A Few Thoughts on the Canucks and Blackhawks

The Canucks and Blackhawks do not like each other.

“He shoots. Grabner scores!  The first NHL goal for Michael Grabner and the Canucks have tied the game.”

“Samulsson shoots.  Scores!  Mikael Samuelsson!  And Vancouver leads!”

That was the scene back on October 21^st in Chicago where the Canucks pulled off one of their many come from behind wins on the season.  It was also the fateful game where Willie Mitchell laid out Jonathan Toews as Mitchell was stepping out of the penalty box.  Toews missed several weeks with a concussion but unfortunately for Vancouver the tides have now turned and Mitchell is the one that has been sidelined with a concussion for the last several months and doesn’t appear as if he will factor into the playoffs.  Missing your top shutdown defenseman is never ideal and like many of the Vancouver Canucks, Mitchell has as many demons that he’d like to rectify as any other Canucks because it was he who couldn’t clear the puck out of the zone in the final minute of game 4 that eventually allowed Chicago to tie the game and then the series.

The Canucks would love to take the positives of their regular season win in Chicago into their second round rematch but like everyone else,  their thoughts are on redemption for eliminating the Canucks last spring.  The point was hammered home when a global tv reporter played the Blackhawks goal song for a number of Canucks players and their reaction was generally speaking “I hate that song.”

So, the question becomes, how do the Canucks win this series?  Goaltending seems to be the biggest thing that could separate the Canucks and Blackhawks on paper.  Antti Niemi had fantastic stats in the first round, but given that, Niemi doesn’t exactly ooze confidence.  He let in several questionable goals in the Nashville series and you could have argued he was the reason the Blackhawks almost lost game 5 at home.  This is Niemi’s first trip into the post season so one has to wonder about his mental toughness over an entire series where he is going to be tested in every game.  One thing is for sure and that’s that Niemi is a downgrade from Nikolai Khabibulin who helped the hawks make it to the conference finals last season.  Chicago does have an insurance policy on the bench with Huet and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him before the series is over.

At the other end of the ice it’s Roberto Luongo.  A lot could be said about Luongo going into this series and there are plenty of question marks that need to be answered.  Can he play will in Chicago?  Is Dustin Byfuglien in his head?  Will he allow any soft goals?  Is he able to keep his head in the game after one?  Can he make a big save for the Canucks on the penalty kill?  Late in the first round against Los Angeles it appeared that he hinted towards the answer to some of those questions.  Luongo had a terrible outing at the end of the regular season at the Staples Center and followed that up by getting pulled in game 3.  He was able to turn in a solid outing in game 4 and then steal the deciding game 6 for Vancouver on the road.

Byfuglien was almost a non-factor in the teams regular season meetings and after spending the last month of so on defense it will be as interesting to see if he can adjust back to forward to have an impact on the series.  The rest of the questions remain unanswered and it will be up to Luongo to answer them once the series gets going tomorrow.  It seems unlikely that the entire series will go without Luongo letting in a bad goal or letting in a goal where he thought he was interferered with.  Both instances often cause him to lose his focus and composure which we saw in the Canucks final meeting with the Hawks in March.

The always emotional Shane O`Brien will need to stay out of the penalty box.

The Blackhawks certainly have an advantage on the backend with Norris trophy candidate Duncan Keith, a healthy Brian Campbell and Brent Seabrook.  It will be important to take away time and space from such talented defenseman if the Canucks are going to have success against them.  As a result it appears that Alain Vigneault will be dressing Grabner and Jannik Hansen on the fourth line to give Vancouver a little bit more speed and options.

Vancouver has their own high end talent with Christian Ehrhoff and a resurgent Alex Edler.  Sami Salo has been reliable as well and while an injury is always possible as soon as he comes over the boards, the Finn looks poised to chip in at both ends of the ice.  Where the Canucks don’t match-up well is with their bottom three. Kevin Bieksa has the potential to play a big game and to be an important penalty killer but he must stay out of the box.  The same goes for Andrew Alberts who did just about everything you can do to get taken out of the lineup against Los Angeles.  Only injures to Aaron Rome and Nolan Baumgartner got him back in.  Speaking of those two, a mistake free game would be about as much as you can ask from either of them.

