Thoughts rattling around this bald head of mine:
-Not to pat myself on the back, but we theorized here that if the Hawks power play got rolling, they would win the series, and rather easily. That’s exactly what happened in Games 5 and 6, where both tempo and leads were established early in the game with the man advantage. This will also be the story coming up, as Vancouver will take penalties, and lots of them. They were shorthanded 24 times in four games with the Blues, and with the Hawks’ more plentiful speed and skill, there’s no reason to think we won’t see similiar penalty numbers again. If the Hawks dent twine when facing four or less skaters, they have every chance of winning the series. if they don’t, they don’t.
-The last two games against the ‘Nucks wouldn’t encourage any body, but we’ll just go with saying the regular season means nothing. Last time Pahlse came up against the Sedins in the playoffs, he marked them out so completely they had to be split up, which I’m sure caused them great confusion and lonlieness. Let’s hope Q goes that route instead of using Bolland against them, which led to Fabulous Weapon’s line pretty much getting mauled. We’ll be breaking down Vancouver more in-depth over the coming days here, but those are the top things in my mind. You should also check out Nucks Misconduct, they are pretty wonderful.
-I don’t want to be defeatist, and I certainly want to keep watching Hawks hockey for as long as I can this spring. However, before the season my most optimistic vision of the season was the 4th seed and 1st round win. I think most fans felt the same way. We’ve got that now, and I sort of feel everything from here on out is candy. I don’t want to see the Hawks get embarrassed or anything, but should we lose to Vancouver in a hard fought series, I’ll feel pretty good about what’s gone on over the past six months.