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You're Living All Over Me – Previewing The Bruins Forwards

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After dispatching the defending champion Kings on Saturday, the Hawks’ attention now turns east, where they will now take on the other most recent champion in the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Final.

There were many concerns about the Kings’ size and forechecking ability against the Hawk defensive corps, but those now seem quite trivial when looking at the team that perfected what the Kings did the year before, and are replicating it this post season with even more offensive flair. The Bruins forwards are large, angry, fast, and unlike the Kings, can finish and have been doing so with ease and frequency.

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Now We're In The Deep End Where They'd Love To Watch You Drown: Hawks at Kings Game 4 Preview/Pregame Thread/Dueling Tubas

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Hawk Wrestler vs. JerryLawler_crop_exact

FACEOFF: 8pm Central
TV/RADIO: NBCSN, CBC, WGN Radio 720
CELLULOID HEROES: The Royal Half, Jewels From The Crown, Surly and Scribe

Well, we’re getting a fair bit of preamble now. Richards’s injury, Keith’s suspension, Kane’s lack of scoring…these games seem to have more and more theater as we go along. I guess that’s how the playoffs work.

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You Ain't Special, So Who You Foolin'?: Duncs Suspended One Game

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Well, it’s come down now. The Hawks will be without their best player this spring (at least since Game 4 the previous round) for Game 4 against L.A. tomorrow night.

We could sit here and wail about the inconsistency of the NHL and their discipline system. It’s an easy target. Keith earned a suspension and even a hearing that neither Dave Bolland or Matt Cooke got. You go back a year and you have Shea Weber and his Gruesome-with-Bugs-Bunny routine on Henrik Zetterberg’s dome not even getting that much either. Obviously, there’s not consistency or even reason. It seems that Keith got punished for the optics of his play, in that it was wide out in the open and not anywhere near the puck where it could be cluttered by whatever else was going on.

But that’s on the petty side.

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Wolves In Wolves' Clothing – The LA Kings Special Teams

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For the last two straight seasons, the Stanley Cup champion has been able to emerge with the chalice in spite of the fact that their respective power plays bordered on abominable. In 2011, the Bruins were able to withstand having an only 11.4% conversion rate on the advantage, and last year’s Kings were only marginally better at 12.8%, both historically bad percentages. And unfortunately for the Blackhawks, this year’s Kings don’t appear to be tempting fate by trying the same method that had worked the previous two seasons.

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West Coast Struttin', Lots Of Bad Mothers: The LA Kings Forwards

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No rest for the wicked. The Hawks, and worse yet ourselves, will only have two days of recovery. Which means we must immediately turn our eyes to the next item on the docket, the small matter of the defending champs.

I think both sets of fans have been eying this series since the opening game of the season, if not a lot longer than that. I know Hawks fans have had this team circled as by far the biggest obstacle in the West, and I’m pretty sure Kings fans have targeted the Hawks since The Streak. It also feels that with how realignment will shake the league out, this probably is not the last time these two will tango to see who plays for the Chalice.

I think we’re destined to do this…..forever.

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Pushing Forward Back – Looking At Jonathan Toews's Selke Candidacy

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Let’s take a break from analyzing the Hawks bear-mauling of Scum last night — though it is fun to revel in — and focus on some other news that broke this week. As you know by now, Toews is one of three finalists for the Selke Award, given to the best defensive forward (and actually, center, but more on that in a bit). The others are the excellent Patrice Bergeron and the finalist-until-three-days-after-he’s-dead, Pavel Datsyuk. This has been coming for years, as we were trumpeting him for the award as early as the ’08-’09 season.

This is such an odd award, much like the Norris has become or the Gold Glove award in baseball has been (which is why Darwin Barney’s win last year was really a surprise). Because the true defensive centers really get no attention. Jay McClement is one who does excellent work, but he doesn’t score a lot so there’s almost no chance he’ll be considered. Gregory Campbell is another. You get the idea. So in order to win a defensive award, you really do have to score to get noticed.

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We're Going To Be Friends – Scum vs Hawks Game 1 Preview, Pregame Thread, Tux Fitting

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Mordor vs Minas_Tirith

Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: NBCSN, CBC (Anglo), RDS (Franco), The Loop 97.9FM
Little Too Tall, Coulda Used a Few Pounds: Winging it in Motown, Abel to Yzerman

It had to be this way, didn’t it? While it was thought that the final regular season tilt between the Hawks and Wings was going to be the swan song for the rivalry before Scum headed east, that belief was strengthened by Minnesota’s ineptitude in the final week with their plummet to the eighth seed. But a funny thing happened on the way to Mordor, as the Wings were able to off the on-paper contender Ducks in seven games, and so it has now come to pass. One last dance before bidding adieu, with actual stakes attached.

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Always The Viktor, It's Never Your Fault

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I had a few thoughts on this whole Viktor Stalberg possibly being a healthy scratch stuff, and couldn’t convey it in just 140 characters.

It’s rare that I would try and calm down anyone about any of what Joel Quenneville does, as I’m as skeptical of him as anyone. Well, except for maybe the tallest writer at this site. But let’s see if we can’t pull this bus over to the soft shoulder and turn the hazards on.

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Top Jimmy Cooks, Top Jimmy Swings – Previewing Scum's Man In The Mask

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Oh no! I made a musical reference to a non-Detroit band! Killion’s going to shit a chicken!

Anyway, when you talk to Scum fans (at least the most reasonable ones, but boy is that a world’s tallest midget contest), you get the feeling that they have an inordinate amount of faith in Jimmy Howard. On the other side, you get it because a lot of the Wings goaltending has been so bad over the years (whatever the win-loss record might say) that an actual above-average goalie might look even better than he actually is.

Before I get a bunch of tweets and comments about how I’m totally undervaluing Howard from the Great Unwashed of Southeast Michigan (and that one dude in Kansas), let me be clear: I don’t think Howard sucks at all. He’s very good. And in a positional matchup, this is the only area where the Wings can boast even a push with the Hawks. And any goalie who punches Corey Perry in the back of the head has to be somewhat admired.