2011 NHL Playoffs: Vancouver Canucks vs Chicago Blackhawks Game 6 Preview

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Well, unless you are a member of the Vancouver Canucks management team. Then you think desperate times require the status quo.

Head coach Alain Vigneault is ignoring the calls for change after his team was blown out by a combined 12-2 margin over the last two games, as the Blackhawks stormed back, rattling off back-to-back wins after falling down 3-0 in the series.

The all-important Game 6 goes tonight. 

If the Canucks win, they will have finished off their hated playoff rivals and advance to the second round, although questions will remain after the debacles in Games 4 and 5. 

If the Blackhawks win, they will have tied the series up, and will have all the momentum going into the winner-take-all Game 7. If that is the case, I don't like the odds of the Canucks reversing the trend to win.

With all this at stake, Vigneault is sticking with to his guns in regards to the hot topic in Vancouver. Namely, who is going to be the starting goalie? 

Roberto Luongo, who has been lit up by the Blackhawks in the last two games, but who was brilliant in the first three games?

Or Cory Schneider, the backup, at least in name, who has stats equal or better than either Luongo or Cory Crawford, the Blackhawks starter?

Vigneault was quick to answer the question after the massacre that was Game 5, saying that Luongo is the starter, without question. Hopefully he is right, because his job security rests on this decision.

The coach, and presumably GM Mike Gillis as well, thinks the Canucks as a team need to step up and play like they did in the first three games (or in the regular season for that matter), and they will be able to win.

That is a valid point, as many of the 12 goals over the last two games were the result of horrible defensive play by the skaters.

Aside from better defensive play, Vigneault also expects his team to take the initiative and forecheck relentlessly like they did earlier in the series, pounding the Blackhawks with punishing checks to cause turnovers.

That would help, but the Canucks also need their best players to be their best players.

In the last two games, the Sedins and Ryan Kesler have been impotent against the Hawks. They need to step up and score at even strength, because the Hawks haven't been giving them any power-play time lately. And when you have that kind of offensive talent that isn't able to produce, it cripples your team, regardless of any secondary scoring.

Kesler in particular has been problematic, to say the least. He put up 41 goals in the regular season, tied for fourth-highest in the league, but aside from a few assists, he has been blanked in this series. 

However, for inspiration, he can look no further than another player who was in the same situation, Steven Stamkos. 

Stamkos seemingly couldn't score down the stretch, and was blanked in the opening games of the playoffs. But he was able to put up a few goals as part of the Lightning's offensive explosion on Saturday versus the Penguins.

Hopefully Kesler (or Alex Burrows) can do the same.

It has also been rumoured (but not confirmed) that the Canucks were battling a flu, which might go a long way to explaining their lacklustre play and the sudden decline in physical play. If this is true, hopefully the extra day off in between Game 5 and Game 6 helped them to recover.