Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final goes tonight, and I still have no idea who's going to walk away with this year's championship.
The Tampa Bay Lightning played a gutsy Game 3 to steal a road win in the inhospitable United Center. I thought their most impressive moment was the mere 13 seconds that it took Ondrej Palat to re-tie the game after Chicago went up 2-1 early in the third period. Cedric Paquette's game-winner with 3:11 to go was also an unexpected dagger in a game that looked like it was headed for overtime.
There are lots of moving parts on the Blackhawks' blue line. Johnny Oduya was injured in the game and was a minus-two—on the ice for the Palat goal as well as Ryan Callahan's first-period marker. He's supposed to be in the lineup tonight but his health will be a question mark. Forty-year-old Kimmo Timonen is also expected to draw in for Chicago—likely in place of Kyle Cumiskey. Trevor van Riemsdyk played his first game since mid-November and was adequate in nine minutes of ice time on Monday, so the rookie will likely stay in the lineup.
After losing the steady veteran Michal Rozsival at the end of the second round, I wonder if Stan Bowman's having any second thoughts now about having traded Adam Clendening at mid-season, who could have been a depth defenseman for the Blackhawks through this run?
At 28, Abbotsford native Cumiskey is more of a journeyman, while 24-year-old Rundblad doesn't seem to have inspired the confidence of Joel Quenneville. The former St. Louis first-round draft pick has shuffled through the Ottawa and Arizona organizations before landing in Chicago last spring, and has suited up in just five playoff games so far.
Timonen has played in 15 postseason games before tonight, in limited minutes, but hasn't suited up since Game 5 of the Anaheim series.
Even with their banged-up defense, I'm not convinced that the Blackhawks are done. I keep thinking back to 2013, when they got down 3-1 to Detroit in the second round before coming back to win not only that series, but the Stanley Cup.
Plus, there's the Ben Bishop situation. The goaltender is clearly battling through injury—again. Remember how he played with a wrist issue for most of the second half of the 2013-14 season before finally being knocked out for the season after another collision on the eve of the playoffs? Bishop has shown that he'll battle when he's less than 100 percent. The questions now—how effective he can be, and can 20-year-old backup Andrei Vasilevskiy step in successfully if he's needed?
The action starts at 5:00 tonight.
An hour earlier, we can catch Game 3 of the Calder Cup Final, as the Utica Comets return home to host the Manchester Monarchs for the next three games—hopefully. The Comets are down 0-2, so there's a chance that the series might not even progress that far.
Hockey fever has gripped the 62,000 or so residents of New York state's tenth-biggest city, as
this article from S. Alexander Gerould in the
Utica Observer-Dispatch explains.
Patrick Donovan, Upper Mohawk Valley Memorial Auditorium Authority treasurer, said sports teams can help galvanize a community and change the perception of how people feel about themselves.
“You see it from so many people that have come out and supported the Comets,” he said. “It’s really taken off and you see businesses that have signs out on their property wishing the Comets good luck … There’s like a buzz in the community that they’ve created.”
There's even a feeling that the support will hold if the Comets don't come flying out of the gate at the top of the AHL next season.
And if the Comets are not as good next year? Will people then have negative feelings towards the city and region?
Donovan doesn’t think so.
He points to the Comets’ 2013-14 season when the team went winless in its first 10 games, but was still selling out.
“That to me told me there was a culture change as far as it’s not just about winning,” he said. “It’s supporting something that’s good for the community.”
A lot of the Comets' future success may hinge on whether or not head coach Travis Green sticks around. He has certainly done an outstanding job in his two years with the team. Prior to that, he'd taken the Portland Winterhawks to the 2013 Memorial Cup after stepping in as interim coach midway through the season.
As Iain MacIntyre points out in
this article from yesterday's
Vancouver Sun, Green had a chance last summer to join his old boss from Portland, Mike Johnston, as part of the Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff.
Jim Benning told MacIntyre on Tuesday that he's especially pleased with how Green has integrated the Canucks' prospects into the Comets' winning culture:
“You want to walk a fine line between winning (at the minor-league level) and developing the good young players we have in the organization. Travis has done a good job of that. When we win, the young kids seem to be a part of it. If it was just our older players, it wouldn’t be that enjoyable. But the fact that our young kids are playing and contributing, it’s a big thing for our organization.”
Green says he has no regrets about staying at the AHL level this year—where he'll likely be for at least one more season. The NHL's coaching carousel appears to have come to a stop for the summer after Jeff Blashill was announced as the next coach of the Red Wings earlier this week.
“It’s been an incredible situation for me, personally. I don’t think I could have more support. I’m a big believer that you have to develop players to win and there has to be competition from within for them to play the right way. We’ve got a great group of individuals, and not just from a hockey standpoint. They’re a great group to coach. It has been a great run so far, but we’re not satisfied with just getting here.”
The article's worth a read, as Green talks in detail about what he has hoped to accomplish by sitting down two Canucks first-rounders as healthy scratches in these playoffs—first, Brendan Gaunce, then Nicklas Jensen.
Here's hoping that Green's master plan leads to a bounce-back win for Utica against the tough Monarchs team tonight. You can stream the game live at 4 p.m. PT.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»