According to head coach Vigneault, Sami Salo is out for tomorrow’s game, which as we’ve said is a huge loss for the Nucks.
Salo has been paired with Canucks shut-down man Willie Mitchell for the series so far and has been a nice compliment to his style. Salo leads all blue liners for the Nucks in the playoffs with 2 points including two goal against the Hawks so far.
If you listened to the Kurtenblogger’s show that we were on all the way thru you’d have heard that Canucks fans also consider Salo their best all-around defensement. He’s averaging 17 minutes per game and good time on the kill but is at the top for D-Men on the power play, mostly due to his huge shot and good abillity to read when to jump into play.
I’m not sure who’ll they’ll have to replace Salo but it could mean more time for someone like Shane O’Brien who saw his numbers jump more than the other Nucks D (15:21 on Saturday, 12:18 average). Keep an eye out for who he’s replaced by because they aren’t going to be nearly as good – this is a big loss for the Canucks.
Also hurting is Blackhawks killer Pavol Demitra:
Demitra is a good player, but he’s great against the Blackhawks. In 47 games against the Hawks he’s scoring 1.13 points per game. He’s got one goal so far in this series. He had the fourth most points in the regular season but hasn’t scoring quite as much in the playoffs. Another big loss if he can’t play tomorrow.