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The Canucks visit the United Center on Wednesday night for their first game against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last spring. Will revenge be on their mind? Perhaps, but do they have enough talent on the ice to get this done?

The Vancouver Canucks are coming off that tough loss in Edmonton where they fired 40 shots at Nikolai Khabibulin but only got one past him and lost the game 2-1. The good news, though, is that Roberto Luongo had a strong game and despite taking the loss, had to feel good about his performance. That continues a string of strong performances for the Canucks captain, as he's only surrendered 12 goals in his past 5 starts; the Canucks are 3-2-0 during that stretch.

However, the Canucks are still having problems scoring. Whilst they lead the league with 288 shots on goal, they are 11th overall with 22 goals. The discrepancy between the two is just too much. The Canucks are also dealing with significant early season injuries woes, missing Matthieu Schneider, Pavel Demitra, Daniel Sedin and most recently Sami Salo. Those are key players in this line up but they have had good performances from Mikael Samuelsson and Michael Grabner, which has helped keep them afloat lately.

On the Chicago side, they are rolling with a 5-2-1 record, although they did drop their most recent game. However, they are dealing with a significant controversy in nets. Cristobal Huet was supposed to be the number one goalie this year but has struggled so far, so coach Quenneville has already decided that Antti Niemi will start this game. He's fared well so far. In three games this year, he's 3-0 with a solid 1.73 Goals Against. It appears he's taking away Huet's starting job and this will be a big challenge for the rookie.

The Hawks have recently dominated the Canucks and are one of the best teams at home. It's no surprise they are heavy favorites at [1.61], but backing the Canucks at [2.34] is a good bet. With the Canucks' ability to fire at the net, Niemi will be busy and susceptible.