What am I supposed to write? I've been scratching my head trying to come up with something. Anything! Some kind of angle to come at this opening round series between the Canucks and the Blackhawks. But what am I supposed to write? I have kind of been expecting this to be the way this would play out. Heck, I've kind of been hoping for it. Any real hockey fan in my situation would have been hoping for the same thing. If you read the blog, you know that I see a chance of knocking off Chicago as a way of seeing if this team will get the Cup. If we vanquish Chicago in the first round of the playoffs, who can stop us?
That being said, this isn't the same Chicago team that Vancouver has gone against the last two postseasons. And that being said, these two teams still hate the heck out of each other. This rivalry runs deep, and we all know that. We'll start with the five most recent games between the LSF rivals, take a look at the well known intense history between these two squads, and make a prediction as to how this one will end up.
Before I get to that, I'd like to give my love to the Buffalo Sabres, our expansion siblings, for making the playoffs. I don't think any team has a better chance of pulling off a big upset than Buffalo surprising Philadelphia. Don't you agree? And, if that happens, and the Canucks can finally beat the Hawks, would we start dreaming of an all-LSF Stanley Cup Finals? Man, that would be off the charts.
Okay, so we've gone against Chicago four times this season. We battled in October, November, December, and February, and we came out even, 2-2. Chicago opened the season series with a 2-1 shootout win. Stalberg tallied an opening period goal, cancelled out by a Dank power play tally with 19 to go in the third. Roberto Luongo stopped Hossa on a breakaway in the OT, but Kaner scored a shootout winner. Lucky break.
The second game wasn't quite that close. I'm pretty sure that Jon Davis remembers the 7-1 Hawk win in November. He sure let me hear about it when it happened. El Roberto got pulled in the game after quick goals from Toews and Brouwer in the second, and even closer together goals from Seabrook and Sharp in the third. After the game Alain Vigneault made it clear that he was upset about the Hawks play. "It's 6-0 and they throw their #1 power play unit on a 5-on-3? They have every right to do that, and they did it. They were pushing it, and they did it." Joe Quenneville denied trying to run up the score. In a rivalry match like that, I see nothing wrong with running up the score and keeping the foot on the pedal, I really don't. It was just a little embarrassing that it happened to us.
The 3-0 win for the Canucks in the third game of the season series was a big bounce back after the crappy start against Chicago. Luongo made 32 saves, Glass, Ehrhoff, and Henrik scored, and the Vannies exacted their revenge on their rivals. After the game, Luongo talked about how much fun it is to play Chicago because of the intensity, but I'm guessing he was only feeling that way because of the positive result. Even Henrik was feeling it, "A win in Chicago, it's always fun. Maybe more fun because we played in the playoffs the last couple of years." Bingo. It was a nice win, and I was left explaining to Jon how a 3-0 win is more impressive than a 7-1 win. I wonder if he bought it?
The final game of the season series was back in February, and the Orca won a tight 4-3 clash. Daniel scored with 4 minutes left to secure the win, and a comeback win at that. This game is probably going to be most representative as how it's going to go in the open round starting on Wednesday. Ehrhoff opened it, followed by Toews and Boynton getting Chicago the lead. After Samuelsson tied it again on the power play, Bolland scored in the third. But as they have done so often this season, the Vannies flipped a switch and got goals from Hank and from Dank to close things out, and snag the win. Of course, we're probably not going to be seeing Turco in many of these games.
This series has the history, and we all know that. Let's start at the beginning. In 1982, the sub-.500 Canucks shocked the NHL by upsetting the Flames in the opening round, and then outdid that by beating the Kings in the second round after their "Miracle on Manchester" win over Edmonton. To follow that up, the Canucks went head to head with the Brawlin' Blackhawks and came out on top of an insanely hard fought series. The Canucks won the series (and most of the fights) 4-1, but the series will always be remembered for Canuck coach Roger Neilson waving the white towel on top of a stick to surrender to the refs and their one sided calls. We kind of just talked about that a couple of posts ago, as it has been recognized as a huge moment in Canucks history. The even more lasting mark of that series was a bitter hatred between Chicago and Vancouver.
In 1995, the Blackhawks swept the Canucks 4-0 in the second round of the playoffs, thus starting our pain and suffering against the squad in second round clashes. Fast forward to 2009, when the Canucks and the Blackhawks finally met again. After going up two games to one, the Blackhawks scored a tight 2-1 OT win on a Laad goal, and that was that. The Canucks lost game five, and self-destruced in game six, losing the series in a 5-7 finale. Roberto Luongo could only stop 23 of 30 shots in that final game, and his playoff failure was much talked about around Orca Nation. Patrick Kane got a hat trick in that final game, and the Hawks used a series win over the Canucks to vault into the Conference Finals for the second time in history (1995 being the first).
Somehow, we matched up again in 2010 in the second round. By this time, the two teams were living a deep hatred for each other, and it was even more intense than the previous time around. After winning a 5-1 series opening game, all of us Canuck fans thought that we'd be able to get revenge for the previous year's debacle. Jon's Hawks quickly killed that idea, riddling off three straight wins to push us to the brink. We all kind of gave up until we bought in after the game five win, 4-1. However, Chicago embarrassed us again by tagging us for a 5-1 win in game six to end our dreams once more.
The reasons for the rivalry are pretty clear. These two teams just flat out hate each other. It's amazing that Jon and I manage to maintain our friendship in spite of the clash of our hockey interests. This time around seems different, though. For starters, the Blackhawks are a pretty different team. I'm not saying that they aren't good, because I really think they are better than their #8 seed makes them look. It's just that a lot of the players embattled in the rivalry in years past have departed Chicago to play for Atlanta. Byfuglien is first among them, as he has always been enemy number one among Canuck fans. However, new players have stepped in for the Canucks to hate. Of course we still have out boiling over hate for Kane, Sharp, Campbell, Keith, Seabrook, and Bolland. But now we've also acquired a hatred for Crawford, Hossa (even more so than before), and especially Kopicky. It has become a fact that anyone associated with the Blackhawks becomes instantly hated by Canuck fans. I would argue that the rivalry has far surpassed our hatred for our other well known rivals from Calgary, Edmonton, Colorado, and Toronto. I think I would be right to argue as such.
What about Ryan Johnson? What is the former Canucks fan favorite turned Blackhawk going to experience? Are all of his blocked shots in Vancouver to be forgotten due to his new aligience? Probably, but he's easily the only likable Hawk. Johnson plays it like a guy who doesn't want to inspire Vancouver's hate on ESPN today (hat tip to Jon): http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/nhl/news/story?id=6329561&campaign=rss&source=NHLHeadlines
So, what are we to think? Well, the Canucks won the President's Trophy, have the Art Ross winner (for the second year in a row), have a better (or, at least, a more playoff tested) goalie, have a better collection of top six forwards, have a WAY better defensive group, have a greater depth, have a smarter coach, have more passionate fans, have a way better mascott, and have me on their side.
And yet, I'm nervous.
This is what hockey is all about, though. There is no better first round battle throughout the league, and Jon and I are right there in the thick of it. The Canucks have really set up the fan base for a serious run at the Cup with the way they have played during the regular season. If they're going to pull it off, I'm glad it's all going to start against Chicago.
In all honesty, this is a coin flip, and I can say that honestly as a Canuck fan. But because I'm a proud homer, I'm takng the Canucks in 6.
See you Wednesday, Jon.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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