Preview: Shut Up Tony!

Series Schedule/Results

To say that tonight’s game is the biggest game of the year for the Hawks and is a “must win” is pretty obvious. If the Blackhawks don’t bounce back and win tonight, I don’t like their chances of winning the Stanley Cup. We all know that the Hawks came back to win three straight against the Red Wings. Coming back from 3-1 deficits in playoffs does not happen very often. Doing it twice in the same year happens even less. And the chances of doing it against this Boston Bruins team is slim and none. These are not the Red Wings, so let’s win tonight. Q put Bryan Bickell and Patrick Kane back with Jonathan Toews on the top line. Both Bicks and Kaner have had their best games of the playoffs while skating with Tazer. In my opinion, this is a move that should have been made in the 3rd period of Game 2, when it was obvious that the Hawks offense needed a boost. Marian Hossa did not skate this morning but he is going to play. I couldn’t believe the amount of respected hockey writers that actually thought Jamal Mayers on the 2nd line could really happen.

Speaking of Hossa, I wanted to chime in on Tony Amonte’s asinine comments he made yesterday on CSN New England. Amonte took the hoagie out of his mouth long enough to pretty much call Hossa soft. Really? This is the same Marian Hossa that did not miss a game of the 2009 Final, while with Detroit, with a shoulder that was so bad that the recovery from the ensuing surgery caused him to miss the first 22 games of the 2010 season. This is the same Hossa that in the span of 7 seasons, 1999 to 2007, missed a total of 6 games. Amonte was quick to mention Nathan Horton’s ability to play through his shoulder injury. Yes, the brave Nathan Horton has been highly noticeable playing hurt the last two games. He’s been so effective that he played nearly 5 minutes less than his playoff average in Game 3. Just for the record Tony, Horton has missed 75 games in the last 5 years, 19 more than Hossa in the same period. Bad analogy from a bad analyst.

One final note, on a key to victory tonight, get the damn puck to the net! Tuuka Rask is 8-1 when he faces less than 30 shots this post season. His record when facing 30 or more shots is 6-4. To quote Rick Moranis in Spaceballs; “Keep firing, assholes!”

Probable Blackhawks Lineup:

Fowards

Bryan Bickell – Jonathan Toews – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Michal Handzus – Marian Hossa
Brandon Saad – Andrew Shaw – Viktor Stalberg
Marcus Kruger – Dave Bolland – Michael Frolik

Defensive Pairings

Duncan Keith – Brent Seabrook
Johnny Oduya – Niklas Hjalmarsson
Michal Rozsival – Nick Leddy

Goaltender

Corey Crawford 13-7 1.74 GAA, .936 save %, 1 SO

Leading Scorers

Probable Bruins Lineup:

Forwards

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Jaromir Jagr
Kaspars Daugavins – Rich Peverley – Tyler Seguin
Daniel Paille – Chris Kelly – Shawn Thornton

Defensive Pairings

Zdeno Chara – Dennis Seidenberg
Andrew Ference – Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug – Adam McQuaid

Goaltender

Tuukka Rask 14-5, 1.64 GAA, .946 save %, 3 SO

Leading Scorers

Team Playoff Stats

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