a 1st game. The first period for the Canucks showed what not playing for 9 days would do to a team, the turnovers and sloppy changes were prevalent. The Blackhawks on the other hand were taking penalties like they were free candy. That gave the Canucks 7 power plays in the opening 40 minutes, not a smart move. Thanks in part to the face of Kyle Wellwood and its affinity for errant sticks, the Canucks drew 8 minutes of penalties just based on his baby face alone. If you were watching the CBC broadcast you got to hear the lovefest about Welly from McLean and Cherry after the game, Cherry even wrote down Wellwood's stats. Maybe next time he should write down the #3 in the blue sweaters name, trust me, it's not Bieska.

In the 3rd, after Kane spent the last few seconds of his 4 minute penalty in the box, he came out to show why he is such a great hockey player. The goal started building the momentum for the Hawks, and a dumb penalty from Hordichuck put them on the power play. Kane gets another clutch goal to get the Hawks within one. What were the Canucks sitting back in the 3rd period? Did they feel that they had the game locked up up 3 goals? From watching the Calgary/Blackhawk series, I think we learnt that they can score 3 goals pretty quick, in fact they can do it in 1:49. You could just watch the sequence of the plays that happened, the chasing around of the hawk players leading up to the Bolland goal looked like it happened in slow motion. Tie freakin game.











With two minutes left in the game, Barker decided to pinch which ended up not working out and left Walker to be the lone defenceman. The Canucks were on a 4-2 from a great feed from Wellwood to Raymond, Bernier got the puck on net, and Salo put in the rebound. 4-3 with just over a minute left and Johnson gets and empty net goal to end it at 5-3.

Khabibulin hasn't won a game against the Canucks since 1998 and that didn't change last night. Next game Saturday night.

5 wins down. 11 to go.

Guest Post at Cycle Like the Sedins: Round 2

Your Vancity Canuck is again writing on Cycle Like the Sedins' mini-blog for the Canucks vs. Blackhawks series. James O'Brien of CLS has invited me to be part of his awesome mini-blogs and has let me ramble on again about the Canucks.

This series will again have a blogger from other team, so this time round, Clare, from All Hawks Hockey will be also posting. I will again try to cross post, or at least update you with the links. If you have any suggestions or want to submit something send me an e-mail. I'll be a little late with my initial postings, and the postings after the home games, because I'm freakin going to them! (well except for Game 1, but rdizzle will be there). Wooooo!

So check out the CLS mini-blog here: Canucks vs. Blackhawks or on the blog list on the right.

Round 2: Canucks v. Blackhawks Schedule

Game 1 will be Thursday. 6pm start time.

I don't have the full schedule yet, I will update once I see the dates.

UPDATED: It appears broadcasters wanted earlier start times, say 4pm for people Toronto. The Canucks told them to shove it.

Full Schedule:
Game 1: Thurs April 30 - in Vancouver – 6pm PT
Game 2: Sat May 2 - in Vancouver - 6pm PT
Game 3: Tues May 5 - @ Chicago - 5pm PT
Game 4: Thurs May 7 - @ Chicago - 5pm PT
*Game 5: Sat May 9 - in Vancouver - 7:30pm PT
*Game 6: Mon May 11 - @ Chicago - 6pm PT
*Game 7: Thurs May 14 - in Vancouver - TBD
*if necessary

All games are broadcast on CBC and Versus.