Well, Then

Give all the credit in the world to the Flyers, they really came out strong in the two games played in Philly this past week. Just as in their series against Boston, an overtime win at home seems to be the impetus for a stunning resurgence.  The Hawks lost that tight Game Three, and tonight's Game 4, a 5-3 game that wasn't all that close until the Hawks made it interesting with two goals scored with less than ten to go in the game.  They had some good chances to tie it up with Niemi on the bench, but it was too little, too late.  By all rights, the Hawks should have owned this game.  They had a good deal more faceoff wins than the Flyers, and they outshot them by a decent margin too, all good signs of improvement from the Game Three loss.  But Philly simply did all the little things right, and was greatly aided by two inexcusable, unforgivable defensive lapses by the normally solid Nicklas Hjalmersson (who's had a great postseason, it must be said), which led directly to two unassisted Philly goals in the first period, igniting the sellout crowd and sending the Flyers well on their way to tying the series.  Then, just as in the third period of Game Three, we scored a seemingly huge goal to quell the momentum, but the Flyers scored less than thirty seconds later to retake their two-goal advantage.  This cannot - cannot - continue.  We basically gave Philly two goals tonight, and another came when an errant shot hit Versteeg's ass and floated over Niemi's right shoulder while he was looking for the shot above his left.  Really the best thing to take away from this was the Hawks' shuffled lines being much more productive in the third period - if that continues, and we get the crowd going with an early goal or two on Sunday just like Philly did tonight, I think we'll be OK.  When it comes down to it, the Flyers held serve on home ice.  Is it disappointing, maybe even a little disheartening to come back tied in the series 2-2? It sure as hell is.  Now, maybe we were a little intoxicated with the Blackhawks' recent road success against Vancouver and San Jose, but I still thought they'd grab at least one.  They didn't, and now this series is a verifiable dogfight.  The Hawks are gonna have to toughen up significantly, and start winning some board battles.  Also, the passing needs to be crisper - I can't count how many times errant passes kicked off skates, or led the receiver just a little too much, sometimes leading to odd-man rushes for the opponent.  In the two road games, the Hawks just looked a little out of sync, a little out of sorts.  Perhaps a little home cooking is just what the doctor ordered...


It's come down to this: a best-of-three to decide the victor of the Stanley Cup Final, with two games at the UC.  A win Sunday would go a looooong way towards bringing that Cup to Chicago.  It's the biggest game for this franchise in many, many years, I have no doubt that we'll see an inspired Hawks effort.  Bring it, gentleman