Last night at GM Place in Vancouver, the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Canucks to win their series four games to two. The loss brings an end to the season for Vancouver. Today we take a look back how the Canucks got here, what went wrong & where they go from here.
How they got here:
Vancouver finished the season with a record of 49-28-5. That was good for 103 points and a Northwest Division title. In the 1st round Vancouver won their 1st round series against Los Angeles four games to two.
Alexandre Burrows led the team with 35 goals while Henrik Sedin lead the team in points with 112 and was nominated for the Hart Trophy which is the award for most outstanding player.
Roberto Luongo won 40 games in goal for Vancouver and had a Goals against average of 2.57 and a save percentage of .913.
What went wrong:
The Canucks were awful on their home ice this post-season going 2-4 at GM Place. They took a lot of dumb penalties in games three & four against Chicago which lead to six power play goals (2 in Game 3, 4 in Game 4)
The Blackhawks were also able to shut down the 2nd & 3rd scoring lines for Vancouver forcing the Sedin line to pick up the slack scoring wise. The Sedin line was able to contribute on a regular basis but the Canucks defense was not able to stop the Blackhawks from finding the back of the net.
Another reason the Canucks lost this series is because Roberto Luongo was outplayed in goal by Blackhawks goaltender Antti Niemi. This is a big deal due the fact that Luongo won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver while Niemi is a rookie who was backing up Cristobal Huet in goal for most of the season in Chicago.
For as good as Luongo is he still finds a way to come up short in the post-season.
Where they go from here:
For most of this season I kept hearing people say how talented this team was and how they were primed for a run at the Stanley Cup. what I kept seeing was a team with one great scoring line, a good goaltender and a blue line that was hit by a rash of injuries.
While the Canucks are a talented team they also have a tendency to fold if they fall behind early in the game. The Blackhawks were able to jump on them early in all the games in Vancouver. Once that happened this series was over.
What the Canucks need to do is to stop taking dumb penalties. It hard to win hockey games if you are constantly in the penalty box.
A little more scoring depth on their 2nd & 3rd lines would also help. They aren't that far away from having three good lines that are capable of scoring goals and taking a lot of the burden off of the Sedin line. The 2nd & 3rd lines just need to be more consistent with their scoring.
The main thing for the Canucks is they have to become mentally tougher than they are right now. Just because you fall behind by three goals early in the game does not mean the game is over. It is possible to come back and either tie or win the game.
This is a talented roster can win a lot of hockey games. What they need to do is learn how to overcome adversity. Until they learn this lesson, their season will probably continue to end early in the playoffs.
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