Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

VANCOUVER — This time, there can’t be any doubt.

There is no culprit for why the Chicago Blackhawks walked into GM Place and won all three games of this series, the final one a 5-1 paddling in which the score was precisely indicative of the play.

This wasn’t about the refs, the league, or a goalie. Though that 12-year deal for Roberto Luongo that begins next season isn’t exactly looking like a steal right now.

This was about the Blackhawks running away with the series, for the second consecutive year.

"They were the better team," confirmed Kyle Wellwood.

"I don’t think they’re a better team than us," countered Luongo. "But maybe just a smarter team that knows how to win."

So we’ll leave the deciding vote to Shane O’Brien, a game young defender who embodies the Canucks problems: he just couldn’t quite handle Chicago’s principle players.

"Obviously they’re movin’ on and we’re not. That’s how you measure who’s the better team," he said.

Chicago moves on to its second consecutive Conference Final, where they will meet the San Jose Sharks in a clear battle of the top teams in the West this season. They ousted the Canucks in six games for the second straight spring, coming at them from simply too many angles, and with too much Jonathan Toews.

Toews, the gamer extraordinaire, had a 12-point series. He should have worn a cape, not a jersey, yet after it was all done the Blackhawks depth was every bit as murderous for Vancouver.

"Look at our goal scorers, the first three," said Patrick Kane, who notched three goals in the series but was generally quiet. "(Troy) Brouwer comes in, hasn’t played in a while and gives us a (1-0) lead. (Kris) Versteeg is in a checking role, but makes it 2-0. (Dave) Bolland was the same thing, a short-handed breakaway."

From depth on defence, to size, to scoring, to quickness, to grit, to gamesmanship — and for too much of the series, in the nets — Chicago has more. And they have another level, a playoff level Vancouver seems not to have acquired.

"At home we were 1-5 against these guys over these two years. That’s not good enough," said Henrik Sedin. "During the season we were a heck of a team in this building (30 wins). I think we’re a good team. We’ve got a really deep lineup.

"But at home here, I don’t know what has happened."

This was an 8-1 game disguised as a 5-1 affair, with Luongo holding his team in through a scoreless first period in which he made four hair-raising saves. Vancouver drew close for about seven minutes in the third period, when Alex Burrows and Ryan Kesler demonstrated their best efforts of the series.

The Canucks could have used that exhibition about four games ago.

"Obviously," said Kesler, who was nursing a bad shoulder, "I didn't have my best series."

This game turned at the two-minute mark of the middle period, not long after the Canucks had emerged from the dressing room with no Alex Edler. He had been crushed by Dustin Byfuglien at 14:36 of the second period. It would be the last of his passes Edler would get the chance to admire this season.

Brouwer redirected a Patrick Sharp pass home at the 2:00 mark of the second period. Then the Canucks’ best player in Game 5 — Kevin Bieksa — made a deadly mistake, carelessly overskating a puck near the Canucks blueline that set up a Blackhawks three-on-one.

Kris Versteeg buried his shot, and within 36 seconds the Canucks were cooked.

Luongo rarely made a big save after that point, and you can surely call into question his gamesmanship after he overtly failed to close the door with some big saves in the third period.

But the real punch in the gut had yet to be delivered.

With a power play at 18:57 of the second period came a chance to turn a 2-0 game their way. But then Pavol Demitra — the $4 million mistake who bled for his country during the Olympics here, but barely dripped a drop for the team that pays him — gave a puck away at the offensive blueline to Bolland.

Bolland potted the breakaway shorty on Luongo, who simply had to make that save.

All that was left was the crying.

"I don't know how come they come in here and beat us like that," Luongo said. "We thought we had a good game plan coming into the series. Just didn't get the job done at home. They made some adjustments after the first game, and we couldn't respond.

The Sedins had 10 points in the series, but beneath them there just wasn’t enough. Kesler had one point in the final four games of the series; Burrows, a 35-goal man this season, had two goals in the series, one into an empty net; Mikael Samuelsson cooled from his first-round heroics, had just one goal.

And Demitra was Demitra. Consistent in his ghastly playoff work once again, he had one sad helper in this series, after tantalizing Vancouverites by leading the Olympics in scoring.

Too much soft skill, not enough size and guts.

And spring lands in Vancouver again, with a resounding thud.