Listen Canucks fans: It ain’t over until the fat lady sings eh?
Warren Eamer
Following the Canucks loss on Saturday, I will refrain from predicting the right score and just tell you who wins instead. Chicago has now taken a 3 – 2 series lead and now it’s back to Chi-town.
The Hawks took a page out of Vancouver’s book and came out firing the puck and hitting early. They carried the play for the first five minutes of the game before the home team could settle in. Byfuglien opened the scoring at the 15:27 mark of the first frame, something they haven’t done all series. I wasn’t too concerned, as I knew it would be even up by the end of the first. Kyle Wellwood played the bank shot off Kesler’s stick and it went in five hole on Khabibulen to make it 1 -1 at 17:54 of the first.
The Sedin line had a good start causing turnovers and getting chances and I thought it was shades of things to come. It was not to be, when they did shoot the puck the two wingers seemed to get in too deep to play the rebounds.
In the second period the Canucks had their chances and Mats Sundin scored at 11:16 to take the lead 2 -1. Byfuglien added his second on the night on the power play to tie it at two. Indecently, the Chicago coaching staff must be reading my posts, as their power play looked the most dangerous by far and went 2 / 4.
In the end it was penalties that hurt Vancouver the most, as Kevin Bieksa took a costly trip to the box that resulted in the game winner scored by Bolland on the man advantage. For the second time in the series the hawks have scored a huge power play goal after a Canuck has broken a stick essentially leaving them 5 on 3.
The nail in the coffin was Ryan Kesler taking a penalty 200 feet from his own net with under four minutes left in the third to make a final push to tie improbable. As if it couldn’t get worse; Kesler coming on as the extra attacker ran into Salo, taking them both to the ice and allowing Havlat to coast to the open goal to make it 4 -2.
It’s done, game over. Move on to Monday night. The Canucks will have to do some serious soul searching on the plane and figure out how to play with the lead.
No room for error now, lose one and you’re done boys. What more motivation do you need? If as a team you can’t pull together a final 60 minute effort on Monday you better prepare for a long summer.
That being said Vancouver hasn’t lost 3 straight games since the slide in January. When you’re at your lowest there is only one way to go: UP. Listening to the post game as I type this out I hear a lot of players talking about how this is “Not Over”. It had better not be.
The one thing I do know is that this team will not go down without a fight. Remember, this franchise has a history of game 7 appearances and heroics on the road to greatness in the past. Ask any player in the NHL who has played in the post season and you will discover the fourth win in a series, is the hardest to come by. The hawks may feel some pressure at home to close it out but I doubt it, they’re too young to know any better.
The final word: Yogi Berra said it best “It ain’t over until it’s over”.
Also my personal favourite “It’s not over until the fat lady sings” and Mark Donnelly does such a great anthem. Sorry Mark, see you in Game 7.
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