FanHouse WillieMitchell

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 Penguins-Flyers rivalry is one of the great ones in the NHL. They're separated by about five hours of turnpike, the fans don't like like each other, and the players don't like each other. Penguins fans hate Scott Hartnell, Flyers fans hate everybody, sometimes even themselves, and especially Martin Biron.

Whenever the two teams meet in Philadelphia, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is booed relentlessly every time he touches the puck. The popular consensus among Flyers faithful is that Crosby is, among other things, a whiner, a diver, and, according to their well-timed chants during stoppages in play, a person that sucks at his profession. On Saturday, there were more diving allegations being thrown around, only this time they were being tossed in the direction of the Broad Street Bullies.

After seven straight losses, and on the heels of blowing another two-goal home lead Wednesday against Nashville, the Vancouver Canucks held a spirited workout Thursday.

By "spirited", I mean "we nearly had a fight". These types of things are going to happen when you have two points in seven games, and you're on the verge of taking yourself out of serious contention in the Western Conference. The Canucks are out of the top eight for the moment, facing the always-tough Minnesota Wild on Saturday, and with every game they don't win, they're putting more pressure on coach Alain Vigneault.

It was a testy affair in Edmonton Wednesday night. The Vancouver Canucks showed off their new purchase, and while Mats Sundin was a non-factor in the scoring, his team did skate away with a 4-2 win.

I already mentioned Willie Mitchell's first-period hit on Tom Gilbert. That seemed to start the ball rolling in terms of the physicality and flaring tempers.

Another big hit, this one by Mattias Ohlund on Erik Cole in the second period, touched off a quick fight between Ohlund and Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray.

As you can see in the video, courtesy of hockeyfights.com, it didn't take long for Souray to take Ohlund down.



I applaud Ohlund for being willing to take that fight. The hit on Cole was one of those that you can debate until you're blue in the face, but it's probably got to be considered a clean hit in the end. That said, Souray took up for his skill player, as he should, and Ohlund immediately faced the music.

I know what many of you are going to say.

Hockey is a contact sport. You can't stop the physicality, because it's such a huge part of the game.

I want no part of stopping the clean hitting that goes on in hockey. I have no problem with fighting, as long as we don't start dropping gloves just for the fun of it.

What I have a problem with are blatant, unnecessary hits from behind. As an example, here's Willie Mitchell of Vancouver blasting Edmonton's Tom Gilbert Wednesday night.



Discussion after the jump.

Yesterday we talked about how the Devils haven't been able to find the back of the net in recent games, making their backup goalies hard-luck losers since the injury to Martin Brodeur. Well, last night against the Capitals, New Jersey had an offensive explosion of sorts as it snapped a four-game losing streak, winning in a shootout, 6-5.

It certainly wasn't easy as Alex Ovechkin tied the game with 0.8 seconds to play in regulation, continuing what had been an insane night in Newark. Ovechkin finished with two goals -- his fourth straight game with a goal -- and an assist, while Nicklas Backstrom had a five-point night for the Capitals in the losing effort.

For the Devils, Patrick Elias scored twice while they also received goals from Jamie Langenbrunner, Brian Gionta and David Clarkson. Zach Parise scored the only goal in the shootout for New Jersey.

Alexander Semin, who entered play on Saturday night as the league's leading scorer, did not play for the Capitals as he sat out with a shoulder injury suffered on Friday night.

Before we get started, I'd like to say that I'm live blogging tonight in honor of the Edmonton Oilers blog Covered in Oil.

Please join me as the Washington Capitals host the New Jersey Devils. The Caps are coming off an emotional, come-from-behind 4-3 victory on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night and are 3-1-0. In other news, Chris Bourque, son of Hall-of-Famer Ray, will be in uniform for Washington tonight after being called up. Brent Johnson will get the start in goal tonight in favor of Jose Theodore.

Last season, Alex Ovechkin accounted for more than 47% of the team's offense, but so far he's only scored two goals in the team's first four games. If anything, it seems that other teams are keying on Ovechkin mightily, yet the rest of the offense has suddenly kicked to life. The Devils are also 3-1, coming off a 1-0 win over the Thrashers in Atlanta. Tonight is the last game of four-game road trip for them as Martin Brodeur continues his assault on the record book. He better be on his game, as New Jersey has yet to score more than two goals in a game this season.

