Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

VANCOUVER -- First, there was the slightly-confused Daniel Sedin, who one minute suggested his team should do precisely what Chicago did in Game 3. But of course, he added, "It's not about running the goalie."

Then there was the outright-perturbed Ryan Kesler.

When asked if the Canucks were somehow compromising the style that got them here by joining in the net-crashing game of the Blackhawks, he said indifferently: "It's a different series. We're going to fight fire with fire and see where it gets us."

Reporter: "Is that some admission that your original game isn't going to work? You're changing your game midstream, in the second round of the playoffs."

"We're not changing our game at all," he countered. "Why are you saying we're changing our game? We're not changing our game. We're just going to the net more. We're not going to change our style of game, we're not going to blow up our system. Our system is still intact.

"For you to sit here and say we're changing our whole game style, it's inaccurate."

We strive for accuracy, here at Sportsnet.ca.

But the Canucks, suddenly transforming themselves into a net-crashing, crease-gathering group? They've played like that all year?

That's accurate?

Vancouver is the Sedins - not Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen. Their third line has Pavol Demitra, Kyle Wellwood and Steve Bernier, who has never played the way you think a guy his size should play.

That's not your prototypical gang of third-line bangers.

So, we're ready to say that it WOULD be out of character for Vancouver to play that game. And there's the rub.

The Blackhawks have successfully steered this series towards the soft underbelly of the Canucks, who are down 2-1 and trailing badly on the 10-point must system.

But for a hockey team to look itself in the mirror at this time of year and admit, "We're not physical enough," well, that goes against everything these guys are made of.

Their eyes, however, are seeing wave after wave of Blackhawks rolling unimpeded to the Vancouver net, running over Roberto Luongo like he's a Stanley Park squirrel. And their ears keep hearing the questions to which they have no answers, all of which include the same two words: "Dustin" and "Byfuglien."

So, as so often tends to happen when teams with convergent styles meet in a playoff series, one of them has reached a crossroads.

Chicago has a game that worked awfully well in Game 3, and you know they're going to ride that horse right into a pivotal Game 4 Friday. The easy thing to say is, "They're crashing our net? Well, we'll just show them how to crash a net in Game 4."

But whom, exactly, do the Canucks have who can play that game? And while you're considering that question, we'll throw this one at you: Which of the highly-skilled Canucks defencemen are going to build the fort around Luongo that can keep out the Blackhawks hordes?

Their biggest guy is Andrew Alberts. But if you play him against Byfuglien, you're also playing him against Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. And that would be a big problem.

"That's how they won the game yesterday," Daniel Sedin said. "They crashed the net, they played hard, they fell over Lou… The referees aren't calling it. I think we've got to do the same thing."

Of course, Daniel was the first to fall completely out of character when he spent an entire Canucks power play in the penalty box after going at it with Dave Bolland. It is the Catch 22 the Sedins face: If they always turn the other cheek, people say they can be intimidated.

If they get drawn into conflict, like Daniel was by Bolland, they're suckers.

"If you just skate away all the time, it's going to be people thinking we shy away from everything," Henrik said. "If you do, like we did yesterday, it's going to be the other way around.

"The way to respond is to score goals, and beat them on the powerplay. If you don't do that - if your power play is not working - then they're going to keep doing it.

"I think the only way is to start producing."

That, folks, is always the bottom line in situations like these. "Star producing."

Alex Burrows? Start producing.

Ryan Kesler? Start producing.

Canucks powerplay? Start producing.

"I think we need quite a few players to step up and take a bigger bite of this series," coach Alain Vigneault said. "We're down by one, playing against a great hockey team. The only way we're going to pull forward … is we're going to have to play out best game of this series."

The Canucks need a hero. Someone had better step up.