Kings are done...there's no way we're going to win another game. you guys got the start you needed. That will NOT happen at Staples Center. I would be very worried that despite your teams desperation you squandered a 2-0 and 3-1 lead. Great overtime, too bad Kopi didn't bury that one that hit the post. I'm very encouraged if you can be for a loss. Friday night handshakes are in order...
- arh777

We'll see my friend. The Kings squandered a third period lead themselves. Game 6 will be a dog fight.

I said it after the 2nd game of the series. Put somebody on Kane's line he can pass the puck too (Saad & Shaw) and watch the Kings conversion on Kane cost them.
- Canardhawk

100% this

I said it after the 2nd game of the series. Put somebody on Kane's line he can pass the puck too (Saad & Shaw) and watch the Kings conversion on Kane cost them.
- Canardhawk

Amen.

Now for my Bollig rip. I just don't understand why he is in the lineup and plays only 8 minutes. If Q doesn't trust him to be in there bring in Regin and Nordstrom and dump Versteeg too. The top 3 lines are going to get tired and the Kings rotate 4 lines so wouldn't it make sense to play the new guys? Regin has been a horse IMHO.

Ok, now I can go back to bed.

Ok, now I can go back to bed.
- Canardhawk

Got to get in that after breakfast nap, eh?

These playoff games I'm CONVINCED take years off of your life:

- Blood pressure
- More booze
- Lack of sleep
- Nerves

The whole shebang! Things Doctors tell you DO NOT DO happen during these games!

Got to get in that after breakfast nap, eh?
- EKolb13

These overtime games really throw my sleep cycle off and create havoc on my beer supply.

It's kind of strange, Sportsnet is the reason the NHL are in such a great finacial position and the league is still pandewring to a Network (NBC) that didn't want them, doesn't want them and unless hockey becomes more sellable in the Southern regions of the U.S will never want them.
- paulr

NBC is majority owned by Comcast. Comcast is owned by Ed Snider. Ed Snider ownes the Flyers. So wheather they like it or not they want hockey.

No way to backread, so who had Zues in the winner pool? Go buy a lottery ticket if you did.

These playoff games I'm CONVINCED take years off of your life:

- Blood pressure
- More booze
- Lack of sleep
- Nerves

The whole shebang! Things Doctors tell you DO NOT DO happen during these games!
- CaptainBlackhawk

For some of us, we're smoking a lot more too.

These overtime games really throw my sleep cycle off and create havoc on my beer supply.
- Canardhawk

Yeah...

What are you going to do? You can't just turn off the TV and go to bed...

Yeah...

What are you going to do? You can't just turn off the TV and go to bed...
- EKolb13

Well I know one thing I'm going to do, if this series goes 7 games it will be straight cognac and that smoking thing is starting to sound good too..

I just wanted to go on record that I thought the Hawks would have tough sledding each round and expected possible early exit based on the length, emotion & physical wear, along with the extended Olympic season.

Any and every win was an added boon.

I thankfully have avoided the hockey buzz “Hawk loyalists” the last couple days for my own personal welfare, and my incessant inability to NOT answer the whining and negativity.

Yesterday afternoon, I returned to an answering machine message from Steve Kohn, the former editor with his cousin Mark Weinberg of the BlueLine, sold outside the UC, and a clear critic of all that has ever been wrong in the organization (as I was).

His words were:

Can you please get on the hawk board @ HockeyBuzz, where the “fans” have traded almost every player for a bag of pucks to be happy that they have a team that will be challenging for years?
That the team and it’s miscues are similar to those that all good teams must fight through?

…and that to find fault with the team’s return to the final four and be engaging in hours of finger pointer BEFORE the series is over displays an ignorance and spoiled lack of support for a team full of players who will continue to challenge for more than a few more post seasons.

Yes, I am using his words to hide behind.

I know I went into watching last night with the idea it might be my last Hawk game and was determined to enjoy it IF they came out and brought it. They did and after the first…the season could have ended and I would have not felt cheated.

