The final outcome of tonight’s game aside, one thing has to be mentioned about Duncan Keith, and that is he can add “head hunting cheap shot artist” to his resume, and the video replays will forever backup that fact. At 13:36 of the first period, Duncan Keith maliciously sought out an unsuspecting Daniel Sedin with the puck nowhere in the vicinity and delivered a blind side elbow to Sedin’s jaw, ultimately knocking him out of the game.

PHOTO CREDIT - VancouverCanucks.com

Vancouver - March 22, 2012 - The final outcome of tonight’s game aside, one thing has to be mentioned about Duncan Keith, and that is he can add “head hunting cheap shot artist” to his resume, and the video replays will forever backup that fact. At 13:36 of the first period, Duncan Keith maliciously sought out an unsuspecting Daniel Sedin with the puck nowhere in the vicinity and delivered a blind side elbow to Sedin’s jaw, ultimately knocking him out of the game. It was a visious elbow with obvious intent to injure and should be viewed that way by Brendan Shanahan, and the punishment should be harsh.

When these two teams meet, it is obvious that there is no love lost between the two teams, which normally makes for good hockey. But with Keith’s stupid actions, the majority of this game was lost to stupidity and “goons-manship,” especially the middle period which saw the Canucks try harder to exact revenge for Daniel being knocked out of the game than to actually win the contest. In total there 5 power play opportunities for the Hawks in the second period alone, and none for the Canucks which just goes to show that the Canucks were grossly preoccupied with exacting revenge on Keith rather than playing the game.

The highlights of the game were few, except for Jannik Hansen opening the scoring for the Canucks 27 seconds into the game by beating Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford with a low wrist shot on the right hand pad side. The Canucks would hold the lead until early in the second period when Patrick Kane would beat Luongo with a shot into the wide open net with Roberto looking the wrong way. With the game tied at 3:12 of the second period, the skill normally associated with the game of hockey was lost as the Canucks went on a rampage of revenge to try and even the score for Keith’s hit on last year’s points leader.

One thing to note though, is that unlike years in the past when the Blackhawks would thrill in getting under the Canucks skin and watch them self destruct, the Canucks for the most part stayed relatively composed in the fact that they didn’t give up any goals in the 5 consecutive power plays they gave the Hawks. This of course was due to the fact that goalie Roberto Luongo played a gem of a game, quite possibly his best so far this year as he made some spectacular saves to keep the game tied, stopping 35 of 37 shots. The winner came on a shot by Johnny Oduya midway through the overtime period that was deflected by Andrew Shaw to beat Luongo low left side to win it for the Hawks.

Unfortunately, this rivalry hit an all time low with Keith’s cheap hit on Sedin, which cast a depressing cloud over this game. Granted the Canucks stopped the bleeding a little by picking up a point and showing that their is indeed life under the Canucks colors, but it doesn’t take away the fact that the Canucks are a mere 2-5-1 in their last eight games with the playoffs just around the corner. And now with Daniel Sedin’s availability a big question mark for the near future, it remains to be seen what the Canucks will be able to muster for the playoffs. One thing was proven though, and that is the Canucks showed heart and passion tonight as they battled hard to overcome the loss of one of their leaders. Can they sustain it, and feed off it if Daniel is out for any length of time? We shall see, as the Canucks travel to Dallas to face the Stars tomorrow night in a must win game.