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Hawks At Canucks GameDay Preview

February 1, 2013, 7:57 AM ET [570 Comments]
John Jaeckel
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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Chicago Blackhawks at Vancouver Canucks
10:00 PM Eastern/9 Central/8 Pacific
Vancouver, BC
TSN/RDS/CSN CHicago/WGN Radio



The rivalry is over.

Sure, the Vancouver Canucks still have their share of rankling "characters" like Alex Burrows, Kevin Bieksa, Alain Vigneault, and the Sedins (who some call the Swedish National Diving Team). And the Hawks still have Dave Bolland and Duncan Keith (who would look perfect, sans front teeth, on an Old West style Wanted poster plastered all over British Columbia).

But to my mind, at the heart of what was once an intense rivalry, was a contention over supremacy in the West. I'm not sure (yet) that the Blackhawks are in that conversation—in spite of their league-leading 13 points in 7 games. And I'm pretty sure the Canucks aren't.

However, this is a road contest against an almost certain playoff club that is quite capable of beating the Hawks.

And on the subject of fast starts and supremacy, the San Jose Sharks and, oh yes, the St. Louis Blues are breathing right down the Hawks' necks.

In truth, the Hawks have gone 3-0-1 over their last four games, and only scored 8 goals in regulation in those games, all decided by one goal, three in OT. In one game, a clear goal for an opponent was taken off the board by the referees. In another, Keith made a terrific "save" on a puck about to cross the goal line after sifting through Corey Crawford's pads.

Thus, the Hawks could very easily have gone as bad as 0-1-3 in that span. But, sure, they didn't.

And clearly, some things are going well for the Hawks—most obviously, the league lead in penalty killing and some pretty good balance on all four lines. However, some observers, myself included, feel the time is nigh to shake up the lines a bit (see the above stat about goals per game of late).

For the Canucks, the Roberto Luongo Drama continues as GM Mike Gillis has completely bollocksed the handling of this situation. Canuck fans might take umbrage at that remark. But as opined here last summer, Gillis had very little, if any, leverage when the Luongo issue went public. But he acted as though he did, I suspect in large part because the vast majority of a rabid fanbase assumed he did as well.

Now, all that said, the Canucks also still have two very good goalies.

For all the scorn heaped on Luongo by Hawk fans, I have always maintained, the guy can flat play. Need proof? While CSN and Chicago media talking heads drool all over Crawford's start, there's Lu with better numbers, including a 3-0 shutout in his last outing. In fact, the only goalie playing better than the two aforementioned is the pride of Barrington, Illinois (aside from yours truly), Ottawa's Craig Anderson.

This should be a very good game. And the Hawks have their hands full trying to maintain their Western Conference lead.


PROJECTED LINEUPS


Chicago

BRANDON SAAD JONATHAN TOEWS MARIAN HOSSA
PATRICK SHARP DAVE BOLLAND PATRICK KANE
BRYAN BICKELL ANDREW SHAW VOIKTOR STALBERG
BRANDION BOLLIG MARCUS KRUGER MICHAL FROLIK

BRENT SEABROOK DUNCAN KEITH
NIKLAS HJALMARSSON JOHNNY ODUYA
SHELDON BROOKBANK NICK LEDDY

COREY CRAWFORD


Vancouver

DANIEL SEDIN HENRIK SEDIN ZACK KASSIAN
MASON RAYMOND JORDAN SCHROEDER DALE WEISE
CHRIS HIGGINS JANNIK HANSEN ALEXANDRE BURROWS
AARON VOLPATTI MANNY MALHOTRA MAXIM LAPIERRE

KEITH BALLARD CHRISTOPHER TANEV
KEVIN BIEKSA JASON GARRISON
DAN HAMHUIS ALEXANDER EDLER

ROBERTO LUONGO


STATISTICS


POWER PLAY
Chicago 9th, 25%
Vancouver 16th, 18.9%

PENALTY KILL
Chicago, 1st, 96.3%
Vancouver, 24th, 73.3%

BLOCKED SHOTS
Chicago, 10th, 57
Vancouver, 15th, 43

TAKEAWAYS
Chicago, 7th, 24
Vancouver, 23rd, 11

GIVEAWAYS
Chicago, 22nd, 21
Vancouver, 21st, 23

FACEOFF %
Chicago, 14th, 50.6%
Vancouver, 25th, 47.2%

HITS
Chicago, 28th, 102
Vancouver, 10th, 180



All for now,


JJ
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