Yes, this entire team will never see the ice as a unit next season. It is clear there is a SOLID group, and the means to improve it both inside and out.



Please don’t take this TOO personal; I actually turned the audio on and now realized what easily influences you.
After any good hockey play, instead of continued description of the action who has the puck etc. you are bombarded with NBC superlatives for whomever on either team that did something good, or you are subjected to the repeated finger pointing at individuals inside a team game. (Yes YOU DO KNOW the game, FOLLOW the sport fanatically, but the talking heads are beating the drums so loudly that you can’t help but internalize both the important and not so important banter of their expert analysis of the bad.)

We may have ONE more game; or TWO.
Or Six.
Or NINE.

I can’t control your written words but I know I am going out like Andrew Shaw…maybe I really don’t know where I am and have only one leg to stand on, but I am not going out….whining...
the way so many of you are.

Oh, and trust Q to make guys who make mistakes ride the bench...that doesn't mean he won't go back to them. Messages get recvd, and the coach not the fans determine who they play and have to know maybe a bit more than we do...

Later, fellas.

I just want Hawks to force game 7 back at the UC

win or lose that game, at least you know they went the distance in a clash of the titans and didnt roll over

a few memorable individual efforts

1. krugs back checking pearson off a rebound preventing a sure open net put back
2. a sharp deflection that quick somehow had the right position on
3. Toews getting stopped by quick on one timer
4. bouncing puck over kanes stick with a gapping net
5. toews being tripped 2x in OT....he just got up and kept on playing...no whining or looking for the call
6. saad falling down in the slot area and getting a grt shot on net
7. Craw made some big saves...i cant remember who they were on

The Hawks have been the second best team in this series, even in last night's game the result notwithstanding. Winning last night removes the pressure the Hawks must have felt in the game to not lose on home ice. The Kings now have the pressure on them, they do not want to have to go back to Chicago. The Hawks on the other hand have nothing to lose anymore, most people expect the Kings will advance. Add to that a revitalized second line leaving the Kings in a quandry about which line they have to match up with.

I think if the series is tied tomorrow night the Hawks will move on to the finals.
- paulr

Agreed.

The Shaw/Saad/Kane line is to the Kings what Pearson/Carter/Toffoli was to the Hawks. A giant pain in the butt that they didn't have an answer for. Now they do.

Will be real tough to win in L.A. but if they do, the Kings will be tight as drums coming back to Chicago and the hawks should be able tot ale it.

Well, that overtime was INSANE!!!!!! NHL playoffs is the pinnacle of sports. Love it when your eyeballs are glued to the TV next thing you know, you haven't breathed for 25 minutes and your heart is in your Adam's apple….

Good for Zus. Happy for him. Of course, the fact that Patrick Kane rose like a Phoenix and was everywhere once he got away from #26 isn't lost on me either. But whatever. It's a Hawks win and there's a game Friday.

Not sure if the Hawks will be able to get away with their Defense- "Red 5 going in" attack on the road but should be interesting to see.

Can't wait.

Loved the pace last night, in particular that second line.


The real trick now is to find the right combinations to keep those speed mismatches going for 60 minutes. They won't be able to play 2/2.5 lines vs. 4 for a full sixty.

Funny how Versteeg didn't see the ice after about midway through the third period. I truly hope that we've seen the last of him in Chicago, this season and beyond.
- FredoXV

Try 9:54 of the second being the last shift he was on the ice for.

Last night felt like last years game 5 against Detroit. my blurry vision from to much vodka and wth Zuz winning it for us. granted last year he didn't win it but he started the Rally in the 3rd that did. keep it going and is it just me or has Quick looking human after all?

Kings are done...there's no way we're going to win another game. you guys got the start you needed. That will NOT happen at Staples Center. I would be very worried that despite your teams desperation you squandered a 2-0 and 3-1 lead. Great overtime, too bad Kopi didn't bury that one that hit the post. I'm very encouraged if you can be for a loss. Friday night handshakes are in order...
- arh777

Because it didn't happen a couple of times a year ago?

