Chicago.com
What makes a good day great? Playoff games back to back with potential for series clinching victories for two different Chicago teams. That is the case tonight as the Bulls try to finish off the Pacers before the Blackhawks take on Vancouver in the all deciding Game 7 in British Columbia. We’ve discussed the situation of the Bulls in the previous article and it is time now to focus on the Chicago Blackhawks and the all important Game 7 in Vancouver.
I don’t want the Hawks to lose. Plain and simple. Duh, that goes without saying, right? Well, earlier in the series when the Hawks were playing disinterested and with no fire I wanted the season to mercifully come to an end. It was just sad to see our champs get absolutely manhandled by a team that we hate and that hates us. We all assumed that the Canucks were better, they were the top seed in the NHL for a reason, but what they did to the Hawks in the first three games was not a pleasant experience. Then, the hit on Seabrook happened and everything changed. Our guys started playing with more fire and the momentum has since completely shifted in Blackhawks’ favor. With the series tied at 3-3 it’s anyone’s game tonight and games 7 rarely disappoint, in hockey especially so.
After the shellacking that Vancouver took in games 4-5 they came to Chicago for Game 6 looking to change some thing. They said they were going to close the lanes better and allow less room for our players to feel comfortable and they did just that. Throughout the entire game on Sunday night they displayed their class with slick passing, physical play and timely scoring. Even the biggest Hawks fans would have to agree with the fact that Vancouver outplayed us for majority of the game but didn’t score when it mattered most. They led at 3 different times in the game but still came up short. They dominated the play in overtime but couldn’t find the winner, some might even say they were unlucky. If some had wondered who had the momentum up until now, well it’s pretty clear – WE DO!
Momentum is a strange thing. Vancouver had it for the first three games and then it disappeared from them faster than you can say elbow to the chin. They haven’t been to regain it since then. Home fans are certainly hoping they will do so tonight because if not this would just another in the long line of failures for this proud hockey franchise. The invincibility and the reputation that came with the league’s best record, league’s best offense and defense is completely gone right now. Our boys know and believe that they can do it and I believe that the mission will be completed tonight.
It will be crucial to score first tonight and if the Hawks do so they will be the fourth team in NHL history to come back from down 3-0 in a seven game series. I expect a close game tonight and I anticipate a very happy day tomorrow in Chicago. A late empty-netter will seal Vancouver’s faith and propel our team to the next round.
PREDICTION: Hawks 4 Canucks 2
Perhaps it was the best thing that happened to the Blackhawks.
Raffi Torres’ hit on Brent Seabrook in Game 3 has put one of the best players on the Blackhawks out of the lineup but it has ignited the rest of his teammates. Torres is known as a player who delivers blows like the one on Seabrook with an alarming regularity and it should not come as a surprise he did it again. The stupid part is that he was coming from a 4 game suspension for a hit similar to the one on Seabrook and he engaged into same kind of behavior in his first game back. Just for having no common sense to do something of that nature the NHL should have suspended him, but as is NHL’s nature it failed to penalize a repeat offender for not learning his lesson. 
Torres, his teammates and the Canucks coach all said that he didn’t lead with his elbow but the video and his reputation state otherwise. He clearly saw Seabrook looking away and wanted to send a message to Seabrook and the Blackhawks that this is Vancouver’s year. The message was sent alright but the recipient took it in a completely different manner.
For all we know the series seemed to be over. The first game in Vancouver saw the Hawks get physically manhandled by a bigger, stronger Canucks team looking for revenge. Canucks’ players all wanted to erase the memories of ’09 and’10 when they were ousted by the Hawks, all the while loosing their cool as another good year went down the drain. Game 2 was similar from a physical perspective although Hawks showed some signs of life. They kept fighting the whole game and in the end lost a tough one 4-3, while putting Canucks on their heels in the dying moments with the hope that the same energy will appear in Game 3 in Chicago. Game 3 came and so did another tough loss, a 3-2 defeat with most experts believing the current Stanley Cup champions were down and out. They all forgot something: Torres’ hit on Seabrook. The Blackhawks defender went into the locker room for observation but came back only to see his team lose and go down 3-0 in the series. The game may have been lost but something else, something that’s been missing was gained in that defeat – a champion’s wake-up call.
