Canucks At Blackhawks Game 4 Preview: Surprise! You're Dead!

CANUCKS		CHICKENHAWKS
	AT

Time	Tues. 5:00 PM PST	TV	CBC, RDS
Series	3-0 Canucks	Last Meeting	3-2 Canucks
The Enemy	Second City Hockey	Scoring Leaders	D. Sedin: 3-2-5 Ben Smith: 2-0-2

Canucks	Category	Hawks
Won 3	Streak	Lost 3
1-0	< Road Record / Home Record >	0-1
+4	Goals For / Against +/-	-4
3.0 (4)	Goals Per Game	1.67 (13)
1.67 (4)	Goals Against Per Game	3.0 (13)
2.33 (4)	5 On 5 GF/GA	0.43 (13)
33.3 (2)	Power Play %	16.7 (10)
83.3 (7)	Penalty Kill %	66.7 (13)
28.7 (10)	Shots Per Game	30.0 (8)
30.0 (9)	Shots Against Per Game	28.7 (7)
100	Winning % When Scoring First	0
100	Winning % When Leading After 1	0
100	Winning % When Trailing After 1	0
100	Winning % When Leading After 2	0
130 (1)	Hits	99 (4)
30 (12)	Blocked Shots	37 (8)
45.8 (13)	Faceoffs %	54.2 (4)
8.7 (4)	PIM's Per Game Average	4.7 (1)
NHL.com

There is a good chance that Chicago could get both Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland back for Game 4. The checker Bolland scored 15 goals and 37 points plus was a +11 in 61 games this season. He scored 2 points in the 4 games against the Canucks this season. He had the daunting task of shutting down the Sedins in last year's playoffs and this season. In 6 games against the Hawks last playoffs Daniel Sedin scored 1 goal and 4 points and Henrik scored 2 goals and 6 points. Bolland got under their skin then but it's a little late to do that now with the Hawks down 3-0.

He will give Chicago some needed punch at center, perhaps on the scoresheet, on the PK....bah screw it. The Canucks need to finish off the Hawks in 4. Make them go away. Kill them in their own barn. How satisfying would that be? It's time to squash their season before key parts of their offense (all of them) wake up from their collective slumbers.

Jonathan Toews was right about the Canucks in his interview today: The Canucks are a creative bunch but tend to open up too much defensively in the process, giving the Hawks some golden chances. Chances that Roberto Luongo is stopping mostly. Lou again is key for Game 4, but I'd like to see them tidy up on D.

How about not tempting fate and taking so many penalties again, Vancouver? Jeez. They offered up 7 power play opportunities for Chicago in Game 3 while the Hawks only gave us 2. The Hawks went 2-7 and the Canucks 1-2. Thanks Lou. Thank you Christian Ehrhoff for the PP goal. Everything is going right for the Canucks. Samuelsson returns from illness and bags the winner in Game 3.

Key 3 is to stay physical. What a murderous series. I never knew the Canucks were so damned mean. They lead the NHL in hits in these playoffs as you can see in the chart above. Kind of shocking is the lack of blocked shots and the hugely decreased faceoff winning percentage from Vancouver that we saw in the regular season. Faceoffs can be overrated anyway. I've always said that. Especially when your goaltender is the second coming of Christ.

LINKS

-Hawks optimistic that both Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland will play in Game 4. (Tribune)

-The Hawks look to draw from history in order to come back from a 3-0 series deficit. I think they should draw the credit cards out of their wallets and hit the nicest nearby gold course while they are still in the Central Time Zone.

-No I will not pass along any Raffi Torres links because I'm sick of the whole thing.

PROJECTED FORWARD LINES

CANUCKS

Daniel Sedin-Henrik Sedin-Alex Burrows

Chris Higgins-Ryan Kesler-Mikael Samuelsson

Raffi Torres-Mason Raymond-Jannik Hansen

Tanner Glass-Maxim Lapierre-Victor Oreskovich

BLACKHAWKS

Patrick Sharp-Jonathan Toews-Mary Hossa

Ben Smith-Michael Frolik-Patrick Kane

Viktor Stalberg-Dave Bolland-Bryan Bickell

Troy Brouwer-Marcus Kruger- Fernando Pisani