Despite scoring his first career hat trick in a seven-goal outburst against Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo two years ago, Patrick Kane didn't bite on a reporter's question about Luongo looking like "the old Luongo" while allowing six goals in a 7-2 loss on Tuesday night.

In fact, Kane went the other direction and heaped a bunch of praise on Luongo -- who helped Team Canada beat Kane and Team USA in overtime of the gold medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

"You look at all of our goals (on Tuesday), there's really none that you can blame on him to be honest with you," Kane said. "We've still got to worry about him because he's such a great goaltender, but hopefully(we'll) just keep getting some traffic, some shots and just keep taking the puck to the net. Hopefully we'll get some luck. He's still a great goaltender. You've got to give him that."

For most of the games that he was healthy enough to play this season, the Blackhawks fared as Marian Hossa did.

When he scored goals or even a point in games, they usually won. When he didn't, they usually didn't. It's been the same so far in three games against the Canucks in a Western Conference quarterfinal series.

Hossa hasn't scored a single point and has a minus-3 rating and the Hawks are in a 3-0 hole trying to climb out in Game 4 tonight.

"I don't think right now … I don't feel like myself," Hossa said Tuesday morning. "I had some good chances, but sometimes you make a good play and we can not score the goals. Just because you're not having points, it doesn't mean you're not in a comfort zone, but obviously the points would help, the goals would help. Definitely, I'm looking forward to it."

CHICAGO -- Jonathan Toews was smiling Tuesday morning, even cracking a small laugh at one point.

You'd think being in a 0-3 hole against the Canucks and facing elimination in Game 4 Tuesday night at United Center would have the Blackhawks leader, known in these circles as 'Captain Serious' in a sour mood -- but that clearly was not the case.

He was as loose as I've seen him in the series, maybe as loose as I've seen him since spending two summer days with him in his hometown of Winnipeg during his Stanley Cup celebration.

"You've gotta be (loose), I guess," Toews told NHL.com. "What are you going to do? Just go out there and play your best hockey tonight and you've got nothing to lose. Just do your best, nothing more to say."

Toews expects the Blackhawks to follow his lead and play a pressure-free game.

"That's what we're going to do," he said. "We can play loose. We're not feeling sorry for ourselves. We're going to go out there and play. We're men. We're professionals in here and we care about each other in the locker room. From Day One every guy, we've all gotten along, we all like each other, and when you think about it that way it makes you want to go play harder for each other. We've got a lot of pride in this locker room and we know that's a good team across the way there. We've just got to find a way to win one."

Toews compared the Blackhawks situation to the predicament Philadelphia was in down 0-3 against Boston last season. The Flyers came back to win the series, becoming just the third team in NHL history to do it.

"The way they got into the playoffs, they're kind of like us with the last day of the year," Toews said. "That's our dream right now, is to win tonight and we'll go from there."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

Blackhawks rookie goalie Corey Crawford came into this season as Marty Turco's backup but eventually won the starting job and wound up being one of the main reasons Chicago qualified for the Western Conference playoffs.

It just wasn't enough to be included as a top-three finalist for the League's Calder Trophy that goes to the top rookie. Instead, Carolina Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner, San Jose Sharks center Logan Couture and New York Islanders forward Michael Grabner were named as finalists on Tuesday morning.

Crawford, who will start for the Hawks in Game 4 of their quarterfinal series against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night, said he doesn’t have time to have much a reaction to the news.

"That's the least of my worries right now," said Crawford, who went 33-18-6 with a 2.30 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. "We've got bigger and more important things to think about and focus on."

His teammates, however, did express regret that Crawford wasn't included as a finalist and took up his care for him.

"He's been unbelievable for us this season and he's a big reason we were able to make the playoffs," Chicago forward Troy Brouwer said. "There's a pretty good crop of rookies out there this year … but (Crawford), I'm sure they had a pretty good discussion about him because of what he's been able to do with this team."

Marian Hossa was informed about Crawford not being named a Calder finalist by reporters after Chicago's morning skate and seemed stunned by the news.

"He wasn't," Hossa said. "Wow. That's a big surprise to me. He played so many games. He won so many games. That's a big surprise."

CHICAGO -- Third periods have been an issue for the Chicago Blackhawks all season long and nothing has changed in this series against the Canucks.

The Blackhawks and Canucks each have two goals in the third period through three games, but the Canucks were able to hold the Blackhawks back in Game 1 and outscore them in Game 3. The Hawks needed to play their best period of the series in the third period of Game 3, but they wound up playing one of their worst.

They were 0-for-2 on the power play and managed only seven shots on goal. Mikael Samuelsson scored a goal off a rebound from the slot 6:54 into the period and that was enough for the Canucks to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

"It was 2-2 going into the third and we've got to fight to get that goal," Patrick Sharp said. "Giving one up and chasing from behind is not the answer we're looking for. Every game presents different situations, but we'd like to be better in the third period, that's for sure."

Fourteen times this season the Blackhawks entered the third period tied or with a lead only to come away with no points. If they forced even half of those games into overtime, they would have at least opened the playoffs at home as the fourth seed.

The Hawks are still searching for answers for their third period woes.

"If I knew we would have found a solution to that already," captain Jonathan Toews said. "It's just been a re-occurring theme where maybe it's something that snowballs on us, we put added pressure on ourselves to make plays and we end up making mistakes off of them."

Patrick Kane said the Blackhawks sometimes fall into the habit of feeling good after the second period.

"And we start playing a little bit differently (in the third) to kind of force and get another goal," he said, "But, I think the biggest part of our game that we want to get going is to play a full 60 minutes and keep it the same way. If we play like we did in the first period (Sunday) throughout the whole night we should be successful."

