How can the Canucks possibly have confidence in either Luongo or Schneider going into Game 7?
CHICAGO -- Alas, the Vancouver Canucks season has deteriorated into a web of lies.
A 117-point season that had killer instinct written all over it turned out to be nothing more than vacant points largely earned against crappy Northwest Division teams.
A 3-0 series lead that turned out to be, you guessed it, the most dangerous lead in hockey.
And now a coach who stepped to the podium after Roberto Luongo had been awful in Game 5 and declared, "Luongo starts Game 6," started the other guy in Game 6.
Even Alain Vigneault had to laugh, after a night of so many twists and turns, when someone asked him who he was going to start in goal for Tuesday's Game 7.
"If I tell you who I'm going to play, are you going to believe me NOW?" he said, with a smile that must be masking incredible angst, as a series that was once being declared dead has -- like Pavol Demitra at the Winter Olympics -- somehow come back to life.
Ben Smith batted home the winner 15:30 into the first overtime session to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 4-3 victory, squaring the series at 3-3. No one is speaking the C-word quite yet in the Vancouver room, but Markus Naslund must be warming up his voice somewhere.
"I really just wanted to get to the front of the net," said Smith. "That's my game, to be a body in front of the net and whack at rebounds. Nik Hjalmarsson made a great, hard shot and the rebound bounced right there for me."
That the rebound came off the pad of Luongo -- after Vigneault had gone against his word (scoundrel!) and started Cory Schneider, didn't matter much. What matters now for these Vancouver Canucks is this:
They had the Chicago Blackhawks down on the mat after winning the first three games of this series, and have let them right back up. And in Game 6, the Canucks ran the show from the start of the third period on, outshooting Chicago 10-3 in the third period and carrying way more of the play in overtime.
Yet they didn't close the deal. They couldn't close the deal.
And you know what happens when you give a team that just won the Stanley Cup, with a big-game captain like Jonathan Toews, a continuous parade of second chances? I think we all know what tends to happen in that situation…
"Now, it's this game or nothing. We can't look back, can't look at anything else," declared Canucks captain Henrik Sedin, a fine fellow whose words (we hate to say) begin to grow hollow.
"We maybe should have won (tonight), but that's the way it is in playoffs. We're going back home now. If we can play like this, we're going to be successful. If we keep dong these things, we're going to get the bounces. They goals they got were unfortunate bounces.
"We had a lot of chances to finish this one off. But, we're going home now, and feeling a lot better about our game."
For days now, the Canucks have relied on all the things good teams fall back on. But cracks are starting to appear.
There has been a goalie change, and even though Vigneault said post-game that Schneider is healthy and could play in Game 7, how could he possibly have the utmost confidence in either netminder to deliver the goods in a Game 7, after what we've seen to this point?
Ryan Kesler had another stinker offensively Sunday, with one shot on goal and no points. He had 41 goals in the regular season and hasn't potted one yet in these playoffs.
The Sedins manufactured a goal just 2:06 into the game -- and didn't hit the scoresheet again.
"We're going to go into next game on a positive note, feeling we played well tonight," said Luongo. It was the hollow theme, though, in a Vancouver room that certainly didn't look shell shocked, but has every reason to be at this point.
"It only carries over if you let it affect you," Luongo said. "As a team, we're disappointed that we lost, but we're happy with the way we played this game."
The Canucks goal is to make history this spring, and on Tuesday they could do just that, becoming only the fourth team in the history of the National Hockey League to cough up a 3-0 lead in a playoff series.
How do you shake off three straight losses, Luongo was asked?
"Exactly the way Chicago did."
There's only one problem. Chicago has won before.
The Blackhawks know how to win, and so far, the Canucks have only proven that they don't.
An entire city is waiting, watching.
Any time now…
Mark Spector is the lead columnist for Sportsnet.ca
Follow me on Twitter.com @SportsnetSpec
