Ah, Vancouver. You know, I've hit on this a couple times already, but the new schedule matrix really chaps my ass when it comes to rivalries. With only three games against teams in the opposite division, that means one team is only hosting the other once the entire year. For this year, it's two in Vancouver, one in Chicago. I think this does a real disservice to our riot-starting friends out west, who hold up their end of the rivalry a hell of a lot better than we do, if I may be allowed to say so. Since the 08-09 regular season when games were getting much too chippy even before the playoffs, Blackhawks-Canucks has been the best rivalry in the league. I'd say three out of every four games, there's an incident of some sort that gets everyone way too fired up. However, I've never gotten the impression that the more casual elements of the Hawks fanbase have respected this. My suspicion, as ridiculous as it sounds, is that the casuals just can't wrap their head around the idea of a passionate rivalry with a team based in Canada. Some of them might not even be able to locate Vancouver on a map. I'm serious here. Canucks fans have come to live and die by Hawks games, whereas we just have Barry Rozner trolling people on the internet. And it does a disservice to the league to have 25% fewer games in a big rivalry series, too. I love watching these games; I love hating these guys. I don't know. Just a thought, one that's kind of on my mind with the end of the Detroit rivalry, the only one people did seem to wrap their heads around.

Anyway, the Canucks are coming off a nice winning streak, ended last night by a loss to the Stars. Still, the Canucks' championship window is decidedly in its third act here, with Torts trying to give this thing one last push. There are nine possible playoff teams in the West playing for eight spots; the Canucks should be one of them but might not necessarily be. They're getting strong goaltending from Luongo and Eddie Lack, they're scoring at a respectable pace, but they aren't standing out, especially in a loaded Pacific Division where they'll be lucky to finish fourth. The Hawks' power play might be nullified by their league-leading PK, where Torts must have everyone doing nothing but playing Human Shield.

Raanta to start, LaBarbera to back him up. Kent Simpson, we hardly knew ye.

I know where Vancouver is and I hate these guys.

Oh and I usually don't post direct links to the songs I use as thread titles, I like the idea of people doing the googling themselves, but this is "Kaputt" from Destroyer, Dan Bejar's nom de band from Vancouver. I love this song so much, video mildly NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puu3IvKnSb4

Nucks: 20-11-6 (46), 19-13-5 adjusted (43), 43.039 expected
Hawks: 25-7-5 (55), 21-9-7 adjusted (49), 48.803 expected

Nucks: 2.703 scored (12th), 2.324 allowed (7th), 0.378 differential (9th)
Hawks: 3.622 scored (best), 2.676 allowed (14th), 0.946 differential (2nd)

Nucks: 18/117 15.4% on the power play (23rd), 106/118 89.0% on the kill (1st)
Hawks: 31/126 24.6% on the power play (3rd), 85/114 74.6% on the kill (28th)

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it's a supposed big bad "rivalry game" and there's nary a mention of "the sedin sisters" ??? comeon CH, you gotta step your game up. i thought you had DA FIRE AND DA PASHIN FOR DA HAWKS, yet all i see is thoughtfully reasonable analysis with a twinge of stat-geek?

am i gonna have to start a riot that destroys my own hometown because Curious Hair lost the plot on the most important night of the regular season? THE SCORE HAS BARRY ROZNER (AKA ROSNER, PROCEEDED BY SOME HYPHENATED THINGS THAT HE CAN'T SAY ON THE AIR) ON THE AIR FOR A FEW HOURS TO BUILD UP THE HYPE B4 THIS GAME..... STEP IT UP, HAIRBOY.

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Bejar's work with the New Pornographers is a fun listen:

http://youtu.be/2N1WCvtDbto

I know, I was absent most of today. I should have just done the old 6:59 "express thread, go hawks" deal.

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Stadium Series Sweater:

The stripes on the arms not going all the way around the jerseys always pisses me off. The chromed logo is stupid too.

Not a fan. There is nothing creative about that.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Nice. Early net.
I love heating Louongo. I think he is a pussy.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Still thinking about work??

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Besides, it's Eddie Lack, who is singlehandedly keeping a dead-ass team in the game here. They're tired, they're hurt, they should fall apart in the third.

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Actually yes. Had a fucked up gas valve that I misdiagnosed at first as a bad thermocouple and it's been on my mind for the last couple hours.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

i thought luongo was out of this game? i seem to remember hearing ROSNER-[can't say that on radio] calling him out for not starting.... or maybe it was just part of some psychological operation against british columbia.

suffice to say, even moreso than norm macdonald used to tell us about germans and david hasselhoff.... canadians love barry rozner.

barry rozner: great chicago sports columnist, or the greatest chicago sports columnist ever?

