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That's what playoff experience and leadership gets you.
And what having a 6'6" backup goalie with some reflexes and athleticism—not to mention ice water in his veins—gets you.
A huge comeback, double-overtime win in another building, taking over home ice advantage and a lot of the psychology of a series.
It's almost a given—you go into a rival's building for Game 1 of the playoffs and you're going to get blitzkrieged in the first period.
And so that said, if I'm Joel Quenneville, despite Scott Darling's heroics, I go back with Corey Crawford in Game 2. Darling is phenomenal. And more on him later.
But Crawford is the horse that brung ya, and you know he can and will play a lot better, and consistently better, than he did last night. And he didn't have much help either. The first period was the Preds'.
But the Hawks didn't get the memo that was circulating the stands and the Preds' dressing room after 20 minutes: the game was not over. After Niklas Hjalmarsson recognized a defender's broken stick and pinched, burying a sweet end-board feed from Teuvo Teravainen, Hammer's expression said it all. He knocked away the broken twig in disgust and just sort of looked like "ok, enough of this sh--." By the end of the period, the Hawks had it tied, and Nashville running a Chinese Fire Drill in its own end.
In the third, Darling really took over, with a series of brilliant, athletic saves. He matched former "mentor" Pekka Rinne save for save down the stretch and through overtime, before Duncan Keith, in his 40th minute of ice time, buried a point blast in the fifth period.
Setting aside the first period which was to be expected, and should probably be expected in Game 2, the Hawks really took care of business in this game.
A seed of doubt has been planted in Nashville's minds.
Patrick Kane got two assists, and no, he did not look 100%. But in 23 minutes of TOI, he looked good and dangerous enough, and he will only get better as the playoffs go on.
Bryan Bickell (especially) and Andrew Shaw laid several punishing hits that will leave marks.
KImmo Timonen and Michal Rozsival played well enough, with the coaching staff protecting them and their minutes.
And the Hawks' best players came up big: Keith, Hjalmarsson (tremendous at both ends), Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa.
Going back to Darling and Crawford to close. Yes, Q has to go back to Crawford for Game 2. And Crawford needs to play like, well, Corey Crawford. If not, Q has another option that you know you can win with. Not just because he was unbelievable last night, but because he's really been that way all year.
That's all I have this morning.
I'll preview game 2 tomorrow. Now, where's that coffee.
JJ