Game 1: Canucks 2 Hawks NADA

The website has gone wonky, so hopefully that will be fixed by tomorrow. I can say the Canucks outchanced Chicago by my count 21-18 overall and 18-12 at even strength.

Nice

That was such a great game to be at. I love the playoff atmosphere in Vancouver, especially Game 1s.

I haven’t had time to watch the PVR of the game but I watched Luongo a lot from my seats and he seemed to always be in the right place and well positioned to make a save. I would say he’s playing with more confidence than I’ve ever seen from him. Even in instances where Chicago sent net-crashers, he looked unflappable. I’m really encouraged by his play.

I think they kinda balanced in the end. I mean Son of Sam had 2 irons himself, and there was another one in the third off the crossbar by someone.

So irons were 4 by the Hawks and 3 by the Nucks. Just goes to show how in the end, the posts mean absolutely zilch. We coulda been up 4-0 if not for the posts, or the Hawks coulda found life if not for the iron.

Overall though, great performance as a team. And I’m still floored on Lu’s save off Campbell!

Higgins and Oarskovitch deserve a ton of credit for this game. Ramped up the physical play large, Glass is a given.

hodgson will sit when raffi comes back. torres/raymond/hansen is a good combo and was getting steadily better before the suspension and keeping victor in the lineup gives the canucks 2 big bodies in the bottom 6 that hit with consequences. both those guys are better skaters than any of the meatheads on chicago’s roster.

btw, one of the best things about that game was the canucks getting more chances shorthanded than the hawks got on the pp.

Love love love the “Biekska” in your highlights video.

Come round 2, they will know the name.

Mentioned day before the game over at SCH when they did their Canuck fowards analysis that Hansen was a really under-rated dude, tireless, tenacious, but lacking hands.

I hereby retract the lacking hands part, and gratefully!

Really impressed me today. Wouldn’t be surprised if he stays up for the entirety of our playoff run.

Just watched the archived game. Between this and the Pens game am very happy

Luongo was awesome. So was Hansen. Woooo

Well done Canucks.

I would like to make one point clear, any knowledgeable fan in Chicago is well aware of Jannik Hansen.

Glass, Higgins and Lapierre and oreskovich we’re considerable pain in the asses and hada huge “impact” on the outcome. Edler and Salo might have had the best game I’ve seen them play against us – they were nasty. I know Vancitydan has pointed out that the 3rd and 4th lines will have a big impact, but I thought our bottom six looked ok.

Both goalies were superb, bailed out by their best friend a few more times than usual. Your defensemen are definitely more physical. I had to laugh, the scuttlebut on the various, radio talk shows was we need to insert Big Bad John into the line-up. I can only pray and hope Coach Q was not listening. That’s not even a good idea in the regular season.

i wouldn’t say the game was as easy as you are want to make it out to be, but it was a well deserved W for the enemy.

I was expecting Canada-Russia, and we got it…for the first 10 minutes. That had to be the most dominating performance I’ve seen this team put on, ever almost. But it could have been more. They really stepped back near the end of the 1st period and through the next two.

I don’t know if that was AV’s decision or the player’s, but like Jevant I don’t like it. Especially against a team like the Hawks, who can gain momentum so fast, you can’t be sitting back like that relying on Lu all the time. Especially the Sedins. I don’t know if it was because we had the lead early or what, but they seemed overly off tonight. Henrik especially. He made a couple lazy plays, missed a wonderful 2 on 1 chance, and got absolutely murdered in the dot against the Hawks top line. That in itself probably helped to keep them from sustained pressure in the O-zone, but still. They’re going to have to be better.

But my god, the bottom 6 were on fire tonight. I know Sean thinks of Lapierre as Death to scoring chances 2.0, but he was bringing his playoff game last night, and I liked it. I think there was one time the 4th line was trapped in our zone on an icing call against the top line of the Hawks, but after a little while they managed to force it out and down into Chicago’s end. Not too shabby.

Hopefully they come out swinging like that again on Friday, because I imagine the Hawks will be better prepared.

This was a good game—not perfect—but a good game.
I know the Sedins weren’t sharp—Semi above noted a couple of lazy plays—and
everyone relied on Lou who stood on his head.

You know what? Who cares, really?—as long as players step up, or role players
step up—- that’s what matters. The playoffs are like that. I don’t care who the hell
scores goals—top lines or bottom 6. And this was game 1, everyone had jitters
now they can move past that and play the right kind of hockey.

Pens looked sharp too—and both my teams had shutouts. I am a happy camper!

Looks like you’re getting called out…
http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2011/4/14/2110786/nhl-playoffs-2011-canucks-blackhawks-game-1

Here it is.

Right out of the gate, they poured it on, and if they were nervous about facing Chicago again, it sure as eggs didn’t show. [/1950s terms of phrase] I’m mostly worried about how they played from about 19 minutes into the first—on. There were a few moments where, had Chicago connected, they could have turned that lead around in a hurry. Sharp missed two whacks-outta-the-air, Marian Hossa had a breakaway pass just off his stick and Kane had a few instances where he could shoot.