The Hawks came out flat in the first 3 games of the series for whatever reason. Following the hit on Seabrook in Game 3 they played with more intensity and fire and it has now translated into Games 4-5. They came out all guns blazing in Game 4 en route to convincing victory in front of a raucous United Center crowd. Conventional wisdom had everyone thinking that Vancouver would come out in Game 5 and try to enforce their physical presence on the Hawks yet again. Not this time around. 
The Hawks survived and early onslaught on Corey Crawford’s goal only to begin playing like last year’s team for the remainder of the game. Three Chicago goals in the first period, including two powerplay conversions, saw the noisy Rogers Center crowd become completely irrelevant bringing back memories of last year and two years ago. Even then you didn’t feel like the lead was safe enough, you felt like the Hawks would need to do some more scoring and simple dump-the-puck defending in order to force Game 6. That’s exactly what they did. Two more goals in the second period and some great defense by Corey Crawford saw the Hawks go on to a “comfortable” 5-0 victory, sending the entire British Columbia region into a massive state of panic.
Vancouver is still in the driver seat, no doubt about that. They are still the No.1 team with a potential Game 7 in its arena. It’s still Vancouver’s series to lose but that’s what so great about this matchup. Vancouver has shown to be a weak team – mentally, especially in the playoffs and especially against the Blackhawks.
Are they the more talented team? Yes, most experts will tell you so and not many can really argue with that. Throughout the first three games Canucks had the momentum and the belief that this is the year when all the demons go away and they finally skate by the Blackhawks. Over the past two games, however, that belief and most noticeably momentum has switched to the side of the Blackhawks. The Hawks are playing with confidence now and a chip on their shoulder, something that was missing before the Raffi Torres hit. A hit that was supposed be a message intimidating the opponent did the exact opposite; it woke up a sleeping giant and angered it on top of that. The Hawks are playing with conviction now and one can only imagine how loud the United Center will be come Sunday night. The city of Chicago knows when it sees a team on a mission, just ask the team from last year or even this year’s Bulls team.
The crowd will be incredibly loud tomorrow everyone knows that, no one better than the Vancouver players. This is not what they wanted. They wanted to finish this series quick all the while avenging their losses from the past two years. Now they are looking at neither of those. The series turned out to be anything but short and with the momentum completely on the Hawks side Vancouver might end up on the short end – AGAIN.
It’s a two game series now and for that we all have to thank one person that initiated the comeback: Raffi Torres.
Thanks Raffi. See you Sunday.
Sincerely,
Blackhawks fans everywhere
From eighth place to fourth place in a span of a week, the Blackhawks are all of a sudden in the thick of things in the Western Conference. It has been a great stretch for the Hawks, who have won eight in a row and have a very winnable game up next against the Florida Panthers on the road.
Last night the Hawks defeated Toronto for their eighth victory in a row and suddenly things are looking up for the Stanley Cup champs. All season long people (including myself) have been wondering if the Hawks will ever get it together and right the ship. It looks like that they have just done that. Within a couple weeks the Hawks have moved from the 13th spot and out of the playoffs, to the 4th spot now and a home playoff first round. It’s simply unbelievable to see how much difference a good week or even bad one can change the playoff picture.
No one has been more instrumental in the recent push than the captain Jonathan Toews. Toews has the most points in the NHL over the last month and is showing to all those that doubted him why he is the captain, as well as most likely Blackhawks’ best player. It’s not just about the points with Toews – it’s the other stuff he does, too.
His constant hustle and leadership might be worth more than the stat-sheet numbers, which he’s obviously filling up as of late. He is quiet when he needs to be and vocal when the team needs him the most. I, for one, have always been a little skeptical of Toews’ star status in this city and throughout the NHL ranks. Well, no more. No longer will I question anything about Mr. Toews. He has shown me all his qualities in the last month or so and is deservingly called an NHL superstar. Perhaps he is not seen as such on the national stage due to his quiet demeanor but that’s his style. He is not like Kane and that’s why all of this works. Toews has his ways and Kane his. Some will be more tolerated than others but that’s why this unique partnership between our two young stars works so well.
The question right now is simple: Can our Stanley Cup champs continue this impressive run and put some pressure on the Red Wings and perhaps steal the division crown that seemed lost? Detroit is only 6 points away and the division crown is actually within reach, something that was completely unthinkable just a couple of weeks ago. With 16 games remaining on the schedule and 3 of them against the Red Wings anything is possible.
