Best of Three; Canucks and Kings Poised to Push Opposition to the Brink in Game Five

Best of Three; Canucks and Kings Poised to Push Opposition to the Brink in Game Five

Ed Note: The Stanley Cup Playoffs are intense, unfortunately so are final exams. I’m busy studying when I’m not watching hockey, forgive me for the light article today. Tomorrow ends my semester; I’ll be back to my regular output after this weekend. Here is the need to know for Game 5.

· Game 4 Recap/Box Score

· Rick Bowness is really good at getting Shane O’Brien fired up; in fact sometimes he can’t control his own talent, seems Bowness was a little too good at his job during game four.

Round Two: While “Bones” and Shane O’Brien may have had their differences over Shane’s trash talk, however I’m with Don Cherry on this one, O’Brien has to do something to get the Canucks going – Unless Shane crosses the line verbally, going after Doughty is perfect. Everyone on the bench saw O’Brien going after the Kings best player and that can be contagious. Keep it up, Shane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NGzqGhp-sM

· “Different Look” for the Kings tonight, Terry Murray will insert Justin Williams onto the checking line with Michal Handzus and Fredrik Modin.

· Andrew “A-minor” Alberts is back in the lineup tonight replacing Nolan Baumgartner on the cursed “6^th man” spot for the Canucks, Baumgartner is day-to-day from an injury suffered late in game four.

· Jordan Schroeder is killing it for the Moose in the AHL playoffs, leaving us a summer to fantasize over a third line featuring Schroeder, Hodgson and Shirokov.

· Momentum is one of the most fragile and powerful forces at work during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a split-second play can drastically change the momentum of a game. Roberto Luongo’s breakaway save on Alex Frolov was one of those plays. That is the second save of the series that has kept the Canucks in the game, both of which came during Canuck victories. No surprise Luongo will have to be one of the Canucks’ best every night in order to be successful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxQGvPaAg7o

· Alain Vigneault has some line shuffling of his own for game five against the Kings; Mikael Samuelsson will get another shot with the Sedins on the top line sliding Burrows down to the second line with Raymond and Kesler. After being moved around in game four, Pavol Demitra will again skate on the third line with Kyle Wellwood and Steve Bernier. Flying V approved Rick “The Pit Bull” Rypien gets back into the series tonight on the Canucks 4^th line centering Jannik Hansen and Michael Grabner.

· Biggest surprise of the playoffs so far? Flames fans don’t really think the Canucks suck….as much as they think the ‘Sens and ‘Habs do.

· Drew Doughty has been nominated for the Norris trophy. The Canucks vs. Kings series is turning into a battle of the award nominees, Kesler (Selke) and H. Sedin (Hart) vs. Doughty (Norris).

· From Twitter via @VanCanucks comes a sweet photo from inside GM Place as the White Towels are being placed on seats in prep for tonight’s game.

· Canucks vs. Kings 7PM tonight from GM Place, get your game face on. Until then, enjoy game 4 highlights.

· EMBED ME http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4YZHZzis_Y