Honestly, I think that's why he made the right choice -- between his (lack of) speed, and his injury issues he would never have held up as "the man". As it is he's making a great depth player, but do you honestly see somebody who is a depth player on the Canucks being the difference between Montreal losing four straight to Boston and them winning the Stanley Cup?
I don't know man. I think that if Sundin went to a team with the mindset of being the man, he would have performed differently. I think he understood that as a Canuck he didn't/doesn't need to be the go-to-guy, and ended up (subconsciously?) toning down his play to being more of a supporting player.
As you can see from my above prediction, I mostly agree with your assessment. I think the Blackhawks are still a young, inexperienced team, and they still need to make a few depth personnel moves to get to the elite level. However, they're going to give the Canucks a hard time. It won't be as easy as 4-and-out like Round 1.
Who says the Canucks are the underdog? Nothing I've heard or read. Sounds like the Vancouver sports writer/PR hype-machine has created this underdog thing to get people all defensive. Anyways, do you think the players pay attention to the media for that extra push? They don't care what the media say. They're totally biased towards the Leafs anyway


.
See, the thing about sports writers is that they try to predict what will happen, and when it doesn't turn out that way, they change their tune and give reasons why it didn't work out that way. Some went out on a limb to say the Blues were going to take down the powerhouse Canucks. If that happened, they would be geniuses and would remind everyone that they predicted it. Eh, I wouldn't pay too much attention to the writers anyway.
St. Louis did have a good chance of taking them down- before the playoffs began. At
that point in time, it seemed plausible and possible. However, the Blues were totally spent from playing at the level they were playing at towards the end of the season, and just didn't have the energy or the will to compete at the Canucks' level. Their accomplishment- and goal- was to make the playoffs. Mission accomplished.
Remember.....the regular season is not the same as the playoffs. It doesn't matter that you outscored the Hawks 11-3 in the last 2 games. With that reasoning, we should have given the Sharks a bye to the finals.....
If Luongo goes down, they're done. That's the key. I predict a lot of running the goalie by Chicago. I don't think- is it LaBarberra?- is going to be able to carry the team like the 'captain' can.
I don't think anyone is saying that the Canucks aren't a solid/top team.
I'd like to see them make it to the next round. I think they will, but it'll take 6 games to get there. Oh, and if I'm wrong..... then, um, it's because, um, all the travel. Yeah, that's it.... the Canucks' travel schedule is the worst in the league (WAY worse than Detroit's

), and they're just too tired from all the travel, and, um, Chicago, is really far away and stuff.

See, I can be a sportswriter too......
Solid post,
stcanard.
