by Peter Christian
Game 5 was supposed to be a treat for the hometown fans. It was supposed to be final dagger to the Vancouver Canucks 2010 Stanley Cup hopes. For the Blackhawks, it wasn’t either of those. The Canucks scored early and were able to establish their pace and style on the game. For the Hawks, they looked nothing like the team that had just taken it to the Canucks on the road by outskating the more deliberate Canucks team and putting their play makers in space to, well, make plays. If the Blackhawks want to avoid a Game 7 in the series, those things must change tonight.
The Blackhawks fell right into the Canucks game plan in Game 5 by letting the pace get slowed down. Instead of the fast paced, up and down style that suits the Hawks so well, they were allowing the Canucks skaters to impede their progress before they even reached the Canucks blue line. It appeared that the Blackhawks were relying on the Canucks to do something stupid to jump start their offense or for something miraculous to happen just because Dustin Byfuglien was in front of the net, Vancouver kept their wits and the miracles were at a minimum. Granted, the Canucks came out inspired and played much stronger and smarter than they did in games 2, 3 or 4 which in turn made the Blackhawks work harder for the scoring chances that they’d gotten accustomed to. By stealing another game in the United Center the Canucks will likely have an extra jump in their skates to start Game 6 which will put pressure on the Chicago blue liners to prevent an early goal and allow Antti Niemi to gain his footing and get into his “lockdown mode.” Niemi, like many goaltenders, can be vulnerable to start games which has been the case plenty in this series. Three times Niemi has allowed a Vancouver goal within the first 120 seconds of the game. Continually, the Blackhawk defensemen need to do a better job at clearing bodies in front of the net. In Game 5, Kevin Bieksa and Christian Ehrhoff both scored from distance and had Chicago done a better job at clearing men out of the crease, Niemi may have had a chance to save both goals.
On the other side of the ice the Blackhawks need to put Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo on edge early. If Luongo gets comfortable (as he did in Game 5) he can be one of the best in the game. Chicago has the talent and firepower (namely Jonathan Toews) to get Luongo scrambling which will be their savior. The manner to do so is to attack the zone and control the offensive zone. That was a struggle in Game 5 and it can’t be in Game 6. The Hawks top priority has to be to control Canucks blue line quickly. If they get caught dawdling and hanging around in the neutral zone it will allow the Canucks to backcheck and regain control of the puck. All of this falls back on one thing: Skating. If the Hawks outskate the Canucks they’ve got an inside track to the win and a berth into the Western Conference Finals against the Sharks. If not, it’s a likely scenario for a Game 7 versus a team with momentum, which can mean likely doom in the NHL.