Ticking off opponents makes Bolland tick

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canucks winger Daniel Sedin said he had to go home after Game 3 and explain to his 4-year-old daughter why he got so angry on a couple of occasions at Dave Bolland and found himself in the penalty box.

"I explained to her it was not a good thing to go to the box," Sedin joked Friday. "I couldn't tell my daughter what I said to him."

Sedin normally doesn't need all the fingers on one hand to count the number of roughing penalties he gets in a season, but twice he went after the Hawks' center, whose job it has been in this series to check the Canucks' top line that features the Sedin twins.

"I heard from a lot of people that said those guys have never snapped like that," Bolland said. "I think he just got (ticked) off at me. I checked him last year and he never did that to me."

It was reported in a Vancouver newspaper that the roughing penalty Daniel Sedin got in Game 3 was the third of his career and that two of them have been against Bolland.

"Is that what it is?" Bolland asked. "It's a privilege then. It's my manner, I guess. I don't know what it is. It's fun. It's always a good time."

Maybe not to the Sedins, who were scoreless in Games 2 and 3 matched against Bolland, Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg.

"If you can get in their face, they don't like it," Bolland said. "Everybody hates that, but that's the way the game goes, right?

"It's a challenge against them because they're two great players. It keeps you on your toes because those two are always buzzing around and you never know where they are.

"One minute they can be right beside me and the next minute they're around the net. To shut them down and match them, it's tough."

This is the second year in a row in the playoffs that Hawks coach Joel Quenneville has used Bolland and Ladd as part of his checking line. The two were together with Martin Havlat last spring on a line that also was most dangerous.

This year the Bolland line had chipped in 2 goals as well in the first three games against the Canucks, both by Versteeg.

"That line gives us some energy," Quenneville said. "They have speed and they have quickness. They're more defensive-type players and if they keep the puck it's a bonus."

The Hawks actually drafted Bolland in the second round (32nd overall) in 2004 because of his ability to score. He was a prolific scorer for London in the Ontario Hockey League in 2005-06 with 130 points, but in the NHL, Bolland has shown the ability to be just as effective as a defender.

Bolland remembers in juniors how teams would send out players to check and annoy him.

"I hated it," he said. "They'd get on my nerves and I'd take stupid penalties and start jabbering as well. Nobody likes it when there's a guy always on you."

The Hawks still think Bolland can score 60 or 70 points someday.

"To stay in the league you have to do different things," Bolland said. "It would be nice if I could still be that big scorer here, but for now I have this role."