With a 4 game sweep of the St Louis Blues, many see this as a lop sided series where the youth of the Blues showed and the great goaltending of Luongo propelled the Canucks into the second round, while creating Canucks history of the first 4 game sweep the franchise has ever had. But for the many that watched every moment of every game they all know this was a battle until the end, and alhtough the stats show otherwise, this was a very close series, and if it wasnt for a early whistle this series could easily be back in Vancouver for game 5, and even back to St Louis for game 6. By no means am I saying the Blues could pull off the improbable 3-0 come back to win four straight, but this series was a lot closer than many may think from an outside view looking in.

Although it wasn't the most hard hitting, bone shattering or physcially demanding series such as the Flames/Hawks, Pens/Flyers, it still had its fair share of big hits, scrums after the whistle and a general hate on for the other team. But in every game as every shift became more imporant, each penalty becoming more costly, we saw less and less of the borderline hits and less scrums after the whistle. This is not to say that these teams didnt have the general hate for each other, rather it seemed as if the players quickly realised that they could not be in the box for a game ending goal, as all the games, even the 3-0 shutout, were close all the way to the final horn. Only one game, game 4, went into overtime, but all of the third periods had that sudden death feeling, and everyone had that feeling of next goal wins, or the next goal may shift the momentum one way.

With the way this series is going it looks as if the Canucks will be able to move past the Blues and head straight into Round 2 and await their opponent. With the Canucks having the Blues in a 3-0 stranglehold, it is more of a matter of how many games then if the Canucks will finish off the Blues. With tomorrows game in St Louis the Canucks have an oppurtunity to have a clean 4 game sweep on the Blues on thier home ice, but keep in mind the Blues are going to come out gunning and put on a solid effort as there backs are against the wall and may play like a team with nothing to lose, which can be very dangerous in professional sports. Add in the Canucks never being able to sweep a team during a seven game series and game 4 will be a great one for hockey fans.

Mats Sundin battling with some St Louis BluesThe Canucks on the other hand are playing great defensivley, are getting great goaltending from Roberto Luongo and have been fantastic on the power play and have killed 3 seperate, very long, 5 on 3's that could have changes the whole landscape of this series. Offensivley the Sedins have 9 points in 3 games, and have gotten secondary scoring from the likes of Burrows, Bernier, Sundin and a number of defensemen as well. Although the team is playing well, the Canucks still have some adversity to overcome in the form of an injury to the 10 million dollar man Mats Sundin.

With the playoffs right around the corner the Canucks have matched up against the St Louis Blues and both teams have been red hot in the last two months of the season. The season series has been pretty even and all the games have been very entertaining, and we cant forget the Backes-Bernier offer sheets that were handed out this summer. Along with a couple players returning to their previous team, Johnson and Demitra, this is shaping up to be a very interesting matchup. Here is a breakdown of how each of the teams match up against each other:

Canucks 45-27-10 (3) vs. Blues 41-31-10 (6)

With the end of the season only a couple months away, the Canucks managment team will have a few interesting decisions to make. Yes they need to decide whether or not to resign Ohlund, yes they need to lock up the Sedins, yes they need to make a pitch to land Jay Bouwmeester, but they also need to make a decision on RFA Steve Bernier.

Steve BernierAfter coming off a season in which he was bounced around between San Jose and Buffalo and then traded to Vancouver during the summer. Even then he almost changed jerseys again when the St. Louis Blues made him a $2.5 million offer sheet in retailation to the Canucks offering David Backes a similar offer sheet (3 years $7.5 million), the Canucks matched and high expectations were attached to Steve Bernier.