During the Stanley Cup playoffs, you hear a lot about “mental toughness”. Even if things aren’t going your way, the bounces seem to be in the favor of the other team, you need to keep your cool. You need to gather yourself up and focus on the next play, the next check, the next shift.

Emotions run high in the playoffs. Its a physical sport where a mental edge can be the difference in an otherwise close series. And the mental edge in the Chicago/Vancouver series belongs squarely to the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks are living rent-free in the heads of the Canucks. If you look between Daniel Sedin’s ears, you can see Kris Versteeg lying on a futon. Jonathan Toews is playing Xbox in Alex Burrows’ noggin. And in Roberto Luongo’s gray matter? Dustin Byfuglien is doing some spring cleaning; he’s been there since this time last year.

Toews beats Luongo...again.

Friday night, in front of a raucous home crowd in Vancouver, the Canucks gave up seven goals. Six of those goals beat goaltender Roberto Luongo. And three of them were scored by the same guy, Jonathan Toews. Its the second time in as many games that a Blackhawk player has had a hat trick, not exactly something that should happen to a goalie that just backstopped the Canadian National Team to a gold medal and who plays on a team that prides itself on its tough, physical play. But the real story in the game isn’t the goaltending in this game, or the ‘Hawks potent offense.

It was the complete and total disciplinary breakdown by the Canucks.

The game was close until a little past the midway point of the second period, with Chicago leading 3-2. Daniel Sedin committed an interference penalty, and the ‘Hawks capitalized on the penalty at 12:47 to make the score 4-2. Then Vancouver imploded. Sedin immediately got another penalty for cross-checking, and Alex Burrows joined him in the penalty box less than a minute later when he mistook Dustin Byfuglien’s neck for the puck. The resulting 5-on-3 gave Toews his hat trick and the Blackhawks a three goal lead. From that point, the outcome was never really in doubt. Vancouver scored twice more before the final horn sounded, but then so did the Blackhawks. In the end, the 2nd period was the difference in the game.

And that’s why this series won’t last to six games. The Blackhawks are poised to eliminate the Canucks on Sunday in front of a big mother-loving crowd at the United Center in Chicago. And there’s nothing about the play and the complete loss of control by the Canucks on Friday that suggest they can bounce back to be a factor in this series. After game one, a blowout loss for Chicago, I questioned whether the Blackhawks had the goaltending and the mental toughness to stay in the series. I see now that my skepticism was unfounded. After the last three games, my skepticism is focused squarely at the Canucks. We’ll know by next week whether Vancouver can stick around. After Friday night, I highly doubt they last through Sunday. Chicago is going to send the Canucks home to their mothers on a very fitting day.