(3) VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs. (2) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS<\/strong><\/p>\nI have to be honest: I truly believe this series is the Stanley Cup. To me, it\u2019s a battle of the deepest and perhaps most complete teams in the playoffs. At the very least, I think the winner of this series will reach the final.
\nBoth teams have tremendous offensive depth. Chicago usually splits up Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, allowing it to roll two outstanding scoring lines. Both star players took turns being \u201cthe guy\u201d in Chicago\u2019s six-game victory over Nashville.<\/p>\n
The Hawks also use Marian Hossa \u2013 a great sniper who plays very underrated defensive hockey \u2013 in almost every situation and have tremendous secondary support from plucky guys like Patrick Sharp (who had seven points in round one).<\/p>\n
The Canucks showed the Kings in round one that their days of being a one-line team are a very distant memory. Henrik and Daniel Sedin teamed with Mikael Samuelsson to put on a tour-de-force performance, combining for a whopping 29 points in six games. Samuelsson emerged as the new to triggerman, potting seven goals.<\/p>\n
But they weren\u2019t alone. Ryan Kesler showed his outstanding two-way skill, Pavol Demitra carried over his great Olympic effort and even Steve Bernier emerged from the woodwork to score four goals.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s safe to say offense won\u2019t decide this series directly since both teams have it in spades. The keys will be goaltending and defense.<\/p>\n
Chicago has the deeper, more talented blueline than Vancouver\u2019s \u2013 maybe the NHL\u2019s best. Duncan Keith is perhaps the Norris Trophy frontrunner and teams with Brent Seabrook to form the league\u2019s best shutdown pair. Brian Campbell\u2019s return will bolster the power play and, given how bad Vancouver\u2019s penalty killing was in round one, the Canucks have to be concerned about special teams.<\/p>\n
That said, I don\u2019t think the Canucks\u2019 defenders will be in over their heads, even against a physical and talented forward corps like Chicago\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The Kings were just as big and just as deep up front and the likes of Alex Edler stepped up for the Canucks with punishing physical play. ![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
<\/p>\n
It may all come down to Luongo versus Anti Niemi. Statistically, the advantage goes to Chicago. After all, Niemi posted a .920 save percentage and two shutouts against Nashville. But I don\u2019t buy it. Niemi was very inconsistent, mixing in stinker performances and soft goals with the shutouts.<\/p>\n
He also had the luxury of facing one of the league\u2019s most anemic offensive teams in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Who tested him besides Shea Weber?<\/p>\n
Luongo\u2019s numbers weren\u2019t there (.2.92 goals against average, .890 save percentage) overall but they don\u2019t reflect his crackdown over the last two games. He stopped 54 of 58 shots over Games 5 and 6, looking confident in goal and making some highlight-reel saves.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see if Luongo answers the bell but I\u2019m betting that he will. I also believe the Canucks played a much better team in round one than Chicago did and will thus be more battle-ready in the second round.<\/p>\n
Chicago looked sluggish against Nashville but could afford to make mistakes against a team that didn\u2019t have the firepower to punish them.<\/p>\n
Vancouver\u2019s killer instinct and, hypothetically, its goaltending advantage will make the difference here.<\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Canucks in six.<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SPORTSBOOK.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS!!!!<\/h3>\n
<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Round 2 Seven game Conference Semi Final series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks likely opens Saturday night, here’s the odds and our prediction for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[10330,27701,27694,28361,28362,28363,28364,25275,28366,21458,11979,27691,27692,27674,28365],"class_list":["post-21693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-canucks-blackhawks-lines","tag-canucks-blackhawks-picks","tag-canucks-blackhawks-predictions","tag-canucks-vs-blackhawks-series-preview","tag-canucks-vs-blackhawks","tag-conference-semi-final-series","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-round-2","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-prediction","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-vancouver-canucks-vs-chicago-blackhawks-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21693"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108179,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21693\/revisions\/108179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}