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)

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)

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