Blackhawks Back Into Playoffs, Face Canucks
By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 11, 2011 3:30PM
It took the Minnesota Wild's 4-3 win over the Dallas Stars last night to punch the Blackhawks' playoff ticket. And though the Hawks begin defense of their Stanley Cup championship Wednesday night against a Canucks team with whom they split their regular season series at two game apiece, they come into the playoffs with some serious issues.
The Blackhawks power play, with has been either feast or famine all season with no in between, is currently not producing. They went 0-3 against the Red Wings yesterday in the penalty, and the Red Wings don't have a goalie on the level of the Canucks' Roberto Luongo.
The Canucks won the President's Trophy for having the most points in the NHL's regular season, but that doesn't necessarily correlate into a Stanley Cup title (just ask the Washington Capitals, last season's winner). But they do have Luongo and the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel. Daniel Sedin has emerged as a contender for the Hart Trophy for MVP. If the Hawks can hang their hats on anything (besides splitting the regular season series with Vancouver), it's their playoff success the past two years against the Canucks. The Blackhawks have been able to figure out Luongo like few teams have. But that was also with a much deeper and talented team than the one set to take the ice Wednesday.
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is going to have to pull out all the motivational tool in his arsenal if the Blackhawks are to advance in the playoffs. He's already making parallels to last year's Philadelphia Flyers team that they beat for the Cup last summer, but had to win on the final day of the regular season in order to qualify for the playoffs.
“I think the enthusiasm of making the playoffs after what we overcame over the course of the year was an amazing accomplishment,” Quenneville said. “That enthusiasm is something we should take forward. And, hey, anything can happen. Last year we saw with [the Philadelphia Flyers getting in the] last game of the year and where they ended up.”