NHL Playoffs 2011: Analysis of Blackhawks' Game 1 Loss to Vancouver

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Game One of the quarterfinal round between the Canucks and the Blackhawks is behind us and we have a chance to breathe and examine today before jumping right back into it at 7:00 PT in Vancouver.

Hawks fans shouldn't be discouraged by last Wednesday's loss. After all, the Blackhawks have won their last two playoff series against Vancouver and both times they lost Game One before winning the series in six games.

However, with Game Two quickly approaching, we here in the NHL department at Bleacher Report think it is the perfect time to figure out what we learned from Game One that can help the Blackhawks come home with the series split 1-1.

Here then are the top five things we can take away from Canucks-Blackhawks Game One. 

5. Roberto Luongo Is Too Comfortable in Net

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I said in an article before the game on Wednesday that one of the keys to this series for the Blackhawks is for them to create pressure and traffic in front of Vancouver's net. To an extent, they did that, but not well enough.

The revision to that key here is that they need to be able to create that traffic while still being able to slow down the tempo, controlling the puck more and running through their cycles in the offensive zones.

Luongo saved all 32 shots he faced Wednesday night which is frankly too many. The Blackhawks are an extremely talented team on offense and need to have more confidence in that. For a team like Chicago to take 32 shots on net and score on net they are typically shooting just to shoot.

Don't get me wrong, Luongo made some great saves—in one case he even saved a sure thing from Brian Campbell off his toe and the post in the first period. However, if the Hawks hold the puck a little more and make better use of their shots they may find that they will have better offensive chances.

I'm all for getting the puck to the net, but when facing a netminder like Luongo who is so on top of his game that it seems he soaks up everything shot near him, just getting the puck to the net and hoping for a rebound isn't going to be enough. The Blackhawks are going to have to beat him on their initial shots once or twice to rattle his cage before they start being successful deep in the slot and in front of the net.

4. The Hawks Can Contain the Sedins

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The Sedin Twins collected a total of 198 points between them in a collective 164 games this year which is an average of 1.21 points between them per game. That may not sound like a lot, but it is against a team that only allows an average of 2.7 goals per game.

If you take 1.21 points out of Vancouver's 3.2 average per game, you're left with 2.0 which is not only the total they put up on Wednesday but also just less than what they have allowed on average as a team this season.

The lesson here is that we know that the Blackhawks at least have the ability to stop the Sedins who were not even on the ice for either of the goals scored by Vancouver on Wednesday night. If they can continue to keep these two off the stat sheet, the Blackhawks have a chance to let loose their potent offense and make these next few games very close.

If they can't keep up the defensive pressure while these two are on the ice however, Corey Crawford is going to have a long week and a very long summer ahead of him.

3. Patrick Sharp's Knee Looks 100 Percent

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Maybe it was just me, but it looked to me like Patrick Sharp took his share of licks in Wednesday's loss. What looked the best though was how he kept getting up.

There was one moment in the first period where he seemed to get up slowly and barely get back to the bench, but after that he looked strong and skated hard. All in all he played 28 shifts for a total of over 20 minutes of ice time.

Sharp had some chances on net as well and will need one or two more quality chances per game if the Hawks are going to have a chance against Luongo, but overall Game One was a promising sign for Sharpie and the Blackhawks' top line as a whole.

2. Corey Crawford Is the Real Deal

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Minus a deflection from deep in the slot and a breakaway that was somewhat out of his control due to a broken stick on the ice, Corey Crawford stood very tall against the Canucks' 33 shots in Game One.

Looking at the list of game highlights on NHL.com, there are a lot of save highlights with Crawford's name attached and for good reason.

Crawford was quick post to post, played very strong with traffic in his face all night and showed real toughness by shutting Vancouver's No. 1 overall offense out for the last 50 minutes of the game on Wednesday.

No one has doubted his talent down the stretch but many have wondered—as they did with Antti Niemi—whether or not he could handle the pressure of being a rookie goaltender in the NHL playoffs. On top of that general pressure he is facing two Hart Trophy hopefuls, one previous Hart Trophy recipient and arguably the best offense in the league this season.

At the end of the day, he responded to both pressure and adversity well and should continue to be the anchor for this Hawks team as they make another run for the Cup.

1. This Is Going to Be a Physical Series

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The Blackhawks racked up 21 hits on Wednesday night in Rogers Arena, led surprisingly by Michael Frolik with six. The Vancouver Canucks however notched 47 led by Maxim Lapierre and Alexander Edler with eight and seven respectively.

Without Frolik's physical play, the Blackhawks would have tallied the same number of hits as only two Canucks. As I said in my five keys preview of this series, Chicago needs to stop skating by opponents. Eddie Olczyk keyed on this during the first period. The Blackhawks were skating by opposing players when they had them lined up along the boards.

They made a few decent open ice hits, but all-in-all they were not nearly as aggressive as they could've been. Vancouver is a big team and this is going to be a very hit-heavy best-of-seven. If Chicago wants to make a good showing in Game Two, they are going to need to be much more active on the backcheck like Vancouver was throughout Game One.

If Frolik, not one of Chicago's largest skaters at 6'1" and only 185 pounds, can throw hi weight around and make six good, clean hits, others are certainly capable of following in his footsteps.