But is the best yet to come? CSN
with hopefully no hangover! LGH
Reaping the rewards earned:DH
Ten:Hockeenight
Said sugar make it slow and we’ll come together fine:ESPN
and my bracket ain’t looking so good:SI
Still don’t buy it:R
Really? PD
Coming into this one, the main story was always going to be how Mike Yeo adjusted the way his troops went about playing this one, and would the d-men who all made mistakes in Game 1 leading to goals would tighten up or not. Yeo did change tack, and it was the Hawks’ d-men who certainly tightened up. Sadly for Minnehaha, Ryan Suter most certainly did not.
The Wild came into this one deciding to lean heavily on what they do best, and that is gobble up space in the neutral zone and keep things to the perimeter in their zone. While it wasn’t an out-and-out trap, it certainly was more conservative than they were in Game 1. On the surface, it makes total sense. As we said in the program tonight, when judging how things were going for each goalie in these playoffs, the Wild did seem more likely to win a 2-1 game than they do a 4-3 one.
Time to clean up the rest of this preview, with a brief glance at the special teams and then try and guess how it’s all going to go.
On the power play, the Wild have for years been terrible. That changed in the first round, and you can mostly pin that on the presence of Matt Dumba. The Wild went 4-for-12 in the series against St. Louis, which isn’t a lot of chances in a six-game series but certainly is enough power play goals. Dumba had one, and set up one or two more with the cannon he has from the point. It gives them a second point-man with a big shot, with the other being Jason Pominville, who they don’t always use on the point. With Neiderreiter, Vanek, Parise, and Koivu all bodies that can make plays around the net, and the problems the Hawks had with the Predators down low on the power play, this could become an issue.
Ruh-Roh:HockeeNight
Welcome to my nightmare:Lets Go Hawks
7 PM on Saturday:Blackhawk Up
Steeg in a nutshell:Second City Hockey
Time to regroup:CSN
No Fairytale:Daily Herald
Nachos:CSN
Does it again:Daily Herald
Groggy:HockeeNight
Scoring his way out:Let’s Go Hawks
The little red engine that could:TSN
Oh My God this is real:SportsNet
vs 
Game Time: 8:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, NBCSN (US), SportsNet (Anglo), TVA3 (Franco), WGN-AM 720
Arrested Development: On The Forecheck
For already the second time in the series, the Hawks have an opportunity to go up two games on the Nashville Predators, this time to push them to the brink. The last time didn’t go so well, but the Hawks are now doing so on home ice where they can dictate the matchups. The key, as always, becomes execution.
at
Game Time: 8:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, NBCSN (US), SN360 (Canada), WGN-AM 720
God, Country, and Apple Pie: On The Forecheck
After their fourth straight overtime game to open up a playoff year, the Hawks are once again back at it in Music City tonight with a late start that should in no way lead to booze fueled agitation in the stands that Predators management has not fomented at all. But more importantly, while the Hawks emerged from Game 1’s mini-marathon victorious, tonight presents an opportunity to put a vice grip on the series before it even gets back to the west side.
