Still Not There - Canucks 4 - Blackhawks 3

…this experience is so valuable for them and for the team. It’s the old men like Kaner and Keith that worry me.

The moar the beater.

^ This is a true fan right here

Rec from a Canucks fan

I’ll try to explain why in the morning

I heard ear fucking is painful

In fact, some things I downright liked.* I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say I’m feeling optimistic, but I don’t feel all that murderous, which is something.

*Passing was not one of them

end of october if I recall correctly

that was fun =/

Can’t wait to get him and Torres back for Sunday.

as things continued to head South and then, things turned around (somewhat). The depth scoring that was being asked for so much by the top lines has delivered, now the top liners must do the same.

I feel much better about this series as last night the Nucks got scared and they played to their best and we were still able to hang with them. If Keith & Co. can get their shit together and stop giving breakaways to every Tom, Dick, & Janik that comes down the rink the Hawks probably leave Vancouver with a tied series.

Keep doing the good things (secondary scoring) and stop with the dumb shit (bad passing, blown coverages, & no top scoring) and the boys can make this a series again!!

Sunday prediction: Nucks 2 Hawks 4 (Craw never lets in more than 2 when the Hawks win)

GO HAWKS!!

The ’Nucks were definitely on their heels after Smith scored to make it 4-3.

Had to pay to watch the Sox too… I still remember the intros. Thankfully I had a dad that liked sports so he paid (or pirated I have no idea)

DK is still one of the best at singlehandidly breaking up odd man rushes. With how many the Hawks have given up, I want him or Biscuit back there for just this. The two of them are excellent at disrupting those. Shots from the point are the issue, it is the bodies in the low slot that is the issue. Cullimore would not be any worse on passing, but on Defense, Kieth is still much preferred.

Did you ever try to do something when your totally exhausted? i’m not sure what would happen if we played the Duncster 22 minutes and gambled with Leddy and camps – we tend to overlook a lot of the good Keith does on the ice. At this point, I think Camps or leddy may be a preferable option on the PK. One thing for sure, that was not the Keith that won the norris out there last night.

I think Vigneault said it best, “That was a great game by two teams who both wanted to win.”

i’m not sure if Hansen was smith’s man or not, but on that first goal Benji seemed oblivious to Hansen moving into scoring position. Doesn’t do a lot of good to stare at one of the sedin’s behind the net – find the open man. i sure like 57’s sniping abilities though.

Edlers goal was had seeing eyes. The puck hit the shaft of Smith’s stick and nestled in the upper right hand corner of the net. it reminded me of those boards they put in front of the net with the 5 openings. normally someone has to skillfully shoot the puck in those spots – instead the puck gets deflected to probably the only area it could get by Crawford. A little bad luck there.

Hawks in 6. Let’s see how the Cupless in Vancouver bunch feel about themselves after they have to listen to Chelsea Dagger 10 times….

Good old Wayne Gretzky coined that phrase back in 1993. “You’re never in trouble until you lose a game on home ice”.

Win all three at the UC and at worst you are in a Game Seven where anything can happen.

Keep the faith my ’Hawks friends

LET’S GO HAWKS!!!

score the first goal and make the Canucks play from behind where they are 0-4 against the ’Hawks the past 2 playoff seasons.

A little momentum wouldn’t hurt.

as it is making lemonade.

the Nucks have notched a lucky goal in each game. Yesterday, it turned out to be the difference.

and the Hawks are still the Stanley Cup Champs.

Toews, Kane (who got roughed up a lot), Sharp (Who actually had a pretty good physical game), Hossa (I still don’t understand why everyone expects him to single handedly win a cup, especially logging the minutes he has to right now just to make the second line competent). And the D, Keith has been beaten into the ground, I would love if we had the ability to reduce his minutes.

If we win this, it will not be those guys scoring left and right, it will be those guys keeping Van’s big guys off the score sheet. If we win, it will be because guys like Ben Smith are scoring. In fact, that is the only way we win this series. The top guys are logging serious minutes, and it shows.

Can you blame us, the way the last two series have gone with the hawks was win game one and lose game two and the series. Last year we were a minute away from taking a 2-0 series lead, I think it was Verstig who scored. So yes we are a paranoid group of fans but, I like our chances now as Chicago has to win 4 of the next 5, I don’t see that happening.

In the absence of Bolland maybe this is the right move. Take the pressure off of him offensively and he just might start producing. It works for the Rat, maybe it’ll work for the Panda.

Am voting to have sharp repeat his performance at pivot like last years playoffs,

so the second like wold look like

brouwer – sharp – frolik

but damn we are weak at center eh?
And Kruger better defensively than Frolik made me chuckle. That was your idea of a joke to lighten the mood, right?

Spread out our top guys. Definitely. Give each a solidly supporting line, and force AV to matchup however he can – on our ice, where we get the last change.

The last game (in particular) was really pretty close – with his matchups being put into play.

Perhaps that is enough difference to get our guys over the edge at home.

I think the Nucks usually play better at the UC than they do at home.

Giving up on the Flyers after losing Game One?

Who is this guy?

to Q

Was more Judas than Jesus in that game

our level of common sense.

(Yes, we have some.) :)

And an entire bad playoffs last year. He’ll need to do more than have one multi-point game.

But that is totally dependent on signings of course

Hell 3 out of the next four?