I'm saying it's by no means an easy task for the Hawks, but the pressure is not only on the Kings now, but even moreso because a new line put up 9 total points and was +10 last night.

For all of NBC's man love for Pearson/Carter/Toffoli, THAT was dominant. And Kane and Saad on the Wings with Shaw in the middle now Will slow down and back off anyone Sutter throws out against them. You want to slow Saad down the way he's fluting right now, you almost have to have Dougthy out there against him, which opens up Toews and Hossa. Q is now a leg up on moves, Sutter has to answer, if he can. Otherwise, the Kings will definitely have their hands full. Because here's the other thing, i don't think Crawford was very good last night. Few nice saves here and there, but also he let in a couple of softies, as he had in the previous two games. If he tightens it up, and he can, the Kings, not the Hawks, need to be worried.

Oh, and trust Q to make guys who make mistakes ride the bench...that doesn't mean he won't go back to them. Messages get recvd, and the coach not the fans determine who they play and have to know maybe a bit more than we do...
- wiz1901

Regardless of everyone playing line-up bender in here, this is something that should be taken into account as to why Q keeps rolling some of the same guys out there.

Good post wiz.

Kings are done...there's no way we're going to win another game. you guys got the start you needed. That will NOT happen at Staples Center. I would be very worried that despite your teams desperation you squandered a 2-0 and 3-1 lead. Great overtime, too bad Kopi didn't bury that one that hit the post. I'm very encouraged if you can be for a loss. Friday night handshakes are in order...
- arh777

I agree with most of your concerning points for the Hawks, but this statement is over the top out of control brash. Did I miss something... Is this Kings team the Jordan Bulls of the 90's? Don't get me wrong, these are the two best teams in hockey and the Kings have looked VERY good, but its not like they reign supreme amongst the greatest teams of hockey's past. This is the same Kings team that went to 7 games against the Sharks and the Ducks, no slouches, but its not like the sacred ice at Staples hasn't been breached. It has little to do with the home ice and much to do with the players on the ice. Both teams are very good at what they do, both teams have stared death in the face and smirked. I have watched too much of this Blackhawks team of recent years to think that I would throw in the towel at this point. The Kings gave the Blackhawks life. Don't think that that doesn't mean something. It does.

And I'll just reiterate something I've said here in the past:

If Marcus Kruger can avoid getting a serious concussion in the next couple of years, and his body matures more physically, he has a great future in the NHL. That kid has a gigantic heart and he is tough as nails. There's some skill there, too.

I agree with most of your concerning points for the Hawks, but this statement is over the top out of control brash. Did I miss something... Is this Kings team the Jordan Bulls of the 90's? Don't get me wrong, these are the two best teams in hockey and the Kings have looked VERY good, but its not like they reign supreme amongst the greatest teams of hockey's past. This is the same Kings team that went to 7 games against the Sharks and the Ducks, no slouches, but its not like the sacred ice at Staples hasn't been breached. It has little to do with the home ice and much to do with the players on the ice. Both teams are very good at what they do, both teams have stared death in the face and smirked. I have watched too much of this Blackhawks team of recent years to think that I would throw in the towel at this point. The Kings gave the Blackhawks life. Don't think that that doesn't mean something. It does.
- PuckAndSticks

He was right until last night. I think that game might have been a 4-2 win for the Hawks and pretty easy if Crawford had played a little better. The Kings and their fans thought they were invincible because Sutter found a combination that got carter going and gave the Kings a second scoring line. Now q's done the same and the Kings have yet to answer.

The other issue is this: Saad's speed and the fact that they have to always be aware of where Kane is is putting immense pressure on a slowish Kings defense. Which is jhy I say, if Crawford can tighten it up (and he is capable of it) the Hawks have a very good shot tomorrow night.

Anyone have a video clip of the hit on Kreugs in OT last night?