Canucks Stomp Blackhawks Saturday night on HNIC

Henrik Sedin started the frenzy with a goal 53 seconds in, and the Vancouver Canucks never looked back Saturday night as they cruised to a 7-3 win over the up-start Chicago Blackhawks.  The Hawks had actually come into this game with an 11-0 record against Canadian teams. 

The two whipping boys of the fans and the media of recent times, Mats Sundin and defenseman Alex Edler, had very strong performances. Sundin scored on the power play two minutes after the H. Sedin opener to make it 2-0 early, and Edler added a career high four points, with one tally and three helpers.
The big difference on Saturday night was the power play, as Vancouver scored on half of their eight chances. They would have beaten the Hawks on those goals alone.

When Edler was asked what was different, he didn’t really have a concrete answer. All that he could come up with was that “Sometimes there are just lucky bounces.” Agreed, sometimes it does indeed come down to lucky bounces. Take Ryan Kesler’s first of two goals, which “pinballed” off two Hawk defensemen to make it 3-0, also a power play tally.

Henrik’s brother Daniel scored on a 5-on-3, on an arguably questionable call. Vancouver was up 6-0 midway through the second period, en route to their first consecutive wins since the 17th of December. With the win, Vancouver is now in sole possession of 7th spot in the Western Conference….for now!  There is still a long ways to go. 

Local celebrity, Burnaby native and Grammy Award-winning singer Michael Buble (who also happens to be a minority owner of the Vancouver Giants), was the colour commentator on the Vancouver radio broadcast. He was filling in for regular analyst Tom Larscheid, who was being inducted into the Hall of Fame at Utah State, where he was a star running back. Congratulations to Mr. Larscheid.