Not likely.

Frustrating game, you just knew how it was going to end up after the Hawks got their first goal. More than anything it showed the Canucks inability/unwillingness to go for the jugular, and the importance of having the last change on home ice. We got the split, that's the most important thing.

Nothing really to do with the NHL, but Germany have just defeated the USA in overtime in the first round of the World Cup.

The crowd: 77,000.

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/9067215

Schalke are doing a great job of using that stadium for off-beat events.

They sell it out for biathlon every year, too.

I'd like to know how many of the 77,000 think that they saw the puck.

... and it looked like that

Dammit!

I went to bed at 5am - mid-way through the 3rd - thinking that the score couldn't possibly change from the 6-3 it was already at! D'oh! Missed two more goals and a 7-4 final scoreline.

The teams actually looked very evenly matched, I'd say. The Canucks movement was very good in the Hawks' zone - lots of crossovers and good movement/cycling of the puck, too. However, I have to concur with the commentators that it was their lack of discipline occasionally that let them down. The penalties for hooking and cross-checking that I saw were just daft.

That Toews - is he heading into a contract-renewal year or something?

It feels strange to see a Blackhawks game (having not seen one in ages) where we are playing like people used to play against us! It also feels strange to hear that not only have we held on to a lot of our youth, but have actually developed it well. I just hope that we can hold on to that core of Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa, Byfuglien etc.

We're done like dinner. Chicago on Sunday will merely be the port and cheese as far as the Blackhawks are concerned. We've been out-psyched then out-fought in the last three games. Chicago showed up our weaknesses magnificently: limp defence and a lack of on-ice leadership...again.

Fortunately the key solutions are clear, two massive, fuck-off defencemen and relieving Big Lulu of the burden of captaincy. There are reasons, outside the NHL's rule-book, why goalies aren't made team captain. This season has demonstrated what they are very graphically.

I just hope that we can hold on to that core of Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa, Byfuglien etc.

It seems unlikely TBH. Most of them are coming off their first contracts soon and will be looking for much bigger money. Unless Chicago goes the Vancouver route and gives them all very-long, front-loaded deals the salary-cap will force some tough decisions.

Here's the Blackhawks salary cap calculator on capgeek.com.

Stan Bowman has some serious moves to make to fill out a roster next year (Toews, Keith and Kane were on the last year of their entry deals this season), almost at the cap with only 14 players signed. Niemi and Hjalmarsson need raises straight away.

I suspect Cristobal Huet is a goner. Maybe Campbell too. I'd be perfectly happy for Patrick Sharp to end up in Calgary if we weren't so tight up against the cap with duffers like Kotalik and Staios!

I'd take Campbell. In fact I'd take any defenceman who could do more than skate backwards or forwards really quickly.

It would also help if he could play the point on the power play.

That was as shambolic a performance in a "must win" game as I can recall seeing. The Hawks, particularly Toews and his linemates, were good, but the Canucks seemed incapable of doing the simplest things. The first goal set the tone for the whole match.

What a bizzare series. After about 25 minutes of Game 2, reasonable people were thinking that Vancouver could very well sweep. Now it seems that the teams could play 15 times with out the Canucks winning once.

In spite of all the brave talk it seems as though nothing has been learned from last year.

I'll be in the UK for a month beginning next Wednesday which means I'll miss most of the remaining playoffs. Until the other night I was really regretting missing what, I thought, could have been a legitimate challenge by my team. I didn't think we could go all the way — the weaknesses in defence were obvious all season, as was Luongo's spotty form — but I thought, given the breaks and everyone playing as they can, they could make a good fist of the Conference. What a joke.

As an old goaler, Urs, I've got a couple of questions for you. The first concerns our guy between the sticks, who has obviously not played as hoped/expected. Rather than string him up by his jock from a hydro pole on Granville Street — which seems to be the consensus sentiment today. What would be your long-term solution, work on getting his game back, or start thinking about shipping him out? We've a highly rated young goalie in Winnipeg who needs NHL playing time. Do you bring him up to play back-up 10-15 games a year or, bring him up to push Lulu for a starting spot?

Second, I'm not using this as an excuse, but I haven't seen so many players in a goalie's crease since the 70s. Can a goalie (any goalie), or team, find a legal way to deal with this — obviously the 'Nucks haven't — but should they have to? I mean what is that blue semi-circle for? It wasn't long ago that anything an oppo did inside it — impede the goalie or score — would be a penalty or called off. Are goalies going to have to go back to Billy Smith's axeman technique to protect themselves? I mean Byfuglien is a prize asshole anyway but both the Canucks (I admit I would have loved to see Luongo give him a two-hander across the back of the legs — and fuck the five minute major) and the officials have let him do anything he wants in there. What would you do?

