Here we are. The Canucks are in the Western Final for the first time since 1994. The story of the first two rounds of the playoffs has been two-fold.
Defeating demons (barely)
Round one showed the NHL the good and the bad of the Vancouver Canucks. Van-city was a better team than the thinned Chicago Blackhawks. Yet, Vancouver after gaining a 3-0 series lead allowed the Hawks two easy blow out wins in game 4 and 5 to let them back in the series. In game 6 the Canucks out-played the Hawk's yet Corey Crawford stole the game. In game 7, as we all know, Vancouver pulled out a victory in over-time. Despite the victory I can't help but think about how close Vancouver was to perhaps the worst collapse in NHL history. What would have it meant for Roberto Luongo's career and his psyche? I am not sure if he would have gotten over the mental mountain. However, the canucks somehow survived, and defeated their demons, which lead to the second round and the second story line for the Vancouver Canuck's.
The invincible Sedin Twins.
In the second round the canucks played a gritty Nashville team, which appeared simply happy to be there. The Canucks coaching staff decided to play the predators patient style and rely on their superior talent; The sedins, Kesler, Burrows. This worked only because Kesler played like Super-man (5g--6a-11pts). The Sedin's on the other hand played like Spider Ham and continued their weak play from the second half of round one. They played poorly, were on the ice for almost every goal against and did not contribute offensively, they looked weak on the puck and out of cinq with one another for the entire series. Yet, despite the poor play of our Art Ross trophy winners Vancouver beat a weak Nashville team and won their ticket to the Western Final for the first time since 94.
Round three
Game one was a different story for the Sedin's. Hank scored his first goal of the playoff (other than the empty netter he scored in Rd 2) and the Sedin line outplayed Jumbo Joe for most of the night. San Jose looked tired in game one and were out hustled and outworked to pucks for 2/3 of the game, esp. in the third period.
I am looking forward to Wednesday. Will San Jose find their mo-jo in the next few days? Will Luongo out play Niemi in this series? Soon we will find out.
There were times in that game where the only reason the puck didn`t go in the SJ net was because everyone just collapsed in front! Try to get a puck through 6 bodies is difficult! haha
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