THE CAPTAIN CURBSTOMPS THE CANUCKS: Blackhawks 7 Canucks 4
Throughout the playoffs, Blackhawks' Captain Jonathan Toews has been quietly excellent, stringing together 5 straight games before tonight with an assist, and having 2 goals and 11 assists in 9 games.Tonight? Tonight was a night we'll talk about when they hang #19 from the United Center rafters somewhere far in the future.
Toews had the type of game that made it look like the game had somehow become too easy for him, and he belonged in some higher league. This was a game the Vancouver Canucks needed, and Toews grabbed ahold of the game, and wouldn't let go. He ended the night with 3 goals and 2 assists, leading the Blackhawks to a 7-4 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in GM Place, and taking a commanding 3-1 lead in games in this Western Conference Semifinal series.
Let's get to this:
THE GOOD:
Toews. Are there any more superlatives that can be used? The only thing that is keeping him from being added to the list of all-time great leaders is a trophy ceremony at center ice. Regardless of what happens this year, that isn't a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when". Everyone knew the Canucks were going to come out as if their lives depended on it, he had the game of his life. We are witnessing true greatness here.
The Power Play. If the Canucks want to pull this chippy bullshit, the way to make them pay is by converting Power Play chances. The Hawks were 4-for-8 tonight. The Canucks' penalties went from aggressive to downright stupid. If the Hawks can convert their PP chances, they will welcome all the other shit.
Dave Bolland. He was horrendous in the Nashville series, but he's been nothing short of outstanding here. He's been charged with facing Thing 1 and Thing 2, and has been keeping them off the scoresheet pretty effectively. He even got an empty netter tonight, to add to an assist, which was a nice reward for a pretty thankless job.
Antti Niemi. The numbers don't reflect that great a game, stopping 26 out of 30, but he came up huge on a couple breakaways, and kept his composure when the first period was looking like a shootout. At the other end of the ice you can see how all the talent in net means nothing when the mental game isn't there.
THE BAD:
Faceoffs. The Hawks were only 41% (28-41). They need to pick that up.
THE UGLY:
The officiating. The Canucks' fans were chanting "The Refs Suck". As whiny as it sounds, they had a point. They missed some outright muggings - Burrows committing assault on Byfuglien while Buff was prostrate on the ice, then called some real dicey stuff. Horrible job.
Next is Game 5 at the United Center Sunday night. The Hawks are 3-0 in the last two years in games where they can advance. Let's hope we see a handshake line.
And since it's Friday, let's look at this classic from late last season. Enjoy.
Posted by Forklift at 5/7/2010 10:54 PM 
Categories: Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Friday Night Fights
Tags: 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs Patrick Sharp Is A Very Handsome Man BONERTIME! Antti Niemi Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews Kyle Wellwood Is Fat Vancouver Canucks
Categories: Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Friday Night Fights
Tags: 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs Patrick Sharp Is A Very Handsome Man BONERTIME! Antti Niemi Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews Kyle Wellwood Is Fat Vancouver Canucks
The worm is turning among the Canadian hockey media.
The pro-Canuck Toronto Globe & Mail headline reads: "Blackhawks Crush Canucks."
The wailing from the West Coast can be heard all the way to Sweden.
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...and Bob McKenzie tweets:
TSNBobMcKenzie
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I thought tonight was exhibit A in why your goalie should never be your captain. Luongo was horrible in this game, but it's tough enough to bench a starting goaltender in the playoffs...how do you do it when he's your team captain too?
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But it wasn't Bob's fault - just ask him. The team in front of him lost their composure.
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TSN now joins the pile on with their headline:
CANUCKS TOEWS-ERED: TOEWS POTS HAT TRICK AS BLACKHAWKS THRASH CANUCKS.
You can hear them jumping off the Nuckwagon.
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...and how about this classic from the brownnosers at the Vancouver Province:
Just how deep is that hole? And whose hole is it?
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Unreal. Thanks for posting that about Bolland. He busted his rear. Seabs and Keith were wonderful.
Johnny T. I love that SOB.
Hossa and Kopecky. Magnifique.
Bonertime indeed.
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How about a little love for Big Buff? Didn't really show up in the box score tonight, but took an absurd amount of punishment and cheap shots without doing anything really stupid in retaliation. Basically distracted the entire Canuck team when he was on the ice, even drawing a couple of double-teams.
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The problem (if you can call it that) with a game like this one is that you can have 19 guys in "The Good". I also could have easily given props to the (very handsome) Patrick Sharp's 4 points, or Hendry & Sopel playing with gigantic balls all night.
If they bring it tonight the same way, we can have some snappy Shark/San Jose play on words-type headline tonight.
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Oh, and props to Buff in this game. He didn't score a goal, but he set the screen on Toews first and the Canucks were obsessed with punishing him. Buff took the punishment, and the penalties, and the Hawks laughed all the way to the bank.
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i see this team starting to grow into a playoff type team they look like they know what they have to do so far hopefully they keep it up and hossa and keith can start adding some scoring even though they are doing everything else they can do more and need to and i think they will
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"I guess our discipline wasn't good enough," O'Brien said. "But at the same time, that's an awful lot of penalties for a playoff game. You work so hard to get here, and stuff like that, I guess we shot ourselves in the foot. Sometimes you like to see a little more let go. It is men playing a man's game."
See - it seems like some of the offenders don't think they did anything wrong. I expect more of the same in game five. And here I was thinking this series would never end in less than six.
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A little late this, but I was thinking about the game again this morning. Are goalies allowed to hold players? Did anyone see Luongo grab, Toews I think it was, behind the net when he was pursuing the puck short handed. Is that allowed? It was pretty blatant and the refs didn't call it.
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I saw this and was wondering how it wasn't a penalty as well. He also blatantly tripped Buff on one play.
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