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Five Thoughts: Vancouver on a mission to be playoffs ultimate heel team

Jordin Tootoo, Keith Ballard

Vancouver Canucks’ Keith Ballard, right, checks Nashville Predators’ Jordin Tootoo during the second period of Game 1 in their NHL Western Conference semi-final Stanley Cup playoff hockey series in Vancouver, British Columbia, Thursday, April 28, 2011. Ballard received a clipping penalty on the play. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

With just one game to feed our brains, we managed to have a lot to talk about this morning. Let’s just get right to it because this morning’s Five Thoughts are a lot to chew on. Be patient, at least we’re not discussing the Royal Wedding. Hockey is joy.

1. I remarked a bit on Twitter during last night’s game that a lot of what Vancouver does during the game for the serious NHL watcher is enough to make them really dislike how the Canucks play hockey. Ryan Kesler seemed to embellish a tripping call against Patric Hornqvist in the third followed up by a Roberto Luongo dramatic flop after Mike Fisher was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway that saw Fisher ever-so-slightly bump Luongo after the fact. Add this on top of GM Mike Gillis’ complaints about officiating in the last round and you’ve got yourself one very unlikable team.

The Canucks talent level is high enough that they don’t need to do things like this, yet they do. Think back to the last series when we saw Daniel Sedin fall to the ice dramatically after a slight nudge and about the only comparison I can come up with is to a rival sports team in an afterschool special who you know is already really good yet they do jerky things because they can and it helps them get an unnecessary edge. Here’s to hoping the theatrics will come to an end eventually, but it’s doubtful. Every great drama needs a heel and the Canucks are running with it.

2. After how bad things looked in the first round for both Roberto Luongo and Pekka Rinne, they both seemed to answer the call well in Game 1. Luongo earned the shutout after stopping 20 shots as the Canucks defense made life miserable on the Predators. It was Luongo’s second shutout of the playoffs and a nice first step for him after such a tumultuous first round against Chicago.

The real first star, however, was Rinne. Rinne was stellar in stopping 29 shots for Nashville and while Chris Higgins’ goal eluded him in the second period, Rinne was fantastic in resisting the Cancuks’ attack. He gloved down virtually everything and looked like the goalie that’s the most serious threat to Tim Thomas for the Vezina Trophy. If these two can keep this up throughout the series we’ll have enough goaltending highlights to last us the rest of the playoffs.

3. Predators coach Barry Trotz was really unhappy with how his team played in Game 1 and that’s more than understandable. The Predators aren’t an offensively proficient team in the first place but 20 shots is bad no matter what. Take that and the fact that Nashville was so poor in the faceoff circle and you’ve got yourself a handful of reasons to be really angry. Knowing how this Predators team is, expect Game 2 to be a lot more intense. Vancouver has to be prepared for it or else Nashville will grind them right off the ice.

4. While we’re busy watching the playoffs, the drama surrounding Winnipeg just gets all the more fascinating. With the recent talk of Atlanta now being in the mix to be bought and moved to Winnipeg should things in Phoenix get straightened out makes it almost certain in my mind that we’ll see a team playing in Manitoba next year. Which one it is still remains to be seen.

What’s adding to the intrigue of all this is this: What happens should things in Arizona not work out and the Coyotes move back to Canada? What happens with the Thrashers and their apparent awful mess in the front office? Atlanta’s problems have been bubbling below the surface for some time now but it appears things there have gotten bad enough so that now they’re David Thomson of True North’s booby prize should the Coyotes stay put. What a sad mess.

5. After all the yelling and kvetching we do about blows to the head and the seeming inaction that happens with awful hits from behind, the one seemingly very legal hit we’ve seen all playoffs is the one whistled for a penalty. Keith Ballard’s incredible hip check on Jordin Tootoo was something made for highlight reels and very legal according to the vast majority of eyes that watched it.

It’d be nice of officials were as vigilant on actually awful hits as they are on ones like this that look visibly stunning but are just a healthy part of the game. Officials don’t want to be the guy that boots a call on an actually dirty hit so now they’ll send off anyone on anything that looks or sounds scary. No one wins that way.