| 30 April 2010
Hello boys and girls. Today we have a very special guest. Chris Kontos (Edit: my appologies for confusing Chris with a Canucks fan. That is one of the most insulting things a person can have happen to them.) from The Royal Half is here to tell us about his experience watching his team play the Canucks. Its been a while since the Hawks have played the Canucks so who better to hear from than a guy who just watched 6 games against them. A very big thanks for writing this since both I and ChiBlackhawks have been very busy lately, plus it can't be easy to re-live the butt kickin' the Kings received. We have no pity though because The Royal Half gets to write about Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson all season. They'll be back plenty in the future.
So without further ado, I'll turn over the floor, followed by some of my comments at the end.
Pay no attention to that man in the net, Chicago Blackhawks. This Vancouver Canucks team lives and dies by those redheaded genetic freaks, the Sedin Twins. When the Los Angeles Kings were able to shut them down… they looked like they could take the series from the Canucks. But when the Kings let them dance and float and pass behind the back all over the ice like they do so well… the Kings didn't stand a chance.
Sure, Roberto Luongo is a world class goalie. But except for 2 saves during the entire series, he looked pretty mortal against the Kings. But oh what a 2 saves they were.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=MI8Dd6oouqM http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AGVD3F5H84E You stop the Sedins, you stop the Canucks. I don't care what Canucks fans will tell you about secondary scoring or Ryan Kesler or Steve Bernier… stop the twins or you stop nothing. Okay well… I will say, Mikael Samuelsson is pretty good too… you should definitely keep your eyes out for him.
This is why the Blackhawks signed you, John Madden. This is your time to shine. Use all that trap magic you learned during your tenure in New Jersey to keep those twins from scoring in this series. Shut down the twins, throw a ton of pucks at Luongo and make sure that beast of a man, Dustin Byfuglien, is standing in front of him the entire time.
Oh, and one more thing that the Chicago Blackhawks might want to think about for their series against the Vancouver Canucks. Apparently, the Los Angeles Kings did pretty, pretty, pretty well on the Power Play. Like 38.5% well… like 10 out of 26 well. So you might want to look to pick up a power play chance when you can, ok? This series has all the makings of an NHL Playoff Classic… so neither one of these teams better disappoint otherwise Drew Doughty's gonna come to both your cities and break some heads.
Andrew's observations on those points:
- From everything we've heard so far, take the over on every game. Between Luongo turning into a mere mortal this year and the lack of defensive depth on the Canucks, this could turn into a shootout of a series. Besides being extremely exciting hockey, that style of play fits the Hawks really well.
- Mikael Samuelsson has had an amazing playoffs, especially in relation to his playoff career before this year. He was playing with the Sedins at times against the Kings. Keith and Seabs are going to see a whole lot of time against that line and it will make or break the series.
- I'm a bit worried about relying on John Madden to win the series and be the shutdown factor. He just hasn't looked the same since the limo incident (and what I'm assuming turned into a "lower-body injury" from his wife when he got back from that road trip). Maybe its age, maybe its injury, maybe its a combination of both. Regardless, this is my biggest concern.
- Crap. I hope we don't have to rely on the power play to win this. Its been total garbage all season.
