Game 1: Luongo Shuts Out The Hawks

I wasn't sure what to expect from this series. I knew what I wanted; the Canucks to dominate the series and finally get their revenge on Chicago. I also knew that based on the numbers the Canucks SHOULD dominate the series.. but I wasn't expecting it (to avoid getting my hopes up.. only to be crushed - I am a Bruins fan after all.) What the Canucks did with this game was set the stage for the rest of the series. They came out a little flat in the first few minutes of play but then some switch was hit and they were ON for the full sixty.

It was kind of sad to see how overwhelmed Crawford was with the play in his zone for a majority of the game. However he was able to handle his own and aside from two first period goals by Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen, he stopped 31 shots and was pretty solid throughout the three periods.

I don't know WHEN this happened but Roberto Luongo finally learned how to play in the post-season. He looked incredible tonight making an unimaginable save in the first period with the very tip of his skate. He had a lot of help from his team, who kept the play mainly in the Hawks zone. However they did manage to get 32 shots on goal, but Lu, or the goalpost, stopped them all. Hopefully he is able to keep this up because with shutout goal-tending like this, there is no way the 'Nucks won't be Stanley Cup contenders.

The Blackhawks didn't look bad by any means but they didn't look as prepared/excited/ready to play as the Canucks did. A huge part of this was probably the venue, maybe next week when they're at the United Center the tables will be turned, but for these two games Vancouver has home ice and tonight they've shown that they're going to take advantage of that. So, Chicago has to be ready for the high energy game that the Canucks are bringing and try to find some way to get around Luongo on Friday night.