After dismantling the St Louis Blues in round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Canucks turned thier sights onto a very young, fast and skilled Chicago Blackhawks team. On paper the odds were in favor of the Canucks, and after winning game 1 on home ice, many Vancouver fans may have had the Western Conference finals in thier sights. But the young and resilant Blackhawks team never gave up, and we saw this numerous times throughout the six game series, with the Hawks having to come back from a deficit in all 6 games, including multiple 2 and 3 goal leads that the Canucks had at various points in the series.

With the Hawks winning this series in 6 games with game 6 having a stunning score of 7-5 for the home team, that game in a sense summed up the entire series in 60 minutes of hockey. The Canucks took too many penalties, their penalty kill was ineffective, the young snipers of the Hawks put the puck in the net, the Canucks defense seemed very slow and a step behind on every play, and Khabibulin outplayed Roberto Luongo. Not many people are overly surprised at all the the items at the top of the list, penalty kill, slow defence, etc..., but no one, including myself thought that Roberto Luongo would be the second best, by a fair margin, goaltender in this series.

Since were through the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I thought I would go over my top 5 surprises so far. From teams to players to suspensions this has been a very interesting first round. Filled with upsets, frustration and even the odd goal or too, if the first round is a preview to the second round I can't wait for it to start!

5. Rangers vs. Capitals

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 Oilers out of the playoff picture and with a young team, a back up goalie and having nothing to play for the Oilers were able to beat the Calgary Flames 5-1 at Rexall Place in Edmonton and become the Canucks new best friend. With one game left for both the Canucks and the Flames, the Canucks are 2 points up and only need a single point against the Avalance to win the Northwest division.

The Flames on the other hand have dug themselves a very deep hole after not being able to beat a back up goalie who hasnt played in 30 some games and a team that is getting ready for a round of golf rather than a round of the playoffs. They now need the Avalanche to beat the Canucks in regulation and now need to beat an Edmonton team with nothing to lose and a ton of confidence after beating them 5-1 tonght.

With the Canucks finally a relativly healthy hockey team, its time for the coaching staff to make some decisions for the playoffs when it comes to the bottom six forward spots. Lately coach AV has been mixing and matching numerous line combinations, especially on th fourth line and the wing position on the third line. The only constant on both lines have been Wellwood and Bernier on the third line, and Johnson centering the fourth line. But there has been numerous wingers slotted on the remaining three forward spots. The battle for the winger spots are basically between Rick Rypien, Jannik Hansen, Mayson Raymond, Taylor Pyatt and Darcy Hordichuck.

With all the players bringing a different aspect to the lineup it gives the Canucks a bunch of possibilities and allows them to put out a fourth line that will be most effective against which ever team they match up with in the playoffs. With Hordichuck they get a lot of toughness and grit and have a legitimate heavyweight tough guy, but how many times will he drop the gloves in the playoffs and will he get a regulat shift in the post season?

With the Vncouver 2010 Olympics less than a year away, most fans will be cheering for Canada to take home the gold, but their will also be some fans rooting for their "hometown" boys. With the tournament being held in thier backyard, there is a handfull of Canucks who are hoping to make an impact for thier respective countries while playing in front of many fans who cheer them night in and night out as Vancouver Canucks.

With the Canucks having a top tier goaltender in Roberto Luongo, it is basically a sure thing that we will have atleast one Canuck on Team Canada. But the rest of our team will be dispersed throughout the tournament, and obviously most of our talent will be with Team Sweden. Here is how each player breaks down for his country.

With the Canucks recent success since the end of January, going 16-3-1 in there last 20 games, there has been one aspect of the team that they need to improve on, otherwise it may come back to hurt them down the road. And that aspect is empty net goals at the end of games when the opposition is pushing for a tie and has pulled their goalie.

Although overall this season as a team the Canucks are around the average if not in the upper third of the leauge in empty net goal with 7, but are still a few away from the leauge leaders such as the Bruins and Capitols who have 12 each, nor are they as bad as the Avalanche who have none this season. But the problem is not the number of goals this team is scoring into empty nets, rather the fashion in which this team is missing empty nets, and their inability to put a team away late into a game.

For those of you who missed it here is Alexander Ovechkin's 50th goal celebration a couple of nights ago

Link to Video

Well before the season began I wrote a blog about the 10 reasons the Canucks would make the playoffs this year. No I didnt predict the horrible January the team had, or Luongo being hurt, nor did I ever think Burrows and Kesler would play this well. I did however see a few things that occured this season, and here is my original list and a look how many of my predictions came true, or how wrong I actually was.

10. Young Talent Contributing

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.