Time for talking is over between the Blackhawks and Canucks

It doesn't matter if Andrew Ladd and Ryan Kesler don't like each other, or if Dustin Byfuglien got in Roberto Luongo's head last spring.

The time for talking is over between the Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, who finally begin their much-anticipated second-round playoff series tonight at the United Center.

It's all about the hockey now.

"I think we're all focused on our jobs and what we need to do on the ice," Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. "Obviously there's been some incidents over the years and playoffs and playing these guys a lot, and things are going to happen, but our focus now is what happened on the ice."

Outside of the matchup in goal between over-aged rookie Antti Niemi and the experienced Luongo, the key to the series for the Hawks might be how Keith and defense partner Brent Seabrook are able to contain the dangerous Henrik Sedin.

The Canucks' center led the NHL in scoring with 112 points, 83 of them assists.

"We understand it's going to be a big part of (the series) and we have to be on top of our game to beat these guys, to beat the Sedins and hold them off," Keith said. "But it's more than just two defensemen; there's three forwards and a goaltender, too, and it's all part of it."

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville wasn't tipping his hand Friday about whether he would use Dave Bolland, Jonathan Toews or John Madden to check Sedin and linemates Daniel Sedin and Mikael Samuelsson.

Quenneville could start with Bolland having the assignment and give all his lines a crack at shutting down the Sedins.

Bolland has skated in practice all week with Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg.

"I'm going to say, earlier on, I don't think it will be too predicable, but I think everyone will get exposed to it at some point," Quenneville said.

In what figures to be a testy series, the Hawks could use Adam Burish in the lineup, but the feisty winger who played such a key role in the playoffs last spring said Friday he didn't know if he would be in or out of Game 1.

Burish, who played in only three of the six games in the first round against Nashville, thinks this series is going to be explosive.

"I think what you're going to see early on in the series is a lot of nastiness," Burish said. "You're going to see guys trying to kind of position themselves and set themselves up and maybe try to get in some guys' faces and disrupt some guys. Then as the series goes on you might see guys pull away a little bit."

It will be interesting to see if Quenneville uses either Jordan Hendry or Nick Boynton on defense, or if he dresses just five defensemen, uses Byfuglien up front and on the blue line and gets Burish into the lineup.

The only certainty with Byfuglien is that he will be in front of the net with Luongo on power plays.

"We're not really concerned about what Chicago's going to do with their lineup," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "We knew they have a great hockey team."

This won't be the Nashville series, when the Predators clogged up the ice and frustrated the Hawks. This is a series that features the two highest-scoring teams in the Western Conference.

"I think checking is going to be a priority as far as a mindset going into games and whoever does that better might have the edge," Quenneville said.