Toews said the Hawks can't be worried about the trends that have dogged them all season. Not now at least.

"We've got one more game to go out there and play our best hockey, keep ourselves alive in this series," Toews said. "We can't be focused on things like that."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

After Chicago started this season without many of the key characters involved in recent disputes and verbal barbs with the Canucks, there were some who felt the rivalry was cranked down a notch.

Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp says that it not the case and this series is only adding fuel to the fire on their side of it.

"Anytime you play a team in the playoffs once it becomes a rivalry," he said. "Going back two years ago, we had a great series with Calgary and every time we've played them since in the regular season it's been a heck of a game. I don't think the (Vancouver) rivalry is ratcheted down at all. Two teams that both want to win. Two teams that are playing hard. It's still there."

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville was asked on Monday whether he needs to start targeting certain Canucks players with more physical play, as it appears Vancouver might be doing with several Hawks stars.

His answer was interesting and ultimately alluded to Chicago needing to bring more physical play to the ice when the top line featuring Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin go over the boards.

"The Sedins is who you're probably looking at and I think that … eventually they're going to get opportunities," Quenneville said. "It's the quality (chances) that you try to eliminate. They had some finish there the last couple of games, but certainly you start getting into that war, where all of a sudden you target guys and you put them on the power play and they’ve got a very good power play."

That doesn't mean go lightly on them, however. The Sedin twins have scored a combined 9 points in the last two games alone.

"You've got to be disciplined at the same time, with a purpose," Quenneville said. "But I still think we can me more engaged physically in this series and against those guys."

CHICAGO -- We in the media might call the answers boring, perhaps unworthy for our valuable (at least that's what we think) notebooks and recorders.

That doesn't mean the Vancouver Canucks are going to stop giving us those one-shift-at-a-time, one-day-at-a-time, one-win-at-a-time quotes following every media availability, be it after a practice or a game.

After being with the Canucks for five days and three playoff games, I've begun to think that they actually believe what they're saying, that these unhelpful answers actually mean something to this team and are not used as answers to questions they just don't want to deal with.

"The only position we're in is that we're going to get ready for our next game," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said following Sunday's 3-2 win at United Center. "We've taken it all year long on a one-game basis. We're playing a great hockey team, the Stanley Cup champions. We're going to practice (Monday) and get ready for the next game."

Maybe it's a sports psychology thing -- I don't know -- but the fact is that the Canucks don't just preach this stuff, they act on it. They really do live in the moment and refuse to think about anything else, past or future.

What happened last season against Chicago? Please, not an issue or a concern.

What they did in Games 1 and 2 at home? History that doesn't matter now.

What could potentially happen Tuesday in Game 4 now that they have a 3-0 lead in the series? Let's just wait until we get to Tuesday, OK.

"I think they've got some great guys over there -- they're battlers and they're going to battle to the end," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "The players they have, their winners. It's going to be a tough battle here come next game."

That's the other thing about the Canucks -- they do not hesitate to heap praise on the Blackhawks, calling them the champs and a great team with every opportunity they get.

Not once have the Canucks given Chicago any fuel with an off-color or controversial comment. With no ammo, the Hawks haven't been able to fire back, either with their words in the dressing room or with their play on the ice.

"We've got one more to go and we know it's going to be a tough one, the hardest one so far," Roberto Luongo said, preaching the company line. "These guys are the Stanley Cup champions and they're definitely not going to quit. It's going to be even harder on Tuesday and we've got to be ready."

They will be. They just won't tell you how they do it.

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl

Last season, the Blackhawks were successfully able to get in the heads of several Vancouver players and make them commit retaliatory actions that wound up being penalties that led to Chicago power-play goals.

This time around, the Canucks are trying to flip the scenario around – and appear to be doing it well, having committed just five penalties combined in the first two games.

"Our whole game plan is to initiate not retaliate," Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said on Sunday. "We've done a good job of it so far. I don't see anything changing tonight."

If it doesn't, then the pressure will really increase for Chicago to improve its power play production (0-for-5 ) in the limited chances that happen.

"They've got a lot of skilled guys over there and can put out a good power-play unit," Vancouver center Ryan Kesler said. "You don't want to let those guys get going over there. You don't want to let their power play get out on the ice too much and get in a rhythm, where they might not be scoring – but they're generating momentum for their team. We just want to play good, hard hockey and stay out of the box."

Players on both sides say they're not worried about who comes over the boards for the other team when they're on the ice, but it’s something both coaches will be concerned with in Game 3.

In the first two games, Vancouver had the luxury of the final line change to match star center Ryan Kesler – a dynamic two-way player—against the Hawks' top line of Toews, Sharp and Hossa. Now that the series has shifted to the United Center, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville will get the last change and likely try to get his top line away from Kesler's as much as possible.

Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault will then have to find ways to match Kesler's line up with Toews' on the fly whenever possible. Kesler's ability in this series thus far is similar to the way injured Chicago center Dave Bolland gave the Canucks' Sedin twins fits last year in the playoffs – only Kesler is also a top goal-scorer.

"He's a good player and he does just about everything right out there," Sharp said of Kesler. "He's a hard-nosed guy. He's in your face. He's got speed, strength and is a 40-goal scorer, as well. He can hurt you in a lot of ways and he's a tough guy to match up against."

Toews went so far as to say the Hawks need to reverse the strategy and target Kesler more – the same way they try to lock down the Sedins.

"He's a guy that maybe we don't focus on enough and maybe we've got to find some ways to expose him a little bit," Toews said. "There's many ways to do that. It's just about doing that tonight. Whatever line's up against that line, you're just as concerned with a guy like him as we are, say, the Sedin twins."