Chicago at Vancouver, Jan 31, 2012

Chicago – Vancouver. Usually I’d put some clever intro here but tonight I can’t wait. Here’s Shacks’ Take:

It’s a TSN broadcast today and that means we get ‘The Panel”.  Darren Dreger, Marc Crawford and Aaron Ward.  They open by speculating on Raymond trade rumors, which Darren Dreger refutes.  He says Mike Gillis is happy with the team and has no plans to do anything.  This is clearly fact because Mike Gillis is the kind of GM that would consult Darren Dreger before doing anything bold.

Topic of conversation turns to the Bolland comments about the Sedin ‘sisters’.  The only reason anyone remembers this is…umm…sorry what are we talking about?   Bolland’s comments?  Oh yeah, I had forgotten all about those.

The Bolland sign with Daniel Sedin as the pied piper and David Bolland as a rat is pretty cool.  Just because the theme is obvious doesn’t mean it ain’t funny, otherwise no one would laugh at my humor.

1^st Period

Booth got the action going with a nice steal off a terrible pass to the slot from Marian Hossa but Crawford shut the door as Booth tried to go five hole.

The Nucks have started physically with Edler stepping up on Kane, hitting him hard, as well as Ballard giving Frolic a nice shoulder.

Ballard got a terrible clipping penalty hitting Andrew Shaw. Clipping is supposed to be when you target the knees but Ballard hit Shaw in the stomach with his shoulder after he missed with his hip.   

It’s funny seeing Brendan Morrison in a Chicago uniform.  Since Vancouver cut him he went to our hated rival Calgary only to move to our more hated rival Chicago.  Obviously he’s signing with Boston in the off-season.

Alex Edler showed why he’s an all-star. racing back to tie –up Hossa who appeared to have a clear breakaway. He then calmly stripped Hossa of the puck, igniting his teammates.  The Canucks took the puck down and dominated Chicago, forcing Crawford to make great saves off Edler, Higgins and Booth, and Hjarlmasson to block a Sami Salo howitzer (oh boy I bet that hurt!!!!) Finally, Kesler broke his slump on a wrister from the slot that took a lucky deflection off Keith’s stick and into the glove corner.

So much love for Cody these days…

The Hawks tie it against the flow of play just over 3 minutes later as a gaggle of Canucks were staring at pucks behind the net instead of looking for men to cover, and Keith Seabrook was able to slide a pass through the slot to an open Mayers who fanned on his first attempt but still had time to slide the second attempt through Schneider.

Sedins were held pointless in the 1^st but not for tryin’.  They had three shifts where they played keep away for long stretches and had at least one sweet chance each shift.  They looked better than they usually do when the rat is tailing them.

Period ends 1 – 1 with Vancouver having carried most of the play with the exception of the Mayers goal and a couple of nice Schneider saves off Toews on a set up from Kane late in the period.

1^st Intermission

Dreger keeps saying Gillis loves his team and they think Booth was all they needed to supplement what they had.  Crawford said they need the big forward.  I hope Crawford is right.

2nd Period

The Kane Toews Stalberg line continues to look better than any other Blackhawk line.  Schneider had to slide across the crease with blocker extended to thwart Kane from point blank on a 2 on 1 feed from Stalberg.

The Toews line is at it again, another shift, another glorious chance.  This time Schneider robbed Stalberg on a nice feed from Kane on a 2 on 1.  Canucks are playing really loose now, giving away odd man chances like they’re needles at Insite.  

Now the other Black Hawk lines are in on it and Schneider is officially carrying us this period.

The Toews line is on again.  To avoid redundancy just read the last comment on their line and instead it is Toews setting up Stalberg.

Now Bolland is robbed on a 2 on 1 and a couple whacks from behind the net.  Seriously, the Canucks are bad right now.  I’m sad.

Vancouver keeps trying to beat people one on one, Chicago keeps taking the puck and firing long lead passes for out-manned chances.  I’m guessing the Canucks may wanna talk about this.