As for the forwards, well there probably isn’t much that you don’t already know.  Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and the list goes on as far as talented forwards go.  The Canucks have their own with the Sedins and Samuelsson who appears to have found his scoring touch for the moment.  The streaky scorer is on his game for now.  The Kesler vs Ladd matchup will also be one to watch.  I’m sure Kesler will be able to put it aside early in the series but when one game gets out of hand I’m sure he’ll be looking for Ladd.

It’s been a long week off, can’t wait to get this going.

Final Thoughts on First Round Series

Roberto Luongo stops Dustin Brown from in close in game 6

Much like watching Kyle Wellwood skate with the puck, the Canucks led the Kings into a false sense of security during the clinching game of the Western Conference Quarter-final.  In the Canucks case, the team fell back at what they knew best, coming from behind in the third period.  It’s not a game plan that the coach will ever attempt to draw up before the game but for whatever reason it has become a signature of the Canucks season.  Of course if you were waiting for me to finish the Wellwood analogy, watching him glide with the puck through the neutral zone only to eventually still be holding the puck in front of the opponents goal is eerie similar to the way the Canucks win games late – it’s not pretty but it works.

The winning goal was hardly a thing of beauty, a one timer attempt by Mikael Samuelsson that broke his stick but still found its way over to Daniel Sedin skating along the left side.  Jonathon Quick, who struggled in the second half of the series didn’t read the play all that well and didn’t get square to the Sedin shot and let Sedin’s wrister float over his shoulder.

Alex Burrows celebrates his empty net goal.

After the game coach Terry Murray was less than thrilled with the way the final goal was surrendered.  When one reporter insisted it was a “well placed shot” Murray was quick to dismiss that notion by pointing to the fact that the intended shooter had his stick shattered.  It also seemed as if he was throwing Quick under the bus without explicitly saying so.  Quick was great in the first half of the series and certainly helped the Kings open up a two games to one lead in the series but somewhere in game four the tides changed and he went from outplaying Luongo to having more holes in him than swiss cheese.

Which brings us to Luongo.  The captain struggled after winning the gold medal in February but game-by-game in the first round he got better and better.  In game 7 he turned in one of his finest performances in recent memory that gave the Canucks the opportunity to come from behind in the second period.  With the Canucks trailing in the second period, Luongo made one of the best stop we have seen him make in a Canucks uniform.  Ryan Smyth had a wide open goal and what appeared to be a down and out Luongo.  But Luongo never gave up on the play, throwing his glove hand out in desperation and robbing Smyth and the Kings of a two goal lead.  Some might chalk the save up to luck but it was nothing of the sort.  When you watch the clip check out Luongo’s head which never takes his eyes off the puck.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing about Luongo’s resurgence in the series was the fact that he overcame whatever was preventing him from playing well at the Staples Center.  In his only start of the season in Los Angeles he allowed all eight goals in an 8-3 thumping.  Then in game 3 he was shaky and eventually pulled for Andrew Raycroft while the Canucks battled back but still lost by a goal.  In game four he grinded out a victory in a back and forth game.  It certainly wasn’t a picture perfect win for Luongo but he shifted the momentum by stopping Alexander Frolov on a breakaway in the third.  Without that save the Canucks could have easily found themselves coming home down 3-1.  It was clearly a rallying point for the Canucks as they went on to pull out another come from behind victory in the third period and of course it was a Sedin who broke the tie late in that one as well.

The importance of Luongo being able to get over whatever was in his head will be important because he faces bigger demons in Chicago where the Madhouse on Madison is his worst nightmare.  I’m sure it has been on the back of his mind for a year.  The scene of Patrick Kane putting the dagger in the Canucks with a hat trick should be plenty of motivation for the Canucks.  Luckily when Luongo gets a second chance he usually comes through.  But more on that tomorrow.

