Canucks Need One More to the Cup Finals

On Tuesday night, the Canucks get their first crack at eliminating the Sharks from the Western Conference Finals, as Game Five goes in Vancouver with the series at 3-1.

The Canucks have been able to keep the Sharks offense from making too much noise in this series, while Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin have finally made their mark on these playoffs, leading the charge with 10 and 5 points, respectively in this series.  In order for the Canucks to eliminate the Sharks on Tuesday night, they will have to control the puck possession and stay as calm and cool as possible, not allowing the Sharks PP, as quiet as it was on Sunday, to find its stride.

The same can be said about the Sharks, but with a bit more urgency.  The Sharks desperately need to keep the Canucks PP from taking to the ice, especially with how sharp they have been of late.  I think the main points 5-on-5 will just be taking away space from the Canucks, closing down most of the gaps and be as physical as they have been in their wins.  The Sharks offense has been stifled by a solid Canucks defense in this series as well, not hearing much from Dany Heatley or Joe Pavelski, so they will have to find more space and be more effective as well.

Here is a quasi-updated look at the pool standings, there have been some updating issues on the site, but they should be rectified this evening with the Canucks game on.

	Tryst'n'Grant	Langdon River Dogs	Superstar	All She Wrote	Pucking Luck	Hollywoods Heroes	seaherwet	Granny Smith	Kalenab	Madness? This is MARTA!
	258 points	-1 point	-17	-17	-19	-22	-22	-23	-22	-25
Dany Heatley (2)			x
Patrick Marleau (3)	x	x			x
Ryane Clowe (4)										x
Joe Pavelski (5)	x	x		x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Logan Couture (6)	x	x	x	x	x	x			x
Torrey Mitchell (7)							x
Dan Boyle (8)				x		x		x
Jason Demers (9)			x
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (11)							x	x	x
Antti Niemi (12)										x
Daniel Sedin (1)	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Henrik Sedin (2)	x	x		x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Ryan Kesler (3)			x				x			x
Alex Edler (9)
Roberto Luongo (12)	x	x	x	x		x		x	x

The Sharks are expecting to have Joe Thornton in the line-up tonight for Game Five.  He left Game Four with a shoulder injury and has declared himself fit to go for their first chance at staying alive.  The Sharks may also have Jason Demers in their line-up, as he has also been deemed fit to go for Game Five.

Over the weekend, it was deemed that Christian Ehrhoff may be back in the Canucks' line-up sooner, rather than later, but it seems doubtful that he'll go tonight.  He's out day-to-day with a lower-body injury.  Since the Canucks are on the verge of moving on, with games to spare, there is no need to rush Ehrhoff back, especially with the depth they have in place.

The Canucks have seen a lot of elimination games already in these playoffs, so you would imagine that they may have learned something from them.  That being said, what they were doing in most of the elimination games they had squandered, they decided not to come out with the same ferocity and vigor that other teams in their situation would.  If they can come out and play there game from the drop of the puck, this series should be over and it'll give the team time to rest up some bumps and bruises while the East finishes up.