For me I am just going to try to enjoy watching some of the new guys getting playoff experience and also have Toews continue to amaze me with his never say die attitude. He and Derrick Rose are something Chicago can really be proud off.

A lot of the problem is that our depth has a lot of young guys right now.

Young guys that are figuring out the NHL game. For what it’s worth, this team more accurately seems to me like the version we had two years ago, instead of last years team. While some of them are clearly kind of comfortable in the playoffs, we have a lot of young guys that are getting very valuable experience right now. These young guys are building up some NHL credibility and figuring themselves and each other out.

There is no need for major tweaking of any kind this offseason. There would be no harm done by bringing in some depth guys with some size (particularly some veteran-types), but I don’t think this needs to be rebuilt. I think that there are some slightly unrealistic expectations on this team, based on what last years’ team accomplished.

We’ll be fine. Come in off the ledge, and have a glass of Kool-aid. Try the red stuff, it’s delicious.

has he played center before?

but the first problem is that there really isn’t a f/o guy on the second or third lines (Frolik went 0-4 last night IIRC). I’m liking that first line, though.

of the tiger

I’d think.

I wouldn’t want to take any interviews either

Lets say the Canucks beat the Hawks. Wow the #1 seed beat the #8 seed, so it isn’t as epic a failure as if they lost to The Hawks. So, if they do win the series, they still have to win 12 more games. Only 1/4 of the way there. Have you watched the Wings, Capitals, Preds, Sharks play recently? None are #8 seeds with more than a handful of rookies, are they?

Sphincters get tighter on losers when the pressure is on, so don’t break your thumb while you insert it during your possible next series.

if your recollection of last year is so good, I’m sure you can imagine how well such a pep talk from a Hawks fan would have gone over on NM last year.

and, if the wheels do come off at some point, please tell your idiotic fellow Canuck fans to refrain from throwing garbage on the ice.

its good

Such a facepalm.

for online NHL11 though…

it t-shirt form.

After watching that video, I’ve only got a few things I can say.

1) I’m a little surprised it is only 2 games (except that he is not a repeat offender).

2) I can’t believe that all Blum did was that little push and slash combo he pulled.

I used to be quite the hot-head, retaliatory, PIM leader kind of player when I was younger, and have learned to stop that almost completely as I’ve gotten older, but if that had happened to me. I know I’d have blown up. That would have been an instant dropping of the gloves, and grabbing of Ryan’s jersey. I’d have been out to seriously injure him at that moment in time, had I been in Blum’s position, personally.

Kudos to Blum for maintaining his cool.

Also could see Lu getting frustrated after the goals. If Hawks can get on the board first tomorrow maybe they can continue that trend. Also as said above by Powrfwd37 above, it will hopefully force Vancouver to spread out their D away from covering our top guys – which can help them get on the board and hopefully keep them from the constant hammering they are facing. And if the bottom lines keep doing this, maybe help keep the minutes down from our top guys so they won’t be as gassed.

IMHO is if they maintain that 1st period intensity longer.

For a few reasons. Loading up the top unit with skill guys and forcing Toews to get in front of the net instead of playing center as he should isn’t working, though I do believe I saw him and Kaner out there with Brouwer in game 2, which is a step forward.

The other part of this is Sharpie at the point. Take him off of there, replace him with a d-man, and toss him on the 2nd unit with Hossa and a big body and you’ve got a competent 2nd PP unit. It would make our PP much better and spread out the ice time a bit more on the PP rather than relying on the 1st unit almost exclusively until they have to sit because of fatigue.

Is anyone else as excited to see Ben Smith wearing no. 57 for the big club for 82 games next year? He was the brightest spot to this game IMO. I saw a kid playing in a game he probably has no business playing in, and not realizing it. He didn’t appear intimidated at all. He plays hard, finishes checks, refuses to be bullied, tosses himself into every situation without fear, finds the right spots on the ice, and, despite his size, shows a near-Kane level of determination in refusing to be knocked off the puck. Further reason Bolland needs to get healthy

And I love the suggestion I saw earlier today from hawks61 of putting Hossa on checking line duty and having Toews, Kane, Brouwer, and Sharpie split between the top 2 lines. If Hossa isn’t gonna score, he might as well be doing something else with his defensive skills and I think he could do a good job shutting down the twins. Hell, Bolland’s defense first mentality against top lines last year resulted in several breakaways for him and helped get his offensive game going. I believe the same could happen with Hossa.

If only Q frequented SCH…

thinking that Dave Bolland will likely not return this series, especially if things go badly tomorrow. They will not want to risk long-term injury on what would sadly be seen as a lost cause. If the series goes back to VAN even, and he is cleared for contact, then maybe.

Even if he does get back, thinking he will be some kind of savior against one of the best lines in the league is pretty unfair to him.

I’m getting a bit of a chuckle out of the fact that the Habs are using their speed to buzz around the Bruins. I saw a lot of folks (not so much here at SCH) wanting the Hawks to get bigger guys and play more like Boston, especially defensively. They’re not looking so great right now.

The full quote:
"Niklas Hjalmarsson did something on Friday you don’t see very often at the NHL level. With the Hawks pinned deep in their zone, Hjalmarsson tried to outlet to his defense partner twice in a matter of seconds. A minor issue with that though. Neither time did Brian Campbell have a stick."