Canucks Make Changes for Game 2 and Other Playoff Thoughts

Alain Vigneault directs his troops in practice

Grabner In, Pettinger Out

A few interesting things to note as the Canucks had a day off in preparation for game two against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.  The first being that Matt Pettinger is out of the line-up and Michael Grabner is back in, but will play on the fourth line.  Considering how little the fourth line played on Thursday this is essentially still a slap in the face to Grabner who had a very strong end of the season.  While I respect the decisions that have to be make by Alain Vigneault, there is no reason to put such a dangerous weapon on the fourth line because he’s not likely to get much support from Rypien and Bernier is perhaps the slowest guy on the team.  Not exactly putting a guy in a position to succeed.  While I love the way Jannik Hansen plays, Grabner provides much more upside for a team that doesn’t use its third line in the traditional shut-down roll.  Of course with Vigneault you never know how long hes going to stick with his original lines and we could see Grabner on the scoring line by the time the first period is over.  Ideally, my top three lines would be:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Samuelsson-Kesler-Grabner

Raymond-Wellwood-Demitra

On the topic of Matt Pettinger:  It was surprising enough that he was slotted into the lineup for game one.  Vigneault put him in strictly because he liked the way Pettinger killed penalties.  Considering he was on the ice for both of LA’s goals on Thursday, I think it’s safe to say hes seen his last shift for a while.

Vigneault on Andrew Alberts

Some interesting comments also came from Vigneault today regarding Andrew Alberts:

“Alberts has done exactly what we expected when we got him. He’s a depth defenseman who is physical and can move the puck”

You certainly can’t fault Albert’s physical play, but playing with raw emotion isn’t going to work all the time.  There needs to be a moment where he thinks about the situation and asks himself “is this a good time to hit this guy?”  Especially when you’re a depth defenseman, taking bad penalties is a sure-fire way to get yourself put back in the press box.  I’m not sure if Vigneault is just defending his player here but I can’t say I believe the idea that Alberts was exactly what they thought he would be when they gave up a third round pick for the guy and he’s only playing because of an injury to Aaron Rome.

Keys to Game Two

Matt Pettinger fights for positon with Jonathon Quick.

Looking ahead to game two, the question is what do both teams need to do to win?  For Vancouver, just doing what they did on Thursday will be important with the addition of cleaning up their penalty kill.  Roberto Luongo will be looking to continue building on his last two games where he’s looked much better than the slump he had played himself into coming off the Olympic gold.  Look for guys like Alex Edler to keep up the physical play and look to see how Alain Vigneault tries to match lines to keep the Sedins away from Wayne Simmonds.

For Los Angeles, the biggest thing may be trying to slow down the pace of the game to a level that they are more confortable playing.  It’s no mystery that the Canucks are much more skilled than them from top to bottom.  The Kings will need to find a way to slow down guys like Kyle Wellwood and Mason Raymond on the lower lines as well as keeping the puck away from the Sedins.  Easier said than done obviously but its something they will try to aim for.  Anze Kopitar will need to be more of a factor.  Kopitar had a chance to give the Kings the lead in the dying moments with Luongo swimming around on the ice but couldn’t pull the trigger.  It was all we really saw of the Kings star and more will be needed.  Jonathon Quick will also need another huge game.

Other Playoff Thoughts

The playoff games tonight got off to a smashing start as Andy Sutton laid out Jordan Leopold with an open ice hit late in the first period.   Just to add some Canucks flavour to this, it was Rick Rypien who fought and beat the 6’6 defenseman during the Hockeyville pre-season game in Terrace.  After the game Sutton was confronted by an “expert” reporter for a Pittsburgh newspaper about the apartant elbow that connected with Leopold.  It probably goes without saying that Sutton saw no elbow on the play.  While Sutton’s rant was fairly childish and bizarre because I don’t think you have to be an expert at something to make an observation, the hit was a clean one in my opinion.  Especially when you consider how tall Sutton is and that Leopold had his head down, the hit was well within the rules and I don’t feel as if he led with the elbow.  The NHL apparently agrees and Sutton, who received no penalty on the play itself, will not face discipline from the league.

In the other Western Conference series’ we were treated to high scoring shootout in Glendale and San Jose.  In fact, the Sharks were less than one minute away from going on the road down two games to none before Pavelski tied it 5-5 and Setoguchi scored his second of the game in overtime.  Detroit saved themselves a similar feat by holding off the Phoenix Coyotes 7-4.  The game itself was much closer than the score would indicate.

