Before Auger, green lasers, 20 cent cab discussions, limo pictures, conspiracies, Olympic "friendships" and various concussions...this happened:
It stings with the fire of a thousand suns when you're so close to a 3-1 stranglehold on a series only for it to fall through your out-stretched fingers (ask a Kings fan right now). The media damn near bought Luongo a plane ticket out of town. The guys have talked all season about how debilitating that series collapse was. They've talked about being better than last year. Whether they felt like admitting it or not, they knew the Hawks were the benchmark.
Do you care that the season series was tied 2-2 or that Vancouver out-scored them in those games 11-10? Do you care Vancouver was 6th on the PP and they were 16th? Or that their PK was 4th and ours was 18th? That our PP is better in the post season yet their PK is #1 and ours is, well, you know...
The hockey gods have spoken and you just knew the path would go through the Windy City again. Will this post season end the exact same way as last season or can a few demons be exorcised? We'll soon see.
You wanted some playoff hockey? Here it comes.