Now that the calendar has turned to June and the Hawks are now playing an Eastern Conference opponent, it’s time to take a look at Tampa Bay’s defense and goaltending. And both groupings are led by extremely large men.
Put the lime in the coconut.
DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO TYPE THAT AGAIN!!!
Best .Gif ever:HockeeNight
Proving every cliche wrong since 2009:Second City Hockey
Can I get a translation? Let’s Go Hawks
High Praise:The New York Times
My favorite live album:Blackhawk Up
2 or 19:NBC Chicago
Because it doesn’t work: Sports Illustrated
Return to his greatest triumph:LA Times
No Last Dance and No Wonderful Waltz: SportsNet.CA
Maybe it’s better that the Hawks won it this way. After all, other teams got to enjoy coming back from 3-2 to win a Game 7 in Anaheim, so why should the Hawks be left out? The Hawks were clearly not going to get caught stretching and yawning in the 1st period as they did in Game 5, and Toews had them up two barely halfway through the 1st. Though no one would say it out loud at the time, I’m sure most felt the game was already over at that point, considering the Ducks’ reputation and history. The Hawks had to weather some storms, Crow had to make a couple big saves to keep the gap where it was, and after Getzlaf earned an assist on Saad’s goal (rounding out his complete passenger performance in this series), the Hawks were content to sit back, absorb, and break when the Ducks got over exuberant. Considering how many odd-man rushes the Hawks had from the 2nd period on, they could have (and perhaps should have) put up seven or eight. Hossa was the only one able to pot one of those breaks, and it’s debatable whether it should have counted.
But no one cares about that and it probably wouldn’t have made too much difference. It’s onwards and upwards for the Hawks, so let’s clean up this series before we look forward to Tesla coils and Petty references.
Please no more California songs.
And fuck New York, too.
at 
Game Time: 7:00PM Central
TV/Radio: NBC, CBC, TVA, WGN-AM 720
Story Of My Life: Anaheim Calling, Battle of California
It has been 363 days since the Blackhawks lost a Game 7 in the Western Conference Final on home ice, blowing two separate two goal leads and a lead going into the third period. Tonight they will finally get a chance to take another step in righting the wrong that was last season, and all that stands in their way is the West’s number 1 seed on their home ice in the form of the Anaheim Ducks.
As drummer for Creedence Clearwater Revival and later Creedence Clearwater Revisited after the group’s acrimonious split with frontman John Fogerty, Doug Clifford has maintained a full and imposing beard for nearly 50 years.
Clifford, bassist Stu Cook, and the Fogerty brothers, John and Tom, all met in junior high school, and began playing covers (as most junior high bands do) under the name The Blue Velvets. Clifford was drafted into the Amry Reserves in 1966 during along with John Fogerty, where it can only be assumed that Clifford’s trademark beard was in no way regulation. Upon their discharge the the group changed their name to Creeedence Clearwater Revival, and the the politically charged, southern flavored hits began to come. But like most great and influential groups, tensions within burned hotly, particularly as Fogerty took more and more creative control of the group, and the group had officially called it quits by 1972, with seven full length records already under their belt.
Clifford’s straightforward style has provided the backbeat for the group’s output, but it’s simplicity shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of skill. And that’s to say nothing of the endurance needed to stay on time for 9-minute album cuts, which would veer to nearly double that time during live performances. And he’s been sticking with what works now, both aurally and aesthetically, for going on six decades.
…for those of you at home who get that, I’ll go ahead and let you finish that line out.
McClure and I were talking yesterday, and we’ve had to raise a bemused eyebrow at how Duncan Keith, that’s two-time Norris winner, two-time Gold Medalist, should-have-’10-Conn-Smythe Duncan Keith, is having something of a coming out party this playoff run. It’s amazing what amounting counting stats for the national hockey press can do.
But it takes a point-per-game to get people to notice a d-man we guess, even though this isn’t absurdly higher production than Keith has put up in deep Hawks runs before. In 2010 it was 17 points in 22 games (when he was taking on the toughest assignments as well and simply kicking a hole in the world). He had 13 in 22 games in ’13, and last year was 11 points in 19 games.
…for those of you at home who get that, I’ll go ahead and let you finish that line out.
McClure and I were talking yesterday, and we’ve had to raise a bemused eyebrow at how Duncan Keith, that’s two-time Norris winner, two-time Gold Medalist, should-have-’10-Conn-Smythe Duncan Keith, is having something of a coming out party this playoff run. It’s amazing what amounting counting stats for the national hockey press can do.
But it takes a point-per-game to get people to notice a d-man we guess, even though this isn’t absurdly higher production than Keith has put up in deep Hawks runs before. In 2010 it was 17 points in 22 games (when he was taking on the toughest assignments as well and simply kicking a hole in the world). He had 13 in 22 games in ’13, and last year was 11 points in 19 games.
