The Vancouver Canucks are back in the hostile confines of the Madhouse on Madison. The United Center will play host to the Canucks and Blackhawks tonight as Vancouver tries to get their first road win of the season in one of the most difficult places to play in the National Hockey League.
The Blackhawks boast 3 deep lines that roll at their opposition in waves, all three lines can score as they are anchored by Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Dave Bolland and a host of other young foot soldiers. Despite their amazing depth up front, the biggest strength for the Blackhawks is their mobility, youth, and puck movement on the back end. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook are among the top young puck movers in the league and can make a great first pass.
As for the Canucks, they'll need to come together quickly now to avoid a major dismantling tonight. The Hawks can skate, score, and are getting good goaltending from youngster Antti Niemi who is expected to start tonight. Roberto Luongo obviously has some demons at the United Center, and he's going to need to to conquer them tonight for the Canucks to have a chance to pick up 2 points.
The Canucks once again outshot their opposition in Edmonton but could not bear down and finish their chances. Kyle Wellwood came within half a second of sending the game to overtime, but even by the slightest margin, it was too little, too late.
That was the 4th time in this young season that the first star of the game has been the team's opposing goaltender. The Canucks should look to take the crowd out of it early if they have hopes of skating away with a win, but they'll need to play well and make good decisions in their own end tonight to avoid this:
I challenge any Canucks fan not to CRINGE when they hear that. Puck drop is at 5:30 PM PST.
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