OffThePost.org

You may have just earned 'razz wings' if you think a team with 14 friggin shots on net should have won a game...

In the worlds of Aaliyah... if at first you don't succeed, pick yourself up and try again. The Canucks weren't even trying. They got a goal on a bit of puck luck with the shot block and then puck luck did them in on Havlat's tying goal. They had coasted through the entire 3rd period (and let's face it, about 80% of the entire game) and left it up to Luongo. The Hawks had to keep trying, and it worked out for them in the end.

I don't think the Hawks "deserved" to be ahead after 3, but they didn't deserve a loss, that's for sure.

Khabibulin needed to make one big save for Chicago. Luongo needed to make about ten. That's not a winning strategy. Say what you will about the Hawks having to come from behind and how that's not a sustainable strategy, what the Canucks did tonight was also not a sustainable strategy.

The Canucks' D got away with a lot of holding up of Hawks forwards after they dumped the puck in (the chase part). Add the two missed calls on Bolland's late chance... the Canucks just weren't moving out there.

This series deserves to be tied. Let's see who benefits the most from tonight's game.

And Av, you obviously haven't realized that Havlat is Jesus Christ. He continually saves the Hawks, brings them back from the dead. Look it up, it's a fact.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Welcome to the playoffs, Martin Havlat... I thought his impact (or lack thereof) has been the most glaring on the Chicago side until last night.

I agree with Sask on this, and to a degree, stink's too. Chicago can't keep giving away leads like this in every game; likewise, I don't know WTF AV is thinking by rolling back the clock to 2007 and trying to trap the 'Hawks for the entire game. Having said that, kudos to the 'Hawks for making the necessary adjustments and completely shutting down the Sedin and Kesler lines - that was about as complete a defensive game that they've played these last four games. They made one minor mistake (shot blocked in Vancouver's end with a defenceman trapped up ice) and the puck is behind Khabibulin. But 'Bulin made some great saves in the OT during the same shift as the winning goal.

As for Canucks, Luongo did his job, where was the supporting offence? If there's anything that the 'Hawks have shown is a resiliency and ability to score quickly. Playing not to lose a lead isn't what got Vancouver to the second round; this season, they showed an ability to score goals in bunches. Where was that last night? Nevertheless, they also made one mistake with three Canucks converging on Ladd, who makes a Sedin-esque no-look pass between his legs to Havlat... As soon as I saw that, I thought - "Uh-oh... SHHHHHEEEEEITTT!" That was one of the few times Vancouver had no one clogging up the slot area. Luongo almost stopped it, too.

Ah well, it's now a best-of-three, with two of those games at GM Place. Hopefully, Salo will be back; I think Demitra is still doubtful for at least another couple of days.

That started with that horrible clearing attempt by Mitchell. I don't think he had anyone around him and he had complete tunnel vision on the play. They say off the boards and out but he was facing a few guys crowded at the boards with completely open space to put that puck about 5 feet to the side and he still puts it right into the crowd of people and then as you say, 3 Nucks converge on Ladd with none of them winning the 3-on-1 battle.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I couldn't remember who the defenceman was on that side; I thought it was Mitchell... Yeah, he could have made a better play on it - and for most of the game he had been. One poor decision by Mitchell and poor positioning by the forwards and it's tied... That was about as much space as Havlat has ever had in these four games...

That's the problem, though. When you've been trying just to clear the puck for most of the game, you're going to end up forcing it at some point. That was a dumb clear, but it was manifested by an entire game of not trying to generate offence.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

if they keep alternating wins, ill be happy

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

tru dat.

I don't have a big hate-on for the nucks.

I've actually liked the speed and grit they've show all year - at least late nite on HNIC.

Last night however they made me hate them due to their style of play - it was tedious.

My thinking is that A.V. is intimidated by the speed of the Hawks and their ability to roll 4 lines against a slightly depleted nucks team - salo, pavel...

So he's resorting to trying not to lose.

Against the Blues I thought the Nucks with a hot bobby lou would be fairly unstoppable.

If they play this 'chicken flipping' style without a fore check too much Detroit will eat them alive.

That travesty of a game was just gross. Did they really expect to hold on to a piddly one-goal lead after having successfully blown 2-goal and 3-goal leads already this series? They have to know that Chicago doesn't know when they're beat by now!

Ugly play, ugly trap, where was the offense? Just ugly.


Fortunately, I was calling for Canucks in 6 in the work pool, and they can still make me look good with 2 solid games coming up.



They'd better bring it on Saturday, or so help me...

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Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Exactly what I was thinking! I hate the turtle mode they go into HATE IT! it makes zero sense. The team finds its identity when its agggressive and going hard after the puck yet AV resorts to trap hockey.

Yep.

And since I'm more a fan of good hockey than the nucks, I'll hope for the nucks if they play aggressive - if they play turtle, I'll hope for anyone but the devils ... er nucks...

In Vigneault's defense, this wasn't identical to the SJ regular season game where the Canucks spent like 52 minutes holding a one-goal lead (as many around the 'Net are comparing it to), because there the Sharks were coming wave after wave and getting scoring chances. Here, the shutdown actually worked for the most part -- most of Chicago's best scoring chances came early in the game before the Canucks went into shutdown mode. It's a high-risk strategy, I agree, and I definitely don't like it, but it really did almost work if not for a substantial brain fart by Mitchell. Argh, how different things could have been.

(And contrary to the generalizations that people like to throw around, that has not been the Canucks' style for most of this season, so spare us all the "killing hockey" or "if they always do this..." diatribe. They did it here to try to get out of Dodge with a 3-1 lead when they were surprised to find themselves in that position, but as the rest of this series very clearly indicates, that hasn't been the norm).

The sour grapes take on it is that I definitely could envision Chicago scoring with the goalie pulled if Mitchell hadn't lost all reason and sensibility.

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