Best of 3: Hawks 3, Flyers 5
What can I say? I'm sure Hawks fans are going out of their minds right now. There's nothing I can think of to calm you down. The Hawks outplayed the Flyers tonight and lost. They lost because the Flyers were able to exploit 3 bad breakdowns and grab another fluke goal. It doesn't really matter now, because the series is tied at 2 and Sunday's game has officially become MUST WIN.
Not much to say. The Hawks power play is still shit, and their penalty kill didn't look good until they decided to attack with it, probably not a coincidence. I thought Quenneville made some odd choices with his lineup changes. Boynton for Hendry didn't affect much, but Ladd's insertion into the lineup saw Kopecky moved to the 2nd line and Brouwer dropped to the 4th. Not sure why this would be after Brouwer had shown some good chemistry with Hossa in the previous games, but it didn't matter too much as once the Hawks got down by two goals, Q spun the wheel o' lines to see what he could come up with. Anyway, the Hawks played all those games in the regular season to get home ice advantage, and it appears now that they're going to need it.
THE GOOD
Brian Campbell - in the third period, Campbell finally came to life. He led breakouts, made sharp passes and scored a goal. The Hawks need sixty minutes of this guy to win the series.
Duncan Keith - Keith played a great game, that is until the last minute when Jeff Carter beat him to a puck in the neutral zone for the game sealing empty net goal. But Keith was everywhere on the ice and had 3 assists. The Hawks blue liners are finally producing.
THE BAD
Niklas Hjalmarsson - Hammer had two lousy turnovers, both of which led directly to Flyers goals. The first came when he was run down by Mike Richards as Niklas was carrying the puck around the net on a PK. Richards stripped the puck and flipped the puck past Niemi before anyone new what happened. The second came when Hammer whiffed on a clearing attempt on a puck he had right in front of the crease. Instead of taking his time, he shot a weak backhander right onto the waiting stick of Matt Carle who buried it in the back of the net.
Ville Leino's Horseshoe - Leino has 3 goals in this series, and all 3 have been horseshit. The first came when a floater took a fluke bounce off Niklas Hjalmarsson into the net. The second came when a strange bounce off Jordan Hendry landed right on his stick for an easy put back. And the 3rd came tonight when another floater bounced off Kris Versteeg's back and floated into the net. The announce crew keeps trying to tell me how great Leino is, but fuck that. He's lucky as hell. Granted, in a short series that might be better than being good.
Dumbass Penalties - The Hawks took 6 more penalties tonight, including 2 consecutive to open the game. Ladd and Kopecky both took idiotic minors in the first 5 minutes of the game, and Kopecky's led to the Flyers 1st goal.
Comcast - My motherfucking cable was out today. It's only out at my house. Comcast says it should be fixed by next WEDNESDAY. Special thanks to reader denrizz who took pity on me and made this marvelous recap possible.
THE UGLY
The truth is ugly. Despite the opinion of many in the local media who've been watching hockey for nearly 3 and a half weeks, this is not going to be easy. The Hawks and Flyers are in locked in a death match, and the Hawks are going to need more than talent to win this thing. Let's hope they bring it.
Up next: Sunday night at the United Center. Biggest game of the season. The UC crowd is going to be on edge, and it will be imperative that the Hawks score first to keep them in it.
Not much to say. The Hawks power play is still shit, and their penalty kill didn't look good until they decided to attack with it, probably not a coincidence. I thought Quenneville made some odd choices with his lineup changes. Boynton for Hendry didn't affect much, but Ladd's insertion into the lineup saw Kopecky moved to the 2nd line and Brouwer dropped to the 4th. Not sure why this would be after Brouwer had shown some good chemistry with Hossa in the previous games, but it didn't matter too much as once the Hawks got down by two goals, Q spun the wheel o' lines to see what he could come up with. Anyway, the Hawks played all those games in the regular season to get home ice advantage, and it appears now that they're going to need it.
THE GOOD
Brian Campbell - in the third period, Campbell finally came to life. He led breakouts, made sharp passes and scored a goal. The Hawks need sixty minutes of this guy to win the series.
Duncan Keith - Keith played a great game, that is until the last minute when Jeff Carter beat him to a puck in the neutral zone for the game sealing empty net goal. But Keith was everywhere on the ice and had 3 assists. The Hawks blue liners are finally producing.
THE BAD
Niklas Hjalmarsson - Hammer had two lousy turnovers, both of which led directly to Flyers goals. The first came when he was run down by Mike Richards as Niklas was carrying the puck around the net on a PK. Richards stripped the puck and flipped the puck past Niemi before anyone new what happened. The second came when Hammer whiffed on a clearing attempt on a puck he had right in front of the crease. Instead of taking his time, he shot a weak backhander right onto the waiting stick of Matt Carle who buried it in the back of the net.
Ville Leino's Horseshoe - Leino has 3 goals in this series, and all 3 have been horseshit. The first came when a floater took a fluke bounce off Niklas Hjalmarsson into the net. The second came when a strange bounce off Jordan Hendry landed right on his stick for an easy put back. And the 3rd came tonight when another floater bounced off Kris Versteeg's back and floated into the net. The announce crew keeps trying to tell me how great Leino is, but fuck that. He's lucky as hell. Granted, in a short series that might be better than being good.
