Thursday, May 07, 2009

Canucks - Blackhawks live blog

The stage is set for a classic showdown in the Windy City tonight between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks at 8 P.M. Eastern. I'll be live-blogging it here, perhaps with some of the other Out of Left Field staff if they're able to make it. It's been a great series so far, with all of the games quite even and some tremendous play on both sides. So far, it's shaken out pretty much as I figured from my series preview; the teams' forwards and defenders have pretty much canceled each other out at even strength, with many of the key goals coming on the power play. However, there is some attrition on the Canucks' lineup; Sami Salo, one of the team's top defencemen, and Pavol Demitra, a key part of the Canucks' secondary scoring, are both expected to miss tonight's game due to injuries. Salo was also out for Game Three, but the Canucks pulled it off without him. Probably the biggest question is which Roberto Luongo will show up for the Canucks; the one who dominated Round One against St. Louis and shone in Game Three against Chicago, or the one who allowed eight goals in the first two clashes against the Blackhawks? Find out in the live blog tonight. For more on the series, I recommend this preview from Sean Zandberg of Nucks Misconduct, this post from Second City Hockey (complete with Mastodon reference!) and this pep talk. Hope to see you tonight!

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