Blackhawks At Canucks Preview: Wintertime Sadness

Time	Wednesday 7:30 PST	TV	TSN
Season Series	1-1	Last Meeting	3-2 Canucks Dec.20/13
The Enemy	Second City Hockey	coring Leaders	D. Sedin: 13-27-40 Kane: 25-35-60

HAWKS	CATEGORY	CANUCKS
32-10-13	SEASON RECORD	27-18-9
77	POINTS	63
3rd	CONFERENCE POSITION	8th
Lost 4	STREAK	Lost 1
3-3-4	LAST 10	4-5-1
14-6-6	ROAD RECORD / HOME RECORD	14-8-5
+40	GOALS FOR/AGAINST DIFF.	-1
1.35 (4)	5 ON 5 GF / GA	1.03 (12)
21.8 (5)	POWER PLAY %	13.8 (29)
78.8 (27)	PENALTY KILL %	86.2 (3)
916 (30)	HITS	1055 (26)
18-1-2 (5)	RECORD: LEADING AFTER 1	13-4-1 (21)
3-7-4 (15)	RECORD: TRAILING AFTER 1	4-10-5 (17)
452 (3)	PENALTY MINUTES	805 (29)
NHL.COM

If you pay any attention to the chart above you will see in there that the almighty Blackhawks have lost 4 straight. They just lost 5-4 in OT to the Flames tonight. The lowly Flames. So for those still making excuses for the Canucks' circus act in January, here's a little nugget for ya: even the elite teams lose to lowly basement dwellers. It's a back-to-back situation for Chicago and they are 9-1-4 in the second games of back-to-backs this season.

This will be the second game of a 6-game road trip for the Hawks.

Chicago has 13 overtime/shootout losses this season. More than any other team. Said coach Quenneville of Chicago's OT "woes":

"It's just not happening.… we have enough assets in there in overtime. We have to find a way to make it happen."

But there's no sky is falling in the Chicago media that I can see. Not when you are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and are still 3rd in the Western Conference. Coach Q didn't like the first 2 goals against by the Flames and pulled backup goalie Antti Raanta after he allowed the 4th goal against.

The Hawks' power play has cooled off!

"We have to find a way to get pucks to the net more," Kris Versteeg told CSN Chicago. "The power play’s been big, but it’s been a tough few games on it."

It didn't convert in Calgary either. Hey, we know all about that feeling....except that ours is dead in the water...so...it's worse.

A LITTLE POSITIVITY

Well, let's look at something good. The last time these 2 teams met:

A Daniel Sedin goal??? A shootout win???? Get the f*** outta here!

The names on my Shitlist are no longer a secret. The media is all over which Canucks players are mired in slumps. Now, I played Mr. Nice Guy in the Canucks-Oilers game preview...then we shit the bed, so back to being Mr. Ass:

YOU MADE MY SHITLIST

-Daniel Sedin. 13 games without a goal. 5 assists in that span.

-Ryan Kesler: 1 goal and 3 assists in his last 10 games.

-David Booth: 0 goals in his last 14 games. 3 assists in that span.

-0 goals and 3 assists in 22 games this season. He's getting closer though. Maybe he needs to meditate on better times:

God damn those were good times, hey? But...back to bitter negative reality......what concerns me about Burrows is that even last season, even though it was shorter due to the lockout, Burrows recorded his lowest points per game (about .51%) in 5 years. A fierce competitor, but I wonder what we are looking at here as far as his ceiling.

-Alex Edler. Has not scored in 14 games. 3 assists in that span.

-Jason Garrison: 0 goals and 1 assist in his last 9 games. I am not a fan right now. This guy seems to have the foot speed of Andrew Alberts. Not impressed at all.

-Dan Hamhuis: No goals in 35 games. Am I counting that right? Sweet mother of pearl! Smithers peeps are the best, but for god's sakes please stop using him on the power play.He does have 9 assists in those games. 9 assists.

-Christ Tanev has 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 15 and is NOT on this list because I love this man.

-Yannick Weber: 1 goal and 1 assist in his last 17 games. I thought you said you belonged in the NHL, Yannick. You were pissed about being a healthy scratch before Ryan Stanton got injured. So he goes down, you get your chance and THIS was all you had to show for it?

-People are pining for Henrik Sedin and Mike Santorelli to come back but keep in mind:

-Henrik had 1 assist in 6 games before ending his iron man streak. Rest easy, Hank.

-Santorelli. Santa had 9 points in October. 8 points in November. 10 points in December. 1 goal and no assists in 8 games in January before going down to injury. He had cooled off and had been demoted. So Hank and Santa, when they come back, need to step it up.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

The Shitlist is huge! It's f*cking depressing! But here's the silver lining: it can't stay that big. Not a chance.

The MVP of the Canucks this season? Roberto Luongo hands down. That man gives us a damned chance to win almost every night.

But even so....I got that Wintertime sadness.

SCORE-PREDICTING WIZARDS UPDATE

prairienucker and BigPDog earned 2 points in the last 2 games. The updated list can be seen HERE.

GO CANUCKS GO!