The Blackhawks are on the verge of going from champs to chumps in just months.
CHICAGO -- Jonathan Toews sat in his stall in full uniform as the media entered the dressing room, a captain among captains who has never had a lot of experience with sinking ships.
Five minutes ago, it seemed, the Chicago Blackhawks were parading down Michigan Ave. with the Stanley Cup. Now they've become a tiny speed bump for the Vancouver Canucks, beaten three straight times.
If there was a cartoon thought bubble atop Toews head as we walked towards him, it would have read: "What the hell just happened here?"
"We're going into the third tied up (2-2). We've gotta have the best period of the series to pretty much stay alive in this thing, and we give up a soft goal like we did. It's pretty frustrating to see," he said.
"There's no one I particular to blame. It reflects on your team. It's pretty disappointing."
We could write at length about the Raffi Torres hit on Brent Seabrook, but we've got all day Monday for that. And we could praise the Canucks to the skies, but it's starting to look like we may have another two months of that as well.
For now, with this series all but over, we should spare a moment to pay our respects to the fallen Stanley Cup champions, the Blackhawks, a team that isn't only nowhere near as good as the Vancouver Canucks are. They are nowhere near as good as themselves a year ago either, down 3-0 in their first-round series to the Canucks, a pale impression of the team that eliminated Vancouver a year ago.
"Where we sit now, it's not pretty. It's really frustrating when you don't put it all on the line; you don't find a way to win that one," Toews said, after a Mikael Samuelsson rebound goal - on the second or third whack - stood up as the winner in a 3-2 game.
"A lot of people are saying we're the underdog … in our opinion aren't giving our team the credit and the respect we deserve. And it seems like we're OK with that.
"We're not proving anyone wrong, that we are a better team than everyone thinks we are. We're proving everyone right, the way it's going right now. Definitely not happy about that."
It didn't take a genius to pick the Canucks in this series, and watching this thing go down makes you feel even wiser. Vancouver is deeper, has better goaltending, and we're three games in and the Ryan Kesler line has not allowed the Toews line even a single regular strength point.
"Really I don't think we played that good tonight," Canucks assistant captain Kesler said. "We're going to take it, but we know we've got to watch video, and put a better effort on the ice."
You could say that Roberto Luongo stole this one for Vancouver, who were short-handed seven times - including a crucial 1:17 of 5-on-3 in the opening period. But head coach Alain Vigneault would instruct us that Luongo is just another element in a team that has all of its bases covered, and was doing the job he was brought here to do.
"Roberto kept us in, gave us a chance to hang around," he said. "We found a way to win."
"In my mind," added Samuelsson, who only seems to score big goals at this time of year, "he looks more confident."
We would be remiss not to address Torres, who returned in Game 3 from a four-game suspension for a very similar hit on Edmonton's Jordan Eberle, only to punish Brent Seabrook for having his head down. It was a clean hit - six months ago.
But alas, no more.
"I don't know what I was looking at to be honest with you. I don't know," Seabrook said post-game in an interview, a process the Canucks decided to withhold Torres from over in the Vancouver room.
Torres came around the other side of the net and caught Seabrook unaware, the puck near his feet, drilling him with a shoulder to the head. The official called it interference, which it was not. It was a clean check in the old days, but the type of hit they're trying to eliminate from today's game.
As we said after the Eberle hit - like it or not - the new rules force Torres to realize that Seabrook is vulnerable, and not to hit him so hard. As Torres did with Eberle - as he has earned a great deal of money doing over a nine-year NHL career - he skated right through Seabrook with no remorse, no tapping of the brake pedal.
"I don't really know if I felt it anywhere but I felt it on my cheek and my ear," said Seabrook, who missed precious few shifts for a guy who might be concussed.
"I understand where they're going with this, but hockey is still a physical game, a collision game," Vigneault said of the new policy. "And each and every one of us wants it to stay (that way) without players getting hurt. Because of the physicality of the game, there are always going to be some injuries out there."
And suspensions.
Given the fact he is a repeat offender - and so recently - it's highly likely Torres will be suspended by league V.P. Colin Campbell before sunset Monday.
The biggest sunset, however, will fall soon on the Chicago Blackhawks. Maybe Tuesday in Chicago, or Thursday in Vancouver.
Whatever. This series is done.
The best team is up 3-0, Torres or no Torres.
