Taught Never To Retreat, Never To Surrender: Canucks & Blackhawks – Game Two

> If It Ain’t Broke…: For the first period of Game One, everything went right for the good guys: goals from depth players, exploited some defensive lapses, outworked and outhit everyone in red and culminated with a, eye-popping toe-save on Campbell in the dying minutes. Vancouver let up some in the final fourty minutes and each team exchanged some decent chances back and forth, but overall, no reason to change the gameplan. Certainly Vigneault has to ready his guys for a more motivated Chicago effort, but the only true area for improvement could be (a) unleashing the first line who finished above water on the Corsi side but are still swimming upstream against Keith/Seabrook and (b) the powerplay which went 0-for-2 against a weaker PK unit. Vancouver wins if they stick to the basics, get some clutch depth contributions (Hansen, Hodgson, Oreskovich, Lapierre, Higgins) and Luongo remains cool as a cucumber. Easier said than done?

> Operation Slam Dance: No one should fault Crawford for the two that slipped by him (a sick redirection and the other a clear breakaway), so who do you blame? The media would tell you it was the lack of hitting (47-21 in favor of VAN); Quenneville all but said the same thing. A closer inspection would suggest they need a hell of a lot more finish out of Hossa, Toews has to shake away from Kesler and Hjalmarsson shouldn’t be losing TOI to Leddy. Already down Bolland, they’ll also likely be without Kopecky (Pisani likely draws in on the fourth line) so that’s another option gone. Keep on eye on Viktor Stalberg who is their version of Steve Bernier: talented big winger who has terrific inconsistency issues; don’t be surprised if he makes his presence felt one way or the other. Chicago doesn’t want to go home two in the hole and don’t have the depth of their fearsome 2010 team, so their big six (Toews, Hossa, Kane, Keith, Seabrook and Campbell) need a hell of a game.

> Impress Your Friends With Knowledge!: Vancouver has never won a Game 2 against Chicago in the four playoff series they have played together, being outscored 16-6 in total. (h/t The Spec)