Canucks vs Hawks, Game 5 Review

What a perfect road game for the Canucks!!

Started with a quick start on a goal by Ehrhoff 59 seconds into the game, and followed up by a bad line change by Patrick Kane resulting in Bieksa being able to join Wellwood on a 2 on 1 to make it 2-0. This is common sense IMO... DO NOT change when the play is heading into your own end. you learn this when you are playing in Atom. This, on top of many other giveaways just showed that Kane was having an off night along with the rest of the Blackhawks. A 2 goal lead is the worst lead in hockey. I was glad the Canucks got the 3rd goal, that let me relax a bit and confidently say that we had this game. Canucks have been up 2-0 too many times and have come up on the losing end. Glad to see they didn't take their foot off the gas.

Goaltending
The thing I have noticed about Niemi, is that he is either really good, or really bad. Last night was a bad night for him. He was clearly outplayed by the newly beardless counterpart standing at the other end in Luongo. Luongo made some big saves early and the puck was sticking to him. Luongo saw the puck well tonight even with Buffy standing in front of him. The Canucks did some great work getting traffic in front of the net on Bieksa's second goal where Burrows provided a great screen.

Defense
It was a bitter sweet night for our defenseman. Our D chipped in with 3 out of the 4 goals (Ehrhoff , Juice x 2), and came over the adversity of being down to 4 D-man midway through the 2nd period. I'm sure every male watching the game last night cringed when they saw the replay of Salos injury. Good to hear this morning that it isn't a ruptured testicle as first thought, Salo was walking this morning. We could see Nycolat or Rome get into the lineup tomorrow in place of Salo. O'Brien will be good to go with the cut he received between the eyes.

The Chicago D faced a lot of pressure from the Canucks forwards as they forechecked hard on them. I wouldn't fault the Chicago D on any of the goals last night besides them not clearing Canucks from the front of the net.

Forwards
The Blackhawks forwards were very frustrated last night. The only player who showed any sign of life was Toews. Kane had an off night, and Buffy did nothing but look lost out there.

Great game by Kyle Wellwood last night. I liked the confidence Grabner was playing with, he should definitely make a push for a roster spot next Fall. The Sedins will need to step up huge in Game 6 to get the series to game 7. Lets get'r done!!!