As the Vancouver Canucks were dispatching the St. Louis Blues in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, it became clear they didn't have to worry about the opposition's defencemen becoming offensive factors.
In the four-game sweep, St. Louis defencemen netted one point and seemed chained to their own zone. Vancouver's defence corps had 11 points.
Now, however, the Canucks are facing a different beast.
The Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver's second-round opponent, arrived at General Motors Place yesterday with two of the top-scoring defencemen in the playoffs, and two more blueliners known to be among the best puck-carriers in the league. That means Vancouver's game plan has to change for the Western Conference semi-final, which begins tonight in Vancouver.
"They'll always attack you with four guys, so you need all your guys to back-check," Canucks winger Steve Bernier said. "Even if you're 200 feet from your net, you have to make sure you've got one forward focused on the defensive side. You have to think about what could happen … and you can't rush anything, because you know you'll get your chances."
In the six-game victory over Calgary in the opening round, two Blackhawk defencemen were point-a-game players, and the group combined for 18 points, despite not getting a single one out of top-pair regular Duncan Keith.
Cam Barker had three goals — half his regular-season output — and three assists, while Brent Seabrook had a goal and five assists, nearly a quarter of his production over the regular season's 82 games. The duo is tied with Washington's Tom Poti for the scoring lead among defencemen in the postseason, and the frightening part for the Canucks is that Barker and Seabrook are not even Chicago's best point producers.
That would be Brian Campbell, the $7-million (U.S.) free-agent signing from last summer, and Keith, whose 44 points during the season was second best to Campbell's 52.
"A lot of our offence this year has been ignited by our defencemen participating off the rush and in the offensive zone," Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said yesterday. "It helps our team game. Whether we score or not, it really gets us into the speed of the game. Hopefully it gets us going on the attack and spending some time in the offensive zone."
Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault said his charges will have to finish their checks on Chicago's defencemen, ensure that they don't get caught looking the wrong way, and spend time in the offensive zone, forcing the Hawks' defencemen to play, well, defence.
"That's going to be a challenge for us," Vigneault said.
The Canucks' coach added that he expected the pairing of Seabrook and Keith, Chicago's busiest duo in Round 1, will be matched up against the Sedins line, Vancouver's top offensive threat, as much as possible.
Both Campbell and his partner, rookie Niklas Hjalmarsson, said the Hawks are benefiting from consistent defence pairings.
They said that each pair has a player — Keith, Campbell and Barker — who is apt to join the rush and make a break for offence. By having regular partners, it allows the other defencemen — Seabrook, Hjalmarsson and Matt Walker, Barker's partner — to stay home and know that they have to cover for a gambling teammate.
"Once you get to know a guy, you feel pretty comfortable, and I think we're all in that [boat] right now," Campbell said.
Campbell, who turns 30 next month, laughed that he had become the old man on Chicago's blueline. Walker is also 29, but the rest of the group is 25 or younger.
Keith, 25, said the Canucks have more speed than the Flames, so puck possession will be more difficult than it was in the first round, and that counterattacks will be more dangerous. Canucks winger Alex Burrows said counterattacking will be among the keys in the series.
"Right now, there's such a defence-first mentality, the more you can get defence chipping in with points and goals, the more successful the team is going to be," Keith said. "But it's not something we're overemphasizing. It's something we want to continue to do like we've done all year. When the opportunity is there, help out on offence."