The Blackhawks and Predators finally got their series going on Friday and once again another road team stole away home ice advantage.  The Predators scored four times in the third for a 4-1 win.  The important thing to take from this is that of the top three seeds in the West, only Vancouver was able to win their first round opener and San Jose was so close to losing both games.  If the Canucks have been paying attention, these games should be motivation enough for them to stay focused because there is so much parity in the West specifically.

I Take It All Back, Mikael

After spending most of the season criticizing Mikael Samulsson’s inconsistent play, the Swede pretty much proved me wrong in every way possible on Thursday night.  Like most of the Canucks, I think it would be pretty difficult to find a flaw in his game during the 3-2 overtime win.  My cousin who was sitting next to me at GM Place last night shouted in my ear as Samuelsson came out for the curtain call as the game’s first star, “that’s why we got him!  That’s why we got him!”  That much was never in question but Samuelsson seems to be developing a trend for late game heroics even if his complete game isn’t always evident.  His overtime winner against the Blackhawks in last year’s Western Conference Final is likely his biggest career goal and when you break it down wasn’t so different than the one he scored last night.  A one-timer from the slot while the only glaring difference was the fact the former came off the rush.

Of course none of this would have been at all possible if Roberto Luongo hadn’t pulled the winner from Jack Johnson off the goal line just minutes earlier and if Michal Handzus had the presence of mind to actually push the puck across the line rather than celebrating before it was in.  I don’t want to say that Luongo has found his game again after one decent performance because the second goal of the game from Modin was plenty questionable, but the Canucks captain made the saves when they were needed the most and that’s always an important ingredient to playoff goaltending.  It’s something we have seen from Chris Osgood so many years prior.  He wasn’t the best goaltender but he was a winner because he was usually able to make the save when he team was desperate for it.

If we’re talking about people who stepped up their game last night, then you pretty much have to mention Alex Edler.  Last night was, without question, the most determined and physical effort we have seen from Edler in a Canucks uniform.  After the game he was drawing comparisons to Mattias Ohlund because of his timely physical play.  The hit on Drew Doughty was spectacular and if Edler had hit him just slightly more square, Doughty might have been out of the series and out of the arena on a stretcher.  Doughty doesn’t seem to be the type of kid that gets rattled and I like everything I’ve seen from him in the last few years but it will be interesting to see if he is a little hesitant to try and carry the puck through the zone again.

Edler, along with the rest of his defensive troops, were forced to step up after Andrew Alberts decided to throw a cheap shot from behind on Justin Williams.  As if there wasn’t enough reason for Alberts to be in the doghouse of Canuck fans, he went out and took a penalty that could have been disastrous.  Luckily for the Canucks, the Kings only scored once on the five minute power play and had the last minute or so negated when Doughty took a penalty of his own.  What was interesting about the Alberts penalty – and you can take this a variety of ways – was that he took a major penalty and got tossed during a game when referees were frequently letting flagrant regular season penalties go.  Most people wouldn’t agree that it was a bad call so you have to wonder just how dirty a hit you have to throw when the referees aren’t calling anything.  Just look at Henrik Sedin taking a stick through the visor – the ultimate smoking gun – and not having a penalty called on the play.  Luckily (or maybe its unluckily) Alberts will not face additional discipline from the NHL.

The Sedins both had fantastic games as well but perhaps their performance gets overlooked a bit because so many other players were clutch for Vancouver.  Henrik and Daniel both had two point nights and it was the great vision of Henrik Sedin to find find Samuelsson in the slot from behind the net.  Of course you can’t forget the pass from Henrik to a streaking Daniel to set up the top-shelf backhand midway through the second period.  It looked as if the Canucks were going to start to roll but unfortunately Andrew Alberts happened.   The Sedins have been critisized in the past for not being playoff performers but if last night is any indication they look poised for a good post-season.

The bottom line in this game was that the Canucks were the better team for most of the game and deserved to come away with the win.  If they hadn’t the Kings could have thanked Jonathon Quick, who was spectacular.  The Canucks have a great opportunity on Saturday night to take a major grip on the series before going on the road, which will be incredibly important for a team that struggled quite a bit on the road after the post-Olympic trip.