Seabrook travels; Luongo staying calm; Canucks brass gets earful

Just stopping by quick to throw out a couple storylines heading into tomorrow’s Game 5 in Vancouver …

Despite suffering a concussion in Game 3 from Raffi Torres’ horrendous hit, Brent Seabrook will travel with the Blackhawks to Vancouver and could play in Game 5, according to Coach Q.

I’m not sure how I feel about this, given the recent history of players hitting the ice too quickly after a concussion. See: Crosby, Sidney. And especially since the Blackhawks just gave Seabrook a big-money extension. It was clear Seabrook was dazed and skating off balance when he came back on the ice for his next shift. He then sat out the rest of the game. That means there’s a problem, and it probably hasn’t fixed itself in four days.

Even putting that aside and looking at it from a must-win point of view, Seabrook sat out the Game 4 rout. That doesn’t mean I feel Seabrook is useless and the Blackhawks can win without him again, but why risk the chance of long-term injury when it doesn’t seem completey necessary? Of course, we said that about Dave Bolland and then saw what happened.

It can go either way, but I would rather have Seabrook sit and see how he feels for a potential Game 6.

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Roberto Luongo didn’t shed any tears this time around after the Blackhawks tattooed a 6 on his back in Game 4. In fact, he’s staying calm. But can the rest of the Canucks follow suit after getting back to their bad habits when things went haywire?

From the Vancouver Sun:

"“That is what we have been talking about since the beginning,” Luongo said. “Keep our composure, not get too high or to low whether we win or lose. We’ll forget about this one.”"

The fact is, Vancouver did not keep its composure and began getting chippy rather than focusing on hockey – much like the scenes leading to the Canucks’ demise the past two postseasons against the Blackhawks. Vancouver was poised through the first three games, seemingly because everything was going right. Then, when the ‘Hawks fired back and took their first multi-goal lead of the series, the Canucks seemed frazzled and out of sync.

The other issue is how Luongo feels after he strained a back muscle at the end of the first period. He looked very slow reacting to Patrick Sharp’s first goal, which led to him getting pulled.

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The Vancouver brass made the trip to Chicago, and they weren’t greated with a warm welcome from fans in the 300 level. With the ‘Hawks dominating, fans began razzing Canucks GM Mike Gillis from their perch just above the seats. There’s no glass separating the fans from the box, and Gillis and his henchmen began chirping back:

From The Province:

"“We took it for a couple of periods before somebody got fed up and said, ‘Why don’t you shut up and go back to your mother’s basement?’ and of course that really got them going,” said Laurence Gilman. “It’s pretty tiring hearing that over a long night.”"

While I’m all for giving the opposition a hard time, I always try to make it fun rather than personal. This might have been a bit much, though getting the Canucks’ brass all riled up is a bit humerous. We’ll see if they make the trip back from Game 6, if it comes to that.

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