FanHouse KevinBieksa

Winning on the road is so very important in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Chicago Blackhawks seemed to be a good candidate for road success, being that they set a franchise record for it in the regular season.

That performance has indeed carried over. Chicago improved to 3-3 in road games during this postseason, and 2-1 in this series, as they bested Vancouver 4-2 Saturday night at GM Place.

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The NHL cranks up the conference semifinals Thursday night, as Chicago opens their series at Vancouver. With both teams off impressive opening-round victories, who has the advantage? And will we see any hair-pulling theatrics this time around?

The St. Louis Blues have had a wonderful run this season. Just making the playoffs was an awesome achievement, and they should be very proud of themselves, no matter what happens from here. None of this is about trying to throw a bucket of cold water on a fine young team.

Reality, however, is about to set in. The Blues youthful exuberance on offense has been absolutely no match for the Vancouver Canucks disciplined defensive work in the first two games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. In almost a carbon copy of Wednesday night's opener, Vancouver beat St. Louis 3-0 in Game Two Friday at GM Place in Vancouver.

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Vancouver's Roberto Luongo turned aside 26 shots to earn his seventh shutout of the season in Sunday's 4-0 win over Chicago, but the highlight of the game was the epic line brawl that erupted at the 5:50 mark of the third period.

The hockey player to the right is Brian Holzinger. While he had a rather nondescript 10-year NHL career, Holzinger made his mark on college hockey. In the 1994-95 season, Holzinger capped his career at Bowling Green with a bang. He posted 35 goals and 69 points in 38 games, winning the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, which is handed out annually to the top player in college hockey.

On March 24, 1984, Bowling Green beat Minnesota-Duluth in four overtimes to claim a national championship. Since that title and Holzinger's award-winning season, the Falcons' program has fallen on some hard times ... none harder than what they are facing right now.

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

The Boston Bruins won their ninth straight game on Tuesday night, picking up a 5-2 victory in Pittsburgh. Aside from winning nine in a row, the Bruins finish the month of December with a 12-1 record, while extending their lead in the Eastern Conference to nine points over the No. 2 team, the New York Rangers Washington Capitals.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice, the month of December can't end soon enough for the Penguins, as they went 5-9 for the month, including four consecutive losses on home ice. Even worse, Pittsburgh has posted a 2-7 record in its past nine games at Mellon Arena. That's not good. Look, I realize the Penguins have been slow starters the past two seasons before kicking it in gear in February and March, but can you keep relying on that? Might make it a little easier on yourself to actually win some games in October, November and December because, you know, those games count too.

As for this game, Boston received a stellar effort in net from Tim Thomas as he turned aside 32-of-34 shots, while Phil Kessel, Dennis Wideman, Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara and Martin St. Pierre provided the offense. The Bruins went 2-for-8 on the power play, and scored a shorthanded goal on a 3-on-1 break in the third period, pretty much taking Pittsburgh out of the game. I think that speaks volumes about the Penguins power play when they allowed a 3-on-1 rush with the man advantage.

Highlight of the night for Pittsburgh was Tim Wallace, a recent callup from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, who squared off against Milan Lucic and actually held his own for a while, before getting dropped by Lucic. The two teams meet again on Thursday, in Boston.

Perhaps Fedor Fedorov wants to be known as "the tough" Fedorov.

At 6'4" and 230 pounds, the Devils' pivot is a good two inches and 23 pounds bigger than his more celebrated older brother (the two are pictured at right), and he certainly has a bit of fiestiness to him that Sergei hasn't displayed (on the score sheet, at least) since he last dropped the gloves with Kelly Kisio back in 1992.

The younger Fedorov had 117 penalty minutes in 49 games in the RSL last season, at least fifteen of which came as the result of this scrap with former Washington Capitals wannabe pest Darcy Verot (who, to his own discredit, racked up a whopping 511 PIMs in just 43 games), and has already had his first scrap since coming back across the Atlantic, getting into a dust-up with Devils prospect Harry Young (who had 17 fights in the OHL last season) on the fourth day of Jersey's development camp.

So, the Yaletown Yuppies packed the lower bowl of GM Place, and some of the Canucks were on hand to be fashion models for a day as the Canucks released their new duds in a hyped-up fashion show.

The result? A combination of the old color scheme mixed with the new logo, and new lettering on the front of the sweater.

The new Canucks home uniform is primarily blue with classic horizontal green and white stripes, reflective of the Canucks first NHL season of 1970 and symbolic of BC's natural landscape. The original stick and rink mark has evolved, yet maintains its simplicity and connection to the game of hockey, while providing more definition to the Canuck 'C'. It is featured on each of the shoulders of both the home and away sweaters. The front of the sweater is adorned with the familiar Orca Whale, a true reflection of the west coast of British Columbia.

I was fearful that the new sweaters would be bad in typically Vancouver fashion, but they are very well done and a nice improvement on the sweaters from last year. Combining the old colors and having two differing logo schemes for home and road sweaters, together with the VANCOUVER on the front, gives the Canucks a clean, distinctive look that promotes some level of continuity to a franchise that has made frequent style changes.

The uniforms are also supposed to be functionally superior, and the players certainly seem positive about how the new jerseys function.

Bieksa said he liked having the word Vancouver across the jersey. "It's strong and bold and the material is a lot more comfortable, too. When I first heard about the Vancouver across the jersey I was a little skeptical but after seeing it it looks good."

"You notice the difference for sure. It's stretchy and it gives a little bit. It's a little lighter and a little more air gets through so I'll probably be just a little bit faster this year."

However, those aren't fans of the Canucks aren't fans of the new look.

With the Vancouver Canucks struggling to score more than two goals per game last season, GM Dave Nonis decides to go out and spend big bucks on ... defensemen?

Yes, Nonis was busy giving out contracts yesterday to veteran Aaron Miller (1 year/$1.5mil), and Kevin Bieksa (3-year extension for $11.25mil).

With the signings, the Canucks have an extremely strong and deep defensive corps.

Ohlund-Mitchell
 Bieksa-Salo
 Miller-Krajicek
 Edler-Bourdon

Now, with the Canucks left with only about $3-4mil to sign a couple of wingers, many folks have begun speculating that a trade is in the works. The Canucks are either going to go into next season with a team that is based solely on winning 2-1 games, or somebody is going to be dealt.

Sami Salo? He just signed an extension.
Kevin Bieksa? Ditto.
Lukas Krajicek? Extension, and he's cheap.
Willie Mitchell? He's got a no-trade clause.

This leaves, of course, 30-year old Mattias Ohlund, the veteran who makes $3.5mil a season.

Ohlund has seen a slight decline in play since the lockout, and his value will only continue to decrease. His lack of quickness is noticeable some nights, and he seems to be the best trade bait available for the Canucks to relieve salary pressure AND secure a good scoring winger.

Of course, I won't claim any insider knowledge. Nonis might very well be happy to stick Bourdon in the AHL and go into the season with the defense as it stands right now.

As an aside, don't pick Miller in your office pool. He hasn't scored a goal since BEFORE the lockout (138 games!).