Awww B-Mo still loves us.  After Schneider fanned on a pass behind his net, B-Mo picked the puck up and brought it in front.  As he was shooting the puck into the yawning cage, Schneids skittered back and while laying prone, waved a glove that Morrison managed to ‘accidently’ hit instead of the net.  Obviously Brendan didn’t have the heart to make Cory look foolish. 

Notice whichever angle you look, Schneider looks like a seal flopping out of the water onto the berg.

Somehow Vancouver escaped that period still tied at 1 – 1.  Cory Schneider was great, the rest of the Canucks, not so much.  Chicago out shot Vancouver 16 – 6 in the 2^nd.  I actually think those numbers seem misleading as it appeared much worse.

2^nd Intermission

David Bolland was interviewed and it’s quite obvious the political correctness police have gotten to him.  The Sedin’s own mother wouldn’t say more nice things about the Sedins and the Canucks.  I hate the PC Police.  Hockey is more fun when teams hate each other.  Now I expect Bolland to ask the Sedins for dinner and a movie after the game. 

 C’mon tell the truth, every time you saw the highlight of Seidenberg’s goal on Anderson you cursed Dan Cloutier just a little.     

3^rd Period 

Wow deja vu. Right from the puck drop the Toews line dominated until Bieksa failed to pick up Stalberg in front. He took a Patrick Kane feed and banked it off Edler’s butt into the net.  Hopefully, the Canucks from the 1^st period come back soon.

Stalberg giveth and Stalberg taketh away as he atoned for his earlier goal by coughing up the puck, coming into the Canuck zone. Mr. Underrated, Dan Hamhuis, grabbed it and quickly backhanded a pass past a couple of flat-footed Hawks right to a wide-open Cody Hodgson for a breakaway.  Hodgson then used his superior hockey IQ, to spot the hole, glove side, upstairs where dad keeps the playboys. This may have been Vancouver’s only real chance in the last 20 minutes of play.

Vancouver’s finally carrying some of the play and Edler just thumped Shaw with a nice body check.  I guess they were just saving their energy for a big finish.

Three straight shifts spent in the Chicago end.  Weird game, not a lot of back and forth. Vancouver carried the play in the 1st , Chicago carried it in the 2^nd and the first part of the 3^rd and Vancouver carried the play after Hodgson’s goal until the Burrows’ penalty.

Ahh yes the Burrows penalty, the same one Burrows has drawn late in a couple of games recently, you know the one Ron McLean publically questioned as legit.   Since Vancouver hasn’t had a power play all night despite a few opportunities and this was even softer than the ones Burrows drew, I wonder if the refs are letting Alex know they agree with Ron. 

The third closes without much action.  Both teams seemed quite content playing the last few minutes for overtime.  Speaking of which.

Over-time

Chicago starts out with a nice chance as Bolland set up Shaw for a nice give and go before Schneider came out to take away the angle.

Crawford absolutely robbed Hank Sedin on a brilliant cross crease feed from Aaron Rome and yes I had to rewind my PVR three times because I couldn’t believe it was Rome that made that pass.

Now it’s Schneider’s turn to come up big twice.  First Jonathan Toews absolutely turned Edler inside out before being stopped while in alone, then Stalberg took his turn missing on a breakaway, although judging by Joel Quenville’s tirade, perhaps he thought there might have been a bit of a hook on that one. 

Nothing like a few Joel Quenville action shots.

And of course the requisite close-up to so you can feel his pain.

Now it’s Vancouver’s fans turn to scream at the refs as Kesler gets shoved head-first into the boards.  Considering Burrows weak penalty, the booing seems fair, although Kesler may have turned into the boards a little.

Wicked.  That’s what I screamed out loud after watching the unbelievable Sedinery that won this game. After winning the draw, the Sedins let Salo and Edler touch the puck once each before getting the puck on the right boards and completing five consecutive passes before finishing with Henrik behind the net to Daniel right out front for the winner.  

The first picture shows Daniel in the corner passing to Henrik who's behind the net.

Next we have Henrik behind the net passing to Daniel who's now in front.

Finally here's everyone celebrating Daniel's winner.

Not the usual intensity of a Vancouver – Chicago game.  Fun to watch but there seemed to be too much respect and too little animosity.  I guess we’ll have to wait a few more months for the good stuff.