It's a difficult situation without easing answers. I like Luongo as a person and a goalie, but I'm now virtually certain that he will never win a Cup, and sure that he will never win with the Canucks. He's just too streaky, the playoffs are too long, and when he is off, he is seriously off.

So, I would look to move him, and think that he would likely benefit from a change in scenery, no matter how loved he is in Vancouver, but the contract makes him very hard to deal. Bringing a kid up to both spell Luongo and give him a new challenge may be the best possible option.

I've noticed the exact same thing about the crease violations, and even went through the same thought process (these used to be called, Billy Smith, etc). If the refs aren't going to call them, the the goalies don't have a choice but to start taking matters into their own hands. There's a chance that a few high profile love taps may focus everyone's attention,

That said, I wonder if part of the problem is that guys have just gotten too big and too strong for the crease to really matter. Byfgulin is a good example. Even if stays out of the crease, he is still going to make a goalie's life miserably (particularly a butterfly goalie). Maybe the league needs to think about making the crease bigger again. No one comes to the rink to watch a big guy camp out on the edge of the crease.

Toews' line is quite a range of body types and styles, isn't it?

The 12 year $64 million certainly looks like an obvious dealbreaker for most teams. However, rumour has it, he gets most of the money in the first few years. So, at the end of next season he'll be three years in and have been paid — what do you reckon...half of it? Philly, the Rangers, or one or other two cash-rich, goalie-short clubs might bite.

No one comes to the rink to watch a big guy camp out on the edge of the crease.

Uh huh. That point's been made in the press here frequently in the past few days. Unfortunately — it's probably just my tinfoil hat paranoia — but, if/when the league rectifies the situation it'll be too effing late to help us. But you and I know that's not the issue. My question (among many) is: where's Steve Bernier? I think I heard his name mentioned twice all game. He's the closest thing we've got to a butt-in-the-goalies-face type of forward. Vigneault should have gone out on the ice before the game and nailed his skates to Niemi's crease with a pair of railroad spikes. Instead the only forward going to the net with any regularity was Kyle Wellwood, who weighs about 80lbs soaking wet — he scored too.

Sorry, I feel a rant coming on. I'll save it until Monday when this horrorshow will almost certainly be over.

Toews' line is quite a range of body types and styles, isn't it?

It is when Big-Ass is there, for sure. Toews aside however, in my totally unbiased opinion, they vie with Chelsea for being the most unlikeable top-scoring combo in professional sport.

San Jose beats Detroit 2-1 and wins the series 4-1. With the exception of game four, this was a close one, and 4-1 is perhaps harsh. But still, SJ goes some way to shed the choker tag.

Absolute rubbish, those Canucks.

Completely worthless, especially Luongo and the defence.

Heh! Time to eat some crow eh? That was probably the best they've showed in these play-offs so far. For the first time we saw a competitive B-game from them. But where has it been? And which Canucks will show up on Tuesday?

What a mad series!

I was reasonably sure the Hawks would win it, but it seems like no-one wants to win on their home ice. Thus, whoever does so next will win it all.

I can't see either team winning the cup, though, on the basis of such inconsistent performances as these.

You're right. On the evidence neither of these teams will get past the Sharks.

It's been a weird series, there hasn't been a close game yet. Game 2 came closest, but really the Hawks were rubbish in the first half, the Canucks the second. All the other games have been defined by the ineptitude of the losers rather than the ability of the winners. I think it's been miserable for the neutral as well, mainly because of the officiating which has been inconsistent and poor throughout.

Les Habs take it to another game seven. Can they do it again?

Letting Cammalleri go from Cowtown was not a clever move. 'Little men don't do well in playoffs' opined Darryl Sutter. Genius.

Anything can happen in one game, though the Habs won't have that incredible crowd to feed off of. Tonight was all the more impressive, as it would have been easy for them to fold after Halak gave up that very, very soft goal for the Pens' second, but they came right back at them. Pittsburgh will rightly be the favorites, but I certainly wouldn't bet against the Canadiens.

Cammalleri has been a revelation for me in this series; Yvan Cournoyer was little too.

Great showing tonight. Good call on the 7th game Ursus, it can go either way, looking forward to it.