No Retreat, No Surrender: Canucks & Blackhawks – Game Three

> Reinforced: Vancouver may be up 2-0, but the game two win was far too close for comfort. The Canucks will welcome back Torres & Samuelsson, giving them more scoring options and yet another crashing body to slam into anything in red. Raymond will shift back to the third line center with Hodgson and Rome likely sitting this one out. The onus will be on the Vancouver defense who will be tested from the drop of the puck and will need to limit the carnage in front of Luongo. One weakness that needs to be corrected this afternoon: faceoffs. Chicago owned them in game two and hold a slight edge in the series (cue a Malhotra sigh right here). AV will need all his tricks to push this to a commanding series lead.

> The Comforts of Home: 

Quenneville’s answer to no scoring from the top line, a failure to clear the trash in front of his own netminder and another injury (Bickell – wrist) comes in form of John Scott, he of the no playoff experience, zero skill and haven’t played a game in damn near a month variety. Back in the real world, the Hawks desperately needs more from their top guns and will have the benefit of last chance to try and exploit the match-ups, including ramming their top six down the throat of Salo and Ballard. With the hometown crowd and their backs against the wall, this should be the best we’ve seen out of Chicago, forcing Vancouver to weather the storm and be the better team through 60.

> Impress Your Friends With Knowledge!: The Blackhawks are 4-31 in franchise history when they lose the first two games of a playoff series.