The Blackhawks and Canucks rivalry

Over the past few years, the rivalry between the Blackhawks and the Canucks has grown. Last year, the rivalry rose to new heights. You all know the story, the Hawks were down 0-3 and made a great comeback to force game 7. In game 7, Toews had that great goal and then the OT didn't really go as planned. The Canucks "slayed their dragon" and thought that they would win the Stanley Cup as soon as they beat the Blackhawks. Some of the comments after the series against the Canucks made Blackhawks players angry. Stan Bowman went out and signed Dan Carcillo and one of the immediate things that Carcillo addressed in his press conference was that he was going to be going after certain Canucks players.

The Blackhawks essentially accomplished this goal of going after the Canucks players in their first meeting this year. The one thing they forget was that they were playing hockey and had to score goals and play defense. They played terrible in that game and didn't seem like they had the motivation to win. They made it seem like their number one goal was to beat up on the Canucks and just hit them as many times as possible.

I have a plan for the Blackhawks in this game. They need to keep playing hard hitting hockey, but they need to actually play defense and try to score some goals. They shouldn't stop playing tough hockey, because that's one of the reasons they didn't win in the playoff series. Carcillo and Mayers can still get in fights and hit hard into the boards, but they need to play smart hockey. I would love to see Carcillo score. That would honestly mean more to me than Carcillo getting in a fight with Bieksa. I want a Blackhawks win tonight, not a Blackhawks beat-down.

A Blackhawks Fan Prospective

It feels like the expectation for every Blackhawks fan is to hate the Canucks and automatically jump on the Bruins bandwagon to win the Stanley Cup. I feel bad for Blackhawks fans that might actually like the Canucks. I am not one of those fans, but I do know a few and they are harassed by Blackhawks fans that hate the Canucks. I don't think Blackhawks fans should ever be mad at each other for cheering on certain other teams. I don't like the Canucks at all. They play dirty and they dive all over the place. No team is perfect, but I feel like the Canucks are experts at doing the things that I don't like. I am cheering for the Bruins, but not only because they are playing the Canucks.

All through the playoffs I watched the Bruins play. I watched them battle back during the series against Montreal. I watched the double overtime game and saw Horton score that goal and decided to like him from that point on. I saw Tim Thomas dominate in the series against the Lightning. I saw Tyler Seguin emerge as a great young star. The more I watched the Bruins play, the more I liked them as a team. I decided to make them my number two team.

Now they are playing one of the teams that I don't like at all. I am obviously cheering for the Bruins, but not only because they are playing the Canucks. I like this team. They have a lot of potential and they can beat this Canucks team. They have a reason to fight now that Horton got knocked out for the rest of the series. This is their time to win the cup. They haven't won in 39 years. That's too long. The Bruins need to win game 5, go back to Boston and win the cup in front of their home crowd. They can do it.