NHL 2011 Playoffs: Vancouver Canucks Easily Handle San Jose Sharks in Game 1

The Vancouver Canucks showed a little rust by allowing the opening goal, but they otherwise controlled the opening game of the Western Conference Finals against the San Jose Sharks.

Here are some thoughts on the game:

1. The Sharks once again entered the third period with a lead—and once again lost the game. This has happened in four of their last five games.

If I were a Sharks' fan, I'd be a bit worried about this trend, to say the least.

2. I thought it was very classy of the Canucks' organization to honor the recently deceased Derek Boogaard with a moment of silence prior to the game. He was never a Canuck, and in fact was a hated man in Vancouver for his enforcer role when with the Minnesota Wild.

3. Canucks outshot the Sharks, 38-29.

The Canucks also continued their trend of outhitting their opponents. Canucks' players had 38 hits compared to 26 for the Sharks.

So much for the five-day layoff hurting the Canucks. The Sharks' big bodies lacked energy in the latter half of the game. Maybe it was the lack of rest—or maybe it was the Canucks hammering them all night.

4. The Sharks lost their composure in the third period.

Dany Heatley took a bad penalty by unnecessarily elbowing Raffi Torres, and Devin Setoguchi put himself out of position trying for a revenge hit in the neutral zone.

Both incidents happened in a short span, and the Canucks quickly scored to change the score from—being down—2-1 to—being up—3-1, and the Sharks never recovered.

5. Antti Niemi was amazing, almost single-handedly keeping the Sharks in the game as the Canucks put him under siege the last 25 minutes of the game, including an incredible goalmouth stand late in the second period.

6. Roberto Luongo, on the other hand, outscored a few of the Sharks' big guns, like Heatley and Ryane Clowe. Unfortunately, Luongo set up Joe Thornton's goal.

The Canucks might want to think about looping the clip of Thornton's goal into a sort of Clockwork Orange brainwashing system to put a physical aversion into Luongo that would stop him from attempting to play the puck.

7. Torres had his best game since he demolished Brent Seabrook back in the first round. Since then, he has bounced up and down between the third and fourth lines and has been inconsistent with his physical play.

Tonight, he drew a crucial penalty, agitated without taking a penalty and threw his stocky body around effectively, recording four hits.

8. In a battle of Captains, Henrik Sedin was better than Thornton.

"Jumbo Joe" scored on the empty-net gift from Luongo, but Henrik matched that with a goal of his own and then raised it by throwing in an assist on the game-winning goal.

Thornton simply didn't have an answer.

Henrik also dominated the faceoff circle, going 12 for 17, good for 71 percent. Thornton tried to match him there, going 10 for 15, good for 67 percent.

9. The third line for the Canucks was dangerous all night, scoring the opening goal and eating up valuable minutes while on the forecheck, in addition to throwing some big hits. Jannik Hansen just missed a sure goal as well, as Niemi robbed him on a rebound.

10. Ryan Kesler had a bit of an off night, at least by his current standards, recording only a single assist. No worries for Canucks fans though, as the Sedins and Burrows showed up and generated a ton of offense.

The top line combined for 12 shots, a goal and two assists, and they were dangerous around the Sharks' net all night.

*Game 2 will be on Wednesday. The Sharks need to do some soul searching and regroup. Otherwise they might be going back to San Jose down 2-0.