Follow JJ on Twitter @jaeckel!
There are a lot of ways you can look at last night's Blackhawk loss in Game 2 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
They lost a battle but may have gotten a little closer to winning the war.
They got shelled, and they need to be seriously concerned about the defense.
They won two periods in regulation, and lost four.
All of the above are at least partially true. But the larger realities are these:
The Hawks took a game on the road and now have home ice. They come home a lot healthier than the Predators. They have big questionmarks as far as their game 3 lineup, because even to beat a hobbled Predators team, they need to be considerably better.
To me, the largest issue was goaltending last night. To say it wasn't just ignores the obvious.
The Hawks had a lot of chances on Pekka Rinne, he stopped most of them. Corey Crawford was flailing and going down way too early all night. So he didn't stop many of Nashville's chances. With every mistake, he got worse. The team lost confidence. What resulted was the third period trainwreck you saw.
I have to wonder if Joel Quenneville wasn't itching a bit to pull Crawford when he went down way too early on Nashville's first goal. You could tell then Crawford was way off, as he was in game 1 before being pulled. He recovered a bit, but overall he struggled all night.
On the other hand, you have a guy who was outstanding—not lucky—just very good in relief in game 1. That's the guy you play now. Sure, let Crawford get with Jimmy Waite and get right. Until then, it's Darling's net.
The defense. Ugh, yeah, the defense.
Well, you can look at the glass half full and say the Preds are likely now down Shea Weber. But they just put the serviceable Anton Volchenkov in for Game 3. The Hawks have to cobble together a third pairing from Michal Rozsival, Kimmo Timonen, David Rundblad and Kyle Cumiskey.
The Crawford Apologists were all going off on Rozsival last night. Listen, the guy is a three-wheeled shopping cart. But what are your other options?
Eddie Olczyk actually suggested Rundblad last night, causing milk to shoot out my nose. Here's the problem there, aside from milk on my shirt. Rozsival is limited, but he competes. Rundblad is limited, but he doesn't compete.
Compete-level, regardless of skill level, is vitally important in the NHL playoffs. And it is the main reason the Preds have outplayed the Hawks for four of six regulation periods.
So, no, with all due respect to Edzo, I can't see the wisdom of inserting Rundblad into a game that counts as much as game 3 will. I hope Joel Quenneville can't either.
Timonen has shown me enough, wait, make that hasn't shown me enough, to where I have to agree with the doubters: he's finished.
So it seems your choices are the limited, but game Rozsival, and Cumiskey. Again, Cumiskey will compete, and he's incredibly fast.
Upfront, you have to go with Antoine Vermette, and probably sit Brad Richards. Richards is not giving you nearly enough offensively to justify his lack of speed and, yes, compete. And with the Preds hurting at center without Mike Richards, Vermette's skill in the dot is going to put all that much more pressure on Matt Cullen, Paul Gaustad, Mike Ribeiro and Calle Jarnkrok.
Hawk forwards just need to be a bit tougher to play against and better defensively. Vermette, historically, gives you those things. And he should be motivated.
For those reasons, and more, you also need to get Andrew Desjardins into the game. So Joakim Nordstrom (probably) takes a seat.
The Hawks need to be tougher to play against whistle to whistle, not taking dumb retaliatory shots after the whistles. That is the hallmark of a beaten team.
Someone needs to line up Craig Smith and/or Colin Wilson on a clean hit and make them understand there will be a price to be paid for skating into the slot like they're ten feet tall.
Until that happens, expect more of the same.
And with Weber possibly out for some or all of the series, and perhaps limited if he comes back, Hawk forwards (Bickell, Shaw, Desjardins) must relentlessly pound Seth Jones, Matthias Ekholm, Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis.
Forget Game 2, fix the obvious problems and set the right tone in Game 3—it's then your series to take.
Michal Rozsival's legs are what they are. The rest of the Hawks must compensate with their hearts.
And the coaching staff needs to press the right buttons to make that happen.
I'll preview tomorrow,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»