According to TSN, Canucks Center Manny Malhotra, who had what appeared to be a career threatening eye-injury in March, has been cleared to practice with the team, and even participate in full contact drills. WHAT?! This can't be true, can it?
I mean I am not expecting to see Manny out there for Game 1, but what if he responds well to the contact and practice? What if he gets out there and everything goes fine? This would be like a post-season trade acquisition if he could return, even halfway through the series.
I don't want to get ahead of myself here though. this is great news, even if he can't return this post-season. This means he is ahead of schedule for next season at the very least, which is great news in itself. This has made my weekend...thats how bad my week sucked.
OH MY GOD! That was intense to say the least! So crazy. Where to even begin?! They came out looking good, then bad, then Luongo made a HUGE mistake, the Sedins were looking like, well the Sedins we all knew they were capable of being, Kesler goes down, Kesler comes back and...history was made.
I wasn't mad in the last minute of the game. Seriously. I was just very disappointed. It went back to my whole thing of them not having that killer instinct they needed. On top of that Kesler gimped off, as well as Bieksa. I had that thousand yard stare. All I could think was "You had the chance and you didn't do it...then, with 13.2 seconds left:
What?! We are going to overtime! Now before all the haters jump on, yes the face-off this play resulted from glanced off Daniel's shoulder, thus it should have negated the icing. But what do you expect from an officiating crew that didn't call one penalty on the San Jose Sharks...ALL GAME. So fair game, San Jose Chokers.
The officiating was just as stellar in the first overtime. mason Raymond gets high sticked in the mouth? No penalty. Sharks are slew footing? Thats fine. I would like to applaud Gary Bettman. Not just for this game or this series or even this playoffs, but ever since the lock-out he has let his referees decide games in the playoffs. So thank you Gary for turning the NHL into the NBA, where the refs decide the game.
On to more important things. Such as just over halfway through the second overtime:
Elation! Pure elation. I couldn't get to sleep for two hours, just laid their smiling. Call me lame I don't care. Just awesome. Puck goes off the stanchion and nobody had any idea where it went...except Kevin Bieksa. Puck came knuckling right to him and he did what he was supposed to do rip it on net. Just awesome...still smiling. I have probably watched that goal 30 times throughout the day.
In all this celebration and recounting of events, which will continue for years and years after this, three players need their do: The Twins and King Luie. The Twins were amazing, they looked like we knew they could look in the playoffs. Also Henrik not even touching the Campbell Trophy was great, loved it.
Bobby Lu? What can you say: 54 saves. Best part was the aftermath of that second goal when he became a brick wall. Mistakes happen, its how you bounce back. He looked focused all game, had great positioning and made some tremendous saves when he needed to. This team was down late and didn't panic, thats a scary thing if you are an opposing team.
Best part for me? Hearing Jim Hughson say: "The Vancouver Canucks are going to the Stanley Cup Final!" Still gives me goose bumps.
This was not my favorite Canucks game, but as the old saying goes: A win is a win. They came out looking great. No I don't mean the penalty Tanner Glass took 24 seconds into the game. I was referring to the FIVE subsequent successful PKs that followed. That part was awesome. I figured they would receive their chance, definitely did not think it would come in the form of three straight 5-on-3's, but I ain't complaining.
The PPs the Canucks got were shocking. What was more shocking was the penalty calls were in line with all the BS calls they were making in favor of the Sharks. That part was dumbfounding, which just proves how awful NHL officiating is. This guy would have done a better job:
I was not too impressed with the Canucks down the stretch though. It wasn't a huge let up or anything, but they need to keep up the pressure, that has been the problem all post-season. This leads to my main concern, and its tough because its also one of their strengths as a result, but they are lacking a killer instinct right now. They need to start putting teams out when they are down. They did the same thing against Nashville, had a 3-1 series lead, went home, and had to fly all the way back to Nashville for Game 6. That was an unneeded game, but more importantly, unneeded energy spent.
They are in the same position now. However, the strength of this team has been their resiliency, which was born the night Burrows scored that overtime goal against the Blackhawks. You could feel the pressure lift off the team. You could see it for sure. My father said he was shocked by the celebration, I wasn't at all. Two straight years of torment, and almost a third. Its was like they realized if they can rid themselves of that demon, they can do anything.
Its a tough thing to get used to. I know I have been hard on this team especially the Twins, Alain, and the Defense. But its tough to have absolute faith in a team that hadn't been to the Conference Finals since I was 10! The faith is building, slowly but surely. As I stated before, when this season started I was most skeptical of Bobby Lu, now I have nothing but faith in him. I don't want to get ahead of myself though. For the same reason I have been growing a playoff beard.
