A little WWF (not the World Wildlife Foundation) reference starts the celebratory post after the Vancouver Canucks rolled into the second round of the playoffs with a game 6 win over the Kings, 4-2 last night. The quote of the night, after the game, came from Kings' announcer Jim Fox who said, "Clearly, the Kings outplayed the Canucks in this series, but it just didn't work out." Classic. Clearly, you paid attention to game 2 and 3 only. Clearly. With 2:03 to play last night, tied at 2, Mikael "Shamu" Samuelsson tried to blast a shot in the middle. His stick shattered, and the puck slowly slid to a waiting Daniel Sedin. DS buried the rubber in the net, under a diving defensiveman, and 5 hole on Quick. Iept up from my couch, bashed my shin into our coffee table with celebrating (on accident), and high fived my wife and 3 month old son (who was wearing a Canucks onesie thanks to my boy Andrew...who is Chone Figgins elevator buddy). An empty netter from Alex Burrows (his 1st "goal" of the series) sealed the deal less than 60 seconds later, and the Canucks are marching into the second round again.
Before we turn the page on things, though, let's take a look at positive from this game and series as a whole, negatives spanning the same time frame, and our frame of mind with (most likely) a rematch from the 2009 second round on the agenda.
Positives:
-- Roberto Luongo stood on his head! 30 saves on 32 shots, and probably 5 saves out of those 30 that were complete show stoppers. The glove save as he was rolling on his back? I replayed it 10 times. Even my wife's draw dropped. Even one of the goals he allowed was a near save. If he would have had his paddle straight on the ice instead of slightly angled up, Doughty never would have scored. Bobby was fantastic in last night's game, his first truly awesome outing, and it was fun to watch.
-- Andrew Alberts stayed out of the penalty box for two straight games. Are you serious? The Game 2 and Game 3 whipping boy found some way to put together two actually good games, and it showed. The 'Nucks were able to stop the Kings power play, keep Luongo safe most of the time, and it was partially thanks to our #6 D-man. Good stuff, pal.
-- How about Bernier? I know, Mikael Samuelsson and the Twins have been an offensive force (thanks for the breaking news, NHL Network), but lesser known is the impact of the role players like Stevie Bernier and Po Po Demitra has gone over looked. Last night, Stevie scored a huge goal on the power play that drew us even in the game. It was his fourth goal in the six game series. Did you know that? As for Po Po, he scored a giant thied period goal in Game 5 (that opened up a 5-1 lead) for his second in the series, and he's been mixing it up on that third line like crazy. You wouldn't know he missed everything before the Olympics.
-- The Swedes. And finally, no list of positives from this series would be complete without pointing out the obvious. Mikael Samuelsson scored seven goals in the first five games of the series, Daniel Sedin nailed four in the six game series, and Hank has 1 and a handfull of assists. A top line running like tha gives a fan all kinds of confidence for a strong playoff run.
Negatives:
-- The penalty kill. Things turned around slightly over the three game winning streak, but the Kings scored on nearly half of their power play opportunities. It was a flat disaster. Add to that the fact that we seemed to take penalty after penalty, and it wasn't a good combo. Tough to watch, to be honest.
-- A self-defeating attitude. Let's face it, while there aren't many negatives right now, this one may be lurking in the shadows. The Canucks, Orca Nation, and the city of Vancouver seem to be filled with sports suffering. We seem to always think we have a Stanley Cup kind of team, and we seem to always have our heart broken in the Western Conference Semifinals. Will this be the year we can shake that repuation? I sure as hell hope so. And, this leads into the third and final section of this little rant.
Round Two:
San Jose was the first Western Conference team into the second round, and now the Canucks. Remaining are the teams from the Blackhawks/Preds series and the Wings/'Yotes series. The Hawks lead the Preds 3-2 in their series with a chance to lose it out tonight in Nasvhille. Meanwhile, the Red Wings and the Coyotes are going to Game 7 tomorrow night in Arizona. Scenarios abound, but you know where this is all headed.
1) Hawks win, PHX/DET win: If the Blackhawks win one of their next two vs. Nashville, we have a second round repeat from 2009. While I think the Hawks are the most dangerous team left, I also realize how much fun playing them is. It would be completely intense, ridiculously hard hitting, and so much freaking fun.
Canucks in 7.
2) Preds win, 'Yotes win: In a Nashville comeback scenario, we'd match up against the winner of the PHX/DET game 7 (which could really go either way). Am I weird to think that Phoenix would be an easy series? I know they're the feel good story of the year for the NHL Network (probably because the NHL are partial owners now), but they're playing way above their heads right? I think we'd steam roll 'em.
Canucks in 5.
3) Preds win, Wings win: This isn't the Buffalo Wings of the Laguna Roller Hockey League we're talking about here (undefeated at 2-0-1 heading into Thursday's match with the "Crease Banger Cougar Hunters," real name), this is the never surprising Detroit Wheel With Wings, Wings. This may be as dangerous as the match with Chicago, but certainly not anywhere near as fun. I don't want this series at all. I'd even rather lose to the Hawks than these bastards. Just because I don't want it, I'll pick us better than I really think we'd do.
Canucks in 6.
There you have it. We'll roll out a more complete round two preview once it's all set up, which could be tonight if the Blackhawks pull through.
I'm coming for you, Jon Davis.
As for the other game tonight: Go Sabres Go!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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