Dumbass Penalties - The Hawks took 6 more penalties tonight, including 2 consecutive to open the game. Ladd and Kopecky both took idiotic minors in the first 5 minutes of the game, and Kopecky's led to the Flyers 1st goal.
Comcast - My motherfucking cable was out today. It's only out at my house. Comcast says it should be fixed by next WEDNESDAY. Special thanks to reader denrizz who took pity on me and made this marvelous recap possible.
THE UGLY
The truth is ugly. Despite the opinion of many in the local media who've been watching hockey for nearly 3 and a half weeks, this is not going to be easy. The Hawks and Flyers are in locked in a death match, and the Hawks are going to need more than talent to win this thing. Let's hope they bring it.
Up next: Sunday night at the United Center. Biggest game of the season. The UC crowd is going to be on edge, and it will be imperative that the Hawks score first to keep them in it.
Posted by CT at 6/4/2010 10:20 PM 
Categories: Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Friday Night Fights
Tags: Playoffs Blackhawks Friday Night Fights Flyers
Categories: Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Friday Night Fights
Tags: Playoffs Blackhawks Friday Night Fights Flyers
CT, thank goodness you're safe. We thought you'd been kidnapped by Flyers fans.
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PS Laviolette is one smart coach. Oh, wait a second, he won a Cup with Carolina.
Philly did play an excellent game defensively in all zones, and Hawks got very little net traffic.
Chicago can't win that way.
So they have tomorrow to figure it out.
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Is it because the Flyers big D men? Hawks look at times intimidated by not attacking hard. I don't see them winning another game. Laviolette is good but did he not get fired from Carolina and Islanders?why?
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He wore out his welcome with management both times.....the Islanders broke a loooong playoff drought when Laviolette came in, and he worked magic in Carolina, but the owner HATED him....even came out in the papers and said so...it was actually pretty funny...But he's a great coach....Hawks just don't look very good right now, they only showed some jump when the Flyers took their boot off the Hawks throat in the 3rd.
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Is it coaching or the players that are better than the Hawks? did the Flyers wear down the Hawks? I am not sure i want to see what's going to happen. Maybe sleep thru the next 5 to 6 days. Wake me up on june 11
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A good strategy would be to not weakly give the puck away in front of their own net.
Also, don't leave Giroux wide open on the goal line.
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Does that mean Nik Hjalmarsson won't be invited to bring his Swedish meatballs to your next barbecue?
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"the Hawks are going to need more than talent to win this thing."
Perfectly stated. I've thought the only reason this series has been so close is that the Hawks have been outcoached and outworked by the Flyers.
Blame any individual players you want, but this shit is on Quenneville. He's got a lot to prove in the department of having a talented team and being able to coach them to a cup victory. He's not getting the job done so far.
Finally, fuck the fuck outta Ville Leino. Everything's coming up Milhouse for him right now, but I'd like to see the media fellating his giant Finnish forehead next season while the Flyers are struggling and he's blaming his benching on Laviolette expecting him to forecheck.
Wake the fuck up, Hawks; it's embarrassing to watch this kind of shit in the Stanley Cup Finals.
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I've never exactly been President of the QStache Fan Club, and the fact that the Hawks have squandered their few Power Plays with the goddamn forward-on-the-point lunacy has driven me nuts.
But, yeah, Q has been getting outcoached in pretty much every facet. But the players on the ice aren't executing. No coach can go out and take the players' sticks.
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Well, there was that minor league coach... I also think Marc Crawford tried that during a hissy fit one time.
At this point, the coach doesn't have to motivate his guys, so if they look unmotivated, it's generally their own damn fault and I agree that most of the players just don't seem willing to do the hard work needed to win a game (Brian Campbell has been probably the most noticeable Hawk in the "moving his feet" department and that's not a good sign). But, a tricky thing is that bad coaching can also help make the players' look worse. For instance, if they're too worried about line-matching, working towards getting the line change off the faceoff can look a lot like undisciplined loafing, because you're never as aggressive when you're trying to get off the ice.
At any rate, the Hawks will still win this series. Good luck at game 5, Fork.
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By the way, honorable mention in the "BAD" category goes to Brent Sopel. Sope had two major mental mistakes - the first being that he didn't get in Richards' way at all as Hammer took the puck around the net on the first goal. The second was him following the puck way too high in the zone - Giroux was his responsibility on that goal.
Sope, if you're going to be a stay at home defenseman - STAY AT HOME!
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I just got finished dragging CT's empties to the recycling, so I can weigh in:
1) We have written a lot of flowery tributes to Number 19 on these pages the last few months. Time for him to earn that banner that's going up in 18 years.
2) Ditto to Marion Hossa. It's great to control the puck all over the zone, but it has to go in a few time.
3) Fork has to carry the day tomorrow night. A whole website community is relying on you.
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