Not a whole lot to say about tonight’s affair. The Canucks played a tight, conservative game against the red hot Chicago Blackhawks, a team that has been on a 6 game winning streak prior to coming into tonight’s affair. It looked as though coach Alain Vigenault was trying to prey on the fact that the Hawks had played 3 games in 4 nights and was trying to completely exhaust them and capitalize on any mistakes they might’ve made.

Unfortunately, that’s not how things turned out, as a single gaffe ended up costing the Canucks. That said, I was quite happy with the team’s performance, considering that Chicago had outscored their opponents by a ratio of 4:1 and they were quite effective at shutting down Chicago’s offense. Both goaltenders looked great, particularly Niemi, who was a total brick wall in the third period, completely denying the Canucks on a number of great chances. Were I to get a present for the Canucks for Christmas, it’d probably be a Caps Lock key, as the inability to capitalize is what ultimately cost us the game.

Daniel Sedin looked good for someone who was coming off of a foot injury. It’ll take a few games to get back into the swing of things and it looks like the extended breaks that have been part and parcel of the Canucks season thus far was to our benefit, as Danny was able to take all the time he needed to heal.

I also thought Alex Burrows had another great night, coming off of his game against Colorado. Burr led the team in shots with 7, a rather significant achievement given how willing the Hawks were to block shots and that Burrows only had 8 seconds on the powerplay. Looks like he’s over whatever injury it was that was bothering him.

So, yeah. 1-0 Hawks in what was more or less a solid game from the Canucks. Just win next time.

Before I go, I’ll leave you with this little treat care of the Dallas Stars marketing department:

Seriously, a Dallas Stars Snuggie. Daryl Reaugh just looks so freaking happy there, wrapped up in his cozy Snuggie. Rock on, my good man, rock on.