If the Hawks continue playing the way they have over the last two weeks, the rest of the NHL is in trouble. The key is going to be maintaining this high level of play for another month and then a long (hopefully) playoff run. There will be some games between now and the playoffs where the team might come out flat, it’s how the squad respond in those instances that might determine how far this team will go.
One thing is for sure, it’s shaping up to be a great final month for the Hawks.
Anyone ready for the playoffs?
The signs are encouraging. The last three games are what people expected to see from the Stanley Cup champs all year long. Can it continue or is this just another tease by a team looking to find its way in the 2010/11 season?
The answer will come and that right soon. The next two games should tell us a lot about the state of the squad – a home and away game against two teams ahead of them in the standings. It’s time to show the rest of the conference that this team is still a force to be wrecking with and the road to the Stanley Cup STILL goes through Chicago.
The Blackhawks currently sit eighth in the Western Conference with Dallas and Nashville tied at 70 points with them respectively. Four teams ahead of the Hawks are only separated by five points and five teams behind our Stanley Cup champs are separated by five points. It’s hard to name such an instance in the NHL where 10 teams were separated by 10 points. The lower seeds in the West will be decided most likely in the last week of the season, a headache that the Hawks are hoping to avoid with a quality display in the final 21 games of the season. Is that likely? Probably not, but the play as of late has been better, considerably better.
It all starts with the next two games. First off, the Sunday game against the Phoenix Coyotes. Phoenix has been red-hot as of late and is currently sitting 4th in the Western Conference. Coyotes have won 8 out of their last 10 games and are certainly peaking at the right time. The good news for the Hawks is that they are only five points behind the 4th spot in the conference. That means a first round home playoff series, where only a week or so ago they were sitting in the 11th spot – that’s how tight things are in the West.
The game on Monday is equally as important, and it is against the Minnesota Wild, a team only two points ahead of the Hawks. It might be cliché to say but it looks as though the Blackhawks and several other teams will be in the playoff mode for the remainder of the regular season. The good news about that is the history of teams who fight it out till the end to get into the playoffs. There is no better example of that than last year’s Philadelphia Flyers team. The Flyers won a shootout in the last game of the season to get into the playoffs and rode that momentum all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Perhaps the Hawks could do something similar this year.
The time to start is right now and there is no better for it than tomorrow’s game against Phoenix.
So, we’ve covered the Bulls and the Bears here at Chicago.com and now we are going to include another team in that – our Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks. It wouldn’t be fair to focus solely on the Bulls and Bears without giving our champs some quality “Ice Time.” The NHL season is extremely long and there are a ton of ups and downs as the Blackhawks have themselves experiences thus far this season.
First things first, the Hawks’ record is 21-17-3. That is 21 wins, 17 losses and 3 overtime losses for those not in the know on how NHL divides its points. Perhaps people expected more from our champions at this point of the season but there are numerous reasons why the season hasn’t gone the way all of us had hoped for .
The main reason for the “slow” first half of the season has been the new faces. There is no other way to say it. The Hawks lost 9 players that played an important part in last year’s championship success and simply couldn’t replace them with the same quality players, due to salary cap restrictions. 
Players like Versteeg, Burish, Byfuglien and Ladd all had to leave and players like Stalberg, Scott and Bickell came in, as well as youngsters like Skille and Morin got their chance to show off their talent. The Hawks also lost their goalie in Antti Niemi and replaced him with the old veteran Marty Turco. That goalie move has not worked out at all thus far, since youngster Corey Crawford has overtaken the starting goalie spot and has done extremely well.
The other reason for Hawks’ woes has been the injuries. Sure it may sound like I am making excuses at this point but it really has affected the way the Blackhawks have had a bumpy first half of the season. First off Marian Hossa was injured for a while and then after he was healthy got injured again. A team is going to be affected when a player of Hossa’s caliber misses some time, regardless how talented the rest of the squad might be. He is one of the best players on the team and also one of the most liked guys on the squad as well, therefore the chemistry will suffer.
Aside from the Hossa injury Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have missed some time due to injury as well. 
In hindsight, if a team misses 3 of his top players for an extended period of time there is no way the performance will not suffer as a result of that. Monday night against the Los Angeles Kings, all three of the aforementioned players were on the ice at the same time and the game resulted in a hard fought victory. If the squad stays healthy for the remainder of the season the Hawks should be in the thick of things come playoff time.
We will visit the Hawks next week again here on “Ice-Time” as the Blackhawks host the next four games at the United Center.