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 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.

So i went to my second game of the season, and this one was better then the first one. First and foremost we won, so that was better then my first game of the season (loss to Chicago Blackhawks) and secondly it was a big win for the team, and brings them even closer to home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The game itself was not a barn burner by any means, there were long periods of time where the game was a bit boring and with not much action. Take away the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes of the game and this game overall wasnt as exciting as some of the games of late. The quick two goal lead within the firts 6 minutes of the first period was a great way to get everyone in the game, and the crowd was very into the game, but as the game wore on and didnt keep the same pace, it was evident that the crowd also got out of the game for a bit. Personally, from where I was sitting, the crowd was very quiet and did not really get loud unless a goal was scored.