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I've Always Been Crazy But It's Kept Me From Going Insane: Hawks 4 – Preds 3 (2OT)

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War On Ice

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Oh right, the Hawks don’t know how to ease themselves into the playoffs in the shallow end, as this marks the 4th straight year the Hawks have gone to OT in R1G1, and the second straight year it’s been a mult-OT game. Why do things easy? Isn’t this more fun?

Rarely will you see a playoff game swing from one side to the other so violently so quickly. The Preds, at least about halfway through the 1st, took this one over and put up three. The Hawks tightened everything up in the 2nd and were all over Nashville in the 2nd. The Preds were slightly better in the 3rd and first OT, and the Hawks waited them out.

Of course, after we said this was two disciplined teams with anemic power plays, this turned out to be a game of indiscipline and special teams, which the Hawks actually won. Perhaps the excitement gets to the players too. And the ice didn’t help, but the Hawks should be used to that.

Still, you can’t be blowing three-goal leads at home, can you? Let’s try and clean this one up, if we can.

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The Best Bad Idea We Have – Nashville Predators Playoff Preview: Goalie And Defense

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Well, it’s time to get in up to the elbow on everything yellow that comes with the three stars of Tennessee. We’re going to name it that because there were simply no good matchups for the Hawks to find. Had they even won the division that would still mean Minnesota, otherwise known as the West’s best team since January. Or it could have meant the Jets, a team with three wins at the United Center this season and perhaps will have the hardest arena to play in anywhere in these playoffs. The Blues? Probably on paper (which doesn’t include what’s in between their ears) the most solid team out there. So yeah, no good solutions.

So while the Predators are far from anything resembling easy, and have just as good of a chance of winning this series as the Hawks do, it’s probably the one you’d choose for least painful. So let’s get to it. As the Preds are built from the net out, that’s how we’ll comb it.

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Most Peculiar Momma: Wild 2 – Hawks 1

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I can’t remember when I’ve walked out of the UC more confused. Usually I’m feeling good, dejected, or indifferent. But I don’t know what to make of tonight.

I’m cheating again. Usually I’d quickly sum up the game, then go to the bullets of what you might not have seen. But just like I did the last time I wrote a wrap, this one feels like a prose. So follow me after the jump, and we’ll go through it together.

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And Gettin' Toasted. Nicely Toasted: Jackets 5 – Hawks 2

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I’ll give you the normal intro to a wrap here, but it won’t be the normal wrap. And before I go any farther, I know there are some who think I’m always negative for the sake of it. That’s fine, I like to think I’m just realistic. And what I’m about to write I’ve only done so once in the seven years we’ve been doing this. It was also after a late-season loss at home to a Jackets team the Hawks had no business losing to. And they laughed that off and the prospect that they could miss the playoffs, except for Brian Campbell, until they did actually miss the playoffs in 2011 and had a Minnesota Wild team save them at the last possible moment. So don’t think I take it lightly.

The 2014-2015 Chicago Blackhawks are finished.

Everything Else

And Gettin’ Toasted. Nicely Toasted: Jackets 5 – Hawks 2

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War On Ice

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I’ll give you the normal intro to a wrap here, but it won’t be the normal wrap. And before I go any farther, I know there are some who think I’m always negative for the sake of it. That’s fine, I like to think I’m just realistic. And what I’m about to write I’ve only done so once in the seven years we’ve been doing this. It was also after a late-season loss at home to a Jackets team the Hawks had no business losing to. And they laughed that off and the prospect that they could miss the playoffs, except for Brian Campbell, until they did actually miss the playoffs in 2011 and had a Minnesota Wild team save them at the last possible moment. So don’t think I take it lightly.

The 2014-2015 Chicago Blackhawks are finished.