It’s nice to get a win, but it’s still far from over. If our boys can get a win on Friday with Kane and Toews logging 20+ and taking the abuse they were, well, I’m down with that. Certainly harder to climb back into a series with broken ribs.

BTW, Vancouver has won 8 out of their last 9 Game 1s.

The Canucks played a good game, but still have yet to play their best hockey. The discipline and composure we’ve been accustomed to seeing this season was in full force. I was not expecting them to be as physical as they were, and that was a very pleasant surprise indeed. I wouldn’t call it a cake walk, but I think that a little too much is being made of the Hawks hitting 4 posts. First of all, the Canucks themselves hit 3, so even if all those shots go in they still come out on top, and secondly, they don’t count them as shots on goal, so while it’s exciting to hear that clank, it may as well have been wide by 10 feet. If it didn’t go in or get stopped by the goalie it’s because they missed. Period.

I think AV did a fine job of rolling the lines, and the Hawks insistence of loading the minutes onto their top 6 is going to fail in the end I believe. They did a good job of containing the Sedins for the most part, but we all know not only can you only do that for so long, but this team has the depth to ensure that’s not an issue. The defence was solid, a few glitches here n there, but hey… they haven’t played together all year :p

I am sure Coach Q will approach game 2 with a different strategy. There will likely be some campaigning in the media today implying the Canucks took liberties with the Hawks in an effort to try and get more help from the officials in game 2. There was much bemoaning about how bad the Hawks PP was from their fans, but it had a lot more to do with the incredible job done by the PK, Kes & Burr in particular. I am sure we will see a shorty from these guys before this series is over. Yes, there’s still a lot of hockey to be played. But it was obvious last night the Hawks were not prepared for what they got from the Canucks, and they may not have the depth to try and return to what worked for them and win this series.

Another thing I got a kick out of was Hawks fans incensed that they mocked Crawford at the game last night as well as Turco. Which I understand, because they would never do that to our goalie, right?

I saw on Twitter that the Canucks were ranked 20th in hits during the regular season??? You’d never guess that from the way they came at the Hawks last night. They were unreal with the physical play, kudos. I know we Hawks fans give Lu a hard time, but everybody was giving him props for his performance last night, he had some excellent saves.

The Blackhawks looked absolutely ridiculous in the first period, it was embarrassing and we were incredibly lucky the score was only 2-0. We looked better in the 2nd and 3rd but I’m a little surprised the score stayed 2-0.

Keeping hope alive (though I did pick the Canucks in 5 because I’m also a realist)

Jim Hughson

MayRay came to play last night. Good speed, some hits and a couple takeaways in 14 minutes of play is the type of play needed.

Sedin line 0 points → Toews line 0 points
I will take that most nights as the Canucks second and third line can score.

Stupid penalties need to vanish. I am taking to you Sedins.

The goal posts need a new layer of paint after the beating they took last night.

We played fine in the first but took the foot off the gas way too early. We can’t expect Luongo and multiple goal posts to bail them out like that through this series.

Check this game recap out

Seems as though Corey Crawford has issues with what happened last night…

"It was intense and physical, it was a tough game," said Crawford, who settled down after allowing a tip-in and a breakaway goal. "It seemed like they were trying to push me before a play even happened, getting in and making contact then getting out quick, trying to make it look like they weren’t in there.

"They were trying to get me off my game."

The referees, Crawford said, told him they saw what was going on and that if a puck did go in after contact, they would not call it a goal.

Maybe they told Roberto Luongo the same thing last spring.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Raymond+helps+Hawks+rink/4611843/story.html#ixzz1JVqG6Xqs

who thought raymond deserved some props for his play last night? He was fast, aggressive, smart in the D zone, even won a face off when hodgson got waved out…didn’t get any points, but I see lappy and coho getting alot of love and not so much for raymond.

did anyone else during the little pregame bit the CBC had a shot of the Canucks locker room as they were gearing up and Kesler has a knee brace on? That made me go ‘uhhhhhhhhhh….’ Not that he can’t play thru some pain, it just kinda bugged me.

Edler is trending on Canadian Twitter right now.

but hey look, a canuck fan video that doesn’t make me wish the government would make a law to ban the sale of video equipment to morons.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/globe-on-hockey/did-the-cap-kill-the-blackhawks/article1985371/

Curious if Hjalmarsson is injured or benched.

we have 39 participants for the players competition (up from 20 last year), and 45 participants for the brackets (up from 31 last year).
i think we grew!

I love when fans of any team complain about stick work, late hits, guys who leave their feet etc etc etc and then claim that their team doesn’t do it too. Kane slashes Hammer, he responds and Hawks fans claim they didn’t see original slash.

100% seriously if you want a good laugh check out SCH today. They are as bad as we are with their complaining, crying and conspirizing.