A Good Start

Earlier today, the Blackhawks won an absurdly entertaining Game One of the Western Conference Finals 2-1 over San Jose.  Both teams had been fairly hot, with San Jose having won five straight at HP Pavilion, and the Hawks owning a five-game road playoff win streak.  The phrase "something's gotta give" comes to mind.  Both showed little to no effects of rust due to several days off, and scoring chances and runs of dominance were traded throughout (85 total shots were launched, with SJ edging out Chicago 45-40).  It was exactly what most observers expected out of this matchup - great hockey befitting the matchup of the 1 and 2 seeds in the conference.


But what it all came down to was the play between the pipes - Antti Niemi was sparkling in net, and Evgeni Nabokov just wasn't quite good enough.  Our resident Fin stopped 44 of 45 shots (32 in the second and third combined), many of them quality chances from the swarming Sharks.  In what was easily his best game as a Hawk, in my opinion, he kept his team in the game after the Sharks drew first blood on a Jason Demers power play goal, a deflected shot that went bar-down, blocker side, meaning Niemi had little to no chance of stopping it.  Other than that, he was absolute M-O-N-E-Y.  His best sequence was towards the end of the second period; the Sharks were on one of their five power plays, and a failed clear attempt by John Madden meant that San Jose had about 45-50 seconds of constant pressure on the Hawk net, and Niemi more than met the challenge.  His best stop of the night, and leader in the clubhouse for best stop of his career, came on a putback attempt by Ryan Clowe, where Niemi dove to his left and swiped the puck away with his outstretched glove.  Check it out on NHL.com, it was that good.  Coming into the playoffs, many Chicago fans weren't sold on Niemi, he being the owner of all of fifty career starts (most elite netminders have more playoff career starts than that), but those doubts can be pretty much set aside now.  If there was ever a time to fold, it might have been here, in the NHL's toughest place to play, with rabid fans waving those stupid white towels, facing arguably the league's top offense - but he most certainly did not.  Niemi rose to the challenge, as he has all postseason long.  He has two shutouts in these playoffs, and outplayed gold medalist Roberto Luongo in the semis.  If we weren't sure about him before the Nashville series, we sure as hell are now.

Well-deserved after a mammoth effort

Overlooked in these playoffs has been the contributions of one Patrick Sharp.  He's been perhaps our most consistent offensive weapon besides Captain Jonny Toews, who extended his playoff point streak to 10 games.  His second period goal not only tied the game, but it seemed to loosen his team up after playing catch-up for pretty much the whole game up until that point.  Basically, he got us up off the mat and into the game.  His goal seemed like a bit of a changeup, as Nabokov looked as fooled as some hitters do as they wave at a pitch that isn't even in the hitting zone yet.  Not the prettiest goal, but we'll most certainly take it, especially considering the circumstances.  

Not overlooked in these playoffs is the reemergence and impactful play of one Dustin Byfuglien.  He came up big again, scoring the game-winning goal with about seven minutes left in the game.  It seems the playoffs really are his time of the year.  The faceoff his goal came off of was Toews vs. Thornton, top gun vs. top gun.  While Thornton won most of his faceoffs early on, he faltered in the third, and the Hawks took advantage.  Toews won the draw, got it to Kane, who found a wide-open Buff in the slot, and a quick slapper found the back of the net.  Hopefully that short sequence is a harbinger of great things to come.

After we took our first lead of the day, every single person watching knew it was simply a matter of time until the Sharks began their final push to salvage the game, but they really racheted their play up another notch.  Niemi stood tall yet again, denying everything launched at him.  The Hawks nearly gave it away, committing a tripping penalty with just under a minute left to go.  With the Sharks also pulling their goalie, they had a 6-on-4 advantage, and Hawks fans everywhere were pulling their hair out.  We got a break therein, though, if that's even possible.  While replays clearly identified Dave Bolland as the perpetrator, the officials sent Kris Versteeg to the sin bin instead.  This is noteworthy due to the fact that Bolland is one of this team's better penalty killer, certainly more adept at that role than a Versteeg.  Regardless, the Hawks continued their stellar postseason on the penalty kill (87.9% for those of you keeping track) and killed this one off, and winning their first game one of a series since Calgary last spring in the process.  

