| Nick Obergan. 28th April, 2011 - 7:22 pm
 No, you didn't misread the title. I am declaring Tuesday night's Vancouver Canucks-Chicago Blackhawks game as one of the greatest hockey games ever played.
You didn't need to know the history between the two clubs; that the Hawks ousted the Canucks in the playoffs for two consecutive years and were threatening to make it a third; that Vancouver was once up 3-0 in the series only to see Chicago come back and tie it; that Roberto Luongo was yanked twice after giving up 10 goals in the span of 40 shots and didn't get the start in Game 6.
You didn't need to know any of that to enjoy this game.
The only thing you needed was your channel set to CBC in Canada or Versus in the U.S., and a couch or pub or laptop or whatever you had available to watch the game. This was a classic in every sense of the word, and the above story-lines only made it more dramatic.
Vancouver was the heavy favorite heading into this series, coming off of a dominant regular season that saw them win the franchise's first Presidents Trophy, and on their roster they had candidates for the Vezina, Hart, Selke, GM of the Year and maybe Jack Adams trophies. Chicago was an eighth-seeded team that looked nothing of the sort, being as they were Stanley Cup Champions less than 12 months ago.
The Canucks jumped out to a quick 3-0 series lead, dominating the Hawks in all three zones while Luongo looked every bit the Vezina nominee he was this year. Then Hawks then trounced Vancouver in Games 4 and 5, chasing Luongo both times as he started to look every bit the playoff goat he was in the past two seasons. Game 6 Luongo sat on the bench until the third period, and allowed the winning goal in overtime to set up this Game 7 to remember.
Alexander Burrows scored less than three minutes into the game on a nifty feed from Ryan Kesler to give Vancouver an early lead which held serve until 1:56 remained in the third period when "Captain Clutch" Jonathan Toews scored a short-handed goal while on his stomach to knot the score.
In between these goals, Vancouver dominated play for the majority of the game and looked every bit the confident Presidents Trophy winners that won the first three games of this series. But once Toews scored, everyone except the Canucks themselves seemed to wonder if Chicago was poised to become just the fourth team in NHL history (Toronto in 1942, the Islanders in 1975 and Flyers in 2010) to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series. It seemed inevitable and almost fitting, really.
But it was just as fitting that Vancouver continued to play confidently, and aggressively, as they looked to expel their playoff demons. Aggressively is an understatement, as the Canucks looked as though they hit every single Hawks player that touched the puck for the entire game. Rarely did you see a Vancouver player skate by a Chicago player without contact. Every check was finished. Every played was winded on the bench, yet found the energy for another forty second grind.
The final hit tally was 41 for Vancouver and 17 for Chicago, but if you watched that game from start to finish you may have estimated Vancouver had 141 hits.
The Canucks also outshot the Hawks 38-32, and quite frankly this game had no business going to overtime, but Corey Crawford absolutely stood on his head from start to finish. The key plays you will see on all highlight reels this week will include his clutch stop on a Burrows penalty shot, and a ridiculous robbery with his glove of a Kesler rebound late in the third while laying face-first on the ice.
But his teammates never quit, and despite the pounding they were taking on the boards they managed to score a late goal that was short-handed; which is odd in itself since there were only four penalties called the entire game as the refs let the teams go at it from the start and they can be thanked for letting this enjoyable game flow from start to finish.
Luongo was laying face-down on the ice for Toews’ goal, reminiscent of the overtime goal he allowed in Game 6. And truthfully, he looked shaky for a large portion of the evening; you could practically feel the pressure he was under with every puck he bobbled. But it was in overtime that he stoned Patrick Sharp with his blocker while Chicago was given a power play on a Burrows penalty.
How fitting then, that Burrows rewarded Luongo with a win just three minutes after his team killed off his misdemeanor. He intercepted a clearing attempt with his glove, corralled it toward the slot and fired a knuckle-puck past Crawford 5:22 into the extra frame.
For a large portion of this game I had Twitter open on my laptop, and the amount of people tweeting about this game was incredible. And the real joy was seeing people who are not hockey players, hockey writers or hockey fans that were watching this game. A lot of people were saying things like "If you are not a hockey fan, turn on the Canucks-Hawks game and you will be." The speed, skill, aggression, drama, intrigue, heart and soul were all on full display for the entire 65:22 of game-play and 3 hours and 4 minutes of television time. This was hands-down one of the best hockey games I have ever watched.
Nick is RealGM's NHL Feature Writer. You can reach him by email nick.obergan@realgm.com or on twitter @NickObergan |