Join us after the jump.

All is not well in Lotusland, as the Canucks are off to a poor 5-7-0 start and look nothing like the team that tore the NHL apart during the 2nd half of last season.

With the losses piling up, coach Alain Vigneault has gone public with his displeasure of his troops' play, and now the troops aren't happy.

First, Vigneault called out his top offensive players for not being gritty enough and for slackin off ala Todd Bertuzzi. Captain Markus Naslund huffed and puffed, stated his displeasure with Vigneault's system, and then proceeded to have one of his worst games of the season in a 3-2 loss to the Red Wings. Obviously, the message was heard loud and clear.

Vigneault later called out Willie Mitchell, specifically, for not playing up to his usual standards. As you can imagine, Mitchell ain't too pleased about that.

Defenceman Willie Mitchell chose his words carefully but it was clear Monday he was annoyed by the public criticism directed at him by coach Alain Vigneault following the Vancouver Canucks' loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

Some things should stay in the dressing room, Mitchell said.

"If people are unhappy with things, (as a) player you'd like to have that addressed," he said. "You don't like to hear about it through the media most of the time. That's his way of motivating I guess.

"I'm a player. I just go out and play and try and do my best. If he's not happy with what I'm doing I have to listen and dig in a little deeper and do a better job."

Vigneault's public criticisms seems to have backfired on him, and is only causing more bad feelings between him and his players. Although Vigneault is certainly right about all of his musings, choosing a public forum to do so is risky business. When dealing with a bunch of athlete egos, it's usually wise not to embarrass them publicly. If the Canucks continue to lose, and Vigneault continues his public declarations, the bad feelings will continue to grow, the losses will continue to pile up, and the death spiral will be irreversible. For all involved, it's time to shut up and put up.

Another Stars/Canucks game, and another 2-1 Canucks victory. This isn't a recording!

The newly formed line of Taylor Pyatt-Bryan Smolinski-Trevor Linden accounted for Game 3's OT winner, and also both of the Canucks' goals tonight as the Canucks took a commanding 3-1 series lead by sweeping the two games in Dallas.

It would almost a tale of two separate games as the first two periods were full of weak penalty calls, misfiring Power Plays (15 penalties in all) and many disjointed offensive efforts that lead to nary a goal.

The third period featured just one penalty, called at the end of regular to Roberto Luongo, and plenty of intense forechecking with quality chances at both ends. It's as if the NHL's head office called the refs during the intermission and told them to smarten up.

To open the offensive festivities, Mattias Ohlund potted his second of the playoffs as he wired a rebound, from a Smolinski shot bouncing off of the back boards, passed a flopping Marty Turco. The Stars answered back quickly, with a tally by Darryl Sydor (an uncredited assist to Markus Naslund on a bad giveaway). Just two minutes later, Linden put the Canucks back up for good with his first of the playoffs, banging in the puck in his usual blue-collar millionaire style.

Not all great plays produce goals, however. Willie Mitchell (pictured), not an offensive powerhouse, did his best work by saving a would-be Mike Ribeiro goal that would have made it 2-2.

When the replay slowed down on the overhead scoreboard and the Dallas Stars' home fans loudly registered their opinion, everyone on the Vancouver Canucks' bench paid no attention.

Defenseman Willie Mitchell said it didn't go in. And his word was good enough for them.

Officials agreed, too, ruling that Mitchell swept a trickling puck off the goal line with 2:33 left, preserving a 2-1 Vancouver victory Tuesday night and a 3-1 lead in this first-round series.

"Willie came to the bench and said it wasn't in," Canucks center Trevor Linden said. "You always ask the guy who made the play. He's not going to lie to you."

"He's a pretty honest guy," added Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault. "So I believed him."

Yeah, as if Mitchell would have just said, "Yeah, it went in. Don't even bother checking the video replay!"

Luongo, of course, was excellent stopping 26 of 27 shots. Suffice it to say, this game was quite similar to most Canucks games this year, save for the offensive struggles of the cycling Sedins.

Of note was the continued invisibility of Mike Modano and Brendan Morrow, who were shut off of the score-sheet yet again. Modano has just one lone assist in the series and has not looked dangerous in the last three contests. Morrow has not been his usual pesky self, either, and seems to have acquired Alexei Yashin disease along with Modano.