VANCOUVER – It’s been a long five years between playoff games for Fernando Pisani, who draws into the Chicago lineup tonight to replace the injured Tomas Kopecky (upper body).
Pisani was last seen as the unlikely hero of the Edmonton Oilers playoff run in ’06, when he scored 14 goals.
How unlikely was Pisani’s spring of ’06? For a point of reference, the Canucks playoff record for goals in a post-season was 16, set by Pavel Bure in ’94. There’s a large gap in pedigree between the Russian Rocket and the Italian Stallion, who hasn’t played a post-season game since Game 7 that year.
“It’s been a while,” Pisani said. “You always remember the times that you had, and you want to use that experience to make you a better player and a better person.”
Pisani landed a big contract that summer from Edmonton, then suffered from ulcerative colitis, a condition that severely hampered his career. He went to Chicago as a UFA last summer, and unless he has another fabulous playoff run sometime in his career, the hockey world will recall Pisani as another John Druce (14 goals in ’90, 17 career).
“This is a fun time of year. There’s no better time,” Pisani said. “I’m not going to put pressure on myself to score goals every shift I get out there. I’m going to play my style of game, hopefully get a few bounces, and hopefully everything falls into place.”
This time he’s on another team that made it into the playoffs on the final weekend of the season, as Edmonton did in ’06, and playing against another big contributor for Edmonton that year, Raffi Torres, who missed practice Friday with food poisoning, though head coach Alain Vigneault fully expects him to be ready for Game 3. Torres will be back in the Canucks lineup once he’s finished serving a four-game suspension for his hit on the Oilers’ Jordan Eberle.
“Raffi’s going to add a lot to that club. It’ll be different going up against him now,” said Pisani, who will have his head up when Torres is on the ice.
He’ll play on a line with Ryan Johnson and Viktor Stalberg in Game 2.
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Game 2 Blues
It’s what we in the media do: remind everyone that the Canucks won both Game 1’s in the last two playoff meetings between these teams, only to lose Game 2, and eventually, the series.
“We were up in Game 2 last year. We made some mistakes and it cost us the game,” recalled Daniel Sedin.
The Canucks blew a 2-0 lead and were outscored 3-0 in the third period as Chicago narrowly avoided being swept at home in the second round series. The rest was history, a history the Canucks players weren’t real interested in dissecting Friday morning at Rogers Arena.
“It’s something we don’t talk about or care about,” Kevin Bieksa said.
Remember also that the Blackhawks lost Game 1 of their opening round series to Nashville last season.
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Johnny Bruise
Ryan Johnson has made a career out of being a fourth-line penalty killer, and supreme shot blocker. Unfortunately for the former Canuck and current Blackhawk, all those shots can add up to some considerable time on Injured Reserve.
“Johnny has probably been hurt most of his career. He can take it,” said former teammate Bieksa. With Johnson limping off the ice after a hard body check in Game 1, the Canucks will make sure they don’t miss a chance to make him pay in Game 2.
“If we can get a hard check in on him? We’ll take it,” Bieksa said.
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Dry Times for 19
Jonathan Toews has one goal and no assists in his last eight games, and just 2-3-5 in his last 13.
“Not much has been going in for me lately,” he said. “But we’re getting close. Sometimes you need a bounce or two. Goals will come.”
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for Sportsnet.ca
Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
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| FORWARDS | ||
| Daniel Sedin | Henrik Sedin | Alex Burrows |
| Chris Higgins | Ryan Kesler | Mikael Samuelsson |
| Mason Raymond | Cody Hodgson | Jannik Hansen |
| Tanner Glass | Maxim Lapierre | Victor Oreskovich |
| DEFENCE | GOALTENDERS | |
| Christian Erhoff | Alex Edler | Roberto Luongo |
| Kevin Bieksa | Dan Hamhuis | Cory Schneider |
| Keith Ballard | Sami Salo | |
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||
| FORWARDS | ||
| Patrick Sharp | Jonathan Toews | Marian Hossa |
| Ben Smith | Michael Frolik | Patrick Kane |
| Bryan Bickell | Jake Dowell | Troy Brouwer |
| Viktor Stalberg | Ryan Johnson | Fernando Pisani |
| DEFENCE | GOALTENDERS | |
| Duncan Keith | Brent Seabrook | Corey Crawford |
| Niklas Hjalmarsson | Brian Campbell | Marty Turco |
| Chris Campoli | Nick Leddy | |
