Love Our Canucks

Time to light the fuse and take em' down boys!

Lets forget about the fact that the 1st place Canucks are having a better season so far than the 8th place Blackhawks, because it means nothing. Nor do points in the standings, or wins, losses, ties or any other statistical number you want to throw into the equation. It means nothing.

As far as playing the Chicago Blackhawks go, the only thing that does matter is beating them. Regardless if they are the defending Stanley Cup Champions or not, or are not the same team as they were last year, the only thing that matters is not only if the Canucks beat them, but its how they beat them as well.

As far as rivalries go between teams, the one between the Blackhawks and the Canucks can easily be considered the Mother Lode of all rivalries. The blood between these two teams is so bad that not even the Devil himself would want to partake in it. Yes, the blood between the Blackhawks and Canucks is evil, pure evil!

The history between these two teams has not been kind to the Canucks, as they have been ousted from the second round of the playoffs for two straight years at the hands of the Blackhawks. And in those two years, irony struck a cruel blow to the Canucks that saw them ousted from the playoffs exactly 365 days apart. Losing to the same team, in the same round, exactly one year to the day apart has a habit of leaving a scar that runs deep into the soul, and in a lot of ways the scar hasn’t completely healed yet. There’s only one thing that will cure that kind of pain, and it is a remedy called revenge!

Tonight is the last game these two teams will play each other in the regular season, and Chicago leads the series 2-1. We all remember the way Chicago kicked the Canucks asses 7-1 at Rogers Arena on November 20th, and how Coach Vigneault accused Blackhawks coach Quenneville of trying to run up the score late in the game. It was a game that reopened the scar from last year’s playoff ousting, and it hurt real bad. The Canucks got a little satisfaction on December 3rd by shutting out the Hawks on their home ice by beating them 3-0. It was a satisfying win, but it only went so far to quench the thirst for seeing the Blackhawks get utterly humiliated and demoralized on their own turf.

Which leads us to tonight’s game. The Canucks are rolling along at a breakneck pace. They are rolling in, through, and out of Arena’s throughout the league gathering points and taking no prisoners in the process. They are 33-10-9 and have a league leading 75 points. They currently are on a 4 game winning streak, and are virtually unbeatable on home ice sporting a 17-3-5 record, and an unbelievable +54 goal differential. The Blackhawks on the other hand resemble a shadow of their former team of a year ago, as they have a 27-20-4 overall record and find themselves 2 points out of a playoff position with a paltry 58 points to show for their efforts! Things don’t look so good for the Blackhawks at the moment, and they aren’t looking very promising in the near future either, as they come into Rogers Arena feeling a little like the sacrificial lambs waiting for the Lions to pounce!

All numbers aside, the Canucks should want to come into this game wanting to grind the Blackhawks into fine just and watch them blow away, just for the shear satisfaction of having the talent to be able to do it! Payback is a bitch, and the Blackhawks have this one coming to them ten fold!

Watch for Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows to spearhead the attack against the Blackhawks because they probably will take this game personally. Roberto Luongo also has a lot to prove tonight as he will look to not only better his record of 24-8-7, but to also prove that his last game against the Hawks wasn’t a fluke shutout, and that he can shutout the Blackhawks consistently.

There’s nothing more that can be said about the Canucks in preparation for tonight’s game other than they are on fire, and are definitely the better of the two teams. All the Canucks need to do is continue playing the way they have played and the outcome will have been pre-ordained.

Let’s go Canucks! The Fuse has been lit, all thats left to do is to take them down!