Series Schedule
| Date | Score | W. Goal |
| May 29 ’13 | ||
| May 27 ’13 | ||
| May 25 ’13 | ||
| May 23 ’13 | ||
| May 20 ’13 | ||
| May 18 ’13 | DET 4 at CHI 1 | B. Smith |
| May 15 ’13 | DET 1 at CHI 4 | J. Oduya |
There have been a ton of phrases flying around since Saturday’s 4-1 loss. “Playoff intensity,” “compete level'” and everyone’s favorite word “flat” have been appearing in newspapers and websites across the city. The Hawks showing on Saturday have left many fans prematurely hitting the panic button. You should not have expected the Wings to look as bad as they did in Game 1 the whole series. Nor should you expect the Hawks look as bad as they did in Game 2 for the rest of this series either. The Blackhawks kind of “ho hummed” there way through the Minnesota series. For two periods in Game 1 they went Spinal Tap on the Wings and cranked their game up to 11. They reverted back to the team we saw against the Wild, which will not fly against this Wings team. These are the types of things that happen in the course of a playoff series. The Hawks are not going win every game. Every team is going to have a clunker or two along the way. The 2010 team that won the Cup did not win every game by 5 goals, and neither will this team. It’s one loss in a best of seven series, its not the end of the world. If the Hawks pull another “no show” tonight and get their asses handed to them in Game 3, then its time to be concerned. Even if the Hawks lose tonight, but play with all cylinders firing, it won’t be the end of the world. The Hawks just need a split in Detroit to regain home ice advantage, an arena in which they are 9-2 their last 11 trips to.
Viktor Stalberg will make his return to the lineup tonight after being a healthy scratch for the first two games of the series. Michal Handzus will be playing tonight as well, even though he did not take normal line rushes in practice today. This means Daniel Carcillo will be watching from the press box tonight, which is just fine with me. Dave Bolland took rushes with the 2nd line, so will probably see Handzus on the 4th line tonight.
Johanthan Toews was very critical of the officiating after Game 2. Besides the blatant cross check to the back of his neck from Henrik Zetterberg, there was nothing occurring that is out of the ordinary for playoff hockey. Does Toews have enough pull in the league to get a call or two in tonight’s game? We’ll find out, I guess. The best way to remedy the mugging Toews has been getting, is for Brandon Saad to step up and make the Wings have to worry about him as well. We are down a best of five series now, so it should be a good one tonight at the Joe.
Probable Blackhawks Lineup:
Forwards
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Marian Hossa
Patrick Sharp – Dave Bolland – Patrick Kane
Bryan Bickell – Andrew Shaw – Viktor Stalberg
Marcus Kruger – Michal Handzus – Michael Frolik
Defensive Pairings
Duncan Keith – Niklas Hjalmarsson
Brent Seabrook – Nick Leddy
Johnny Oduya – Michal Rozsival
Goaltender
Corey Crawford 5-2, 1.64 GAA, .937 save %, 1 SO
Leading Scorers
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | GW |
| P. Sharp | 7 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| M. Hossa | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| P. Kane | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Keith | 7 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| B. Bickell | 7 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Probable Red Wings Lineup:
Forwards
Johan Franzen – Pavel Datsyuk – Justin Abdelkader
Valtteri Filppula – Henrik Zetterberg – Daniel Cleary
Gustav Nyquist – Joakim Andersson – Damien Brunner
Patrick Eaves – Cory Emmerton – Drew Miller
Defensive Pairings
Niklas Kronwall – Jonathan Ericsson
Brendan Smith – Kyle Quincey
Carlo Colaiacovo – Jakub Kindl
Goaltender
Jimmy Howard 5-4, 2.58 GAA, .916 save %, 0 SO
Leading Scorers
| Player | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | GW |
| H. Zetterberg | 9 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| D. Brunner | 9 | 4 | 3 | 7 | -1 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| P. Datsyuk | 9 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| D. Cleary | 9 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| V. Filppula | 9 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -1 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
Playoff Stats
| HAWKS | STATS | WINGS |
| 7 | GP | 9 |
| 5 | W | 5 |
| 2 | L | 4 |
| 1 | OT | 1 |
| 0 | P | 0 |
| 0.714 | P% | 0.556 |
| 3.14 | G/G | 2.56 |
| 1.71 | GA/G | 2.89 |
| 16.7 | PP% | 18.8 |
| 100 | PK% | 73.3 |
| 33 | S/G | 29.9 |
| 27.1 | SA/G | 31.9 |
| 48.9 | FO% | 52.2 |