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ST. LOUIS -- Git 'r' done.
Vancouver Canucks coach Alain Vigneault says look at the history of the teams that have won the Stanley Cup.
Champs get rid of chumps early to make the four-round marathon easier to run.
OK - that wasn't exactly quote-unquote.
"If you plan to go a long way and get it done, you want to get it done early. Good teams get it done early," Vigneault said yesterday.
The Canucks have their own experience with the git 'r' done deal in the wrong direction two years ago.
The last time Vancouver was in this position, the Canucks were up 3-1 to the Dallas Stars in the opening round and headed home for Game 5.
They lost and then went back to Dallas and lost again and ended up going to Game 7 to get it over.
Historians will note that the Anaheim Ducks dispatched Vancouver in five games in the next round and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
"I've been trying to turn the page on what happened two years ago, but if you are a player you want to learn from things," suggested the coach of the team which has scored 2-1, 3-0 and 3-2 wins over the Blues in what has been an excellent series to watch so far despite the fact the Canucks are in position to wrap it up tonight.
Two years ago that Vancouver team which was up three games to one was visibly excited going home in control of the series. But the team that skated here yesterday showed no sign of being giddy whatsoever.
And that may be the big difference between these two teams. The nucleus of the Canucks has learned some playoff lessons. The nucleus of the Blues hasn't been in the playoffs since 2004, when some of them weren't even playing junior hockey yet.
You could also look up something else.
In their 38 years in the NHL, the Canucks have never won a Stanley Cup. They have also never swept a playoff series.
Unless the owner of the Canucks drops around, you have to figure they'll play as hard as we've seen them play in the first three. The owner probably wouldn't be totally distraught if his hockey team lost Game 4 here tonight. Each home gate in General Motors Place is said to be worth $3 million.
While some would suggest an eight or nine day wait between an end of the series against the Blues and the start of the second round might put, if you can handle the hyperbole, as much rust on everybody as Mats Sundin had on him when he showed up at mid-season, Vigneault insists git 'r' done is rule No. 1.
The Canucks were in full up-three-nothing "it's not over until it's over, toughest one to win is the fourth one" cliche mode yesterday.
Vigneault was preaching for his team to impose the will they've shown particularly in third periods very early in this one. Show a team down 3-0 a refuse-to-lose look early and it can save a lot of stress late.
It looks like, for the second game in a row, the Canucks will try to do it without Sundin.
"I feel about the same as I did after Game 2," said the former Toronto Maple Leafs captain, who did not skate yesterday and is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury.
"I don't want to talk about when the injury happened," said Sundin.
"We'll see in the morning," he said of being able to go tonight, although it doesn't seem to make much sense with Game 5 not until Friday back in Vancouver.
"It's disappointing. Obviously I want to be out there every shift and for every game."
How much will the Canucks miss Sundin after not missing him at all in Game 3?
While he did score the winning goal in the 3-0 Game 2 win - his first playoff goal since 2004 -Sundin was judged by one Vancouver scribe as "awful" in Game 1 and the reviews weren't much better in Game 2.
Clearly, he doesn't have his wheels anymore but he's proved on occasion that his experience, his size and still being difficult to deal with around the net makes him an asset on the second half of the power play.
Whatever, all indications are that Sundin will be back.
It's the Blues they don't want to see come back.