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Canucks pressed hard this frame, I don't expect them to do so again in the third. Can't take anything away from that Kassian goal, but man, that guy is just a total caveman.

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For the record I fucked up. That wasn't Lou.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Fergie Jenkins has a ridiculous earring. Good god. Dude. When you're 100 years old you shouldn't be rocking that damn thing.
You look silly.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Where'd you play your ball?

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They need to hire Leery to do the shoot the puck interview with the hot chick.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

yeah I guess.
But did you see that thing?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Delay of game after a 2nd period TMMOTI?? Are they trying to fuck this up tonight?

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Darko....it's Fergie Fucking Jenkins. That guy can wear an earring while he's getting his Depends changed. Stud.

Also not a fan of the jerseys.

There is a serous drop off after the first 3-4 shooters. Sheesh.

Another loss to a good Western team. Very discouraging.

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Lost in a shootout with a backup goalie... could be worse.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Everytime I saw Eddie Lack's name appear on the ice tracker i kept thinking of eddie trunk and it really annoyed the hell out of me.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

meh.... am i the only one here who thinks that the regular season doesn't matter to the blackhawks? don't they do better when they DON'T get the president's cup (or whatever trophy goes to the team with the most regular season points) ???

at least they got the loser's point, cuz in bettman's NHL you're only a loser ~60% of the time.... so given that the hawks already lead the NHL in points, this disappointing loss of 2pts won't hurt them as much with an 82 game schedule as it would a soccer team that only plays 38 games.

now if they lost this game to go down 2-1 or 3-1 in a playoff series, then and only then i'll wake up and be concerned.... otherwise, hey, at least vancouver doesn't have to burn down the city tonight. and i'm sure the wonderful tweets @ rozner are worth the price of admission!

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No, none of this really matters, but given that Anaheim and St. Louis are as good as or better than the Hawks, I would prefer they bank as many points as they can to get home ice for either (or both) series.

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touche.... but there's still a lot of hockey to be played. and i reckon in the end the hawks won't be any worse than a 2 or 3 seed (as you touched upon) and then it comes down to a team beating them 4/7 games..... considering we've got a rookie goalie named anntti or whatever in there, i'll reserve judgment when the team makes its final tuneups b4 the trade deadline and starts its stretch run to the playoffs.

as for now.... yeah they've already left a bunch of points on the table that they should have taken in an ideal world.... but hey they're still top of the whole damn NHL, and while i'm not preaching complacency, i am preaching that there prolly aren't many teams that can hang with the hawks in a 7 game series, especially when they're on their game. despite all of the goals this season i don't think we've seen their best hockey yet, so with that in mind i'll get back to sacrificing medium sized woodlands animals to both sets of football gods in order to help out the bears and arsenal. idk who needs more help right now =/

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I think they can handle the Blues in a series if it comes down to it. It's the Ducks I'm the most worried about, honestly. Since Boudreau came in to coach up their offense beyond the Me-Like-Hit-Things approach Carlyle employed, the Hawks have lost their last five with the Ducks going back to 2012. It used to be that you could expose their non-Getzlaf/Perry lines, but now that they have some depth, they're really tough to beat.

The Ducks must be an awesome team to play for. You get to live in Los Angeles or its environs through the winter, and no one gives a flying fuck about you or your life or anything like they do in Toronto or Philadelphia or so forth. People in SoCal are inured to seeing actual celebrities at the pharmacy; you think they're going to clap their hands to their cheeks because they run into Ryan Getzlaf? No one's even heard of Ryan Getzlaf. There's no pressure to live up to the history of the franchise; the history of the franchise is an Emilio Estevez children's movie. No one's ever getting into winter-league pissing contests on sports talk radio because holy fuck you play down the street from the Los Angeles Lakers and you're not even the Kings; unlike Bulls/Hawks there's not even a debate to entertain here. The media isn't putting undue pressure on you to win because again, you're the #4 team of the four teams in season and you're all the way out in the suburbs where no one feels like going if they don't have to. You just show up to work and do the best you can and live in a 78-degree bubble. Not a bad life, but it sure is easy to resent in a sport and league where more than any other (yes, Dan Bernstein, even more than the tortured souls of the NBA), everyone watching is exceedingly edgy and angsty and miserable and overly wrapped up in civic/organizational pride because it's a cold shitty winter and hockey is alls we gots. They're not exactly the Montreal Canadiens and all that entails, one must admit.

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