Photo: headtothe.net

You had to believe that after the 6-2 punishment the Vancouver Canucks gave the Blackhawks back on November 6th, all the sports media in B.C. probably spend the next several days pounding their chests and stomping around like the kid in the teen angst movies that ends up getting beaten like a mule, spit on and run up a flagpole for good measure.

Hope you had your fun while it lasted, fellas. Now it’s our turn. Time to go into their rink, humiliate them in front of their slack-jawed fans, then take a meatloaf-sized crap at center ice and climb into the limousine.

Five goals given up on the power play in one game. FIVE. I am still trying to mine the data to find out if that is a team (or LEAGUE) record, but consider this: that one game moved us from 23rd on the PPG against list for the season — up to SEVENTH. That absolutely HAS to be avenged.

Not the usual preview today, because the only news of any consequence out of Vancouver is that head-case goaltender Roberto Luongo is out with an upper-body injury. The Canucks recalled some puke named Eddie Lack from the Wolves, and we will be facing Cory Schneider in goal this evening. More’s the pity, it’s always fun to smack LuLu Belle around.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks are a team still trying to recover from the 3-game losing streak started by Vancouver last weekend, and all the pieces are not yet in place. Brent Seabrook was knocked out of the Edmonton game with a lower-body injury, which does not bode well. He traveled with the team for the Circus Trip, as you would expect. But he did not practice on Tuesday, and it would be shocking to see him in the lineup tonight. That means we will likely see either (or both) Sami Lepisto or Sean O’Donnell out of the press box and onto the bench.

Pray, also, that we do NOT see lamp post John Scott. Hopefully Head Coach Joel Quenneville realizes that we will need every single person on the bench to make a substantive contribution, and leaves Scott up in the rafters. If Q’s superstition does get the best of him however (we are 6-1-1 with Scott in the lineup), for the love of God put him on the fourth-line wing.

Speaking of which, we have a really mixed bag at forward right now. The line of Jonathan Toews with Marian Hossa and Viktor Stalberg seems to have the juice right now. Before that it was the Patrick Kane line with Hossa on it that was on fire, leading me to believe that Hossa is the catalyst for our offensive success this year. Time to make more effective use of that.

Kane’s line with Patrick Sharp is doing okay, but from there on down it’s not a pretty picture. Fortunately we have gotten some offensive contributions from the defense of late, something that came in very handy against Edmonton.

Dave Bolland practiced with the team on Tuesday, and he’s the kind of player that is going to push the coach to put him back in the lineup. So if we’re lucky, our Sedin-killer will be dressed, rested, and looking for some payback.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Coach Qstache’s mad-scientist move that paid off: Steve “Kermit the” Montador (listen to him in interviews) notching three goals after getting the job of playing the “Byfuglien” role in front of opposing goalies on the power play. I am not going so far as to say that we should never doubt the Q. But holy smoke, when he gets it right, it’s usually as pretty as a freshly-restocked all-you-can-eat buffet.

Twitter was exploding as early as 7am today with talk about this game. Blackhawks fans are PUMPED, and this should be one to write home about. 9pm start on the west coast: Comcast SportsNet for your TV coverage; WGN AM-720 will broadcast the game on radio; a curve-ball on XM for tonight, subscribers will find the game on channel 92; and Sirius Premiere customers should look for channel 207.

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