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Alas, O Dominion, yet another year shall pass ere Lord Stanley's prized Jug be raised by a team of your own. Sixteen years now the drought, since last the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup was raised by a team from the Home and Native Land [1992-1993 Montreal Canadiens].
This series wasn't high art- if anything, it was near the exact opposite. It was entertaining, and to many probably everything playoff hockey is supposed to be. Youth and speed looked to favour the Blackhawks, experience and skill the Canucks- although the Blackhawks three players who have previous Cup wins number exactly three more than on the Vancouver roster.
Three games into the series, things looked promising for Vancouver. They'd jumped out to early multi-goal advantages in each of the contests, and prevailed in two of them. Something happened, though, in game four- the 'Hawks defense refused to give Vancouver more than a single goal edge. When Chicago forward Andrew Ladd redirected a Dave Bolland shot past Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo at 2:52 of the first overtime, the Canucks' back broke- even with the series only at two games apiece.
There will be questions asked in British Columbia this off-season: Was the acquisition of Mats Sundin worth it? To what extreme should the franchise go to retain the services of Daniel and Henrik Sedin? What does Vancouver need to do to exorcise the ghost of Mark Messier and finally break through in the post season?
This series wasn't high art- if anything, it was near the exact opposite. It was entertaining, and to many probably everything playoff hockey is supposed to be. Youth and speed looked to favour the Blackhawks, experience and skill the Canucks- although the Blackhawks three players who have previous Cup wins number exactly three more than on the Vancouver roster.
Three games into the series, things looked promising for Vancouver. They'd jumped out to early multi-goal advantages in each of the contests, and prevailed in two of them. Something happened, though, in game four- the 'Hawks defense refused to give Vancouver more than a single goal edge. When Chicago forward Andrew Ladd redirected a Dave Bolland shot past Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo at 2:52 of the first overtime, the Canucks' back broke- even with the series only at two games apiece.
There will be questions asked in British Columbia this off-season: Was the acquisition of Mats Sundin worth it? To what extreme should the franchise go to retain the services of Daniel and Henrik Sedin? What does Vancouver need to do to exorcise the ghost of Mark Messier and finally break through in the post season?
