NHL’s Second Round Of Playoffs Begin Tonight In Vancouver
Only about 17 hours until the Chicago Black Hawks take the ice at General Motors place in downtown Vancouver to take on the Canucks in the Western Conferences first semifnal matchup. Chicago who is coming off a dramatic series win over the Calgary Flames will try to keep their magical season going. The young Hawks are going to have to be on top of their game because the Canucks are no joke. As we all know the Canucks are led by their superstars the Sedin twins Daniel and Henrik and goaltender Roberto Luongo who has basically been a wall in net. Luongo is playing like a man possessed (1.15 GAA and .962 save percentage) in the playoffs. It’s still unknown whether Mats Sundin will play in Game 1 after he sat out the last two games of the St. Louis series with a lower-body injury believed to be hip-related. Coach Alain Vigneault told reporters in Vancouver he thought Sundin would play, although Sundin has been largely ineffective with just one goal in the two games he played. This is definitely not what Vancouver management thought they would be getting when Sundin was signed to a two year $20 million dollar contract. Seems to me unless Sundin comes back and contributes significantely he should give back some of that money he received.
When it comes to Chicago they will need goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to be at the top of his game, they will need to rely on his experience and confidence. When players see their netminder playing his heart out and making unbelievable saves it makes them want to play that much harder so they don’t disrespect his effort by wasting it in a loss. But lets not forget that Chicago is just young enough overall to not realize the position that they’re in resulting in them NOT being scared or nervous of their opponent. It’s going to be a great hard nosed series with some great goaltending. I’m really looking forward to it.
My prediction is that while Chicago will put up a decent fight, in the end Vancouver will prove to be to strong for the Hawks to overcome. Canucks win in six.
Apr 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Chicago will be playing Vancouver starting tonight in a best of 7 series. Vancouver has had a long rest after winning their series in 4 straight games against St.Louis. As an old age group these boys needed the rest. Chicago has won their series in 6 games taking the last 2 and out scoring Calgary by a wide margin of 9-2. Chicago is a much younger team then Vancouver, and shouldn’t have many problems in out hitting,scoring and speed to the puck.
Look for this series to go 5 or 6 games with Chicago easily outlasting Vancouver. I agree with you that someone opened the vault to sign Mats Sundin, an over the hill 38 year old player for a cool 20 million dollars. Sundin must be laughing all the way to the bank. After signing this lucrative contract he retired on skates and has been a no show, high earning forward for the Canucks. What a great agent he must have.