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.

After a quick four game sweep of the St. Louis Blues, the Canucks have been on a extended break waiting for the second round to begin. In the meantime the Blackhawks have been in a tough and physical series with the Calgary Flames which went 6 games and was filled with emotion, hits, fights and bruised bodies. Although many picked these two teams to be first round combatants with about a week to go in the regular season, the Canucks surged past Calgary to win the division and have home ice both in the first round and now in the second against the Hawks as well. And after the Hawks going 1-2 on the road and the Canucks 2-0 at home in the first series, home ice may be the difference between these two teams.

Canucks 45-27-10 (3) vs. Hawks 46-24-12 (5)

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 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.

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.

With the Canucks relying so heavily on this dynamic duo during the regular season, the team will look for them to be the  heart and soul of the team during the playoffs as well. With both of the forwards being very versatile, wach of them have seen time on all three forward lines, power play and on the penalty kill as well. Early on in the season they were both apart of one of the better checking lines in the Western Conference, and now they have both been split across the top two lines. Although they still have great chemistry together, which can be seen on the penalty kill, seperatley they still have been able to contribute with different linemates. No one would have predicted that both players would be 20+ goal scorers and not be playing together on a full time basis.

With both Kesler and Burrows playing so well in the regular season, most expect them to play equally as well during the playoffs. There playing styles are a perfect fit for the playoffs, they can bang, agitate, score, check and are very gritty players. But how much can a team rely on two players who only have a combined 12 games of playoff experience?

For those of you unaware of the situation that the Rangers faced earlier on this season, Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov died of sudden heart failure during a KHL game in Russia. The russian prospect was darfted in the 2007 draft 17th overall and was yet to sign a professional contract with the Rangers.

After his tragic death in October of 2008 the New York Rangers asked the league for a compensatory draft choice based on these tragic events, and by using a little known rule involving unsigned draft picks. With the NY Rangers formally asking for the pick during this weeks GM meetings, Ranger GM Glen Sather was asking based on a rule that states if a draft pick is unsigned by the team the team is eligible for a second round draft choice. So in this instance with Cherepanov being selected 17th in the first round, the Rangers have been awarded the 17th choice in the second round of this years draft.

With Mike Gillis not willing to give up draft picks or prospects at this years trade deadline, most Canuck fans attribute this to the team having no depth in thier organization, outside of a couple of players. The team has notoriously been very bad at drafting, and fails every year to draft big impact players.

The team has not suited up a player for a regular season game that has been drafted by the team after the 2005 draft (Mayson Raymond and Luc Bourdon). And only Ryan Kesler, who was drafted in 2003, has made a major impact on the team. Yes players such as Raymond, Edler and Hansen have made contirbutions, but none of those players have been impact players on this team.