NO TIME TO BLEED: Predators 4, Blackhawks 1
The wierdness continues.After tonight's game in the United Center, both 8 seeds and both 7 seeds won the first game of their series.
The Nashville Predators rode the unconscious goaltending of Pekka Rinne, and added two empty net goals late to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 in the United Center, taking a 1-0 series lead.
Let's get right to it:
THE GOOD:
Marian Hossa. This is a man on a mission to stick the whole "Hossa Curse" business up everyone's ass. He was everywhere but the scoresheet tonight. If he keeps playing like this, he'll visit enough Nashville nightmares to be the subject of several country songs.
Seven-game series.Three Game 2s are complete as of this writing, and each one evened a series. There's a lot of hockey yet to be played. You have to be completely illiterate in hockey knowledge to think this series is anywhere near over. As Kevin Lowe used to say, a series never really began until Game 2. I'd say his 6 Stanley Cup rings gives him some authority on this subject.
THE BAD:
Mistakes. Nashville is a team that lulls teams into complacency. Even after the Hawks opened the scoring, Nashville stayed within their game, and waited. First it was J. P. Dumont bouncing a puck past Antti Niemi, then Troy Brouwer coughed one up in the defensive zone instead of clearing the puck, and Dumont wound up rolling one over Niemi for the lead. The Hawks are a disciplined enough team to not continue making these types of mistakes, so they should tighten their game up on Sunday.
THE UGLY:
Everyone off the damn ledge. The Hawks really made only a couple mistakes, and they paid. They'll be fine.
Oh, and the boneheads in section 308 who thought the best they could conjure up was heckling two Nashville fans because they had Preds sweaters without numbers or lettering. That shit was weak to the point of embarassment.
These two teams go again on Sunday in the United Center.
And our Friday Night Fight is from the last week of the regular season. Evander Kane absolutely PWNING Matt Cooke.
Enjoy.
Posted by Forklift at 4/16/2010 11:43 PM 
Categories: Chicago Blackhawks, Game Recap, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Nashville Predators, Friday Night Fights
Tags: Chicago Blackhawks Game Recap 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs Nashville Predators Friday Night Fights
Categories: Chicago Blackhawks, Game Recap, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Nashville Predators, Friday Night Fights
Tags: Chicago Blackhawks Game Recap 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs Nashville Predators Friday Night Fights
All about winnin' ugly.
And how about Patrick Kane? Joe Dirt delivered.
For that matter, Antti was darned good.
But it's those grizzled dudes like Jean Pierre who come from nowhere...
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...so no more giveaways at la ligne bleue, hein?
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the hawks struggle against trap teams especially in their own end but i dont think the hawks used their speed at all and it looked like the hawks were playing tight except for the second period or intimidated by the preds style of play and you would have thought the preds would be intimidated by the hawks skill. if the hawks play the same as game 1 through the rest of this series its a sweep. trap style hockey is so boring and i hate it. its the easy way for teams with limited talent to win i wish there was a way for the league to eliminate it
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Vito, I agree with you re: Hawks and the trap...that's just something they'll have to deal with.
Of course, having Campbell and Johnsson would have helped...
It's all about 'winning ugly' now. Goals off weird bounces, broken plays, goal mouth scrambles, etc etc....welcome to the playoffs.
Troy Murray was talking about the loss and reasons last night in the WGN Radio post game...some of his thoughts echoed the ones he talked about in this interview I did with him:
http://hockeyindependent.com/blog/david-morris/14338/
You and all our friends here at HockeeNight might enjoy reading it...
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i was at the game and my seats were behind niemi. he was very good and my gut feeling is he will get stronger as the series goes on. im confident in this guy he is a keeper IMO
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"You have to be completely illiterate in hockey knowledge to think this series is anywhere near over. As Kevin Lowe used to say, a series never really began until Game 2. I'd say his 6 Stanley Cup rings gives him some authority on this subject."
Yeah anywhere else. Same could be said for baseball but both freakin' fanbases's meatballs (who make up the the majority of the fans) think it's over in the playoffs once the other team takes the lead.
to steal a wrasslin' reference. This entire city's fans needs some testicular fortitude.
Also, We are now supposed to listen to Kevin Lowe? Was Mike Milbury not available?
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I'm talking about Kevin Lowe, defenseman. I refuse to believe he did anything else in his life.
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I thought that Lowe said a series doesn't start until the home team loses a game.
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Wasn't the quote, "The series doesn't start until everyone's had their Filet O' Fish."?
PS so far (as of this afternoon's Boston win over the Sabres) each series has seen a split between the two teams.
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BAD: The Ice was in absolutely horrible condition.
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You can thank the Washington generals for that.
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Freakin' Ovechkin.
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Dump. Chase. Win board battles. Get in front of net. Win special team. This. Gameplan.
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