Both of the Western Conference’s games went to overtime last night, and both series were evened at two games a piece as they head back to Dallas and San Jose respectively.
Well, that kicked up a notch, didn’t it?
After Brooks Orpik’s pretty gross hit on Olli Maatta in Game 2 you figured that there would be some kind of retribution. You would have gotten pretty short odds on it being known-hothead and lunatic Kris Letang taking a late run at Marcus Johansson, because that made sense. Once again the refs made things worse when they thought they were making things better by keeping Letang in the game. When you don’t eject someone for a hit that late and that malicious, you’re basically asking the other team to take runs at him all night which is just going to escalate the silliness into something no one wants. And that’s what they got. Maybe one day the NHL will hire refs with balls, but I’m fairly sure I’ll be nothing but dust in the wind by the time they do.
vs. 
PUCK DROP: 7pm Central (Holy shit a normal time)
TV: CSN and NBCSN
GOOD GOD DON’T GO THERE: St. Louis Gametime
It took about one game for this series to get annoying in all the ways we knew it would. The raging debate out of St. Louis is whether the Blues were physical enough, which is always the fucking debate down there and shows that no one has learned anything from the Hawks’ reign of dominance or how the one team to beat them during it actually did it. For the Chicago side, the return of Duncan Keith is the main story, and whether he will shift the balance of this series and/or change how the Blues might play it (I tend to doubt it).
vs. 
FACEOFF: 7pm
TV/RADIO: WGN for both
MAKE SURE YOU’VE HAD YOUR SHOTS: St. Louis Gametime
You can’t avoid it forever. Eventually you have to go visit the outdoor prison that is St. Louis and play the hockey team comprised out of whatever they scraped out of the drains that resides there. It’s hardly enjoyable usually, and you’ll just want it to be over, but the NHL schedule-makers make you do it anyway.
vs 
Game Time: 7:30PM Central
TV/Radio: CSN, CNBC, CBC (Angl0), RDSI (Franco), WGN-AM 720
Moral High Ground From Below Sea Level: SLGT
With the series now turning north and back to the west side tonight, the Hawks find themselves in an unfortunately familiar spot, down two games to an opponent, something that has happened each of the last three playoff years. And this go-around might be the most rancorous yet.
