When this thing eventually runs out of gas, I hope everyone truly appreciates how far Corey Crawford has carried these cast of clowns this year. Much like they’ve done all season, the Hawks were absolutely buried by the opposition and gave up a barrage of shots. SPOILER ALERT: Crawford kept the Hawks in it while they weathered the storm of St. Louis looking to close it out quickly.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8:42pm
TV: NBCSN round the nation, CSN here
THE SWORD OF DEMOCLES: St. Louis Gametime
All right, let’s get the positive right here at the top. No team has put the Hawks to the sword at first time of asking since the ’09 Wings. It took the ’11 Canucks four tries, the ’12 Coyotes two, and the ’14 Kings three. Quite simply, when the Hawks haven’t won the whole fucking thing they’ve been just about the toughest out around. And that’s with rosters as or more limited than this one. This is also a Blues team that has one series win to its name in this era. So for proceedings to end tonight, both teams are going to have to do something that has gone against their recent nature.
Much like Triple H, the Hawks have been the authority in the league for far too long to some people. And yet every time it looks like they’re going to be knocked off their perch, they somehow find a way to stay at the top of the pyramid. If they’re not going to have the belt, they’ll certainly get a say in who does. Now the Hawks need to find their sledgehammer, or risk losing control of the league they once dominated. But you never rule out the Cerebral Assassin.
And if you have time to kill, check out one Triple H’s greatest matches:
The Undertaker vs Triple H Wrestlemania 27 Full… by irfanalichaudhry
Well, here we are again. Me staring at you, wondering if this is finally the time you’ll do the right thing. You think you’re sick of it…
This one’s obvious. This one’s easy. You don’t have to wait around for the NHL to act, and as we all know there is no guarantee that they will. You don’t need to follow their lead. Take the lead, just once in what has been an utterly miserable year for a section (and a growing one) of your fanbase. For once this season, don’t marginalize a section of your fanbase, one that you’re happy to cater to when it’s a photo op and really a celebration of you. But this is the real test.
Suspend Andrew Shaw yourselves for tomorrow’s game. Don’t wait around for Gary Bettman or the DOPS or whoever else. Take. The Lead. Declare that no current or future player will be allowed to wear your jersey (with however offensive it actually might be in itself) and represent your organization this way. Make it clear it will not ever be tolerated.
Down two games to one, the question on everyone’s mind is whether the Blackhawks still have that something extra. We’ve come to expect it in the playoffs but something keeps nagging, suggesting that this team might not.
The question before every game has been who’s actually going to dress and tonight’s forward configuration seemed pretty decent on paper keeping the first two lines relatively intact while bringing back Dick Panik to play with The Special Boy and The Invisible Flash. Andrew Desjardins would draw back in to his familiar spot with Kruger and Shaw.
Even defensively, tonight would see a distinct lack of Viktor Schintzius who was scratched in favor of countryman Erik Gustafsson who would hopefully see some cushy minutes at the United Center.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 8:30pm Central (more like 8:42)
TV: CSN here locally, NBCSN everywhere else
JASON HEYWARD FANCLUB: St. Louis Gametime
This all feels so familiar, mostly because the Hawks were here the last two playoff series they played. They lost a Game 3 at home to both the Ducks and Lightning, the former partially due to some baffling lineup decisions from their coach and the latter because they couldn’t find a way past a goalie who couldn’t move. That was a weird one. Anyway, how will they respond to this Game 3 loss, the first they’ve lost in regulation when leading after 40 minutes in more than two seasons?
Yeah, bitch. Magnets.
For the Rockford IceHogs, the postseason starts this week. The piggies of Winnebago County finished the season on a positive note and will be facing off with the Lake Erie Monsters in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
I’m going to eschew the normal recaps this week and concern myself with Rockford’s immediate future, which will commence Wednesday night at the BMO Harris Bank Center. Here’s a look at how the IceHogs arrived at this point of the season and what we might expect from this best-of-five series.
The Hogs slipped into third-place in the Central Division standings on the strength of three straight wins to close out the regular season. Rockford eked out a 2-1 decision in Iowa Wednesday before returning home and clobbering Grand Rapids and Milwaukee.
For Rockford, it all starts in goal…so let’s begin in net.
You can change your name, you can change religions, you can disavow your past and give up on what made you famous. But you can’t change your DNA, and you’ll eventually come back to doing what you do best.
