Tonight was a very interesting game, if you’re a fan or have been following the Canucks.

The talk going into this series is that the Canucks ‘wanted’ the Blackhawks, who ousted them last year in the playoffs. There was talk from the Canucks that they weren’t going to let Byfuglien bother them and they were going to take a measured, disciplined approach.

Well, it’s easy to maintain the facade of control and discipline when you never relinquish it, like the Canucks did in Game 1. It’s also easy when you’re in a hard fought game and are playing well, like in Game 2. (Sidenote: apologies for the lack of an update after Game 2.)

The real test to character/discipline/whatever comes not when things are going swell, but when everything is going to hell and things are crumbling down around you.

Like, say, Game 3 tonight. If it was supposed to be a character test for the Canucks, well, they failed miserably. Burrows taking a stupid penalty in the second was the beginning of the end for the Canucks and was the lowpoint in a game that saw the Canucks become a skating metaphor to Weezer’s ‘Unravelled (The Sweater Song.)’

Too many dumb scrums, including usually characteristically cool players like Daniel Sedin getting mixed in and the Canucks mettle seemed to wilt as the Blackhawks continued to press. On top of that, despite looking solid in the first period, the Canucks powerplay continued to be ineffective and it is something that desperately needs to be fixed if they want to have any hope of advancing past Chicago.

The Canucks cannot get caught up in the officiating or pointing fingers away from their own performance: the Canucks had their chances on the powerplay tonight and just haven’t been able to convert. Ryan Johnson was playing like the player I’ve been criticizing him for being. Dude was on the ice for 2 goals against, one of them being a powerplay goal that came 6 seconds in to the man advantage. Also of note is that Ryan Johnson only took 1 draw tonight, which came off of the aforementioned powerplay goal. Not a good sign when your highly vaunted faceoff/penalty kill specialist is taking turns sucking and blowing.

And since I’ve been sort of dancing around it, let’s talk about the officiating. Yes, it was garbage last night. But that’s not any different than the rest of the playoffs with other teams. Yes, the fifth goal shouldn’t have counted, if you compare Halak getting breathed upon by (I think) Mike Knuble in the Capitals/Habs game to what happened to Luongo. Yes, you could argue that the Blackhawks got away with a ton of interference all over the ice. You could also say that the Canucks got away with a missed too many men call or that Ryan Kesler was lucky he didn’t get called playing with a broken stick and put his team 2 men down.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that the officiating has been horrible in just about every game of every series this year. It is frustrating to watch, whether you are a fan of a team or not. Complaining about it, while it may make you feel better about the loss, isn’t going to do a whole hell of a lot.

The Canucks need to buckle up, focus on getting back to playing ‘disciplined’ and attempt to regain control of this series. Get the powerplay working, channel those emotions into on-ice results, not useless trashtalk. Forget about making a big deal of the officiating and just focus on playing.

The worst possible thing that Alain Vigneault could do is try and match ‘truculence’ with ‘truculence.’ I thought it was a mistake to take Michael Grabner out of the lineup, I also thought it was a mistake to dress Ryan Johnson. Darcy Hordichuk took the pregame warmup but did not play. I really hope that is as close as he gets to seeing action in the playoffs, because that is not a war the Canucks want to start waging.

The Canucks looked the best last night when they were forechecking and skating hard. You aren’t going to get that with Hordichuk and/or Johnson out there. You’re also going to have a huge defensive liability if you have a fourth line of Hordichuk/Johnson/Rypien eating up icetime. If Hordichuk is dressed for Game 4, I’m not going to be too positive of the Canucks chances of winning the series.