Hard Hawk Hockey

Can Hawks Avoid Elimination?

With both teams having players that will not be dressing for tonights game, the Chicago Blackhawks regardless must pull out all the stops in order to prevent their season from being over tonight.
The Wings will be without Lidstrom, Datysuk and Draper. Same as Sunday. The Hawks look like they will be without Khabibulin and Havlat. Almost the same as Sunday, since Havlat only played 7 minutes, and Khabibulin sat out the entire game.

What needs to happen for the Hawks to win? Well for starters, they need to play 60 minutes of solid hockey. No letting up, no mistakes and most of all no dumb penalties.

Cristobal Huet needs to stop everything shot at him. If he gives up an early goal or two, this game could be over. He has to play the best he has ever played tonight. He potentially is the number one goalie for the Hawks for the next couple seasons and if the team ever needed a confidence builder, tonight is the night.

How about a goal or two for Patrick Kane? He has yet to score in this series, and that could be a difference maker for the Hawks. He doesn’t have to get a hat trick, but an early goal or two goals from him is going to be helpful.

No bonehead plays by Bryan Campbell. I may have been a bit harsh on him with my last post, but for godsakes, just have better judgement. We know you can skate, we know you can create offense, but at some point you need to realize that you are not the second coming of Bobby Orr. There is no time for forced plays unless you are absolutely sure you have it!

Kris Verstreeg, I hope you have learned that if you can’t carry the puck over the blue line cause the “D” is stacked, then just dump it in. Please! No need for individual play by anyone here. This is going to have to be a team effort in every sense of the word.

Play like they played in games 2 and 3, and don’t let frustration in. There are no excuses after tonight, so no reason to not let loose and give it everything you have. As Patrick Sharp was quoted as saying, we can’t win 3 games in one night. He’s right, the final game of a series is usually the most difficult to win for some teams. All the Hawks need to do is what I listed above and win this game. Then we can worry about game 6.

They have had 2 days off, and if they win tonight, they’ll have two more days off since game 6 isn’t until Saturday night at the UC. So being tired should not be an excuse. They can win on the road, and maybe being on the road will force them to play a pure and simple game with minimal mistakes. Get an early lead, and take the Wings fans out of the game.

As numb as I felt after Sunday’s debacle, and as sick and tired as I have grown listening to everyone write this series off, I have new found hope today! Hope is good. Hope can transform any situation into a positive one. I have resigned myself to feel that anything is possible. Win this game first. Redeem yourselves tonight boys. Prove to the NHL and the rest of the viewing public that Sunday was a mistake, that as part of growing up, frustration took the better of you. However also prove that you learned a valuable lesson, even though that lesson may have cost you your season, all that can be wiped away and forgotten with a solid effort tonight.

Another positive note is that those of us in the states won’t have to listen to that windbag Pierre McGuire as he genuflects all over his microphone about his love affair with the Wings. I swear that if I have to listen to his blabber any more I am going to shoot myself. His obvious preference for the Wings to repeat as champions has become very obvious with his erection speaking prose! Enough already!

Once again, I look up to the hockey gods (as if there are any) and ask for your guidance for our boys. I don’t want this season to end. I need at least one more game after tonight. I’ll probably ask for another after that one too! Just don’t give up boys. Believe in yourselves and each other.

I do!!

Go Hawks!!

Thanks for reading.