One matchup that obviously bears watching as the series progresses is the top Sharks line of Marleau/Thornton/Heatley against the top Chicago D-pair of Seabrook and Keith.  Earlier, Keith and Seabrook both posted a +2 rating, while holding the top SJ line to nil in 5-on-5 play (all three men on said line were -2 for the day, leaving the new playoff legend best center in the series "rejuvenated" Jumbo Joe Thornton at a whopping -8 for the playoffs thus far).  I think it's safe to say our boys won round one.  

Now, for the hail of bullets

• Once the Hawks found their footing, and started to really cycle the puck in the SJ zone, there was really nothing the Sharks could do to stop us.  If the Hawks continue to do so, and thereby dictate the pace of these games, we stand a good chance of moving on
• The pace was crazy, perhaps to be expected from two teams that hadn't played in a week and 4 days, respectively
• To be fair, the Sharks did dominate for stretches, but the Hawks sustained and overcame those bursts with the depth of their defensive corps and the spectacular goaltending of Niemi
• Marian Hossa is gonna have a monster game one of these days, I tell you.  He was an absolute beast on the puck in both zones, and had a game-high six shots on goal.  It's not a matter of if, but simply when
• It's now six straight for the Hawks on the road in the playoffs - there are only good things that can come of this
• Five power plays for the Sharks, exactly zero for the guys in the white shirts.  A win on the road going 4/5 on the PK and not having a single power play - love it.  The Sharks can't be pleased they lost a game where that occurred, because we will get some calls...at some point
• Also taken, besides Game 1, was home ice - always nice to have, even though we've been wildly uneven at home so far in postseason play
• This is the first Game 1 victory for the Hawks since the OT win at home vs. Calgary last spring.  Some guy named Havlat tied the game quite late in the third, and the fans went home quite happy

Great way to start off the Conference Finals, but it only gets tougher from here - the Sharks will be in near-desperation mode come Tuesday night, as going down 2-0 to this team would be disastrous.  Also, you know the fans in the Bay Area still have the Sharks' recent playoff failures in the back of their minds - let's make another one for 'em.  

At the same time the Hawks were skating in SJ, the Cubs were battling the Buccos at Wrigley.  Good God...the Cubs...where to begin.  They suck right now.  That's were.  When they hit, they don't pitch.  When they pitch, they don't hit.  And sometimes they do very little of neither.  You know you suck when you lose five straight to the freakin' Pirates.  

But thankfully, they couldn't make it six, as the Cubs prevailed 4-3.  Lou Piniella got his 1800th win as a manager, becoming on the 14th man ever to do so.  Congrats, sir, here's to at least 70 more or so this season.  The winning tally came off a Xavier Nady pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth, set up by an Alfonso Soriano single, steal of second (!?!) and taking of third on a wild pitch.  Carlos Marmol was especially unhittable in closing it out, striking out the final two hitters and making Ron Santo laugh at their utter inability to hit his slider.  

It was only the 3rd Cubs win out of their last 12 - things have gotta turn around damn soon.  We're already 5.5 games out of first, and the Cardinals have been losing lately too, so it could be a lot worse.  In order to do so, the Cubs have to be better in close games.  When they score four or more runs, they play something like .800 ball.  But when the games are close, low-scoring affairs, they curl up a fetal position.  21 of their first 38 games have been decided by 2 runs or less, and they're only 7-14 in those games.  That's .333 baseball, which is not very good.  Fix this, boys - at some point this summer, I was actually planning on enjoying myself at Wrigley.     

Meanwhile, minicamp starts Friday; 74 days and counting until Bourbonnais.  Bearsssss