I know the road to the Stanley Cup is always a long journey, filled with peaks and valleys, disasters and moments of elation. But I didn't expect this journey to involve stepping on a land mine and then getting hit by an Atom bomb. I think that's about how most of us Canuck fans are feeling right now, and I didn't even fork out a few hundred dollars to have to sit in the Rog and have to witness this catastrophe.
Am I overstating things? Maybe slightly. The Canucks still have 2 more chances to wrap this series up. But generally speaking, this sort of thing doesn't happen to championship teams. The Canucks have completely gotten away from everything they did right in the Regular Season and the first 3 games of this series. Except for Roberto on occasion, nobody had to be spectacular. Now they are all playing an individual game. You win and you lose as a team. That's the way it's been since the beginning of time. Okay, the beginning of team sports. That's why a team like Pittsburgh, minus Crosby and Malkin, can still win games. That's how the '82 Canucks made it to the Stanley Cup final. It certainly wasn't because of talent. Maybe this Canuck squad should go back and watch some of those old tapes.
I had an uneasy feeling shortly before the first goal. Luongo likes to get some shots early and he hadn't had one to that point. He needs to make a save on that first goal. The team also needs to have a push-back shift after a goal so that they don't continue giving up 2 goals in 17 seconds or whatever it was. In fact, this team needs to push back when they are being pushed. That's what championship teams do.
For the next 3 goals you can blame Luongo if you want to (and I know a lot of people do) but that's just not being realistic. Once this Canuck team gives up a goal, and then a 2nd goal, they seem to just throw their game out the window and try to play firewagon hockey. Once they do that they are in trouble. No goalie in the league is going to stop those 3 shots. If the Hawks have figured one thing out I think it's to just randomly take shots on Roberto. Don't give Luongo any easy saves that would enable him to feel the puck and get in a zone.
While I think Cory Schneider played well (and hopefully increased his market value some more), Luongo is still starting game 6. I just hope that he finishes it. As much great work as Mike Gillis has done in building this team, as deep as they are, this team still cannot win unless Luongo is at his best.
Having said that, a little offensive push would be nice. Where are our top 6 forwards? The only valid excuse I can think of is that some awful African virus has hit the entire team. If that's the case they have a couple days now to get it out of their system. Otherwise I'm considering putting the skates on, and I can barely skate backwards.
While I generally don't believe in momentum from game to game, losing the last 2 games 12-2 I'd say without question Chicago has the momentum. The Canucks need to find a way to wrestle it back. For the first 3 games the Hawks were too easy to play against. For the last 2, it's been the Canucks who have been far too easy to play against.
Clearly the Canucks didn't miss Manny Malhotra in the first 3 games, but with the return of Dave Bolland in game 4 making the Hawks deeper at centre, there is now a hole there that they can't fill. I haven't looked at the face-off stats from game 5 but they can't be good.
Now it's up to the Canucks to find their game again and show they still have a pulse. Obviously they have to play to win but even losing by a goal in the next game would be a step in the right direction. I never thought I would ever say something like that. Their defence has to stop backing in too far and they just need to focus on winning puck battles through plain old hard work. It's not rocket science. If they put the effort in and play as a team there is a good chance they will be rewarded. Otherwise, this long and grueling road to the Stanley Cup will be cut tragically short.
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