Something has to give with Canucks, Sharks

The Canucks and Sharks, two teams with a history of playoff failure. are meeting in the Western Conference final so one has to win, right? The Canucks haven't been this far since 1994 while the Sharks were here just a year ago and face-planted four straight to the Chicago Blackhawks.Despite advancing to this stage in 2011, neither team has shown a killer instinct.San Jose Sharks Jerseys The Canucks needed four chances to close out the Blackhawks in round one and two to dispatch the pesky Nashville Predators in the second round. The Sharks, meanwhile, required twoswings to banish the L.A. Kings and four to take care of Detroit. Their combined 'close-out' record this spring is 4-8,Cheap ED Hardy Handbags, hardly awesome.With that backdrop, it's difficult to imagine one team making short work of the other. The Canucks had the better regular season record, winning twice in regulation and once in a shootout, while the Sharks' lone victory was via the shootout. Expect this one to go the distance – and maybe to overtime in a seventh game.
Roberto Luongo(notes) has an Olympic gold medal, a higher profile and bigger contract but Antti Niemi(notes) has something even better: a Stanley Cup ring and an undefeated record in playoffs series. Niemi went 4-0 last spring and is 2-0 this year so he's done it when it counted despite his various rough patches.San Jose's top pairing has the lumbering Douglas Murray(notes) with the offensively gifted Dan Boyle(notes), not a bad unit. After that, it's vet Niclas Wallin(notes) with Leaf castoff Ian White(notes), and Marc-Edouard (Pickles) Vlasic with mobile up-and-comer Jason Demers(notes). NHL Jerseys From China It's not an exceptional group on paper but it finally got the job done against the Wings. Enough said.We've been hearing all season long that the Canucks have never been deeper on defence but that was also predicated on Alex Edler performing at a high level and Keith Ballard(notes) motoring the puck out of his zone and delivering devastating hip checks. Dan Hamhuis(notes) and Keith Bieksa have been excellent and Christian Ehrhoff(notes) has a lot of points but Vancouver's second and third pairing have been an adventure the first two rounds and Ballard is buried deep in Alain Vigneault's doghouse.